When Sofia dropped me off at my car, I quickly got out and followed behind them. Keeping up with Sofia was nearly impossible. Her car is just significantly faster than my own. Plus, I'm sure she was trying to stay as far away from me as possible.

Just apologize, Natalia.

"Maybe she'll forgive me." I mutter to myself as we pull into the parking garage.

When I get out of the car and walk into the building, I hear Sofia's voice talking to Grayson up ahead. I'm far from them, but I'll stay back until we get closer to the apartment. I want to speak to Sofia, but I don't even know where to start. She has ever single right to be pissed at me. I don't blame her, whatsoever.

"Nat?" Grayson calls out, turning to see me a few feet away from him.

"I'm finally catching up." I call from down the hallway.

"I'll see you later. Glad you're home." Sofia tells him before continuing her walk to Shane's apartment. Well, technically her apartment, too.

"Ready to go inside?" Grayson asks with a smile.

"Yeah." I nod in reply.

I need to talk to Sofia. Thats the only thing I can think about right now.

As we enter the apartment, I smell the familiar laundry detergent smell. His place always smells so good. I've missed it here.

"Gray?" I ask.

"Hmm?" He asks, setting his bag down onto the ground.

"I think I want to go and see Sofia." I admit.

"Right now?" He asks.

"Yeah." I reply.

"Do you really think thats the best idea?" He asks in an unsure tone.

"Well I don't want her thinking that I came home and didn't even try talking to her." I reply.

"Yeah, but-"

"I'm doing it." I reply, walking towards the door.

"I think Shane's home." He replies.

"Well...I guess I need to apologize to him, too." I mutter.

"Do you want me to go with you?" He offers.

"No, i'll manage. I dug myself into this hole. Now, I have to climb out of it." I remind him.

"I just don't want you to be in an awkward situation." He says cautiously.

"It's just Shane and Sofia." I say.

"Yeah, but they can be a lot sometimes. Especially Shane." He adds.

"Yeah, but maybe if I apologize then it will all go back to normal." I shrug. "I just feel like an idiot." I sigh.

"Are you positive that you want to go right now? Maybe we should just sleep on it right now. You can do it tomorrow." He tries saying once again.

"Stop trying to talk me out of it. I may not be as brave tomorrow." I say. "I'm going over. I'll be back." I say, walking out of the apartment before he can say anything else.

Thankfully, he doesn't try to stop me.

Each step to their apartment is more and more terrifying. Unfortunately, their apartment is only a few feet away from our own. As I approach the door, I knock gently and take a step back.

I hear the door unlock and Sofia pokes her head out. She gives me a look of confusion as she stares a little past me to see if Grayson was with me, I'm assuming.

"It's just me." I say in a nervous voice.

"What's up?" She asks, sounding both uninterested and annoyed.

"I just wanted to talk to you." I admit.

"Okay. About?" She asks, not opening the door any further.

"About everything that happened. And, everything that I said. It was uncalled for." I reply.

"Yeah, it was." She says, opening the door enough to lean against the door frame. She doesn't invite me inside, and I don't plan on pushing her into it, either.

"I know." I nod. "I just wanted to say that I was sorry." I sigh in defeat.

"Thank you for apologizing." She says, giving me a tight smile.

"So...are we good?" I ask hopefully.

"Listen, Nat. I get it, okay? I don't have a lot of friends. I feel like I've gone through more friends in this last year than ever before. But you know what, I'm not the problem here. I didn't do anything wrong in any of these fallouts. It's always the other person. And you know what? I'm tired of always being the friend that gets pushed to the side and left behind whenever something goes wrong in the other person's life. You always talk about your issues, but never ask about mine. That's not that a friend does. A real friend would at least care to ask. A real friend wouldn't only like me while she's dating my brother, either. Things got rocky with you and Grayson and you took it out on all of us for no reason. You didn't even give me a chance to explain." She says.

"You're right. I've been a shitty friend. You deserve better. I'm sorry." I say. "But I'm going to try harder, okay? I swear. You're more than just my boyfriend's sister. You're a friend to me, Sofia. A real friend. Just give me a chance to fix things." I say. This feels terrible. This hurts just as badly as the breakup with Grayson. In a weird way, this might hurt more.

"Who is it?" Shane asks, approaching the door. I feel my heart race and his steps get closer. Sofia closes the door slightly, keeping me out of his sight.

"It's Natalia. She just dropped by to talk." She tells him. "Anyways, thanks for coming by. I really appreciate it. I'll see you around." She says before closing the door.

Well. That didn't go the way I planned. As I'm walking down the hallway, I hear the apartment door open and close once more. When I turn around, I see Shane walking towards me.

"Hi." I say with confusion.

"Look, I don't know what the hell you're planning, but you need to keep Sofia out of it. You saying that you're sorry and you still want to be her friend isn't okay." He says, leaning against the hallway.

"Excuse me? I'm not planning anything. I was simply apologizing to her." I say.

"You're only wanting her around now because you found out that we were right all along. Your perfect older brother wasn't so perfect after all, huh?" He asks.

"This has nothing to do with Nathanial. This only has to do with me and my actions towards you all. I'm sorry, okay?" I say, feeling smaller and smaller with each sentence he throws.

"Yeah, Grayson might forgive you. Hell, Sofia might even say she forgives you. But I do not fucking forgive you. You aren't the one who had to watch as your best friend and love of your life cried because of some girl that didn't fucking want them. Sofia was fucking crushed when you said all of that shit to her. She loved you. She is a good friend and you're the exact opposite of that." He says.

"Yeah, well you don't have to forgive me. None of you have to forgive me. That doesn't mean that I'm not sorry." I say.

"Grayson might have chased after you, but don't expect for Sofia to chase you. If Grayson had any fucking grip on his own emotions in that moment, he would have taken my advice and let you run off to Mexico. You don't belong with him, Natalia. You don't belong anywhere near the Parker family. You may be here right now, but I promise you that you won't stay. You'll just run off on your own again." He spits out.

"What is your goal here, Shane? Did you have something else to say or were you just coming out here to talk shit?" I ask, crossing my arms across my chest. "You're not my boss anymore. I don't have to listen to you anymore."

"And thank God for that. All you did was start trouble while at work. Things will be much easier now." He replies.

"Are you done?" I ask once more.

"Stay away from Sofia. Don't come back to my fucking apartment." He snaps before walking back to his apartment.

"You know, you tried really hard to make me feel bad when you're just as bad as me." I say to his back.

He stops in his tracks to turn and look at me.

"Excuse me?" He asks.

"You have said much worse to Sofia. Yet, you're still around. What? An apology is only acceptable when it's coming from you? Let's not forget the reason that she has no friends. It's all thanks to you." I remind him, recalling the story that Sofia had told me while she was in Wisconsin.

"You're a fucking bitch, Natalia." He replies in a low voice.

"Takes one to fucking know one, Shane." I spit in reply. "Have a great night." I smile as I walk back to the apartment.

Grayson is waiting for me in the bedroom when I walk back in.

"How did it go?" He asks with a hopeful look in his eyes.

I feel my lip quiver before I can even reply. Tears sting my eyes and he gives me a sad expression.

"Come here." He says, holding his arms out for me.

I crawl into bed with him and let him hold me. I know that ultimately, this is all my fault. I messed up.

Now I just have to figure out a way to get out of it.

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