”Oh, you’re right.” Her friend’s eyes widened to the size of saucers and she quickly jumped off the banister, wrinkling her nose while she tried to wipe her hands off on her jeans. “That’s disgusting.”

“Thanks, I know,” Shane chuckled quietly. She had absolutely no idea whether or not that was the spot where she’d fucked Niki a couple of hours ago, but it was fun to watch her friend squirm a little. She needed something to take her mind off the real reason why she’d wanted her to get down from there. Seeing someone sitting on the railing did nothing but remind her of the awful thing she’d done to her best friend.

“Why did you do it? Why did you have to go and stick your whole head into the cookie jar, Shane?”

Shane looked up, almost spitting out the alcohol she’d just taken into her mouth. “That was uncalled for,” she said with a grimace after she managed to swallow it.

“I thought it was fucking funny. Seriously though, why did you?”

“I have no idea.” Shane looked at her for a moment before she turned away. She didn’t want to have that conversation with anyone, but she knew there was no way out of this one.

“You can tell me,” her friend assured her. “It’s not like I’m gonna go and tell anyone, you know.”

“I can’t tell you,” she began quietly, mumbling into the bottle as she contemplated drinking more of it. “Because I don’t know why I did it. I fucked up, okay?” She faced her friend again while glittering tears began to fill her hazel eyes. “I destroyed the one thing in my life that still meant something to me, and I can’t even tell you why. That’s how messed up I’ve become.”

The other woman shook her head slowly, her expression almost as devastated as Shane’s, but she didn’t make any efforts to reach her hand out to comfort her friend. “You’re not as bad as you think you are. I always hoped you’d see that one day, but I guess that was hoping for a bit too much.” She stood quiet for a while, but when Shane didn’t seem to have anything to say, she started to lose her patience. “Stop being so fucking stupid, Shane!” she exclaimed, trying to look into her eyes, but Shane ignored her. “Don’t you see that the reason why you keep fucking up is because you always make things worse than they are? To me it’s pretty damn simple. She’s in love with you. And unless I’m mistaken, you’re in love with her too. Aren’t you?”