Your phone--texts from a jealous girlfriend

Your phone vibrated in your pocket, and you heard a very particular ringtone--it was Andrea, your girlfriend. She never really cared for the small-town vibe up in the mountains and had opted to stay in Seatown for a while, about a 90-minute drive. As such, you typically only saw her on the weekends at this point, when you would make the drive to Seatown. Otherwise, Andrea just constantly texted you. So much texting...

You picked up your phone as Victoria knelt down to give Sabel scritches. Opening her message, you were greeted with an unexpected picture: you and Tori sitting at the cafe, followed by a single "?" message. Those question mark messages typically meant to expect the worst.

"Uh oh. She knows you're here." You turn to Tori and show her the image while she cradled Sabel in her arms.

Tori frowned, furrowing her brow. She'd met Andrea once, and it didn't go well. The two girls were polar opposites--Victoria loved to go with the flow and seek out adventure, while Andrea preferred to schedule her day down to the minute. You had a lot of love for Andrea when everything went according to plan, but you dreaded the backlash whenever there was a wrench in the works--and Tori was more like a truckload of wrenches upon any plan. "How did she even get a picture like that?"

"She's got spies everywhere, I guess... I'm not even joking. Andrea's job has her well-connected with a lot of the businesses in town, this might have even been from the owner of the cafe." You gulped, and then headed toward your bedroom. "I'm gonna try to defuse this before it gets worse. If I don't make it out of this alive, save yourself..." you joked. ...Well, half-joked.

Sweating, you tapped the call button on your phone, and waited an agonizingly long time for Andrea's phone to ring. This was part of her scare tactics, you knew, but it was very successful. When she picked up, you could feel the fire pouring from her mouth with every word. "You told me that Victoria was going to stay with someone else!" Not even a hello.

"They had to decline at the last minute. Drea, it's just the guest room for a little while, and then she'll be--"

"NO!" You almost dropped your phone when Andrea screeched her disapproval at you. "You made a promise! I don't want her staying in the same house as you, I know you're friends but I told you no and you went behind my back anyway!"

You tried to fight back, to match her energy in the wrestling ring of words, but you didn't have the endurance beyond the first hour. At one point you had to plug in your phone because even it struggled to keep up with Andrea's words, it seemed. When she wasn't yelling, she was sobbing--before she'd return to yelling again. You'd never had a fight with her quite like this, but such was Andrea's jealousy with the connection you shared with Tori at the best-friend level. Andrea said she wanted that same sort of best friends quality with you, but while you and her had plenty of romantic chemistry, she was the kind of woman with whom you'd go to dinner with other couples, but you wouldn't end up with her at a barcade at midnight losing all your quarters to retro games. Tori was absolutely that person, though she typically lacked the ability to slow things down the same way Andrea could. If they could just learn from each other, there's a perfect woman in that mix... although, if said perfect woman still kept this fury over what you thought was a trivial thing, that would be terrifying.

Eventually, Andrea gave you a clear ultimatum: Tori had to go, and she had to go immediately, otherwise Andrea was going to put you in a world of hurt. Your mother adored Drea, if she got to your family or friends or coworkers and she was able to spin the story while you weren't in the city to do damage control, you didn't know what sort of mess you would end up in. Honestly, you'd never been so frightened of what Drea might do to you in that moment.

When the call ended, you shivered from shock, dropping your phone. It felt like it took hours to recover even an ounce of the ability to move, but in reality you'd just been staring at the wall for a few minutes. You buried your face in your hands, feeling nauseous. You couldn't be so cold to kick your best friend Tori out of the house, but could you deal with the consequences if you defied Andrea's wishes? As you sank to the ground and curled up, you realized in that moment the grip she had on you.

Tori had wisely stayed elsewhere in the house as you endured the verbal lashing, but Sabel had been far bolder. Once things quieted down, your cat pushed open a crack on the door, trotting over to you to rub against you. Sabel had a good sense for comforting you when you weren't feeling well or when you'd been gloomy, but you didn't even acknowledge your affectionate cat's presence.

Sabel didn't quite understand the severity of things, but the compassionate feline seemed determined to make you feel better. She needed some better way to comfort you...

As she turned around and headed out of your bedroom, Sabel paused, looking up at Victoria, stumbling toward the cat with a glowing purple hand outstretched!