My Only Exception (gxg)

Part 2

"I'm sorry, I wasn't civil with Poppy."

I called Emily when she ended work at 4:30 PM, and I knew that she would pick up her phone.

"Deliah! Why not?" Emily's voice came through the phone, and she didn't sound happy.

"She wasn't civil with me!  Apparently, Poppy hates me just as much as I hate her, for some apparent reason."

There was a pause before Emily said back to me, "Well, when I was with Poppy, she expressed sometimes that she wasn't...your biggest fan."

"What the fuck, why? You never told me that."

"She said she could tell that you didn't like her, and she thought you were in my ear telling me bad things about her. Which isn't exactly wrong."

"I was right about her, wasn't I? As much as I feel bad that you got hurt by her."

"Poppy really hurt me. You know it fucked me up for a while, Delilah. I'm trying to not let the fact that you're working with her now affect me."

"I'm sorry, Em. Do you not want me to mention her to you at all?"

"That may be best, at least for a little while. Is that okay with you?"

"You don't have to ask me twice. The less Poppy's name comes out of my mouth, the better."

"You're the best, thank you," Emily said, "Listen, I have to go, I'm getting dinner with my grandparents tonight. But I'll text you later."

"Have fun, Em," I said to her, "Talk to you soon."

Emily Nguyen has been my best friend since I was a freshman in high school. I met her in Spanish class on my first day of high school, we were seated next to each other in class. Emily complemented my shoes, and we immediately hit it off.

I don't have a lot of things in my life that are constant, but Emily has always been something that has been a constant in my life. She is the yin to my yang, and I often think we bring out the best in each other. Emily is more passive, and I am more assertive. I have more of a temper, and Emily brings me back down. I have always been fiercely protective over Emily, and I know she is over me, even if she isn't as blunt about it as me.

Emily and I both came out in high school as well. I came out as a lesbian our junior year, and she came out as bisexual our senior year. We've often had people ask us if we would ever date, but the answer to that is most certainly no. We've kissed as a joke on a drunken night out a couple of times, but that's as far as it has ever gone and ever will go.

Emily is my best friend, and I wouldn't change that for the world.

As the week went by, I was hoping that Poppy would maybe decide that she hated the job and wanted to quit, but that didn't seem to be the case.

I saw her two more times, and both of those times, we hardly said a word to each other. I barely even looked her way. She made it known that she didn't like me as much as I didn't like her.

On my third shift that I worked with Poppy, at one point she went to the back storage closet to get more cups, and Sydney asked me quickly and quietly, "Do you and Poppy not like each other or something? You two hardly even make eye contact with each other. I thought that since you knew each other you would be friendly."

"It's kind of complicated," I said back to Sydney, not giving away any more information.

"Poppy told me that she is gay. You two didn't actually date, did you?" Sydney's dark eyes widened.

"Oh, fuck no," I said and lowered my voice, "Listen, don't tell anyone this, Syd. But Poppy dated my best friend, and completely broke her heart. She was really bad to her. Needless to say, I'm not Poppy's biggest fan."