Free Sidelined by Kyra Lennon

a second to talk to you face to face. Everyone was there, and I freaked out, and… Bree, don’t you even miss me a little bit?”
    I missed her before. Right after it all happened. Even after she hurt me by using my past to taunt me. I got over it. I got over the way she treated me, and no. I didn’t miss her anymore. Not really.
    “I’m giving you three seconds to get off my property.”
    I started at the sound of Jude’s voice. Ha. Perhaps Taylor had hypnotised me. I hadn’t heard the gate open, but Jude strode towards us with annoyance written over his face.
    “I-”
    “Yeah, I don’t care.” Jude cut her off. “Get out of here, and leave my wife alone.”
    Jude nudged past her and gently moved me out of the way before slamming the door in her face.
    “Jesus, Bree. I thought you were finished with her.”
    A look of impatience was on his face again, like I was a bad kid and he was my parent.
    “I didn’t invite her.”
    “You were talking to her.”
    “Yeah. Because the only way she’ll leave me alone is if I listen to what she has to say.”
    Jude shook his head. “You’re too soft on her. She doesn’t deserve to have you as a friend. You need to stay away from her.”
    He was telling me who I could talk to now? Even though I’d already told him I’d made my decision?
    My frustration from the last few weeks bubbled up inside me again, more furious than before.
    “Aren’t you even going to ask about my day? Remember? I worked today. My first day, and all you can do is tell me I can’t talk to Taylor?”
    “You said you didn’t want to talk to her.”
    “I don’t care about Taylor!” I shouted. “Today I actually did something I care about but that doesn’t matter to you, does it? What were you thinking? I’d go, get it out of my system, and that would be it? That I’d be scared by a day of work?”
    “You didn’t give me a chance to ask.”
    “Because you were too busy telling me what I can’t do!”
    Jude shook his head and started towards the stairs. “I’ll talk to you when you’ve calmed down. I’m going for a shower.”
    “Stop ignoring me!” I yelled at his retreating back. “You just told Taylor to stay away from ‘your wife,’ well you know what? That’s not all I am!”
    Jude turned back to me. “What’s with you? You’ve been jumping down my throat the last few weeks over nothing.”
    “You think the things I want are nothing? That’s great. Really great.”
    “Come on, I never said that. All I asked was that you make sure you’re doing this for the right reasons.”
    “What does that even mean? Isn’t not wanting to be stuck in this house a good enough reason? You get to leave! You go to work, and you-”
    “You’re not stuck here. You’re free to come and go when you want.”
    I wanted him to yell. I wanted him to stop being so reasonable and yell at me but he wouldn’t. He never raised his voice. He’d never needed to because we’d never argued. We used to joke maybe there was something wrong with us because we never fought over anything. We fit together in every way, and if anything bothered either of us, we talked it through.
    Why was me wanting a job the first bump in our usually smooth road? When I asked him why, he kept saying the same thing over and over. I want you to be sure . Like I’d be signing my life away if I committed to a couple of classes.
    He’d sucked the happy right out of my day with his lack of interest and his telling me what to do. I had to get away.
    “I’m going out,” I said. “Right now.”
    I picked up my purse which I’d left by the door, and although Jude called my name, I walked out.
    Taylor was still standing at the end of our driveway.
    She leaned back against one of the stone pillars, her head down. Was this a flash of genuine sadness?
    Honestly, I didn’t care whether she was being real or fake. I just needed a drink.
    “You wanna go to Genie’s?”
    Her head snapped up. “You serious?”
    “Hell