"Hi." A voice sounds from next to me, and I snap out of my mind drift, looking over to the side.
"Oh hey, Willow," I reply, scooting over so she can have more room. Martina doesn't even look up from her phone, her fingers tapping against the screen repeatedly.
"You must have been totally out of it," Willow says. "I said hi three times."
"Oh sorry," I answer, resting my elbows on the table. "I was caught up thinking."
"Whitney's always thinking," Martina says from behind her phone. "I swear sometimes I wonder what it is that she thinks about. Who knows what might be going on in that head of hers. I mean she very well could be thinking about fucâ
"Martina," I snap. "I'm not perverted, so please shut up, thanks."
Willow laughs from beside me, her hand covering her mouth. She looks over at Martina who is once again staring at her phone.
"What exactly are you doing?" Willow asks her, opening her bottle of juice and taking a drink. I stare down at my untouched breakfast.
"Trying to beat this level of Candy Crush," Martina replies, aggravated as she seems to fail again.
"Want some help?" Willow offers, and Martina freely hands her her phone, seeming to give up on playing.
Over the past few days, my relationship with Willow has drastically changed. While it's hard to sometimes not look at her as the awful girl I knew for years, I think I've begun to accept how she's changed for the better and am appreciating it. She, Martina, and I bond so easily when we're together that I wish we had been closer before.
I've almost seemed to have forgotten Mina back at home. I haven't even spoken to her in weeks, but I don't feel top bad since she's the one who ignored my texts first.
Willow hands the phone back to Martina in seconds, and she takes it back wide-eyed.
"Wait how did you do that?" she asks, looking back between Willow and her phone screen.
Willow shrugs. "Hidden talent?"
"A funny one," I remark, resting a fist under my chin. I push away my bowl of food, not desiring to eat any of it.
"Are you guys ready for the final team challenge test on Friday?" Willow asks us both apprehensively.
"I honestly don't even know," I reply, having forgotten about it. I've been too distracted by my feelings for Axel.
"Seriously you guys shouldn't be the ones worrying here," Martina says, putting down her phone. "You're actually good at this exercise shit."
"And so are you." She scoffs.
"See you later bitches, gotta get to a workout," she says sassily, waving to us from behind as she walks out of the dining hall.
"She's very...blunt," I tell Willow, and she just laughs, chucking her now empty juice bottle into the recycling bin.
"See you, Whitney," she calls, heading out, the door shutting behind her.
***
The day passes by quickly, but by the late evening I'm so tired I feel like curling up in a ball and falling asleep wherever I can.
The workout today was even more intense, consisting of running up hills, sprinting, and doing those dreaded burpees. Axel seemed to have been in full-force trainer mode today, and by the end of the workout, I was less than appreciative of it.
I shake off my thoughts and get back to my dorm room, exhausted, leaning against the door of the entrance for a second before walking down the hall. As I do, I see the door is open a crack, prompting me to hurry.
I look inside and then step back.
Inside there's Natalie standing by my side table, a folded up note in her hand.
Her left one.
"What are you doing?" I ask as I storm into my room. Natalie slowly backs away from the table. Her hands are trembling and her eyes are wide like a deer's in oncoming traffic.
"I-I..." She stutters and drops the note onto the ground. "It wasn't my idea!"
"Wait, what the hell do you mean?" I retort, my eyes darting from the note to her. She seems so innocent, her light eyes widening more in fear.
"It was Adriana," she answers shakily. My fist clenches by my side hearing her name.
"Then why are you in my room? With another note? What's the point of all of it?" I question, reaching down and holding it up to her face. "Don't you know how sick I am of seeing these everywhere?" She opens her mouth to speak but stops, another voice cutting her off, a very familiar, cruel one.
"Natalie, where are you?" comes the high-pitched call of Adriana. I hear her footsteps in the doorway, and I spin around to face her. I am ready to get real with this girl.
"You," I sneer, pointing a finger at her face. "What is wrong with you?"
She stares at the note smugly, raising a brow. "Wow, congratulations, you found out who's been writing them," she answers, her tone faker than ever. "Bitch."
"That's it, I've had enough of youâ" I begin, running over and shoving her back, making her lose her balance and hit the ground. She quickly gets up, and her mouth forms into an O.
"No I've had enough of you, you boyfriend-stealing slut!" she screams at me, her hands shoving my shoulders so hard I hit my back against the solid wall. "You won't even admit what you did!"
"Admit what?!" I yell exasperatedly. "Why won't you admit that you're the one who's been playing a mind game with me with those dumb notes for over a month!"
She laughs, her lips widening into a cruel sneer. "Oh, those were nothing. Poor little Natalie was willing to do anything I said, so I thought I'd have fun with it and scare you a little with the notes. Get to have my fair share of fun since you slept with my boyfriend!"
"Slept with your boyfriend?" I answer, my jaw dropping. "Are you crazy, Adriana?"
"See you can't even admit it!" she screams, jabbing a finger in my face. "You stole Jonah from me and then had the guts to have sex with him!"
"Jonah?" I repeat, stepping back from her. "This whole time, these notes were about him?"
"Yes!" she yells back frustrated. "He was my boyfriend, and next thing I know he left me for you! Bragging about how you were the 'hottest girl' he's ever been with! And we didn't even properly break up!"
"I'd never dream to sleep with him, Adriana!" I yell. "He was the one who wouldn't stop clinging to me for months!"
"Well then explain why you took him to your homecoming?" she questions, her eyes narrowed at me.
"Huh?" I stand still in my spot, only one name coming to my mind: Mina. I remember what she said before, and it all makes sense.
"That little bitch! I can't believe her!"
"I am so done with her!"
"She set me up," I state to myself. "It was all Mina."
"Mina?" Adriana repeats, staring at me. "Her? I hate that bitch."
On a side note: is everyone a bitch to this girl?
"Whitney, what's going on in here?" Martina asks, walking into the room and seeing a seething Adriana glaring at me, and Natalie in the corner, looking like she's about to cry.
"That's it, I'm done here," I say, pulling out my phone and calling a number. I step into the hallway away from the room, holding it to my ear.
"Hello?" Mina answers after two rings.
"Mina, how could you?" I ask her, not even bothering to greet her.
"How could I what?" she replies, confused.
"Mina, I spent over four weeks finding stalkerish notes from a girl named Adriana, who I'm sure you know very well. Today I found out the reason she wants to annihilate me is because she thinks I stole her boyfriend and slept with him! Jonah, in case you didn't know."
The line goes silent for a moment when I say his name. She finally speaks up. "Jonah was her boyfriend."
"Wow, Mina, I think we've definitely established that!" I scream at her, my frustration hitting an all-time high.
"Fine, look," she answers. "Adriana spread a rumor on my tennis team that I had sex with my coach in exchange for him to rig the rankings. I wanted revenge, and her boyfriend didn't even like her that much anyways, so I got it."
"Got revenge by what?" I spit, shaking my head. "Using your best friend as a pawn in your game?"
She lets out a breath. "Look it's not like you would have gotten a date or a boyfriend without me anyway. Don't be so overdramatic, Whitney, it's not that big of a deal."
I clench my jaw, my eyes trained on the wall opposite of me. "You know what Mina, you're disgusting." The line stays quiet for a moment before she speaks up again.
"If that's what you want to believe, then maybe we shouldn't be friends," she answers, the words so easily coming out of her mouth. If she was in front of me right now, I would have punched her in the face. Instead, I do the mature thing.
"I didn't need you to say it first," I respond, and before she can say anything else, I end the call with a harsh tap to my phone. My hand is balled in a fist at my side as I stalk down the hall, not knowing what to feel, anger, frustration, despondency.
"Where did you go?" Adriana snaps in the doorway when she sees me. I corner her in seconds.
"I swear Adriana I don't ever want to see another note from you anywhere, anytime. Get out of my life and find a way to use your fucking psycho ass to get your little boy toy Jonah running after you again. I didn't want your boyfriend last year, and I certainly don't want him now. Because maybe this "slut" actually has another man to think about."
She looks up at me wide-eyed, and I step away from her. Martina is by her bed clapping at my speech as if the curtain fell at a great Broadway musical that just came to an end.
"Fine," Adriana sneers, holding her head up and brushing off imaginary dust from her shoulders.
She stalks out of my room, and I slam the door shut. Martina lies down on her bed with a large smirk on her face. "And that is why we're friends," she says, referring to what I told Adriana. I only nod and sit down on my bed and try to let everything sink in. "Don't worry, I'll get on her ass later for that stunt. I still need at least ten more hours to process."
I laugh through my pain. I lost a friend today I once swore I'd have forever. I should be devastated, but I'm not. It wasn't hard for her to say it's over and forget about all the years that gave our friendship meaning.
And maybe I don't care as much either.
I look over at Martina, and she throws an M&M at me from the small package in her hands. I grab it before it hits the ground and pop it into my mouth.
Maybe sometimes you need to let go of an old "friend" to realize who your real friends are.