Two Girls, Two Perspectives

friend: [frend]; noun; a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

"Hey baby!"

If there was one thing Ethan loved hearing after a long day, it was definitely the voice of his girlfriend.

"Hey babe." He greeted Scarlet as she pranced into his house, placing a quick kiss on her cheek.

"I missed you." The blonde bombshell pouted, sticking out her lower lip in a way that always made Ethan want to kiss her. "It was so long without seeing you."

"I saw you in homeroom this morning, babe." Ethan laughed. "Remember?"

Scarlet rolled her eyes.

"But that was forever ago. It's been like a whole day!"

Ethan laughed.

"You're right, it's been too long. I missed your cute face."

The two walked up to his room and settled down on the bed with a bowl of popcorn. Ethan hoped that tonight they would be able to avoid an argument over whether to watch The Holiday or The Avengers; Ethan never wanted to watch the rom-coms that Scarlet was in love with.

"So tonight I was thinking Music and Lyrics." Scarlet snuggled up against Ethan's chest and smiled up at him.

Crap.

"I was thinking something more like The Force Awakens." Ethan replied.

Scarlet rolled her eyes again.

"Baby, there is nothing interesting about those movies. The same people swing the same glowing swords around for two hours and nothing else ever happens."

"And Hugh Grant always gets the girl in the end. Nothing else happens in those movies either."

"But I want to watch that one."

"And since when do you get to call all the shots?"

"Since forever!" Scarlet sat up and turned to look at Ethan--and he knew that this was not an argument about a movie anymore.

"Scarlet--"

"Our relationship has changed, Ethan, and I don't like it at all." She shook her head, "Ever since you started spending time with those drama geeks, you suddenly have a backbone for the first time in your life. I'm not a controlling girlfriend, but I have to draw the line somewhere."

Ethan shook his head.

"I'm not allowed to have any opinions? Is that why we've lasted as long as we have? Because I've just let you walk over me for two years?"

"That is not what I'm saying, Ethan. And you know that."

"Well that's what it sounds like." Ethan retorted. "So just leave. I don't have to deal with this right now."

Scarlet raised her eyebrows and slid off the bed, heading for the door.

"I'll call you tomorrow." Ethan promised. He just couldn't deal with everything at that moment.

"You better."

Scarlet left, slamming the door behind her. It took just two minutes for Ethan to hear her car engine revving outside of his house, and then the screech of the tires could be heard, a clear signal that Scarlet was angry.

And yet Ethan was angry as well.

He had let Scarlet be the alpha of their relationship for the entirety of it. There was nothing else to it; she had dominated every conversation, every argument, every encounter. She was the one calling the shots, and she wasn't used to being argued with.

The irrational voice in Ethan's head was telling him to just end things with her; obviously neither of them were happy.

But the rational voice, the one that made Ethan want to wring his own neck half the time, was telling him that the only reason he was so bent out of shape was because deep down, he felt guilty over his feelings for Nova. And he was taking that guilt out in the form of anger at Scarlet, which wasn't fair to her.

He was the one who had to apologize.

But not right now.

Ethan picked up his cell phone and dialed the first number that came to mind, letting it ring until the call went to voicemail.

"You've reached Caleb Halpon. Leave a message if you think it's worth my time."

Ethan rolled his eyes and hung up without leaving a voicemail. He needed to talk to his best friend and there was no one else he could think of.

Except for the person who seemed to be in the back of his mind at all times, and the person who seemed to unwittingly cause all of his fights with his girlfriend in the first place.

"Hello?" A voice answered on the second ring.

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"Nova?"

"Well, I'm not going to let anyone else answer my phone for me, so yeah, it's Nova." She leaned back in her desk chair, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

"I can always count on your snarky comments to brighten my ever darkening days."

"I can always count on you pointing out my snarky comments and making me care even less about whatever you're about to say."

"Fair enough." Nova could hear a small laugh on the other end. "I was just calling to talk, honestly. I had a fight with Scarlet and I needed someone to talk to."

Nova felt her heart leap a bit at Ethan's mention of any kind of disagreement with his girlfriend. She felt terrible about her feelings for the guy, but there was nothing she could do about it--as long as she wasn't actively trying to break them up, she figured she wasn't really doing anything wrong.

Of course, she wasn't on Scarlet's end, and she was sure the paranoid girlfriend of Capital High School's most popular jock would not be happy to have anyone actively crushing on Ethan. Nova had never met anyone so incredibly prone to jealousy, but there was nothing she could do about the insane antics of Scarlet Levings--she could just befriend her boyfriend and hope that things worked out in her favor.

"So talk away." Nova nodded, settling back in her chair and pausing the music she had been playing before receiving the phone call. "I'm all ears."

And for the next two hours straight, Nova heard every terrible and paranoid thing Scarlet Levings had ever done. She heard the story about the time Scarlet had blocked Ethan's cousin's number from his phone because she had heard him on the phone with "some girl" earlier that day and hadn't bothered to ask what her relation was to him. Nova heard the story of the time that Ethan had to show up fifteen minutes late to the state championship basketball game because Scarlet had refused to go to dinner anywhere but a fancy restaurant forty minutes away from their homes.

And then Ethan finished off with the story of the fight that had caused him to call Nova in the first place: how Scarlet had flipped out over Ethan growing a backbone and didn't like how that "changed" their relationship.

"Do you want my opinion?" Nova asked after a considerable silence following the last revelation. "Like my honest opinion?"

Ethan paused for a moment, and Nova could hear a deep breath come from the other end.

"Yes."

Nova took a deep breath herself, her heart pounding at what she was about to say--it was the very last thing she wanted to say.

"I think you should talk to her and work it out. It sounds like you two have been through too much for this to be the thing that ends your relationship."

Ethan was silent.

"Thanks, Nova. I really needed to hear that."

"No problem. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

"See you tomorrow."

Nova hung up the phone and placed her head on her desk, taking deep breaths until her heart rate slowed. It would have been so simple to encourage him to end things with Scarlet. But it would have been selfish. So selfish.

And Nova, unlike Ethan's current girlfriend, was a genuinely good person.