酷视

As great of a mental medicine as the sugar was for her, today, it didn\'t work.

\'This damned bitch,\' Cassie cursed under her breath before touching her phone to make the clock appear. \'It\'s been twenty minutes already!\' Her hand tightened into a fist. \'Is she intentionally trying to make me even angrier?!\'

The only reason why Cassie went to this family restaurant was Irene\'s unending attempts at calling her to arrange the meeting. Ever since the day she decided to cut her contact with the two friends of hers whose advice cost her her relationship, Irene\'s character suddenly took a massive shift.

And yet, when it came to the actual meeting… Irene still decided not to show up.

\'If she won\'t appear for ten more minutes, I\'m just going to leave,\' Cassie thought, picking an arbitrary amount of time she was willing to keep waiting for her former friend.

Roughly five minutes later, the doors to the restaurant opened up, only for Irene to burst inside with panic written all over her face.

Irene was a girl who always minded her appearance. Be it school, exercise, or an outing with her friends, she always made sure to look her best, make-up, clothes, and accessories included.

But now, when she burst into the restaurant, her usual flair was nowhere to be seen. Her face was covered in sweat that messed up her already limited makeup. Rather than the usual set of fancy, gyaru-like clothes, she wore simple sweatpants and a thick hoodie, an outfit Cassie saw her in for the very first time in her entire life.

Yet, even those huge changes to Irene\'s appearance weren\'t enough to quell Cassie\'s fury.

"Cassie!" Irene shouted, minding not all the attention that both her sudden intrusion and her shout brought on her. "I\'m sorry! I really am! Both for before and for being late now, but I really need you to come with me to take a look at something!"

A mere week ago, Cassie would purse her lips and follow her friend without a word of protest or a single question.

But not today. Not after she finally took some time to think everything through.

"I finally agreed to meet with you again, and you are making me wait? Nearly half an hour to boot!"

Despite the anger boiling from the very bottom of her soul, Cassie somehow managed to rein it in, only ever hinting at the true state of her mind with the tone of her voice. "How does that relate to your claimed wish to make amends?!"

Cassie raised her voice a little, struggling to maintain her composure. Yet, when faced with the annoyed stares of not only the other customers but also the staff of the restaurant, she once again regained control over her emotions.

Irene, though, only lowered her eyes and looked down… and then actually bowed her head!

"Cassie, I\'m sorry. I really am. But you really need to…"

"Tell me, Irene," Cassie cut into her former friend\'s words while putting on a fake smile. "What are you even apologizing for?"

\'I wonder if she even knows, or if she apologizes for the sake of apologizing.\'

This question was something Cassie wasn\'t willing to give up on. How could she believe Irene\'s apology if she didn\'t even give the issue any thought?

Irene bit down on her bottom lip, before approaching Cassie\'s table and sitting down, not caring for her former friend not even inviting her to sit together.

"You see…" Even though she sat down at the same table, Irene couldn\'t match Cassie\'s hateful stare. "When apologizing for before, I really mean it. I…" Irene paused again.

This time, though, she took a deep breath and then another, before slowly raising her face and looking directly into Cassie\'s eyes.

\'As much as I hate to admit, her face looks really genuine now,\' Cassie thought with spite filling her soul.

"I thought that you guys weren\'t progressing at all. And I could tell you actually liked Peter, but…" Irene hesitated for a second. "But because we were the ones who made you ask him out because of a dare, I thought you were shackled by it, unable to make a single move."

Cassie\'s eyes twitched.

\'Well, that\'s pretty much on the point,\' she thought as a sour taste filled her mouth.

She had many chances and even more hopes for things to advance between her and Peter in the two months they were together… Yet, whenever an opportunity to take things to the next level appeared, she would shy away from it, feeling too guilty about how she asked Peter out due to a dare.

\'I guess that at least on this point, she\'s right,\' Cassie forced herself to admit, knowing better than to let her emotions control her judgment.

She has learned her lessons from when she allowed herself for her heart to control her body once, and paid the prize of Peter officially breaking up with her for it.

"I tried my best, but I couldn\'t imagine a scenario where you would actually do something about how things were. So, feeling guilty about my involvement, I hoped that if I tickle Peter\'s jealousy, maybe he would man up and…"

Irene averted her eyes.

"And well, make a move himself." Irene took another, deep breath. "I hoped he would grow desperate and do something, do anything to keep you by his side"

Cassie squinted her eyes.

\'So, despite playing with his feelings with that dare, you still ignored him, a man who you claim to know I actually liked, all to fix what you fucked up?\'

Cassie\'s interpretation of Irene\'s story greatly varied from how Irene was trying to present it to her.

"And for that, for edging the two of you on… I\'m sorry. Really, really, really sorry!" Irene lowered her head to the point her forehead nearly struck against the table they were sitting at. Then, after judging she bowed for long enough, she raised her head and looked Cassie directly in the eyes.

"But you are my friend. One of the very few people I actually ever considered a true companion. And with how I put you into this damned mess…" Irene clenched her jaws as tears started to well up in her eyes. "Cassie, I\'m sorry, I will say it however many times it will take for you to believe me. But I was desperate to salvage the situation. And it was this desperation of mine that pushed me for…"

Irene could no longer hold fast against the judging look in Cassie\'s eyes, opting to turn her face away rather than suffer it any further.

"It was my desperation, my determination to fix things that pushed me for the drastic choice of words and actions that brought all this mess down on you."

Cassie took a deep breath.

She looked hard, as hard as she could… But save for guilt and genuine desire to right things, she couldn\'t see anything else on her former friend\'s face.

\'It seems she, for once, is really honest,\' she thought, gulping down her saliva as she struggled to make her choice.

Was she supposed to forgive her now that Irene apologized? Or should she hold on to the grudge, given how Irene was responsible for the grief and broken heart Cassie was struggling to cope with?

In the end, though, while she couldn\'t make her decision on the spot, Cassie\'s anger somewhat lessened.

\'This is the first time I saw her look so honest,\' she thought, really struggling with making the right choice.

"But Cassie…" Irene spoke out, forcing Cassie to put her thoughts aside and focus on what else Irene had to say. "It\'s the next part that I\'m even more sorry for," she announced to Cassie\'s surprise.

\'Wait, next part?\' she thought, only for her eyes to widen. \'SO THERE IS MORE?!\'

"You don\'t understand what I mean right now, that\'s why I will ask again. Can you hurry up and follow me?" Irene requested with a tense look all over her face. "Because as painful as it will be, it\'s something you really need to see!"