The moment I stepped through the door, the smell of freshly ground coffee beans had hit me stronger than a brick. The bitter-sweet smell mocked my life. "Ah, look who finally decided to make an appearance." A very familiar voice said. I turned around to see my best friend and roommate Annalise seated at a table for two sipping her Caramel Macchiato.

"Make room for the queen."

"Yeah, uh huh sure thing." She rolled her eyes.

"Okay listen up, I'm sorry. I was held up at one of those stupid brunches."

"If you hate them so much, why the hell do you go to them?" she said while continuing to stuff a chocolate chip muffin in her face.

"You know I don't have a choice." It was true, I didn't. I had to make my mom happy. Which meant endless brunches with trophy wives she calls her friends and their pretentious daughters. As much as I didn't enjoy any of it, I knew that I had to be the daughter she wanted me to be. She had a reputation to keep, and I wasn't going to be the one to soil it. Also because making my mom happy meant that she'd pay for my education, even if it wasn't the education she wanted me to get.

"You're going to have to tell your family one day or the other you can't keep up with their charade. But let's save that for later. Because right now, you have to tell me what all happened yesterday."

"Well..." I dragged off. How exactly do I tell her what an idiot I looked like yesterday in front of James.

"Yes.. Come on you can string words together and make a couple of sentences, can't you?"

"I wish I could. You should've seen me yesterday, he asked what toppings I wanted on the pizza. And I just sat there stared at him for a good minute or so. I'm such a freak!"

"Don't state the obvious honey." I can't believe I enlisted her as my best friend. "Okay so you stared at him for a couple of minutes, I'm sure he's used to that by now. So what happened after that?"

"He ended up ordering chicken. After that I helped him with his homework, okay?" I said the second half a bit quieter.

"YOU HELPED HIM WITH HIS HOMEWORK?" She managed to muffle out while laughing her head off. Trust me, it wasn't a pretty scene. It was, well her. Annalise.

"Yeah so? I'm just getting closer to him. It's working."

"That's what you've been saying for the past three years. Come on. Open your eyes Veronica." She only ever called me Veronica when she was being serious.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes. But somewhere deep down her words had some truth to them. How much longer would I keep this up? I shook off the weird feeling and smiled. "So we need food. I swear our fridge is starving. Let's go to the grocery store shall we?"

"You're right. But this conversation isn't over Vernie. And you know it too." She stands up and lets the millions of crumbs fall off of her jeans and grabs her Vera Bradley tote. She follows me and we make our way to my car. It wasn't a beautiful car, but it was mine. I saved up for it since I was a sophomore in high school and eventually bought it in my second year of college. My dad said I didn't have to, but I did.

I sat in and the car roared to life, I put it into reverse and zoomed out of the parking lot. "I swear, do you want to kill me or something?"

"Atleast I don't drive like a grandma."

"Hey, I do not." She said while she punched my arm.

"Are you trying to get both of us killed?" I mock her. She ignores me and her hand goes to the radio knob only for me to swat it away. "We're going to listen to Panic at the Disco's Album. None of your emotional trash."

"It's a good thing I like them." Yes it was.

Before no time we were done with grocery shopping which wasn't much. We just grabbed the essentials; coffee, frozen pizza, hot pockets, ramen. Or anyways I grabbed those. While Annalise grabbed what she called 'actual food', which consisted of meat, vegetables, bread, milk, and whatever else. Personally, I don't see the difference.

By the time we got to our apartment, I was what one would say 'pooped'. We live in a studio apartment, because well, it is hella hipster. Or that's what we say, in reality it's because there is no way we could actually afford a real apartment. It was cozy and really close to campus, we could walk if we wanted to. And hell, it was so much better than living in the dorms. Annalise's voice echoed through the room, "I can't believe tomorrow's the first day of our last semester in college, can you?"

"Absolutely not." It was all very surreal. These past couple of years have been crazy. It seems like a lifetime sometimes, while at other times it feels like it was just yesterday that stepped onto the campus for the very first time.

"Same, anyways today we will dine like kings. Once I figure out this recipe that I found online."

"Can't wait." I say with my voice oozing with sarcasm. "Try not to burn down the place like last time. If you need anything I'll be here reading, like always." It was true, she nearly did burn down the place on thanksgiving. I wasn't going home, and she wasn't either. But of course she wasn't going to eat take out on the day she loved as much as her birthday.

I made myself comfortable by wrapping myself in my blanket cocoon. I picked a book off of my nightstand, and began to flip the pages in the hope that I would be sucked into another realm away from my problems. But it clearly wasn't working. What Annalise had said earlier today at the café was still ringing in my ears. What was I doing with my life. Why was I so hung up over him? I don't know. Maybe he just saw me as a friend, and nothing more. But I couldn't blame all of it on him, could I? I was there for him since that first say I ran into him in my chemistry class. Yeah we had chemistry together. Just the class, even though I wanted to have more than just the class with him. I seriously cannot believe it, three years?! I needed to get over him, but it was pathetic. We weren't even together for me to be getting over it. Before I knew it, I was quietly sobbing in the corner of the room in my cocoon. I don't know for how long I was like that before I felt the weight shift on my extremely small twin size bed.

"Oh Vernie, what's wrong?" She said as she enveloped me in a huge bear hug.

" I can't believe you let me get into this infatuation bullshit again!" I said between the sniffles. At this point, I don't know if I was sad or angry. "You're right. I should've listened to you all those times." She just drew circles on my back and let me go on. "You know what sucks? Is that it's so pathetic. I'm in so deep, I don't even know if there's a way out." I continued to sob into her sleeve.

"I know, vernie. I know. It's going to be hard, but you have me. You always will. We'll get over him together."

"But it's just so damn pathetic, he's probably watching some basketball game right now while I'm wallowing in the corner of our room. It just sucks." I take a few breaths and try to steady myself. " Do you know what else sucks? The fact that I could write a freaking novel on him. Scratch that, a freaking series, while I doubt he could even write a well written paragraph on me. Or even a sentence. I just know so much about him, and I don't know what to do with all of that information anymore. Like the fact that he hates the skittles that are green apple flavored. Or that peanut butter makes him really nauseous. The list just goes on, you know?"

"It's not pathetic vernie, he's just blind. And you know what I say? I say that let's not be sad about this. Let's be happy that you've stopped yourself from falling any further. Better late than never? Right? It's okay. Now let's take a break, so I can check up on the chicken and see if it's not burnt into smithereens and so you can get out of your cocoon and freshen up. What do you say?" She says as she drags me out of my bed.

I drag myself to the bathroom and wash my tear stained face. I come back to the kitchen to see a somewhat red looking chicken on the island and Annalise grabbing some plates off the shelves. I sit myself down. Despite how awful it looked, it didn't smell half bad. She sets a plate in front of us and cuts a couple of slices and places it on our plates. I cut a chunk of it with my knife and place it in my mouth. I could feel her look at me with anticipation. I chewed it, or at least I tried. It tasted like coal with a splash of tomato sauce and a zing of lemon. I gulp it down and turn to her with a smile. "It's not half bad." I lie straight through my teeth, because that was awful. I'll be lucky if I don't pass out before I finish my plate with a smile on my face.

"It's horrible isn't it?" She says as she chews her bite.

"I wouldn't say horrible-"

"Are you kidding me, this is barely edible. We won't even make it to our classes tomorrow if we eat this." She says as she scrunches her face.

"Preach."

"HEY. IT'S NOT THAT BAD!"

"Mhm." I say as a gulp down my glass of punch to take the taste out of my mouth.

"Whatever, I'mgonna order pizza. What toppings do you want?" She winks at me. SHE DID NOT JUST GO THERE. I pick up a pillow and throw it right at her face. Bullseye!

"Chill, please." She raises her hands in surrender. "I'm ordering pineapple with EXTRA CHEESE."

"Fine by me." I quickly wash my hands and make myself to the couch and pull out my laptop. "Wanna Netflix and chill?"

She walks to the couch and jumps right beside me with two buckets of mint chocolate chip ice-cream. "You know it!"

"Ice-cream, really? You do realize it's below freezing outside right?"

"Who cares? Ice cream is soul food."

"Can't argue with you there."

"I want to watch Bridget Jones Diary!"

"Do we have to?"

"Duh."

"Fine.

An hour later we're half way into the movie with an empty pizza box to my side and the gallon of ice cream between my thighs. I can feel my eyes giving in on me, rimmed with tears that might flow out any moment now. I blink a couple of times hoping it would go away, but it was only getting worse.

"Vernie, not again. We're going to get over him!"

"No it's not that...entirely. Don't you see? I'm going to end up just like her, but without the good looking guys in my life. "

"Oh hush, you won't."

"You're right. I'll just end up worse." I continued to cry with ice cream smeared across my chin. I bet I was a sight to see. "I just don't understand why he doesn't like me-"

"Ugh shut up Veronica. Give me your phone, right now. I'm going to give that little piece of crap a piece of my mind. " I just stare at her with my swollen eyes and red cheeks. "Veronica. Give. It. To. Me." I give in and pass it to her. She unlocks it and looks through the contacts to find James. She clicks on that green symbol, and I have no idea what's going to happen. "Okay, listen up Vernie. Enough of his shit. You're going to tell him exactly how you feel, so you can get all of this crap out of your system. Got it. Okay, okay it's ringing."

It rings three times before I hear his melodious voice through the speaker, "Vernie? What's wrong? It's like two in the morning. Is everything okay?" I'm quiet and very nervous. Is this the right thing to do?

Annalise nudges me with her elbow, then speaks up. "Listen up asshole. Vernie here has something to say."

It's quiet, but I know he's there from his shallow breathing on the other side. "Oh haha hey. Veronica here. What's up?"

"Seriously Vernie what's up? I want to sleep." That was the last straw. You know what? It is the right thing to do. Annalise is right, I have to let everything out of my system and move on with my life. I can't keep doing this to myself.

"Okay listen up James. I'm sick and tired of being there for you. Okay? I like you, a lot. Always have. But I guess you haven't noticed, or if you have you don't care enough to reciprocate the feelings. You just drag me along. And it's getting really tiring, okay? I'm always there for you, but when are you ever there for me. Honestly I don't even know what I'm sayin-"

"Hey hey hey, chill Vernie. Let's talk when you're sober, okay? See you tomorrow."

"I AM FREAKING SOBER." I yell with my hands trembling.

"Good night Vernie."

"Don't freaking call me that." No response. I couldn't even hear him breathing. "That little, he freaking hung up on me!"

"I say we just beat him to pulp tomorrow." Was the last thing I heard before I was out.

A/N: I wrote this chapter a while back. So I read this today, and realized some of the things i've mentioned in this chapter don't match up with other things in the other chapters, oops. I'll get that fixed as soon as possible. It's nothing serious though. Read on :) 

Oh and wow, I have like 'readers'. It's actually kind of scary to put your work out there, you know? Well i'm glad I did. It's been pretty awesome getting to know some people. So you 'readers' or friends or mom, it would pretty awesome if you guys could give some kind of feedback. Either what you thought about the characters and the plot line so far, or anything relating to the grammar aspect. 

Last thing, if you guys are working on anything i'd love to check it out. SO feel free to message me :)

Thanks Y'all,
Sana