It’d been a week since Kelly’s birthday party. A week since Sydney found out her ex-boyfriend was seeing her supposed best friend, and Sydney was still steaming about it.
But could anyone really blame her?
Kelly and Drew had gone behind Sydney’s back. That was the worst kind of betrayal. Right up there with having your mother take off across the sea.
Why was Sydney’s life so screwed up right now?
Because the people in her life were screwed up. That was why. And she couldn’t control their actions. She could only control what she did and how she behaved.
So when Kelly knocked on Sydney’s front door, Sydney seriously considered not answering. After all, ignoring Kelly would be a whole lot easier than confronting her, but school was starting next week and Sydney would have to face her eventually.
Maybe it was better to get it over with.
Sydney pulled the front door open and crossed her arms over her chest.
Kelly wrung her hands. “Hi,” she said.
“Umm…I just wanted to come over to talk to you. You don’t have to say anything, but please give me the chance to explain.”
Sydney arched a brow. Did Kelly really deserve the chance to explain? And did Sydney even care what she had to say?
Kelly had said she and Drew didn’t get together until after Sydney broke up with him, but there had to have been something else going on long before that. Maybe they’d been into each other and just hadn’t touched.
That made Sydney feel like an idiot. She was embarrassed that she hadn’t noticed something between Drew and Kelly sooner. How could she be so oblivious?
“I just wanted you to know,” Kelly began, “that I never meant to hurt you.”
Sydney snorted.
Kelly hesitated before taking a deep breath and surging on. “I didn’t want to like Drew, and I certainly didn’t plan for this to happen…” She swallowed and looked down at the porch floor, wiggling her toes in her flip-flops.
“I just don’t want you to hate me,” Kelly said. “Can you forgive me? Someday maybe? I don’t expect you to forgive me now or next week or next month, but…someday?”
Sydney parted her lips to say no, but the word wouldn’t come out. She flashed back to Haley in Birch Falls Children’s Hospital, to her frail frame in that hospital bed, her room void of balloons and parents.
Haley had even less than Sydney had and she didn’t let any of it get to her.
“You can’t let the bad things get to you,” she’d said. “Bad things must happen to you in life. There can be no rainbows without rain.”
Was it easier to forgive than it was to hate? Haley didn’t seem to hate her parents and they’d barely visited her in the hospital.
But maybe Sydney was asking the wrong question. Maybe it wasn’t about forgiving or hating…maybe it was about acceptance.
Accepting what you couldn’t control.
Sydney couldn’t control Drew or Kelly or what they did. She couldn’t control her parents and make them okay, nor make the divorce go away.
What Sydney could do was not let the bad things get to her.
She took in a breath and uncrossed her arms. “What you did was wrong,” she said to Kelly. “I trusted you, and you went behind my back. I really don’t want to talk to you for a while. I don’t know how long, but a while. So I just ask that you give me some space. Maybe someday we can be friends again. But not any day soon and maybe never. All I can do is try.”
Kelly nodded fervently. “I completely understand.” Tears welled beneath her lids. She sniffed, trying to hide them. “Thanks, Syd.”
Sydney nodded and shut the door.