“You know, he is an amazing guy. He knows everything about me.” Listening to her friend, Haisley, go on and on about her boyfriend was starting to annoy Isabelle. How can Isabelle listen to her friend talk about her boyfriend when she was falling in love with Haisley? Isabelle could never go and break up Haisley and her boyfriend. She would never let herself live that down, but anytime Haisley talked about her boyfriend, broke Isabelle more and more each time. Could this be the end of their friendship? Isabelle didn’t want it to. Instead of drowning in sadness about the fact that she may never win her friend over, she cheerfully listened in on anything Haisley said to her. Unlike many people, Isabelle never put a label on herself, but she did find herself liking women more than men. It’s something that Isabelle struggled with. She has always been the single friend in their friend group. Sometimes she had hookups with women, but even then, she didn’t discuss that aspect of her life with her friends. Isabelle didn’t want anyone she knew to know about this, especially Haisley. So, to Isabelle, it was easier to lie to Haisley and say that she wasn’t too into having a relationship right now than it was to be honest with her. Because being honest with Haisley also met she would have to be honest with herself and she just didn’t know how she felt about that.

The two twenty-four-year-olds sat at a local restaurant eating brunch. “So, is he going to do anything exciting next weekend? I know you two are celebrating an anniversary that week.” Isabelle said. “I don’t know. He said he had some surprises planned for me, but outside of that, I have no idea. I wish I had a clue though. I hate not knowing what I am going to be doing because how am I supposed to make an outfit for the occasion when I don’t even know what the occasion is?” Haisley asked. “You should talk to him about what you need to wear. Maybe just maybe that will help give you a clue.” Isabelle said. “That’s a fair point. Or you could always ask him for me and see what he tells you. And then you could tell me.” Haisley said taking a sip of her mimosa. Isabelle laughed at her friend knowing her friend had a love-hate relationship with surprises. “I could never ruin your surprise. And anyway I don’t think Caden likes me too much.” Isabelle said now taking a sip of her mimosa. “I don’t get why Caden doesn’t like you. You’re one of my best friends. I hate that he has a problem with us hanging out. Like, I don’t care when he hangs out with his guy friends even though I don’t like some of them.” Haisley said. “I think he knows about my feelings for you.” Isabelle thought to herself. “Neither do I. I’ve never been anything other than super nice to him.” Isabelle said. “Even though I think you could do better than him. He’s on a lower level than you are.” Isabelle once again thought to herself. “We should go shopping after this. I would like to get some lingerie for him.” Haisley said. “That sounds good. It’s not every day we both are able to get together. Especially with our jobs and not living near each other anymore.” Isabelle said. “Once again thank you for coming to visit. I know it can be a pain sometimes. But it’s nice being able to hang out with you.” Haisley said. “I had to run away. I couldn’t be here with my feelings for you. One that hasn’t been able to disappear. It got worse after I left.” “I know. It sucks having moved so far away, but when I am able to come home, it’s nice. It feels like I haven’t left any time I come back. You and I get to hang out more. And my mother always makes me home-cooked meals that I love.” Isabelle said. “That reminds me, I have a lunch date with your mother tomorrow. She said that she was going to bring you and told me to bring my mother so that it was like old times.” Haisley said. “I forgot that my mom claimed you as her second daughter.” Isabelle said with a laugh. “How could you? My mother did the same thing for you.” Haisley said as the waiter came up to them with the bill. “I got the bill.” Isabelle said to the waiter. The waiter nodded and handed her the receipt. “I could have paid for it. I was the one that brought you here in the first place.” Haisley said. “Take it as my treat for me being here.” Isabelle said. Haisley laughed finishing off her mimosa. “I can’t get enough of that laugh. It’s the most perfect sound.” “Well, Thank you.” Haisley said. Isabelle nodded to her friend.

After a day of nonstop shopping with Haisley, Isabelle was finally lying down in her childhood room. She was lying on her back staring at her ceiling. Her mother changed her room so much over the years. Mainly all the posters she had on her wall were gone, but they had been since Isabelle moved out. The bed was the same bed that she had when she lived here because Isabelle didn’t want to take the bed across the country. Which her mother understood. It was just Isabelle and her mother moving her across the country since Isabelle’s dad walked out on them when Isabelle was a toddler. A knock on the door caused Isabelle to look at the door and take her wandering mind off of the ceiling. “When are you going to tell Haisley that you love her?” Her mother asked, walking into the room. Isabelle shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I just can’t be the reason she and Caden break up. I wouldn’t want to do that to my best friend.” Isabelle said. “Why don’t you try to get into your own relationship to take your mind off of her?” Her mother asked sitting on the bed. “I have. It never works. I thought that moving to the other side of the country would help me, but it didn’t. Instead, it made everything ten times worse.” Isabelle said. “You want to know something funny?” Her mother asked. Isabelle nodded. “Haisley’s mother doesn’t like Caden at all. She wishes that Haisley could find someone who treated her as well as you did.” Her mother stated. “I wish I had told Haisley my feelings before it got too late, but I’ve never known if she liked women too.” Isabelle said. “I know, honey.” Her mother said. Isabelle sat up and got next to her mother. “I hate that I wasted all this time. She’s my best friend, mom. I can’t lose her. I’d hate myself if I lost my best friend over something so small like this.” Isabelle said, resting her head on her mother’s shoulder. Her mother pulled her closer to her. “I wish I could make everything easier for you. It annoys me that I can’t.” Her mother said kissing the top of the head. “You do just by letting me have these conversations with you.” Isabelle said. “Well, I’m always here if you need me. That includes me moving to be closer to you. You’re the only thing I have in life and seeing you like this hurts me.” Her mother said. “I can’t ask you to move near me. You have too many friends out here. And on top of that, you finally reached your goal at your job. I remember you struggling to move up all throughout my childhood and look, now you’re the boss of many people.” Isabelle said. “That doesn’t mean anything to me. I can always make more friends if they don’t want to keep in touch and I am always able to get a new job. A job is not more important than you even if I did struggle early on.” Her mother said.

Meanwhile, with Haisley and Caden. “What do you mean you were hanging out with Isabelle?” Caden asked. “I told you last week that Isabelle was coming into town to see everyone for the week and that this weekend, I would be going out to brunch with her and then lunch with her mother and her.” Haisley said. “You know how I feel about Isabelle. She’s not a good influence on you.” He said. “Why is that? Because she has tattoos and piercings?” She asked. “Yes. And she left you here. If she was a true best friend, she would’ve stayed here to be able to hang with you more.” He said. “She left because she got a wonderful job opportunity. How can I be mad that my friend chose to chase her dream rather than stay here and live a normal life?” She asked. “I just don’t get why I see you less than her when she comes home.” He said. “Today and tomorrow are the only days that we won’t really see each other. And it’s not like I’m not coming back to you.” She said slightly getting angry with him. “After lunch tomorrow, can you just come home? I want to spend time with you.” He said. “I guess.” She said. She hated any time when he got like this. It didn’t just happen when she hung out with Isabelle. She started to realize that he was controlling who and when she could hang with any of her friends. “The guys and I will be going out tonight if you want to come with us.” He said. “Are you all going to the sports bar to watch whatever football is on tonight?” She asked. He nodded. “I’ll stay here and get everything ready for when you get home.” She said. Whenever he and his friends would go out to watch the games, they would get loud and obnoxious. Screaming and hollering at whatever team they wanted to win. She hated it. “Okay. I could always get the guys to come over here.” He said. “Oh. That’s okay. You go out and have fun with the guys.” She said. Don’t even get her started on how messy the guys could be if they came over. “Well, I’m going to start getting ready.” He said. “Okay. Just tell me when you decide to go.” She said.

That night at the bar Caden and his friends were all watching the game with women all around them. Now Haisley knew that Caden was good-looking, but what she didn’t know was that he was constantly cheating on her. Football nights were the way he got away with it. She never came with them, and the girls just kept on coming. But what Caden and his friends didn’t realize was that Isabelle and her mother decided to get food from the bar where they were watching football. Isabelle walked in and saw Caden making out with a random woman at the bar. Instead of going up to talk to them, she took photos of the two and got her food. She noticed that after the whole make-out session between the two, he had his arm wrapped around the woman and had her close to him. Isabelle once again took a picture of the two before her food came out. Once it did, she quickly grabbed it and left the bar. “Hey, there was a woman here taking photos of you two.” One of Caden’s friends said pointing towards the back of Isabelle. “You have got to be shitting me.” Caden said realizing the person was Isabelle based on her coat. “Who is that?” The same friend asked. “It’s Isabelle.” Caden said laced with venom. “If you all will excuse me. I’ll be right back.” He said.