“Sweetie, I have to get home. My stomach isn’t handling everything too well.” She said. Jonathan nodded and kissed her goodbye. Simone ran from the house, and up the 3 blocks to her house. The cold air filled her lungs , waking her to the harsh reality that the guy she was in love with was probably in the middle of fucking her best friend. She cried, not caring about the icy March wind freezing her tears to her cheeks.

As she burst into the warmth of her own house, she came to the conclusion that she must have only imagined seeing Taylor going up the stairs with Ashna and nothing was wrong. She went to her bathroom to wash her face and then get herself ready for bed. She soon climbed under the covers and fell fast asleep, trying to forget about the entire night.

When Simone awoke and glanced at her clock, she groaned at the time. It read 7:13, and she was still extremely tired. Quickly, she sat up, remembering all the details about the night before. She became infuriated thinking of Taylor. She wrapped a robe around herself and then went to the kitchen to make some coffee. Before she went to the kitchen, she passed the living room, which had the sofa bed in it, where Taylor was sleeping. She peeked her head in and saw him lying there, looking innocent as ever. She smirked, ‘innocent my ass’, then continued on her way to make coffee.

She sat at the dinette set waiting for the coffee to brew. Tears formed in her eyes and she immediately pushed them away with her fingers, not wanting to get upset over nothing. She reminded herself that things like this happen everyday to people that don’t deserve it. She was one of the people that didn’t deserve it. The pain that she felt inside was so deafening and she wasn’t sure if it was the pain of Taylor betraying her, or the pain of Ashna betraying her.

Her coffee finished, and she poured herself a cup full. She heard Taylor moan from the living room, and eventually, he entered. She didn’t make it obvious that she looked at him, she slightly glanced over. His hair was disheveled and he didn’t look too great. When he caught sight of Simone, he tried to smile, but then the realization of his hangover caught up with him, and he had to sit down.

“So, rough night?” Simone asked, with a smart tone in her voice. He looked up, squinted his eyes and nodded a half nod.

“Damn, turn the light off or something, I have a terrible headache.” He replied. Simone shook her head in response. The light in the kitchen wasn’t even on, it was only sunlight pouring through the window that was lighting the room.

“Just out of curiosity, how was it?” she asked. She knew that she didn’t want too, but she couldn’t stop herself and she needed to know exactly what happened. Taylor looked up at her again, confused as to what she was talking about.

“Huh?” he asked.

“You know, Ashna, was she good?” Simone asked again. Taylor sat there for a few seconds before he grasped what she was talking about. The look of dread covered his face. He lowered his eyes to the floor and said nothing. “So, I’m taking that as a yes.”

“Sim, you know that I was drunk last night…” Taylor started.

“The hell you were drunk! You didn’t seem very drunk to me when you were going up those stairs with her! You seemed to be walking too well to have had any influence of alcohol in your body!” Simone outbursted.

“You weren’t with me the whole night! You were with your precious Jonathan. You didn’t see how much I had to drink! What does it matter anyway? It’s over and it already happened.”

“ ‘What does it matter?’ Taylor, it matters a lot! God, you cheated on me last night and you’re trying to say that it doesn’t matter?” Simone asked, her temper raising.

Taylor laughed derisively. “I cheated on you…looks who’s talking now.”

“Don’t you even try to pull that shit with me right now! You know darn well that what I am doing with you and Jonathan is something totally different. I didn’t sleep with Jonathan! I’m only sleeping with you…or should I say I was sleeping with you.”

“Wait a second, who said anything about sleeping with anyone else? I didn’t sleep with Ashna last night.” Taylor said. Simone opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. He didn’t sleep with Ashna?

“What?” she asked.

“I did not sleep with her. You were right, I hadn’t drunken enough to make me not know what I was doing. I knew that she wanted to have her way with me, and she was incredibly drunk, but I was sober enough to walk away before anything happened. Did you think that--”

“I thought that you and her had sex, or something. When I saw you guys going up the stairs, I just assumed and then I left. Then I thought that if you didn’t fuck, then something else would have happened.” She said. Taylor said nothing, and neither did Simone.

“I’m waiting for an apology.” Taylor said. Simone smiled, but it wasn’t one of her normal smiles that she gets when she’s around Taylor. She still felt uneasy with her accusing him of something he didn’t do. ‘He must hate me now,’ she thought.

“I’m sorry, but I assumed--”

“You know what they say about assuming…anyway, apology accepted. But I have to ask you something in return. You know what it feels like to imagine that someone is cheating on you, and it wasn’t even for real…now Jonathan on the hand had no idea that you are cheating on him. Can you imagine what he would feel like if he finds out?” Taylor said.

“So what exactly do you want me to do?”

“You have to break up with him, Sim.” Taylor said. Simone’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “Why not? Don’t you want to be with me? Or were you planning on staying with him after I had to leave? Come on, tell me the truth.”

“Tay, do we have to talk about this right now? I thought you said you had a headache, this will only make it worse.”

“Sim, I need to talk about this…”

“Fine. The truth is, I wasn’t sure how long you were going to be here, and if it was only going to be for a few days, then I wasn’t going to break up with him because I do have feelings for him. And the longer you stayed, the longer I kept putting it off. I guess that I never realized that I was cheating on him because we never really did anything, but you’re right. I am cheating on him. I know that when I only thought you slept with Ashna, how horrible that felt…I need to tell him.”

“Tell him?”

“Yeah, tell him that we need to stop seeing each other. And when he asks why, I’ll tell him the truth. I’ll feel so much better when we can be together in public and not have to worry about anyone seeing us.”

“Good…but now the question is, when are you going to tell him?” Taylor asked. He wanted her to do this as soon as possible. He didn’t sharing his time with her with Jonathan. He didn’t deserve it because it was true; she loved him and not Jonathan.

She took a deep breath. “Tonight.”