For the first few seconds, my words were stuck in my throat. He'd picked up. I had a chance to talk to him now.

But in the next moments, reality set in. The dryness in Daniel's voice hit me like a train. One one hand, i had the chance to talk to Daniel, and on the other, he sounded like he wanted to be anywhere but here, speaking to me.

with a deep sigh, I pulled myself together. "How are you doing, Daniel."

The other end of the line went silent for stretched out seconds, then daniels laughter cracked through the air. "Did you just ask how i was doing?" he asked in disbelief. "Is that seriously what you want to know? or do you just want to see if you wrecked me well enough for me to be a mess?"

"Daniel, I--" I began, but he cut my sentence short.

"Don't," he said sharply. "Don't apologise, because your words hold absolutely nothing. I hope you got your money and i hope it was all worth it."

He scoffed and then chuckled under his breath, disdain leaking through. "I can't believe I was stupid enough to fall for your tricks. i can't belive i even fell for you."

"I didn't mean too hurt you, Daniel." The words felt like razors and my heart felt heavy, but I knew if i didn't speak now, I'd probably never get another chance. "I'm sorry for playing you. I'm sorry for even listening to Chanelle in the first place. and i didn't take the money--"

Daniel cut in again. "Yeah. and that justifies what you did."

"That's not it, daniel."

"You know what? I'm glad you did what you did. made me see you for who you actually are." He was spitting venom now. and every fiber in me knew he'd say hurtful things, so I braced for impact. After all, what I'd done was much worse. "That whole puty act you were putting on, you did all that for show. Everything you did was a lie--acting like you were this broken, delicate thing when you were the one who did the breaking."

In a split second, it felt like he'd driven a knife through my heart. But I remained unmoving. He was just angry, because of me.

In the background, i could hear Daniel's heavy breathing, like he'd run a mile. And I could tell he was overwhelmed with emotions. For some reason, it suddenly felt like this call was a mistake.  Maybe I called at the wrong time...

"You know what, Noah?" Daniel added. I held my breath again. "You deserve everything bad that happened to you."

The breath I was holding got knocked out by those final words, tears brimming in my eyes. On his end, Daniel's breathing slowed. we spent the following seconds in thick silence before he hung up.

Just as soon as I dropped the phone, the tears began to fall freely, no matter how hard I tried to stop them. A part of me was angry at Daniel. He didn't have to take it so far. He didn't have to be so cruel. and what did he even mean by "everything bad that happened to me"? Did he mean my dad? or my mom oerdosing? I thought he was there to be supportive, not use my weakest moments against me.

I sniffled and wiped at the tears streaming down my cheeks. Maybe I did deserve it.

Calling him was a mistake.

~~~

"He did what?" Ali's eyes were round as saucers as she stared at me with disbelief. I'd just told her and Manu about the call with Daniel yesterday. "How could he say that?"

Manu, beside me, had a deep scowl on her face. "He took it too far. Way too far."

Maybe he did, but at this point, I couldn' t care less. I just needed to move on from this and forget everything that happened. Including the hurtful things he said.

"It's okay, guys. Really." I reassured them. "I did something bad and got a reaction from him." I shrugged. "No biggie."

Taking  sip from my coffee, I willed myself to forget everything and change the topic. so i cast my gaze around the coffee shop, looking for a distraction. Unluckily for me, I spotted Carol and Cherry strutting towards our table with straight faces.

Cherry grabbed a chair from the table next to us when she got close, and plopped down into it, facing me, while Carol stood beside her. Ali and Manu had confused looks on their faces, staring at the new faces at the table.

"Hi," said Cherry, a big smile on her face.

I forced a smile back. "Hi"

Carol rolled her eyes. "We didn't come here to continue the awkward silence from the room." she sighed and looked me dead in the eye. i shifted in discomfort. "We saw you crying yesterday--"

Ali cut in with a gasp. "You cried?"

"We just wanted to be sure Chanelle's dubious plans weren't still affecting you," ended Carol.

It took all my strength not to scoff. "Chanelle's 'dubious plans' are the reason why everything fell apart. So yes, they're still affecting me."

 Cherry signed, and furowed her eyebrows in concern. "We should've stopped Chanelle when we still could. We just didn't think it'd get this far."

"No one ever does," said Manu, obviously not pleased with Cherry and Carol. "It was wrong fromteh start, nd you didn't stop it."

Carol licked her lips and looked away, "Things are... complicated when you're friends with Chanelle."

I understood that part. Chanelle liked holding people by a leash. It was why she planned this whole thing with daniel in the first place. she wanted him back and she wanted full control over everything.

Cherry added, "Chanelle isn't a bad person. She just had a hard time accepting things as they are, so she tried to control them and to do that, she tries to control people. But it's toxic."

"It's why we had to stop being friends with her." All eyes went to Carol who was now speaking. "At least for now. She has a lot to figure out. Plus, she's been out f it since her brilliant plan didn't work."

Ali lifted a brow. "What do you mean?"

Carol shrugged. "Daniel turned her down despite the heartbreak. Twice as a matter of fact."

This new information made something sink in my stomach. I mean, I was a little relieved that Chanelle and Daniel weren't an item. But it also meant that all I did, was for nothing. I broke his heart for absolutely no reason.

The realization had me taking a long sip of my coffee. slapping the cup on the table, i shot up from my seat. "I have to go."

"You still have a shot with daniel, Noah." Carol said with a deep tone. "You should talk to him."

"I already did," I snapped but then paused. "Daniel and I are over." and with that, I hurried out of there, Ali and Manu hot on my heel. Daniel had made it abundantly clear that he wanted nothing to do with me. The last thing I wanted to do was cause more harm than I'd already done.

~~~

I managed to hold my resolve till Friday. The awkwardness in the room with Carol and Cherry was mostly gone, and they did their best to avoid the Daniel subject. So, everything was going fine. Mostly. it was a start on my journey to forgetting him.

"That's a speed bump, Ali!" exclaimed Manu from the backseat. Ali brought the car to a sudden halt, sending us forward and back abruptly. then, she turned to Manu with a grin.

"Sorry."

I rolled my eyes and tried to calm my mind down from the adrenaline rush. "You couldv'e gotten us killed."

Ali got a new car this morning and she was hell-bent on taking it for a drive with Manu and I in it. In her words, "No better way to launch my new ride than with my best friends."

Manu chuckled under her breath. "You're crazy." I let ut a small laugh too, stating at the road ahead. As long as I had these two, I'd be just fine. no matter how long it'd take.

I turned to Ali. "So where are we going?"

Beside me, ali bit her lip. "Er, nowhere in particular..." I scrunched up my eyebrows. Something about the way her spine was straighter and her eyes were fixed on the road told me there was something she was hiding. I turned and squinted at Manu in the backseat.

"What are you guys hiding?"

Just as Manu shook her head, Ali caved and everything came pouring out. "We wanted to watch the basketball game with you because it's one of the most important ones for the year. Furman's playing against Hillton Uni who are supposedly the state champions. 

So if we win, coach would sign us up for the national tournament this year. But I knew if we told you to come along, you wuldn't want to, especially with you and Daniel's current... issue..." She let her words fade out.

Manu chipped in frantically. "It was all her idea. you know how craazy she is about basketball."

All their words went flying over my head now with only one thing raging in my mind; I was going to watch a basketball game. With daniel playing in it.