Vivian’s POV

Whenever Bryce had cheated on her, Vivian had always cried.

She’d cried and cried, and he’d still kept on cheating, and it had hurt. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

But upon finding out that Ryan had someone on the side, Vivian had not cried. She still was not crying.

It felt as though learning that he had done such a horrible thing to her had hollowed her out. That her tear ducts had been turned to ash, somewhere deep within her eyes sockets, and there was nothing left for her to shed. But that was not to say that Vivian was not hurting. She hurt more than she had ever thought possible in her life.

But it was not a type of pain that made her want to cry and rage about the injustices of the world.

Instead, the agony made Vivian want to lay down and never get up. For the past few days, she had been trying her absolute best to do just that. To stay cooped up inside her apartment, and never see the light of day again. A part of her had been hoping that she would be like plants and just die if she went long enough without getting any sun.

But Amy, sweet, loyal Amy, the one good thing that Vivian still had going for her in life had come for her. And because of that, Vivian, after days of not wanting to be human anymore, was trying her best to at least look alive for the sake of her best friend.

***

"Are you sure it is not some sort of misunderstanding? If it were that good for nothing Bryce, I would not even doubt it. But Ryan, no, there’s just no way," Amy’s disbelief was exactly how Vivian would have felt had she not seen it with her own two eyes.

"I saw her, Amy, and she is gorgeous. A once in a generation type beauty. You should have been there. She did not even bother to put on her clothes when talking to me. And yet I was the one who felt as though I was somebody who should be hiding,"

"It was awful. I think he told her that I’m his housekeeper...she ordered me to clean up after her," Despite no tears threatening to fall from her eyes, a mournful sound escaped Vivian’s lips, and she quickly swallowed it down.

" She splashed water from her hair at me on purpose and I just froze. I could not even tell her who I was. I just said that I was nobody, that I am nothing,"

"Oh Viv," Without another word, Amy settled more fully on the bed, and Vivian did not resist when the other woman pulled her closer. Holding Vivian so tight, it almost felt like Amy was the only thing holding her together.

***

Normally, when Bryce cheated on her,

Vivian would hang out with Amy, the two of them drinking, and eating all manner of junk.

But with the Ryan situation, she found herself having absolutely no appetite, and no will to move around more than necessary.

But Amy worked her magic, and managed to get Vivian out of bed and into the shower. By the time she came back out, her sheets had been changed, and her friend even had the windows open.

Coming out of the bedroom, Vivian found Amy in the kitchen, the other woman pouring oatmeal into a bowl.

"Come on Viv, have some for me, please," The oatmeal tasted like cardboard. But Vivian dutifully swallowed it down. Just because her life was a mess, it did not give her any right to worry poor Amy.

Halfway through the bowl, she stopped eating, and looked up into Amy’s worried eyes. Then she shared a truth with her friend.

"I think he did it on purpose, giving me his key code. Making me think things might actually be getting serious between the two of us,"

"Vivian, maybe he didn’t,"

Vivian shook her head, "Think about it. Right after he gives me his key code, I find out that he has a woman who’s going to be his fiancée soon. Doesn’t that smell like a setup? He probably felt that I was getting too comfortable, and he wanted to remind me of my place in life,"

Where Vivian found that she was so hurt she could not cry, Amy had tears to spare. The other woman had been wiping at her face ever since Vivian had told her the full story, and now she was crying again.

Leaving her bowl of half-eaten oatmeal as it was, Vivian got to her feet and walked over to her friend’s side. Leaning in, she gave Amy a sideways hug and began rocking her gently.

"It’s alright Amy, there’s no need to cry for me, I’ll be okay, I always am,"

Instead of the reassurance helping to dry Amy’s tears, it made things even worse.

"How could he do this to you? I liked him, you liked him, and the entire time he was just playing with you. Why are you being so chill about this. You should be bashing him!" Amy wailed.

Vivian did not have an answer to that, so she continued to do the only thing that she could, which was to comfort her friend. It was strange, she was the one with a broken heart, she should have been the one crying.

But Vivian felt like Ryan Terrell had reached into her chest and scooped out her heart, leaving behind a void that had nothing in it.

No hurt, no pain, no joy, no emotion whatsoever.

She had thought that Bryce was cruel, but Ryan Terrell was teaching her that there were levels to cruelty and that he could drag her to the lowest of lows with minimum effort. Doing her best to console her crying friend, Vivian found herself thinking of the men that she let into her life.

What had she ever done to them to have them hate her so much? With Bryce she could say that he had always had a wandering eye. But when it came to Ryan she had no idea, maybe there was something about her that scared men off and made them seek comfort in other women.

Whatever it was, if she could Vivian would have had it surgically removed. She was tired of hurting, and this time she felt like something deep within her had been dealt a blow that she would not be able to recover from.