Tinder, Love and Care

6. Rico and Rage

"Hey, Hyacinthe." Olivia greeted me brightly as she entered our shared kitchen.

I looked up from my bowl of cereal with an annoyed expression before I went back to eating.

"Somebody's grumpy today." She giggled, clearly in high spirits. "Chris took me out to a nice ass dinner after the party and then he bought me flowers—"

"That's great, Liv." I responded, ready to get this interaction over with.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." I spoke, heading back to my room for some peace and quiet. Or I would've, if her next words didn't trigger the fuck out of me.

"You aren't feeling jealous or anything, are you?" My movements halted as my brain tried to comprehend how idiotic her words were and if she really had said them aloud.

"What did you just ask me?" I questioned as I turned around, setting my bowl on the coffee table next to me.

"You're not mad because of my relationship with Chris, right?"

I squinted my eyes and waited for Olivia to say "Sike!", but she didn't. If anything, there was a shine of disappointment in her eyes.

"You think that I'm mad at you because of your dysfunctional ass relationship with Chris?" The words came through gritted teeth as I restrained my rage.

How self-absorbed could she be?

"Well, what else could you be mad about?" She furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms defensively. "And our relationship is not dysfunctional, it's just part of the ups and downs, which you know nothing about." I scoffed loudly at her.

"Maybe I'm fucking pissed off that someone who's claims to be my friend left me at a party knowing I was lit and didn't know anyone else there! And I couldn't give two shits about you and Chris's relationship because there is no 'up and down' that makes cheating ok, and you're doing yourself a disservice by claiming him." I snatched my bowl of cereal up as I stormed back to my room and slammed the door.

I threw my body on my bed before screaming into my pillows.

Olivia and I had a circumstantial start to our friendship since we've been roommates for the past couple of years. We were thrust together and never really let go. Not to say I didn't love her, it's just always been a little complicated. 

I've never had a friendship like ours before, and I'm pretty sure she'd never had a friend like me. Which caused us to go through these rough learning curves that always managed to sort themselves out. 

Thinking of my other friend at the moment, I called Divine on FaceTime. It rang for so long I almost gave up but then, she answered.

"Hey, girlie." She greeted, already seeming somewhat distracted at her desk in her room.

"Hey. Guess who just irritated the fuck out of me." Divine rubbed her forehead slightly and sighed.

"Liv?"

"Yup."

I had already filled Divine in on the events of yesterday just to see if my feelings were valid about the situation. Honestly, I had been worried that I was overreacting about the whole thing, and she had always been the type to tell it like it is. 

"Now she knows she was wrong." Divine chastised before she got a glimpse of her watch as she was writing. "Shit! I'm running late for a group meeting for class, I gotta call you back!"

Before I could even say bye in her rapid scrabbling, she hung up. Even a random stranger could tell you it was unlikely she'd call back.

The room quieted as feelings of loneliness began to seep in. I know it was ridiculous to expect my friends to always be available to hear me out, but some days I missed the ease of conversation. It wasn't quite a feeling of being left behind, rather a feeling of melancholy.