Link Dane

TWENTY-SIX

"Not yet," I told her. Versa was the only person who knew I was searching for my own place. She was the person who came with me back home to ask my father for money so I could get one. Surprisingly, he was more than willing to provide for anything I wanted as long as I did the finding and the choosing.

"I don't get why you have to move an hour or so away when there is plenty of places around this area." Versa said in a small voice.

Although she was all for me getting my own place, the idea of being far away from her didn't sit well with her. And I couldn't lie and say I was okay with is as well. But the fact that she had Ryan now made it easier for me to move on.

And that's what I was precisely trying to do.

Versa had Ryan. Palmer had Link. And my parents had themselves.

I was more than an unnecessary figure in their life.

"It's going to be hard coming to see you," Versa said out loud what I planned for all along.

"We'll make it work," I told her again. I've been saying those words over and over again ever since I told her of my plans. "Besides, you'll be so busy with university and then your life that you wouldn't have time for me anyhow." I joked lightly.

But my best friend didn't see the humour in it as she glared at me from across the small table. "I feel like you deliberately want to lose our friendship." She blurted out. I opened my mouth but she carried on speaking, cutting off whatever lie I could make up on the spot. "And I'm just sitting here and letting it happen because we both know very well that there is something you're running from and it's not your life at home."

I closed my mouth. She had to hit the bullseye. Freaking had to.

"I don't want to lose our friendship, trust me." I said. And I didn't want to but there was this stupid idea planted in my head that Versa would be better off without me and every baggage I had hidden. Because soon enough, all those nasty things would come out and every vessel of mine wanted to protect Versa no matter what.

"What are you running away from?" Versa asked me, her eyes planted on my own. She wasn't going to drop this, not today.

"Nothing." I lied. "Nothing but the mess my home life is and I want to have a fresh start some place else, probably get away from my Mother mostly."

"Liar," she muttered back.

I opened my mouth again but her next words cut me deep. "You need to forget what happened to me."

I gasp escaped from my gaping mouth. "How could I?" I breathed out incredulously.

Versa didn't look the slightest bit moved by anything being said between us, as she adapted this new hard façade. "I'm okay and I don't know when or how you'll ever see that. I don't need you protecting me from anything, not even a door being slammed in my face. And you really don't need to protect me from your own bullshit when in fact you're too darn scared to get yourself fucked over."

"Versa how can I ever stop wanting to protect you? You're my best friend and what happened nearly kills me everyday when I could have stopped it."

Versa furiously shook her head. "Just because you didn't pick up your phone because you were sleeping doesn't mean it was your fault or that you could have stopped it." She inhaled deeply. "Let me tell you what I told myself for a long time until recently I realised that there was no way things would have gone differently. Say you picked up the phone. It would have taken you probably ten minutes to get to me and it still would have happened." She gritted the last words through her teeth.