Chapter 3

CORY

"Can I ask you a question?"

Cory sat down at the kitchen table, setting her phone face-down so that the notifications from her Facebook post didn't distract her. She didn't know why she had posted something about her trivial successes when she couldn't think of anything but Houston. She guessed she wanted to show that she was doing just fine, a day after she found out her boyfriend cheated on her and then he had dumped her purely due to her being suspicious...about something that he had definitely done.

"Of course." Her mother nodded, tearing her eyes away from the sheet music on her computer screen. "How are you holding up?"

Cory shrugged, fighting back tears. She didn't want to appear weak in front of her mom. Sydney Hall had always been a beacon of strength in Cory's life, and she had always wanted to be exactly like her. Crying wasn't the way to go about that.

"I'm okay." She mumbled, "This just sucks."

Sydney nodded, looking at her daughter with eyes full of a mother's love.

"You should cry, Cor." She said softly, "You don't have to put on a brave face when it's just me."

As if that permission had been all she needed, tears immediately started to stream down Cory's face. She wiped them away angrily—she hated crying. She didn't want to cry; she didn't want to be vulnerable. She just hated the position that Houston had put her in.

Sydney reached over and enveloped her daugher in a hug, squeezing her tightly as Cory continued to cry quietly into her mother's chest.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." Sydney whispered, "You don't deserve to be going through this. You deserve someone who loves you completely. And I promise, that someone will come."

Cory shook her head and pulled away from her mother, wiping tears off of her cheeks as she did so.

"Logically, I know that's probably true." She whispered, "But it's so hard to think like that right now."

"I know it is." Sydney replied softly, "And I know that you feel like no one can help because no one knows exactly what you're going through. And you're right. No one knows your exact situation, no one knows your exact relationship with Houston. No one knows the exact situation that you're going through. And right now, as your mother...I'm just here to feed you ice cream and listen to every time you cry about the same thing without getting annoyed."

Cory wiped away another tear and nodded, trying not to think about how pathetic she probably looked.

"It's just...everything hurts. Everything hurts and I don't know how to make it better."

Sydney's eyes grew at least 37% sadder at those words and she took her daughter's hand in her own, squeezing it comfortingly.

"I know." She whispered, shaking her head. "I know."

***

"Alright, so I have literally everything that they sell at Target. Like...I bought the place out. They closed down. They're out of business. I ruined them." Brenda sat down on the edge of Cory's bed and dumped an entire backpack full of food onto the space beside her. "And if you don't eat every single bite of every single thing I brought before I leave tonight, I'm going to assume you no longer want to be my friend."

Cory laughed and sat up a bit more in her bed, propping herself up on three pillows, all in different shades of pink. The sun was starting to set outside, creating a dim glow in the room that Cory wanted to be able to appreciate. But she couldn't. She couldn't appreciate anything beside the enormous mountain of food that was piled at the foot of her bed. And even that was difficult.

"You're too good to me, you know." She shook her head, "No one has ever brought me this many calories in one sitting before. I should just date you."

"You're straight." Brenda laughed, "I just want to make sure that someone's treating you right."

Cory nodded, opening a bag of M&Ms and popping a few in her mouth.

"I just...I don't know how I missed it. You know? He was messing around with another girl—and I don't even know all the details of it—and I just missed everything. I feel like I should have known. I feel like I should have been able to tell, but I—"

"How would you have known?" Brenda asked, "And I don't mean that rehtorically. How would you have known? Like...how would you, a normal person with the natural inclination to trust someone who's never given you a reason not to, have thought, 'Huh, what if my boyfriend is cheating on me?' Like, what would have given you that thought?"

Cory shrugged.

"I guess nothing." She agreed, "But still...I just don't know what happened. I don't know where everything went wrong, I don't know how long he cheated for, I don't know how many times, I don't know if it was just with one girl...I don't know any details. And I can't ask for any, since he isn't even admitting that he did anything, when Erin saw the messages and can practically quote them back to me verbatim." She shook her head, trying to supress the tears that had been building at the back of her eyes since she had stopped talking to her mom earlier in the day. "I don't have closure of any sort. And I can't get it. Because he's such a lying piece of human garbage that he cheated, dumped me, and is trying to act like I was the one who did something wrong."

Brenda nodded.

"I'm sorry, Cory." She said, taking her best friend's hand in hers. "I'm sorry. I know that doesn't help, and I know that eating 2,000 calories in one sitting will only numb the pain for a few seconds, but...I'm here for you. For whatever you need. Always."

Cory smiled a bit, the smallest inkling of a smile. But it was the biggest smile she'd managed to get out in the previous 24 hours.

"I know. And I love you for it."

Brenda stayed with Cory for the next few hours, watching as Cory turned on her favorite YouTubers and pausing the videos whenever Cory started to cry. Cory was proud of herself for the number of times she cried in three hours: five. It wasn't too bad.

"Hey, Brenda?"

Brenda walked down the stairs of the Hall home and turned around when she reached the bottom to see Cory's dad walking up to her.

"Hey, Mr. Connor." Brenda smiled slightly, "How are you?"

Connor shrugged. "I could be better. I don't like seeing any of my girls upset like Cory is."

"I know." Brenda nodded, "I'm sorry. I wish I could help her more than I can."

"Do you think there's anything I can do for her that would actually help?" Connor asked, "I just...she's the first one of my daughters to go through anything like this."

"I don't know." Brenda replied, "Honestly...I think she's going to be alright. It's just going to take time."

A/N: Sorry for updating so late in the day! Let me know your thoughts on the chapter!