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The first time Elizabeth noticed, it was small...
Charlie was sitting on the floor near the back of the pizzeria. Cassidy was next to her. They weren’t talking. Not really. Just sitting close ; shoulders almost touching, a quiet kind of presence that doesn’t ask for anything. Charlie looked comfortable, different…
Elizabeth watched from across the room.
Something twisted in her chest…
Later, she found Charlie alone.
“Are you mad at me or something ?” She asked.
Charlie looked up, slightly surprised. “No.”
Elizabeth crossed her arms. “Then why have you been ignoring me so much lately ?”
“I haven’t ?” The brunette replied in a confused yet intrigued tone.
“You have,” Elizabeth insisted. “you barely talked to me today.”
Charlie paused.
“I was with Cassidy.”
That name landed wrong. Cassidy, of course it was Cassidy… It’s ALWAYS about Cassidy.
“I know that,” Elizabeth said quickly. “you’re always with Cassidy now.”
Charlie’s brows knitted, just a little. “That’s not true.”
“It is !” Elizabeth snapped. “Everytime I look over, you’re just… S-sitting there with her, doing freaking nothing !”
Charlie’s voice stayed calm. “We’re talking...”
“No, you’re not !” Elizabeth threw her hands up. “That’s the thing… You don’t even have to !”
That made Charlie go quiet.
Elizabeth’s voice wavered, just slightly.
“You don’t have to try with her.”
There it was.
Charlie’s expression softened a little. “Liz—”
“But with me, it’s like—” Elizabeth cut in, frustration spilling over now, “I have to keep talking or you just… go quiet and I don’t know what you’re thinking and—”
She stopped herself, her breathing uneven.
“I don’t know where I stand…” She finished, much quieter.
That hit harder than anything else.
Charlie stood slowly as she stepped closer.
“I’m the same with you,” she said gently.
Elizabeth shook her head immediately. “No, you’re not.”
“I am.”
“You’re not.” Elizabeth repeated, more emotional now. “With her, it’s easy for you.”
Charlie hesitated.
That hesitation said too much.
Elizabeth let out a small, hurt laugh. “Wow ! Okay.”
“It’s not like that—”
“Then what is it like ?” Elizabeth demanded.”
A pause.
Charlie searched for words she wasn’t used to saying out loud.
“With Cassidy…” She started softly, “I don’t feel like I have to explain myself.”
Elizabeth went still.
“…and with me, you do ?” she asked.
Charlie’s expression hardened. “No. That’s not what I mean.”
“But that’s what it sounds like.”
Silence.
Charlie looked at her.
“I choose to be with you,” she said quietly.
Elizabeth’s eyes flickered.
“That’s different.”
“…different how ?” The taller girl questioned.
Charlie took a breath.
“With you, I want to understand everything you’re feeling.”
Elizabeth didn’t respond at that.
“With her,” Charlie continues, “it’s just… already there.”
That hurt.
Elizabeth looked away quickly. “Right. Of course it is.”
“Liz—”
“I get it..”she said, even though she clearly didn’t want to. “You have your… quiet connection or whatever.”
There was a moment of complete silence.
Then, more honestly :
“…I just didn’t think I’d have to compete for you.”
Charlie’s expression dropped.
“You’re not competing.”
“It feels like I am !”
That finally broke through Charlie’s calm.
“You’re not,” she repeated, a little more firmly now. “You’re important to me.”
“Yeah,” Elizabeth muttered. “I used to feel like that.”
The words hung in there.
Heavy.
Charlie stepped closer again—but slower this time.
Careful.
“I’m not leaving you,” she said.
Elizabeth didn’t look at her.
“…You didn’t notice you already kind of did ?”
That one landed as Charlie went quiet.
Not because she didn’t care, but because she was realizing, and for once, she didn’t have an answer already ready.
Elizabeth swallowed hard, blinking fast.
“I don’t like not being your person anymore,” she admitted, barely above a whisper.
Charlie’s voice became softer than before.
“You still are.”
Elizabeth shook her head auickly.
“Not like that.”
There was a long pause and neither of the girls moved.
And across the room… Cassidy was watching.
She wasn’t saying anything, but seeing everything. She didn’t look bothered by the girls’ argument, her expression was just completely unreadable.
Her dark eyes found Elizabeth’s emerald green ones across the room. That’s when Elizabeth realized…
She didn’t HATE Cassidy.
She hated how she WASN’T Cassidy.