[𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒]

"𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓 𝐒𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐂-ause you think I'm Darion's ex."

"No," Priscilla said. "I hate you because you're a fake, entitled, spoiled bitch."

"What?"

"Darion said that whenever you two were alone, you would always talk shit, saying I'm broke, I'm a slut, I'm this, I'm that."

"I never said those things about you. Even if I did then so what? Priscilla, you talk shit, too."

"I never talked shit about you until I heard about the shit you said about me. And everything I say behind your back, I say to your face, right or wrong?"

"That is right, and so do I."

"No, you don't."

"What have I said about you behind your back that I haven't said to your face?"

"As I said, you called me broke and a slut."

"And like I said, I never said those things. First of all, I wouldn't even be dumb enough to call you broke. I know you're not broke, aren't your parents surgeons or something."

"Yeah, they're surgeons."

"Exactly, so why would I call you broke? I'm not the sharpest person but I wouldn't be dumb enough to call you broke when your parents are surgeons."

"Well, then, why did Darion tell me you did?"

"He's lying. Aren't you seeing a pattern here, Priscilla? Darion's a fucking liar. He's been telling us stuff to make us not like each other."

"Well, maybe he has been going back and forth, but I still don't think you're totally innocent."

"Whatever, that's fine." I turned back around but then quickly turned back again because I wasn't finished talking. "You always find some way to defend him."

"It's so funny how now all of a sudden you have a boyfriend, you forgot about your boy best friend."

"Darion wasn't even a good friend to me and you know that. Remember, earlier in the year, he got jealous because London took a picture of me. And he had no reason to be jealous, in the first place."

"You always played with his feelings. You knew he liked you, but you would always try to play hard to get."

"I never played with his feelings. I told him from the jump, as soon as he suggested that we should start dating — that I only wanted to be his friend and nothing more."

Priscilla looked away from me and I looked forward.

"If Darion wasn't such a flirt, would you date him?" she asked, her tone soft.

"No," I replied, not turning back to look at her.

"Why, though? He literally treated you better than how he treats me right now."

"Darion and I's friendship was just filled with words to please each other, and toxicity."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning when he wasn't being a dick, he always said things he thought I wanted to hear. Also, you know how I'm kind of sometimes a bitch?"

"All the time, but yes."

"Well, he encouraged that and never called me out on it. With Shannon, yes, she does call me out on it but it goes in one ear and out the other so she just gave up on it. Like, I've never really been checked for my bad attitude until I met London."

"Really? He seems like the last person to check you when you act like a fool."

"I know, and that's the thing. The very first time I met him, I was a bitch to him and honestly, I wasn't expecting him to really say anything back to me."

"So basically you thought you could disrespect somebody and not expect them to retaliate?"

"Well, yeah. I don't know, maybe I was a little intimated by him at first because I was low-key looking for reasons not like him."

"Wow. Anyways, what did you mean by 'toxicity'?" You said your and Darion's friendship was filled with toxicity as well."

"Oh, umm," I muttered. "Darion was . . . controlling with me, and I wasn't really aware of it until last school year. Sometimes he got violent, too."

"He got violent with you, too?"

I turned around. "What?" I got up and went to go sit next to Priscilla quickly.

"He never hit me, just grab me in rough ways."

"That's what he would do to me," I admitted.

"He still does it to me, though."

"Priscilla, that is not okay."

"I can handle it, though."

"That still doesn't make it okay."

Priscilla moved her eyes down as she bit down on her lip.

"Look, you say Darion treated me better than how he treats you, and now you're telling me that he abuses you. Why're you with him then?"

"Because it's not easy, okay, ending a relationship you've had with someone for so long, no matter how toxic it is/was.

I could understand that.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but you can do better. I'm very, very sure of that."

"He's my first everything, Paris. First kiss, first date, first time . . . I can't just end it now, we're already going to UW together next fall."

"What? UW? Didn't you get into Yale?"

She shook her head yes.

"Don't tell me you turned down Yale for him."

"I'm still thinking about it, Darion wants us to go to school together."

"Priscilla," I groaned, tilting my head back

"I know, I know," she chuckled. "It sounds dumb."

"Very dumb."

"But—"

"Priscilla, you can do better. It may take time, but you can do better."

"W— why should I listen to you?"

"Because I was in your place at some point, and I'd never felt so low in my life."