The front door opens and slams shut a few minutes later. Tinley has her glass of juice halfway to her mouth when Dakota comes storming into the room. With a thud, a canvas tote bag she had in her hand drops to the floor. In her reclined position on the couch, she can’t quite see the contents. Leaning up, she places the glass on the end table next to her, and says, “You’re home—”

Dakota doesn’t even let her finish her sentence before she points her finger at her. The fury all over her face is alarming, and the anger of the words coming out of her mouth doesn’t sound like Dakota at all. “I can’t believe you. I held my tongue when I thought you made a horrible mistake with this relationship because it wasn’t my place to say anything. You’re my best friend and I’ve stood by you through everything, but this? This is a low, even for you.”

She feels like she just got whiplash from the hatred spewing out of her best friend. She has no idea what she’s talking about, and she tells her as much. “Dakota, what are you talking about? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Haven’t done anything wrong?” A harsh cynical laugh falls from her mouth and she continues, “Are you kidding me right now? Maybe you should ask your boyfriend about what he did today.”

“I’m confused—what does Marek have to do with anything?”

“Everything. It’s all his fault.”

Tinley is so incredibly lost on whatever is happening right now. Dakota isn’t explaining anything and is just yelling about how angry she is. Trying to calm her best friend down, she keeps her voice low and even when she says, “You’re not making any sense right now. Just tell me what happened. I’m sure it’s all just a misunderstanding.”

Unfortunately, all that does is have the opposite effect on Dakota. She shakes her head and her voice gets louder as she yells back, “Of course you’re going to take his side. We’ve been best friends for years, but the moment a dick comes along and pokes you, all bets are off.”

“Are you serious right now? It’s not even remotely like that.”

“Oh yeah, what’s it like then? Because I’m pretty sure if I made you choose sides, you would choose his in an instant.”

Dakota seems to be talking in circles right now and all it’s doing is giving Tinley a headache. How did this conversation get so twisted? “What are you talking about sides? Why does there have to be sides? You’re my best friend Dakota, you know that. And Marek is the father of my baby. You’re both equally important to me in different ways.”

Her eyes narrow as she puts both hands on her hips. Her voice comes out like cold steel and Tinley leans back against the couch as if her voice were strong enough to slap her. “He got me fired Tinley. I lost my job today, and it’s all your stupid boyfriend’s fault. That’s my livelihood he messed with. Our livelihood. How are we going to pay our bills now?”

Fired? Marek would never do that. And if he knew that Dakota was going to get fired, wouldn’t he have told her? There has to be some sort of misunderstanding here. “What do you mean you were fired? And what does Marek have to do with it? I don’t understand.”

Her voice comes out small and defeated as she says, “Yeah, that’s the problem—you don’t understand.”

Before Tinley has the chance to say anything else, Dakota walks down the hallway toward her bedroom and slams the door. No part of that conversation made any sense, but maybe Marek has a better idea of what’s going on. She picks up her cell phone and sends him a quick text. Dakota seems to think he played a part in her losing her job, and Tinley really hopes she’s just confused or misunderstood about what happened.

She contemplates that for a moment. It’s incredibly sweet that he’d be willing drop everything to come get her. Part of her wants to just tell him yes so she can avoid this drama. Tinley has never been one for confrontation in the first place and more often than not she’ll just keep quiet to prevent it. But Dakota and she have been best friends for far too long for her to just ignore this. As uncomfortable as the interaction may be, she needs to stay and fix things.

She doesn’t get the chance to reply to him because Dakota’s bedroom door opens up and slams again. Tinley waits on the edge of her seat as what can only be described as wheels on the hardwood are rolled toward her. Dakota emerges moments later from the short hallway with luggage trailing behind her. To say Tinley is in complete shock is an understatement. She starts to push herself up from the recliner she’s sitting in, but Dakota stops her.

“Don’t get up. I’m getting a hotel room, and I’ll be finding a new place to live. I’ll come back for my stuff then I’ll be out of your hair.”

Tinley’s eyes start to well up with tears, and she has no idea what to say. “Dakota, you can’t leave. You’re my best friend. We need to talk about this and get everything straightened out. I’m sure it’s all just a giant misunderstanding.”

Dakota stops right in front of Tinley and sneers. “Oh, is that what your perfect boyfriend told you? That I’m crazy and misunderstood how he used the information you obviously gave him and got me fired?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Just calm down for a minute and stop. Tell me what happened. We’ll get this all figured out.”

Shaking her head, she says, “No, we won’t. You found out about my blog, don’t deny it, and you told Marek. That’s the only way all of this could have happened. You’re the only one that has access to my laptop and we both know you didn’t snitch on me. So that douchesaurus rex did it. That’s the only explanation.”

Tinley lets the douche comment slide because she knows how pissed off and hurt Dakota is right now. But now she’s really confused. This is about the blog? How was that a big deal in the first place? “Was that the wrong thing to do?”

“Seeing as it’s the reason I was fired, yeah I’d say so.”

“What do you mean? Why would they fire you over that?”

“Did you even read it before you went and blabbed about it?”

Tinley is suddenly defensive and feels nothing but anger toward her now former roommate. How could she possibly blame something she did on her? “I don’t get it, how is this suddenly my fault? If there was something on there that you shouldn’t have been writing, don’t you think that’s on you? I didn’t write it, Dakota. Stop trying to blame me for the mistake you made.”

Dakota continues dragging her luggage behind her and walks closer to the door. The hatred in her eyes is unmistakable. “I can’t even look at you right now.”

“Fine.”

“Fine,” she yells back as she slams the door behind her.

Tinley sits alone in the room, completely confused about what just happened. The last thing she expected to happen today was her best friend coming home from work incredibly upset and then leaving. She has no idea what this means for their friendship, but she hopes everything will settle down and things can go back to normal again. Honestly, though, she can’t say whether or not she believes that is possible. It’s like Dakota was looking for a reason to force Tinley’s hand and make her choose between Marek and her. She’s always had a serious hatred toward him and Tinley doesn’t understand where it even stems from. It’s not like she’ll ever find out what that reason is now though. As far as she can tell, there’s nothing that could convince Dakota to come back so they can work through this. She just lost her best friend and she doesn’t even know how to deal with that.