Chapter Twelve

Abs: I stumbled into the kitchen and found Whitney sitting at the kitchen table. She was in her pajamas with her hair in a messy ponytail, a look that worked on her. She was holding a steaming coffee cup and staring into space. She didn't even look my way as i walked in, she just sat, frozen. "Whitney?" I asked quietly, setting my hand on her shoulder. "Oh!" she jumped, spilling some of the contents of her coffee mug onto the table. She put her hand to her chest, breathing a bit rapidly. "I'm sorry but you were staring at something and you look sort of rigid" I explain.   "Was I?" she asked distantly.   "I didn't mean to scare you like that I didn't think you'd freak out. Something wrong?" I asked, concerned. She shook her head vaguely. I knew that she wasn't fine, but I dropped it anyways. "You hungry?" I asked with my head in the fridge.    "A bit" she mumbled. Finding nothing in the refrigerator I moved to the cabinets. After a quick and useless search I shut the cabinet door, "Okay...hey that doughnut place a little ways from here is really good. You mind if I just run out and go get some decent food for us?"    "Actually I could really go for some doughnuts so that would be great" she said as she wet a washcloth to clean up her coffee spill. I nodded and snatched up my keys. "See you in a bit." I called back as I shut the door.    On the way out of my house I nearly tripped over someone sitting on my front steps. "What the..? Teresa?" I wondered, as I tried to maintain my balance."Abs, you okay? Didn't you see me sitting here?"    "Why the hell would I check to see if someone is sitting on my steps at 9 in the morning?!?" I exclaimed, rubbing my ankle that I had half-twisted in my little trip.       "What are you doing here anyway?"    "I was thinking about what you said. About Whitney and me you know. And I wanted to talk to her so I drove over here."    "And what, You decided that my grass is a much better conversationalist?" I said sarcastically.    "No. I just couldn't. We weren't exactly on the best of terms when she ran off." she said quietly. I sighed, "Rease, she needs you, you know. You're her best friend" Teresa just stared at her feet. I took her arm and pulled her up. As I unlocked my front door for her and pushed it open I whispered, "just try" Teresa: I walked slowly towards the kitchen, where I had heard some noise coming from. Whitney was wiping off a table with her back to me. I stood at the edge of the room. I coughed to let her know I was there. "Abs I thought you were going to get dough-" she stopped abruptly. For a moment, we just stared at eachother. "Rease..." she breathed. "H-hey" I stammered in response. "I, um, heard you were back and I thought, well I wanted to see you"    "Oh" she said, figeting with the rags in her hands.    "So..how have you been?" I didn't know what else to ask.    "I guess about as decent as a girl that lost her life when she lost her baby could be" she said, with a note of bitterness in her voice.    "What is that supposed to mean?" I questioned.    "Oh Please Teresa" she said irritably, turning back to scrub the already clean table. "You know exactly what I mean"    "You didn't loose your life Whitney"     "Yeah just everything in it" she mumbled resentfully.     "You didn't loose it all, you ran from it all" I said, more sharply then I had meant to.    "You would've done the same thing and you know it" she snapped back.    "No, that's where you're wrong. I just up and leave my friends" My words burned my throat as they escaped my mouth. I felt sick as soon as they escaped my lips.    "Just go" Whitney said with gritted teeth.    "Whit I-"    "Go"    I bit my lip and went to the door. So much for trying. Chapter Thirteen