Tara’s POVMy anger builds as I continue talking to Sarah, feeling frustrated and hurt by her hostile reaction to my attempts to help her.“I don’t know what your problem is,” I tell her, my voice sharp with irritation, “but I was only trying to help because it seemed like a decent thing to do. You were having a panic attack, you were crying, you looked like you needed someone to care about you. So excuse me for thinking that maybe I should be a decent human being.”Sarah’s face crumples slightly at my words, but I’m too angry to feel sympathetic right now.“But if you want to push away everyone who tries to be nice to you, that’s your choice,” I continue. “Just don’t expect me to keep putting myself out there for someone who’s going to attack me for caring.”The anger in my voice seems to cut through Sarah’s defensive anger, and she suddenly goes quiet. We stood there in tense silence for several moments, both of us breathing heavily from our outburst.I can see that Sarah is struggl
Tara’s POVI glance at Sarah awkwardly, knowing that part of her anger and distress clearly stems from whatever happened between her and Tony. The tension in her body is obvious, and I can see her jaw clenching as Tony approaches us.When Tony reaches us, he acts like Sarah isn’t even there. He doesn’t acknowledge her presence at all, doesn’t say hello, and doesn’t even look in her direction. It’s like she’s completely invisible to him, which seems cruel and deliberately hurtful.“Tara, hey,” he says, slightly out of breath from jogging to catch up with us. “I’m really sorry about what happened back there with my father.”“It’s okay,” I tell him, though I’m still confused about the whole situation. “Is everything alright now?”“Yeah, he just gets really stressed about work stuff sometimes,” Tony explains, though his explanation feels vague and unsatisfying. “He didn’t mean to take it out on you.”I can see Sarah out of the corner of my eye, and she’s clenching her fists so tightly tha
Tara’s POVSarah freezes in place, for a moment, she just stands there staring at the house with this look of complete devastation on her face, like I just told her that her world was ending. Then suddenly, without any warning, she launches into what looks like a full panic attack.Her breathing becomes rapid and shallow, coming in short gasps that sound painful and desperate. Her hands start shaking uncontrollably, and she begins struggling for air like she can’t get enough oxygen into her lungs. Her face turns pale and sweaty, and she looks like she might collapse right there on the sidewalk.I’m terrified because I’ve never seen someone have a panic attack this severe before. Sarah looks like she’s genuinely struggling to breathe, and I don’t know what to do to help her. My heart starts racing as I watch her fight for air.“Sarah, try to breathe slowly,” I tell her, though I’m not sure if she can even hear me through her panic. “In through your nose, out through your mouth.”She do
Tara’s POVAfter leaving Tony’s house, I don’t want to go straight back to the twins’ place. I’m feeling too confused and unsettled by everything I just witnessed, and I need some time to process what happened before I have to face anyone else.I also don’t want to talk to Jane and Zoey until they decide to come clean with whatever they’re hiding from me. Their obvious lies this morning have left me feeling hurt and frustrated, and I’m not ready to pretend that everything is normal between us when it clearly isn’t.I find myself walking aimlessly around the neighborhood, trying to make sense of everything that’s been happening lately. Sarah’s warning about Tony, finding him unconscious in his trashed house, his explanation about being drugged, his father’s violent reaction, the mysterious conversation about a tape, it’s all too much to process at once.I decided to call my parents, hoping that hearing their familiar voices will help me feel more grounded and normal. I sit down on a be
Tara’s POVI fight the urge to scream when I see Tony lying there on the floor. My first instinct is to panic and assume the worst, that someone hurt him, that he’s seriously injured or even dead. But as I get closer and look at him more carefully, I start to smell the overwhelming smell of alcohol. The entire house reeks of whiskey and beer, so strong that it makes my eyes water. There are empty bottles scattered everywhere.When I kneel down next to Tony and check if he’s breathing, I can smell the alcohol on his breath and clothes. His chest is rising and falling steadily, and his pulse feels normal when I check his wrist. He’s not hurt or dying, he’s just unconscious from drinking way too much.I ease myself and take a moment to process what I’m seeing. Tony, who has always seemed so responsible and put-together, apparently got completely wasted and trashed his own house. This is so different from the person I thought I knew that it’s hard to reconcile.But I can’t just leave him
Tara’s POVI woke up the next morning feeling frustrated and annoyed. The first thing I do is check my phone, and I see that Jane and Zoey have finally replied to all my messages and missed calls from yesterday. But their responses are so casual and brief that it makes me even more upset.Jane’s text just says, “Hey girl, sorry I missed your calls yesterday. Was busy with stuff.” Zoey’s message is equally dismissive: “Hi, babe, my phone was on silent. Everything’s good here.”These are not the kinds of responses I expect from my friends, especially after I’ve been trying to reach them for an entire day. Usually, when one of us is unreachable for any amount of time, we explain what happened and apologize for worrying each other. But these texts feel cold and distant, like they’re trying to brush me off.I’m fuming because their casual responses don’t match the urgency I felt when I couldn’t reach them. I was genuinely worried that something had happened to them, and now they’re acting