Rita sat at her desk, her fingers absently tracing the edge of her notebook, but her mind was far from the pages in front of her. The words on the paper had long ceased to matter. Instead, her thoughts kept drifting back to Evelyn—the person who had once been her closest friend, the one she confided in, laughed with, and shared every little detail of her life. Now, Evelyn felt like a distant memory, a person she barely recognized.
It had been weeks since their fallout. Weeks since she'd heard Evelyn's voice without a hint of mockery or judgment. Weeks since they'd laughed together. Rita tried to bury the ache inside her, but it only seemed to grow stronger with each passing day. She could feel it, like a knot tightening in her chest, making it harder to breathe. She missed Evelyn—more than words could express—but it seemed like Evelyn didn't feel the same way anymore.
Break time had come, but it didn't feel the same without her friend by her side. While her classmates chatted and laughed, Rita remained quiet, her gaze wandering aimlessly around the room. She couldn't bear the silence, the growing emptiness in her chest. Without thinking, she stood up, grabbed her bag, and walked toward Evelyn's class.
She wasn't sure why she was going. Maybe it was the hope that Evelyn would see her and smile like she used to. Maybe it was the foolish belief that everything could be fixed with a simple conversation. But deep down, Rita knew she was just holding onto a fragile thread of hope, one that was slowly slipping through her fingers.
When she arrived at Evelyn's class, her heart skipped a beat. Evelyn was sitting by the window, looking out at the school grounds, her face expressionless. But as soon as Evelyn saw her, she turned away as if Rita wasn't even there. Rita felt a sharp pang of hurt, the kind that made her stomach twist with anxiety. She stood frozen for a moment, unsure of what to do.
"Evelyn," Rita said softly, her voice trembling slightly. "Can we talk? Please, just tell me what's wrong. I don't understand why you're shutting me out."
But Evelyn didn't respond. Her silence cut deeper than any words could. Rita took a few tentative steps toward her, her breath shallow, trying to calm her racing heart.
"What are you doing here, Rita?" Evelyn finally spoke, her voice flat and dismissive. "I told you before—stay away. I don't want to see you. You're a *minus* friend."
The words hit Rita like a slap to the face. The sting was immediate and sharp, making her chest tighten. She felt her knees weaken, her entire body going cold. Evelyn's words were so final, so filled with disdain, that it felt like the last thread of their friendship had snapped in that instant.
Rita's eyes welled up with tears, but she quickly blinked them away, determined not to break down in front of her. She tried to keep her voice steady, but it cracked. "Evelyn… Why? I don't understand. I just want to make things right between us."
Evelyn's eyes flicked toward her, but there was no warmth in them. "Water," she said simply, her tone cold and distant.
Rita's heart sank even further. "Why?" she asked again, her voice barely a whisper.
"Z," Evelyn replied, as if her answer was enough to explain everything. But Rita knew it wasn't. The gap between them was too wide, too painful to bridge with one simple word.
Then, Evelyn did something that made Rita's chest feel as if it was going to explode. "Cry, cry baby, cry. That's all you ever do," she mocked, her voice dripping with bitterness. "You don't know anything but how to cry. It's pathetic."
Every word Evelyn spoke was like a jagged knife slicing deeper into Rita's heart. The hurt wasn't just in the words, but in the way Evelyn had changed, in the way she seemed to take pleasure in Rita's pain.
Rita stood frozen, her heart shattered into a million pieces, but she didn't cry—not yet. She couldn't. Evelyn was still there, still watching her with that cold, dismissive look in her eyes. Rita's pride wouldn't let her break down in front of her.
But as she turned to leave, tears began to well up in her eyes, unstoppable now. Each step back to her class felt like an eternity, the pain of Evelyn's cruelty weighing on her like a ton of bricks. She wanted to scream, to cry, to ask why it had to be this way, but all she could do was walk away, her heart in tatters.
As she returned to her seat in class, she collapsed into her chair, her hands trembling. The tears that she had fought so hard to hold back were now falling freely, drenching her face. She didn't care anymore. She couldn't stop herself. She had lost Evelyn—the one person who had meant everything to her—and she didn't know how to fix it.
The pain was unbearable. It felt like she was suffocating, drowning in the weight of the betrayal, in the cruelty of Evelyn's words. Rita had always been the strong one, the one who kept everything together. But now, she felt like she was falling apart. She couldn't fight the tears, the overwhelming ache in her chest.