The Annoying Sleepwalker Chapter 23
“Brigid Pierce, do you really feel no guilt at all?”
I looked up at her.
“What, exactly, am I supposed to feel guilty for?”
She clenched her teeth.
“If you hadn’t put their things on your desk,”
“I wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
I found that absurd.
Even now, she still believed I was the one who had ruined her.
I switched off the iron and turned to face her.
“Blair, I didn’t make you get out of bed.”
“I didn’t make you smash my laptop.”
“I didn’t make you go on Yik Yak and spread lies.”
“And I didn’t make you destroy other people’s property out of jealousy.”
“The only reason you ended up like this is because, for the first time, you had to pay the price.”
Her eyes reddened even more.
But the tears that used to work so well for her didn’t fall this time.
A staff member from housing called from the doorway.
“Let’s go. We don’t have all day.”
Blair dragged her suitcase out.
The wheels rattled over the hallway floor, the sound slowly fading into the distance.
The moment the door shut, Tessa said quietly,
“Brigid, I’m sorry.”
I didn’t answer.
She looked uncomfortable.
“I used to think you were too intense about things.”
“It wasn’t until my iPad got smashed that I realized…”
“When something like that really happens to you, no one can be that generous.”
Mallory took off her headphones, her tone awkward.
“I said some pretty nasty things before. Don’t hold it against me.”
Later, Genevieve asked me out for coffee.
She said,
“As an RA, I was always thinking about de-escalation, about not affecting the whole floor.”
“But I forgot that so-called stability…”
“can’t be built on one person shouldering all the losses.”
I looked at her and finally said,
“I accept your apology.”
“But I’m not going to pretend none of this happened.”