Chapter 13 2
FREDA WHITLOCK
I walked back to the house when I was sure I was composed enough to eak into tears in front of Lyra and Francisco. Lyra walked mom the living room to the kitchen where I was and watched me as I filled up a glass of water. I was carefully considering Cole’s words even though I didn’t want to.
Everything hurt so much and I was not sure if I was supposed to be angry at Kaiden for making me lose someone that made me happy.
I shook my head at myself. It seemed like I had made a habit of blaming Kaiden for my misfortunes. At first, he had been to blame. But now, he was not. I liked Kaiden, but he had seen right through me. He had seen the things I was trying so hard to hide, to bury. He read me like a book and he knew I was only going to end up hurting him.
“Are you okay?” Lyra asked, watching me carefully. I set the empty glass down and looked at her. “Yeah, why?” I asked, licking my bottom lip. “You don’t look okay. Were you crying?” She asked with a concerned look on her face.
I sighed. I did not want her to be concerned for me. Not all the damn time. I was not a child anymore.
“Where’s Cole?” She asked, looking out of the window at the backyard, and I looked away from her. She found that suspicious. “What happened? Did something happen with him?” She asked and I blinked rapidly to stop the tears that filled my
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eyes.
“He broke things off with me,” I whispered and her eyes went wide before they got filled with sympathy. Maybe I did want her to be concerned for me because, in all honesty, she was the only one who cared and could show it to me.
She took ep towards me and wrapped her hands around me. Limmed hugged her back. “You guys weren’t even a thing in the first place,” she whispered and I laughed through my tears. “I know,” I said, my voice breaking. “But we were getting there, you know,” I said and she only hummed in response.
“Did he say why?” She asked and cleared my throat and pulled away from her, wiping my eyes. “He saw me leave with Kaiden,” I said and her eyes widened. “Oh no, he must have felt horrible,’ she said and I broke into a s**b. “I know. I feel like s**it. It’s not what he thinks and I didn’t know how to tell him. He was so sad, Lyra,” I said, breaking into a s**b despite my attempts to stop myself from crying.
“Hey, hey,” she said, hugging me again. “It’s okay. You need to stop crying,” she said, kissing my forehead. “It can’t change anything. Is he mad?” She asked and I shook my head. “He was just sad. He said he understood how I felt about Kaiden, and he could not compete with that,” I told her, and she looked at me with a look that told me she was in deep contemplation.
She said nothing. “Come on, let’s go out and get ice cream. From there, we can go see Dad. It’s been a while since we all saw him together,” she said and a smile instantly touched my face at the thought of ice cream and seeing my dad. I wiped my eyes and nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ll get Francisco ready. Get yourself ready,” she said and I
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smiled at her in response.
I walked to my room. I heard her talking to Francisco and the sound of her voice was followed by his excited giggles. A smile touched my face and I walked to the mirror.
There was n which I me:
much I needed to change. I had lovely, clear skin ously took care of, so I didn’t need much
makeup. I applied some mascara to my eyes and some lipgloss to my lips. I took my hair out of its bun. It was fully dry now, sol applied a leave-in conditioner and brushed it down.
My hair was shoulder length, but I had been contemplating cutting it down to a bob. Maybe I would do just that. Just not
now.
Once I was satisfied with the look of my hair, I changed into a pair of yellow sandals that matched my dress. I was not willing or ready to take the dress off. I was not going to admit the reason to myself or anyone.
I walked out into the living room and Lyra came out with Cisco in a pair of jeans and a black shirt. It was like they had planned it and decided to leave me out in my yellow floral dress that ended just above my knees.
I glared at Lyra, and they smirked at me in response. “Ready?” She asked and I nodded.
I grabbed my wallet and keys and we headed out the door to my
car.