Mommy

"I hate you so much right now."

I stood in the middle of the dorm I shared with Carmen. Anger and hurt replaced the blood that ran through my veins. My taste buds went sour after having a bit of bitter betrayal. My eyesight was spotted with black dots built by the rage.

Carmen sat in her desk chair, facing me with her unbothered stare locked on the wall behind me. Her brown hair now a very pale blond was let loose on her exposed shoulders. She picked at an imaginary thread on her black off the shoulder crop top before patting her head to make sure every strand was in place.

"What do you want me to tell you?" She sighed. Her gaze went everywhere except to me.

"Why would you do something like that?" My voice came out breathy as I continue to use force to keep my rage at bay. "You've covered for me all the other times. Why would you call them now? You know they were going to go ballistic if they found me alone with a boy."

"I guess you shouldn't have been alone with him in the first place," she shrugged before twirling the chair around and away from me.

I placed my hand on either side of the chair and wrenched it towards me. I walked around to face her. Carmen's royal blue eyes let a small amount of shame and regret out before they returned to a blank stare.

"Why?" I pressed.

I refused to believe she was capable of stabbing me in the back. I'd seen her do it with many others before but I held on to that silver of hope that she truly saw us as sisters. I wanted her to be feeling the same love I felt for her – the same love she was currently crushing.

"I don't have to explain myself to you or anyone else." She pushed my hands off the chair and left the room.

I closed my eyes to subdue the sting of the tears I wouldn't let fall. I was being too weak. I needed to take it like the grown woman I was and peel back the opaque veil I threw on top of Carmen's bad side. I needed to see her for who she is not who I wanted her to be.

I walked out of the room and jogged to the elevator. I caught it before it closed. Without thinking my hands reached and grabbed my supposed best friend out of her escape transportation.

"Irene!" she teared my hands way from her but it was too late since the doors already closed. "What's wrong with you?"

"I need an answer, Carmen." I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at her fleeting eyes.

Carmen wasn't really one to beat around the bushes. She was the kind of girl who would tell the teacher she was getting out of class because she was too horny to listen to a lecture on plate tectonics. She said what was on her mind unless she was lying her way through a favor.

She pulled her phone out and started mindlessly opening every app so she could avoid my gaze. "I called them because I felt like it, are you happy now?"

She returned the phone to the pockets of her jeans shorts and began to play with the tips of her blond hair.

Until now it didn't occur to me that her new dye and new clothes were designed to set some space between us. I knew the time for us to stop dressing alike was coming but I thought I would have known it. I didn't think she was just going to get up one day and decided she had had it with being put in the same category as me.

"No, I'm not happy. I need real answers, not some random words you would throw at a stranger you want to leave you alone. Come on, I'm your best friend. Just tell me, I'll understand."

She growled. "No, you won't. You can't understand."

"Then, help me understand," I cried. "Right now, you're not the person I know. You don't do stuff like that to me. You never did why start now?"

"I need you to leave me alone Irene," her breath caught in her throat. "I need you to leave me be. We're in college now, people change. I did this for your own good. If you can't see that, it's not my fault."

She got ready to pass by me and take the stairs but I blocked her path. "I'm not taking this."

Her eyes rolled. "How is that my problem?" She growled.

"At least tell me if it's true that your parents are bankrupt," I whispered.

"Hi," the red head who lived in the room across from us waved.

I waved back but Carmen completely ignored her. Instead, her eyes met mine for the first time for today. Her bottom lip trembled before she sucked it inside her mouth.

"Who told you that?" she demanded.

"So it's true?"

"Of course it's not and even if it was, it's none of your business so stay out of it."

She walked past me with her eyebrows tight and her mouth set in a thin line. I followed her toward the stairs. She was not going to get out of this without legit answers. I had let a lot of things go when she told me to but this wasn't one of them. I wanted those answers and not only to save our relationship but also to find a way to make my parents accept my relationship with Joseph.

If Carmen proved herself to be different from the stories my parents believe in then maybe they'd realize their bad judgment and give Joseph a chance too.

"So they had nothing to do with your date with Erin?"

If I wasn't looking straight in her direction, I might not have seen her stop in time for me to put a break to my body which was about to slam onto her.

"Don't you dare speak about Erin!" She hissed. "You've already destroyed my chances with him so stop reminding me of him." Her teeth stayed tight as she huffed out her breaths.

"How many times do I have to tell you I didn't do anything? You won't even tell me what happened."

"That's because it's none of your business. You know exactly what you did."

"No, I don't," I shouted. "The only thing I did was keep him company while you were fixing yourself up. If anything happen while we were alone, it was him hitting on me, not the other way around."

"Oh yeah," she drawled out dramatically, "the precious little princess can never do something so horrible as to flirt with another girl's date. It's never your fault. Never. There's always somebody here to take the blame for you."

"What is this?" My hands flew in the hair then dropped back desperately. "Since when do you care so much about just one boy? He's the reason why you called my parents, right?"

She turned her face away from me and resumed walking so she could have a reason to not face me.

"Is this some kind of revenge or something?" I kept on her heels, not giving her an inch to escape. "Are you punishing me for something I didn't even do?"

"Stop acting so innocent," she bellowed. "It's like you're never satisfied with anything. You had the world at your feet and guess what you did with it? You threw it away for some black kid who will only drag you down so he could get on top."

"Enough of that," I snapped. The anger that was temporarily replaced by pain for her quickly reemerged. "This has nothing to do with Joseph and I. Don't go around flinging blame at people because they don't have all the qualifications to be part of Carmen's elite club. You're the one who broke a promise. Not him, not me, just you."

"I never promised you anything," her gaze went back to wandering around.

I took a step forward and held her head between my palms to make her look at me. "Becoming friends mean to always have each other's back. Why couldn't you have mine, Carmen?"

She wiggled her way out of my grasp then spat out a few strands of hair that made their way into her mouth.

I watched her royal blue eyes darken to the point they were just two pools of dark swirls resembling an agitated ocean during a stormy night, flashes of lighting striking the air around us every times she blinked.

"Like you ever had mine? Like you ever helped me?" Her tone was low and threatening. "No, you were always so wrapped up in your perfect little world. You never had to do anything to get anything. I did. I had to take everything I have. You think my parents just handed everything to me? No, every time I asked for something I had to give something back. You have been handed a golden future on a silver plate but you just rejected it for a boy."

"What are you talking about? You had the same opportunities as me. Your parents own a real estate company. You went to the same school as me and had the same group of friends. What did I have that you never got? Perhaps your parents are on the rough side of loving but they didn't let you suffer for anything."

She roughly wiped a tear the corner of her eyes before returning to her impassive stare. "Do you know why my parents decided to pay my university tuition? I mean the real reason why I was allow to come here even though my grades were always crappy?"

"Yes, I know your parents paid the school board to let you come here. Who cares? They still care about you enough to pay for your education. They're offering you a golden future too."

"No, they're making an investment," she dropped on the stairs and leaned her head back on the metal rail.

I sat down next to her but with more space between us than I was used to. There was so many things crashing around in my head at once that I could no longer comprehend just one simple thing. I knew if I took my time with it, I would be able to understand Carmen's story. After all, I'd known her and her family for more than ten years now but there was just too much to think about.

"What do you mean?"

"I have less than a year left before I'm out of here." Her fingers interlaced together then she stretched them in front of her to let them crack. "I don't know where you heard it but it's true. My parents' company is going under and I've turned into my sister – another Delangelo investment."

"They sent you to find a wealthy husband," I stated not too startled by it.

"Yep," she popped the p. "They gave me two years to find the guy who's going to take care of me for the rest of my life. They won't even let me finish my Bachelor's degree like they did with my sister." She giggled humorlessly, "I guess that makes them smart. Everybody knows I'm not going to make it. I barely made it past the first semester. I guess the reason why I was so mad at you for going out with Joseph was because you had a choice to find the perfect husband but you chose him."

"Joseph is a great guy, Carmen. I'm sorry your parents are making you choose money over love but I'm not going to do that."

"Of course you won't, you have a freaking choice. I don't so I think it's high time that we go our separate ways."

"Car..."

"Just shut up already," she stopped me. "I don't need another one of your lectures about love being able to conquer all because it doesn't. I don't have the luxury of time you have. No matter how bad Erin was, at least I would have had something. Now, I have nothing. I am poor, Irene. The little my family has is all going to them not to my sister nor me. This is probably my last semester here so I'd rather spend it without your petty problems for once. I'm moving out so good luck."

She got up and left. I had the urge to go after her but I stayed frozen in place. I had lost my best friend but I had no desire to gain her back. She was hurting. I knew that but for once in my life I let my pain rise above everybody else's.

I held on the sting of her betrayal to remind myself that despite how bad life got no one with a good heart would do something like that to their friend. I refused to see any valid reason in her explanation because she didn't. Her only reason was her need for revenge, her need to rip my happiness apart because hers was being taking away. She called me a spoiled rich girl while she was the one throwing a tantrum because someone took her toy away.

"Hey, beautiful," said a guy passing by while his friend whistled.

His round Hispanic baby face and diamond stud earrings on both ears made him look like a grown baby trying to be a gangster. His friend gave the part much more emphasis with his dark hair pulled back with a cornbread hairstyle and a black tattoo creeping from his forearms to the back of his neck.

I ran back to the room to grab one of the boxes we left under the bed for when we had to move out at the end of the semester then started to fill it with Carmen's belongings. I didn't think I was going to be able to have a good night sleep when evidence of my newly broken friendship mocked me all night.

I was done with the first one and moving to the next one when an unknown number appeared on my phone's screen. I slid the green icon to pick it up.

"Good evening Ms. Irene Clark," the person said curtly when I answered. His voice was slightly familiar but I couldn't pinpoint where I'd heard it before.

"This is she," I replied. "Who am I speaking to?" I threw a framed picture of Carmen and me in the box then moved to my bed for a break.

"Yes, this is Marvin Hower speaking. I'm your parents' lawyer and I'm calling on their behalf."

Now, I knew where I'd heard his voice before. It was all those times my parents and he had those closed door meetings at our house. I'd never seen the guy face-to-face but I surely heard his voice enough to remember him very well. He was supposedly in charge of anything legal our family had to deal with such as lawsuits and contracts for new employees.

"Umm, okay." I was puzzled as to why my parents couldn't call me if they needed to tell me something especially since I was with them a few hours ago. Why did they need their lawyer's help to communicate with me?

"I'm calling to inform you that you are no longer part of the Clark family will," he said monotonously as if he was reading a grocery list to me not changing my life as I knew it. "You are also no longer a resident in the family residency. Such amendment will still in place until you cut all and every ties with the young man known by the name Joseph Pierre."

"Excuse me?" my spine strengthened off the bed and my nostrils flared.

"Your parents need you to sever all ties with Joseph Pierre and his family in order for them to continue to support you."

I stood up and paced around the room so I could have something to do besides fuming in one place.

"So they're just abandoning because I wouldn't follow their rules? Are you serious right now?" My grip tightened on the phone to the point of hurting. "I'm in school for Pete's sake, how am I supposed to pay for everything on my own?"

"Actually you do have access to your college fund which has been out of the hands of your parents the moment you turned 18. It has just enough money to pay for your college tuition for the next two years plus three thousand dollars for miscellaneous expenses."

"Oh yeah three thousand dollars can totally support me for the rest of my undergrad years and medical school," I replied sarcastically.

"Ms. Clark, I had nothing to do with this so if you want have any further questions, just ask them now so I can forward them to your parents."

"No, I want to speak to them."

"I'm afraid that is not going to be possible," he coughed then a paused followed for a couple of seconds. "Your parents are cutting all forms of communication until their terms are met."

"Isn't that just dandy? Well, I have something I would love for you to forward to them for me."

"I'm listening," he said. I heard papers shuffling on the background as if he was getting ready to jot down important notes.

"Tell my parents to go screw themselves," I yelled before launching the phone on the wall.

Great, another expense I'll have to cover on my own.

I laid on the floor trying to find out what the hell was wrong with everybody. There was no recent sightings of strange clouds or flying objects so what could have contaminated everybody's mind? Why were they all asking me to choose money over love? Why couldn't I have both when my parents clearly did? They were in love with each other, everybody knew it so why were they taking this privilege away from me?

There must have been something in the water.