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Beatrice glanced around at the table she sat at with her friends. Lilith sat beside her, Camila sat across from Lilith with an empty chair next to her, and Mary sat in a chair at the end of the table. She turned her gaze to stare into her half-empty mug of coffee that sat on the square, wooden table in front of her. She was stuck deep in thought, the sound of her friends talking barely registering in her mind. That didn’t last long before the girl beside her, Lilith, pushed on her arm. Beatrice snapped her head to glare at her before she spoke,
“Why did you do that?”
Lilith didn’t answer but instead nodded her head in another direction. Beatrice turned her head to follow Lilith’s gaze and sighed as she saw who it was. Ava, the girl she loved, was walking towards their table. Ava and Beatrice had a strange relationship where they had kissed a few times at parties or cuddled when they had sleepovers, but Ava always made her way back to her boyfriend in the end. At first, it was easy for Beatrice but lately, it had been nothing but harmful to her emotionally. She knew she had fallen too deep and was only digging herself deeper.
“Hey!” Ava said as she reached the table, she was beaming like a bright sunrise. It washed the worriedness from Beatrice as if it had never been there. That bothered her even more, but with Ava here she couldn’t bring herself to worry about it. Ava dropped into the seat next to Camila, directly in front of Beatrice. Beatrice gave the girl a small smile before turning her head away from her to look out the window. From the corner of her eye, she saw the frown that crossed the girl’s face and she almost regretted not looking at her. Her eyes traveled down to the black bracelet with a small “A” letter bead attached to it that sat on her wrist. The small smile she wore before made its way back as she remembered the day she got it.
Beatrice kicked at the pebbles below her feet, she was leaning against her car in the parking lot of her high school. Usually, she’d be gone as soon as the bell rung, but Ava said she had something to give her before she left, so now she was standing in a sad silence as she waited. Finally, Ava ran out the doors of the school. She barrelled towards Beatrice’s car like her life depended on it wearing a large grin on her face.
“What’s got you so happy?” Beatrice questioned, a smile finding its way to her face as she stared at the shorter girl who was now rocking on her heels with her hands behind her back.
“I made you something, but you have to wear it all the time, no matter what! Promise me?” Ava made her request before sticking out her bottom lip and trying to give Beatrice the best puppy dog look she could. Beatrice laughed as she watched her before replying,
“What exactly is it that you want to give me?”
Ava’s grin grew wider as she pulled her hands from behind her back and opened them, palm up to show Beatrice what she had. Beatrice looked down to examine what was in her hands and found herself looking at a bright green cord bracelet with a B letter bead attached to it and a black bracelet with an A attached to it. Beatrice looked up at Ava, curious as to what she wanted her to do with these.
“What exactly are these for?” Beatrice questioned.
Ava frowned from the frustration of having to explain her idea, “I want you to wear the A bracelet and I’ll do the honors of wearing the B.”
“Alright. I’ll keep it with me forever.” Beatrice said as she took the bracelet from Ava and put it on her wrist.
Ava smiled and threw her arms around Beatrice to hug her.
Curiosity got the best of Beatrice after remembering that day. She looked down to Ava’s wrist, but the only thing it held was a gold bracelet, most likely from her boyfriend, JC. A scowl found its way across Beatrice’s face, but she was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of an argument. From what she could gather Lilith and Ava were in an argument on what the best food was. They never failed to argue any time the group was together.
“Obviously pizza is the best answer!” Ava exclaimed, her eyebrows furrowed as she glared across the table at Lilith.
Lilith scoffed before replying, “Pizza is only the right answer to children.”
Camila tilted her head and looked off into the distance dreamily before contributing,
“I like pizza.”
Lilith scowled and rolled her eyes at that. Ava laughed as she high-fived Camila. Mary had been quiet for a while, but finally, she spoke up over the noise of Camila and Ava giggling and whispering to themselves.
“I saw you and JC finally decided to make it official, Ava. A beach proposal was a little cringe for my tastes, but whatever floats your boats.”
Beatrice sucked in a harsh gasp once the words fell from Mary’s mouth. Her head had turned almost automatically to look her in the face. Ava’s cheeks grew red from a mixture of embarrassment and guilt as she looked at Beatrice who refused to look back.
“Yeah. It was great, JC’s gre-” Ava had no chance to finish her sentence because she was startled from the sound of Beatrice’s metal chair being pushed back against the wooden floor abruptly, the sound making everyone look to her. Without another word, Beatrice walked away from the table and out the door. Ava quickly scrambled up from her chair to chase after her, hot on her heels. Lilith glanced over at Mary after both girls had taken their leave.
“Really nice job.” She said sarcastically.
Mary shrugged, “It had to come out eventually.”
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Beatrice was walking at a fast pace towards the parking lot where her car was parked. She knew Ava would be following her and wanted to avoid the conversation that would be coming along with her. Ava made her way out of the door, rushing towards Beatrice.
“Bea, wait! Let me explain.” Ava yelled after her.
Everything in Beatrice except her heart told her to keep walking, but just like every other time she gave in to it. She spun to glare down at Ava.
“What could you possibly have to say? You failed to mention you got engaged?” Beatrice sneered, Ava opened her mouth, but Beatrice continued to speak, “We just spoke last night and you never mentioned a word about your engagement.”
Ava bit at her bottom lip as she stared at the ground. She felt like a child that was being scolded by their mother after they’d broken a vase. Finally, she gained the courage to look up and reached up to grab Beatrice’s face.
“I just wanted to figure out how to tell you. I’m just so confused.” Ava said as tears were beginning to well up in her eyes. She stared into the rage that burned in Beatrice’s own eyes. Beatrice reached up to grab Ava’s hands and shoved them away from her face.
“You’re confused?” Beatrice laughed with no humor, “I’m more confused than anything because you lead me around and tell me you love me behind closed doors or when we’re partying, but then the next day it was all a mistake and you’re running back to your boyfriend! Oh wait, I guess I should say fiancee now!”
“Baby, yo-” Ava started, reaching out for her again.
“Don’t call me baby and stop trying to touch me!” Beatrice yelled, backing away from her. Tears were streaming down her face at this point and people in the parking lot were beginning to watch them. Without warning, Beatrice grabbed the bracelet on her wrist and pulled it off. Ava watched every move she made. She felt as if they were both moving in slow motion and she knew exactly what was coming next. Ava watched as the bracelet fell from Beatrice’s hand to the ground and her heartfelt as if it went with it.
“Take your stupid bracelet, take your stupid nicknames, take everything with you and leave me alone. I don’t want to see you again after this because all you do is hurt me and obviously you’re being hurt too. It would’ve been better for both of us if we’d never even met.” Beatrice ranted and with every word it stung Ava. They were both crying and silence now hung over them.
“You don’t mean that,” Ava said, her voice cracking.
“Goodbye, Ava,” Beatrice said, her voice hardening.
Beatrice made her way to her car. Every step she took away from Ava felt like relief being washed over her, but the deepest sorrow weighed her down at the same time. Ava lowered herself to the ground, grabbing the bracelet from the ground, and watching as Beatrice walked away from her for the last time. She regretted it so much, but everything was already a mess and there was no way to fix it now.
“Goodbye, Beatrice,” Ava whispered into the air.