Staring across at her from across the room, Marguerite’s clenched her jaw and folded her arms across her chest defensively. She wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do, or what even she had seen her best friend doing with an unknown man outside of her wedding ring. Either way, it confused Marguerite, even more so that Callia didn’t seen to trust her; or that someone Marguerite believed she was close to was as distant to her as everybody else amongst their circle seemed to be. It didn’t help that Marguerite’s already minuscule group of close acquaintances seemed to be shrinking by the hour, and there was nothing she could do about it…no magic command to make it stop or for Callia to explain her actions. But then again, she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to hear frantic excuses and pleads not to tell anyone. The displacement of trust was already enough to slap Marguerite squarely across the face.
Rolling her eyes as Callia’s chin began to tremble, she shook her head. It was typical Callia, always crying to get herself out of even the most fickle of pickles. They had been friends for so long, and the two knew one another like the back of their hands…which meant Marguerite knew her little tricks, her secrets, what made her tic and what hurt her the most. But then again, Callia knew all those things about Marguerite too, and she had to have known this would hurt her, would she not? Since when had the two kept secrets from each other? Lied to each other? Abandoned one another in a room full of people that they knew resented them both? That wasn’t their friendship, that wasn’t how it had ever been…and the fact that it had become that so evidently now was even worse than the reality that Callia was keeping things from her.
“Need I quote you? ‘Why, Mar, I’m so in love…he’s the one for me.’ I remembered when you cried when he left for war the first time. Was that all an act? If it was, I must say that I cannot possibly bring myself to understand why on Earth you’d have lied to me or simply not told me about your discontent. I have always been there for you Callia. You are more to me a sister than my own, and you blame it on the fact that nobody ever asks about you— but you know that is not true Callia…it has never been true,” Marguerite spoke harshly and quickly, not tripping over her own words once. They were too fueled by anger to let slip out carelessly, and each word was precise and cutting— just how she wanted them to be.
“You know as well as I do that you have always had men doting on you and bowing at your feet. You are Callia Archer, of course you have, and to claim otherwise is as insulting to me as your own mistrust in me. Do you take me for a fool, truly? Despite how long I have known you?” she said, her voice rising with every word, not even bothering to keep it down. It rose up like bile in her throat, and suddenly she was saying all the things that Callia deserved to hear. “I judge you because I know you….because I have every right to. I have been through everything with you. I stood alongside you as you said your vows to Kenneth and cried more at your own happiness on your wedding day,” she said coldly, distancing herself from the situation, her brain on automatic as it formed words with her mouth.
“You knew what marriage entailed, just as you knew that remaining unmarried allowed you to gallivant around with whomever you wanted with only the knowledge of those in our class. You knew that getting married would end the games, and it was you who made that sacrifice. So how is it that you are still cheating, still playing your own games and I have been condemned by society for remaining unmarried. I am living the life I now realize you wished you still could, and we understood what both marriage and remaining alone meant…and I chose this for myself…and you have taken everything that you think you deserve, but don’t. Because you don’t deserve it Callia. I am rather surprised no one has told you up until now, but you can’t have everything!” she said, her face distraught and coiling up with anger as she looked at the person she used to call a friend.
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