Crying Over You
It wasn't fair, Syd thought miserably, curled up on her bed, hugging Peanuts tightly. Everything had been going so well up until now. Gruumm was gone, finally, and she'd been looking forward to doing some of the things she hadn't had the chance to do before. But the one thing she wanted, truly wanted, was something she would clearly never have, a cruel twist of fate for a girl used to getting what she wanted.
Jack was gone. Out of the blue, not even the slightest indication, he was just gone. And that wasn't the worst of it, no. Adding insult to injury was his girlfriend: Ally Samuels. Syd didn't usually consider herself a vindictive person and she didn't know Ally at all, so really she shouldn't be feeling the utterly insane urge to introduce her fist of iron to Ally's face. She really shouldn't. But she did.
What did the other woman have that she didn't? That was something she couldn't understand. From what Z had said, her roommate seemingly oblivious to Syd's internal turmoil, Ally had the same kind of background she did, they were both blonde, which apparently Jack had a thing for and-- she buried her face in her pillow. She knew what Ally had that she didn't, a similar background to Jack, as far as helping the less fortunate went. Maybe that was it. Maybe Jack thought she was just too shallow.
Oh god, she hoped he didn't think that. He used to, she knew, but she'd thought they'd moved on from there, that Jack knew her better than that now. Obviously not.
Her eyes burning, she squeezed them shut, not wanting to give in to the tears that so desperately wanted to fall. She was stronger than that. She wasn't going to let the fact that Jack was seeing someone, someone who wasn't her, push her to tears. It didn't help. Every time she closed her eyes she could see Jack kissing Ally, over and over again and all she could do was force a smile and pretend to be happy.
Despite her best efforts, the tears spilled over anyway.