DAY 27: Tales Of Interventions And Bleak Friendship Assessments
Day 27 Of How To Move On From A Man — 1LD
Before I could raise my voice, and let my temper flair, I held back.
Tonight wasn’t for getting angry. Tonight was about making a stand for the sake of our friendships.
And as it all started to unfold, I secretly wished everyone saw that was my aim. Even if my execution sucked, I had the best of intentions.
GG started by telling me she hated the conversation we had a few days ago. Begging her to ask her boyfriend why my ex dumped me was putting her in an awkward spot.
But worse, she didn’t want to keep talking about my breakup with everyone in her life. It wasn’t fair to let gossip spread, she reasoned.
I couldn’t disagree.
Sophia chimed in; she internally objected to talking about my love life when she felt like she couldn’t talk about her own.
How badly she had wanted to explain why Malcolm was suddenly back on the scene. Yet, no one had asked her.
No one even questioned the slightest bit about why she had a sudden change of heart. Or how she was feeling.
No one said anything.
James told everyone about the men he had briefly dated, names none of us knew. He then went on to explain why he didn’t feel the need to divulge each and every breakup with us.
We all had things going on in our life, so why complicate the matter? Why bring other people into it?
And, as the conversation adjusted itself, he asked, “Why, Andie, do you get a special privilege to talk about your break-up?”
It was all making sense to me. Everything they said was justifiable. I couldn’t argue with them at all.
“You’re right,” I said, “Why do I get special privilege? I’m not special, I know that. But the fact I have to scream and shout and we have to have this little sit down suggests the way we’re doing things is pretty fucked up. GG can’t talk about her divorce. Sophia can’t talk about her ex. James can’t say anything about his love life. I can’t talk about Douglas. In what world is this normal in friendships?”
I was out of breath.
But I had made my point, letting out everything building from the preceding days.
I called these people my best friends, but we weren’t acting like them. Neither was I.
I had bought into this being the status quo, and it took a break up for me to realise it was a toxic situation we had to escape from. Funny how heartache brings out the best in other relationships.
Everyone sat in silence.
I leaned over the table and grabbed the pitcher of Pimms and refilled my glass.
“Sophia, tell me how you started hooking up with Malcolm again. Was it before New Year’s?”
Sophia began to talk. We all talked. This was good.
You’re reading The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.
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