Xanthippeia had only slept what felt like two minutes when in actuality it was more than three hours before her phone starting ringing. She opened her tired eyes reaching for the noisy device and rolled her eyes. There could only be one person that had the balls to call this early. Carey, her best friend and no doubt she was calling to freak out about the fact that even though she had a massive closet, she would claim to have absolutely nothing to wear for the first day back to school.
Sure enough, she reluctantly answered the phone, ready for the nonsensical ranting to begin.
"You will not believe the major wardrobe crisis I'm going through right now. Are you up? Oh please tell me you're up I'm in need of a serious fashion intervention right now Xan!" Xanthippeia knew that she wouldn't stop talking until she could talk herself down.
For the longest time in their ten years-long friendship she never quite understood why Carey would call when she claimed she was going through some kind of crisis or meltdown and instead of asking for some helpful advice she would just talk and talk until she figured out the solution and calmed herself down without any need to even utter a single word.
At first, Xanthippeia thought it had been because of the fact that Carey was really conceded and loved to hear the sound of her own voice but years ago when Carey had her first fight with her first boyfriend Christian Thompson in middle school. Carey called and literally spoke for an hour on the phone until she figured out Christian was a little jerk and dumped him. Xanthippeia had asked her the next day why she always did that and it turned out all Carey wanted was for someone to just listen to her problems. And since she was the only person who could stand this incessant calling she was automatically Careys' go-to person. Fortunately for them, both Xanthippeia never minded the habit because has always been an excellent listener.
The only problem was that Careys' problems were more often than not trivial and obscene so she just put the phone on speaker and lay back on her pillow and listened shutting her eyes. After about twenty minutes of listening to Carey's little rant, she realised she wasn't going to get any more sleep so she put the phone on speaker as her friends' rambling wound down and got up to get ready for school. It was near seven AM so that meant she had enough time to relax before getting ready for school.
She slid down to the floor of the shower and let the waterfall on her body as if to cleanse herself of whatever weirdness she experienced last night. The water felt different somehow as if it soothed her to the touch. She must have been in the shower for half an hour when she heard a knock at her bathroom door. Someone was calling out for her outside in her room.
It was Quinton, her other best friend.
"Xan it's me, get out I wanna talk to you." What was he doing here this early? She thought. It didn't matter though because he was always a welcoming face.
"Okay I'm coming just hold on," she said meekly. She turned off the water and wrapped up in a towel and walked out to find Quinton lying back on her bed hugging one of the many fuzzy pillows that adorned the queen-sized bed.
"What are you doing here this early Q?" she asked without looking at him as she dried her hair off.
"I come to take you to school, what else?" he replied.
"Really Q, you're a little early don't you think?" there was something odd about him today. It was almost like he was nervous about something, which was weird because he was the most confident person she knew. His breathing was off and she could actually hear a thin layer of sweat running down the side of his face. He was fidgeting more than usual as evident by the sound of him rubbing his hand on the grating fabric of his jeans.
Wait…how did she even hear that sound so clearly without looking at him? Curious.
"Q, do you have something you want to tell me?" she asked him bluntly as she finally turned to face him. He couldn't look her in the eyes.
"I uh--- you should hurry up coz I'm treating you to breakfast at your favourite café." He was trying to change the subject and being too obvious about it. She shot him a suspicious glance.
"Why?" she asked.
"Well, to be honest, I know what a stressful day you're about to have and I just want to ease you into it… and there is something I have to tell you, I'm just not sure how you're going to take it." He said nervously.
This was bad news Xanthippeia knew it but she didn't really feel like sticking around for breakfast here because there was no doubt mom had already called Xanthippeias' dad to complain about their earlier conversation. After the night she had, the prospect of being interrogated before school was not something she wanted to deal with right now. She agreed to his breakfast invite and he gave her a nod.
She went into her closet to dress while Quinton waited for her on her bed. She came out and took a look at the full-length mirror and what she saw was a bit of the person she thought she left in summer.
She didn't want to think about it anymore. She and Quinton hurried downstairs. When they reached the front door she yelled up that she was leaving to her dad who would be getting up now. She really could not deal with questions right now. They got in the car and drove away.
Luckily when they got to the café there was barely anyone there. That was good. The fewer eyes on her the better. Since Xanthippeia could remember people have always looked and stared at her. She didn't understand why. As far as she was concerned she was just like everybody else.
But everyone in her life had always told her that she was special. Then again wasn't everyone special in their own way. What made her a new kind of special? Carey and Quinton along with the rest of her friends had simply told her that she was incredibly beautiful when she posed the question to them but now she found that hard to believe because of what happened to her a month ago. Her confidence had definitely taken a hard knock and she'd become quite self-conscious lately.
"Xan. Are you going to sit down or not?" Quinton inquired. She had zoned out.
"Yeah" she chuckled as she slid into her seat. When she got comfortable the waiter approached their table. She ordered a big breakfast because she was exhausted, hungry and thirsty while Quinton just ordered a sandwich and a glass of orange juice. When the waiter left and Xan thought this was the time to probe Quinton on it was he wanted to share with her.
"So what is this big secret you've been keeping from us?" she interrogated him. He had a suddenly panicked expression on his face. His breathing was fast. His heart rate was elevated. There was something about her question that gave him a feeling of guilt. She read all of this in less than 10 seconds of looking at his face, this was unusual. Xanthippeia had always thought of herself as somewhat of a people person but not to an extent that she could tell people's emotions on the spot.
"What? What do you mean us?" he asked. She didn't know how to answer that as her confusion doubled.
"Huh? What are you talking about Q? I just asked you what the big secret was." There was an unbalance in the air at that moment. Quinton finally broke the tension. "Look Xan I don't want you to be mad at me right now but there is something I have been keeping from you in particular." he paused collecting his thoughts then continued.
"And I especially don't want you to be mad at Carey because she wanted to tell you I just couldn't let her. I wanted to tell you myself." Now her curiosity was getting the better of her, she just wanted him to blurt out this big secret.
"Q, seriously this isn't funny anymore just tell me the fucking secret!" she blurted out. He then started fidgeting with his hands and it seemed as if was actually terrified to tell her. It was odd because since she's known him he was the most fearless person ever.
"Okay so here's the deal. I recently started dating someone and I know you're not going to like who it is." He took a pregnant pause to let that thought sink in then continued.
"It's Jess, as in Jessica Williams. Courtney Adendolff 's best friend." He said cautiously. She didn't even think before she responded.
"You mean Courtney's minion!?" That sounded much harsher than it was supposed to come out. He started panicking and was about to start explaining when the waiter interrupted them and served them their food.
She knew it was not completely rational to be this angry with Quinton because first of all she was his friend and she should've been happy that he found someone. She should have reassured him, congratulated him and hugged him. But instead, she got up in a huff and walked out of the café and proceeded to get an Uber to school, too angry to even look at him.
When she was in the car she began to feel horrible about what she had just done to her best friend. She abandoned him there, slack-jawed. Xanthippeia had always believed in solving something at that moment rather than walking away and letting things fester. It was just a principal part of her personality and it felt like she was shedding some of herself today. She had left things unexplained to her mom; she purposely avoided her dads' questions and left Quinton not knowing if they were even friends anymore.
These things were swirling in her mind but she could not help but feel the tides inside her shifting to something almost unrecognizable.