***
"You broke his heart, you know."
"I-" Paige sputtered, seriously wishing she hadn’t been so bold as to get into the car a half hour ago and vehemently cursing the fact that Hailey still lived in the house in which she’d grown up in, a little blue and white cape cod on the Southern tip of Helena. Why hadn’t she had the good sense to stay home that morning? Better yet, opt for a walk around the lake, clean something, hell, sit and stare at the four walls of her own living room-anything but drop in unannounced on a woman who, if her flashing eyes and stiff posture were any indication, would just as soon see her in a ditch as on her front porch.
That she was still, for some reason, majorly offended on Guys behalf, years later, was both obvious and puzzling to Paige as she faced down her very angry best friend who added insult to verbal injury by looking even better than Paige remembered. Life just wasn’t fair.
"What? Was he not good enough for you? You should have seen how he cried." Hailey bit out, snapping a shell shocked Paige straight out of her silent rumination.
"He cried?" She gasped, stricken despite her best effort to remain aloof. What it must have taken to make someone like him cry, the depth of emotion...she was stunned. The thought of him shedding tears over her tore at her in ways she couldn’t begin to explain. I never meant to hurt him, she cried to herself. Although in truth, yes she had meant to hurt him, in a way.
Her mind flashed back to that night in the dark, under the Oak tree, almost six years ago. She had been compelled to protect him at all costs and in order to do that, she had broken his heart. At the time, and in the years that had since passed, Paige had rationalized it and worked it around in her mind to the point where he hadn’t cared enough about her to be devastated.
In her mind, she had hurt his pride, wounded his ego, and maybe caused a fleeting hint of sadness. He had moved on a long time ago. She knew it to be true.
Before she had fled to Alaska with Erik, it seemed that he was everywhere she went-with a girl hanging on his arm each time. Usually several girls. Her heart had cracked and splintered and bled each time she'd had to watch him smile down at something his date said, or lean in close to whisper in her ear.She had longed to say something, anything, to make the hurt stop, her own more than his.
And after her last confrontation with him...well, it had been plainly obvious that it was too late. Their time had passed. Still, she'd never known, never considered that he had wept over the loss of her. Even now, it hard to image that anyone had ever cared that much.
"He cried, he drank, and he picked fights with anyone who so much as dared to look at him for months. Then again, if you had bothered to stick around, you wouldn’t need me to tell you this." Disdain was clear in her former friend’s stance and narrowed violet eyes.
"I didn’t stick around." Paige replied coolly. "And it wasn’t a matter of want or choice. If you were any kind of friend, that thought would have occurred to you long before now."
"Oh please, you dropped me in a flash, just like him. And now you have the nerve to come back here, like nothing has changed. Well, it has. We're not kids anymore, Paige. You can’t just pick up where you left off."
"Hailey," Paige rubbed her temple with a sigh. "Come on, let’s not do this. I'm back in town for a while; I came here today to see how you've been. Can’t we be civil to each other for five damn minutes? Is that too much to ask?"
"I'm sorry Paige but I have nothing to say to you. You hurt a lot of people around here you know."
"I guess I did." She murmured, silently wondering at the ‘lot of people’ comment, shifted her chocolate leather purse with the square silver buckles and turned to make her exit. "It was good seeing you Hailey. I won’t bother you again." Her soft spoken statement was met with stony silence from the girl turned woman who had shared her childhood years.
Paige walked away with her head held high and her dignity, for the most part, intact. She faltered only once on her walk down the pebbled sidewalk to her midnight blue z28. Pushing all thoughts of friendships lost and love left crying in the dark, firmly from her mind, she turned the key in the ignition and drove away without looking back. Screw strolling around the lake; what she really needed was a good solid hour of retail therapy.