Reba Mckinny lay on her stomach in her room with her feet bent at the knees kicking one at a time. As each foot hit her soft bedding, a soft thud could be heard.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
It was a reassuring and comforting sound to her and she often didn't realise that she was doing it. Ever since she could remember, this was how she read and studied. It often seemed that she couldn't take anything in unless the thud of her feet was in the background. It was something that drove her room mate, Lori Ann to destruction. She needed pure silence to concentrate; not that often did concentrate. Lori Ann was as opposite to Reba as black was to white. But they just worked. Reba still remembered the day that she moved into the dorm room they had shared at the time. She had just dumped her suitcase of clothes on the bed when the door was kicked open and a cloud of blonde and perfume came through it. Lori Ann had looked Reba up and down making no attempt to try and mask what she was doing, and then frowned. Her eyes settled on the flame red hair and the sparkling blue eyes and she shrugged a little, clearing the frown from her face.
'You'll do I suppose.' Reba was a little taken aback by the bluntness of the woman and the fact that she had an even thicker accent than herself. A year on and they were still fast friends, moving out the dorm rooms and renting a really small house with only two bedrooms. They shared the one though and used the other tiny box room as storage and a place to crash when a boyfriend was round and well… privacy was needed.
'Reba, stop with feet already' Lori Ann dragged her from the memory as she lay on her back on the bed next to her. 'The one time that I decide to study, you're there thudding. Shut up' Lori Ann threw a pillow at her friends feet and smiled as it was kicked up in the air and hit Reba in the head.
'Alright, alright. I'm being quite. I hope you know that you're stopping me from getting any work done though'
'Whatever. Like you're even behind' Lori Ann shot back with a roll of her eyes. The fact that she was always so ahead of the class and still felt the need to study was one of the things that she loved about the red head. It was something that, in a way, she wished she was able to do but the temptation of parties and her boyfriend was something that she just couldn't say no to so she was nearly always behind.
'I'm gonna get something to eat' Reba replied as she shut her book and shoved her friends shoulder playfully. 'Want anything?'
'Nah, Brock's taking me out later so I need to have an appetite. Not that we wont be able to work one up' she added with a little wink. Now it was Rebas turn to roll her eyes and cover her ears while making la-la-la noises as she walked away throwing a 'too much information' over her shoulder.
If she was honest, she thought that Lori Ann could do a lot better than Brock Hart. He was stubborn beyond belief. When he got an idea in his head, there would be absolutely no changing his mind and he had decided that Reba was just an annoyance who he could poke fun at. She didn't like many of Lori Anns past boyfriends, but at least they were reasonably respectful and not possessive like Brock was. Her mind stayed on Brock as she took some bread and ham out the cupboards and threw together a sandwich and took a bite. As she chewed and flicked through a magazine that had been left out on the side, the doorbell rang and she bounced over to see who was calling round. She hoped that it was Terry. They hadn't seen each other for what seemed like forever. He had been so busy and it seemed that whenever she tried to make plans with him, he had already arranged something else. She didn't really mind, as long as they would be able to spend quality time together soon. She understood that Terry had other things to do. She wasn't going to possessive of him when she had just mentally complained Brock being possessive of Lori Ann.
Opening the door, her face lit up as she saw her boyfriend in front of her, looking as perfect as ever. As she went to hug him, Terry took her arms and pushed them away gently.
'Reba, we need to talk' he said softly. Reba's face instantly dropped. Those words were never good. Ever.
'What about?' she asked nervously, her country accent seemingly stronger. She found it always did that when she was nervous or scared as she was now. Strange.
'Us' Was the simple reply that she received, and she knew that this was the end. Her head dropped and she stared at their feet. Their shoes pointed towards each other, but it seemed not that there was a million miles between them.
'I understand Terry. Just tell me… why?' she asked. She had to know why after a year of supposed happiness, why he was choosing to end their relationship.
'There's someone else Reba' the words seemed like bullets to her. Someone else. He had been seeing someone else. That was why he hadn't seen her. Those plans that had been made were with someone else. Realisation washed over her in a wave of hard-hitting surprise. She would have invited him in so that they could speak about here their relationship had taken such a bad turn, but she didn't see any reason to now. He had moved on from her and she was now going to be left to do the same. So instead, she nodded her head slowly and looked into his eyes.
'Well I guess this is goodbye then Terry' she said with a small upturn of the corners of her lips. It was all the smile that she could muster.
'I'm sorry Reba' he said gently and pulled her into a final sweet hug but she wasn't in the mood for anything sweet, so she gently pushed him away and towards the door a little.
'I think you'd better go'. Terry nodded in reply. He knew that it would be hard to tell her that he had been seeing someone else, but he had expected a lot more then this. He knew how quick tempered she was and that the red hair wasn't just a hair colour. It represented the fiery, flaming personality of his now ex girlfriend.
The door closed with a finalising thud and she no longer found the noise a comfort as she had minutes before. Now it seemed like an echoless sound in a lonely tunnel.
It was then that she allowed the tears that she had fought to hold back, fall.