Face it all on your own

Rebecca had left the reunion with Anthony's friends prematurely because of one of Veronica's remarks. This after several other unwelcoming moments between them, with Anthony being blissfully unaware. Fortunately this was a message so clear that even Anthony couldn't miss it. He got up and shook Veronica's arm away as he glared at her, not saying a single word, before he called out to Rebecca and tried to follow after her. But Veronica wasn't one to give up and grabbed Anthony's arm once more as she said, "Wait! Why are you going after her. Why don't you stay here, with me? We both know I am a better match for you than she is?"

This made Anthony's kind front snap completely and while he chose the road of silence before, he could no longer now. With as much anger as they had ever heard in his voice, he said, "Don't get cocky just because I am nice." With those words he pulled his arm away from Veronica's hands and rushed after Rebecca. Although barely any pulling was needed this time around, as his words and glare had been enough to make her lose all strength. His words appeared to have silenced Veronica completely and achieved their goal of getting her off his back. With a look of shock on her face, she stared as Anthony left after Rebecca.

As for the men, their jaws dropped from seeing the change Anthony was apparently capable of, as they had never seen this side of him before. The moment Anthony was no longer in their sights, they began scolding Veronica for her actions. Each voicing their opinion on the situation and on Veronica's actions of the evening. Agreeing with one another, and almost like a relay race, continuing where the other had left off. They were passing on an imaginary baton as the next friend's turn to speak had come, after which each of them was using the others final point as the step stool to make their own point.

"What were you thinking??! How can you be so disrespectful!? That is the woman he plans to marry. She is not just some fling he brought around. And even then your behavior is unacceptable."

"Yeah, don't you realize, you are nothing more than a friend to Anthony, never have been, never will be. Maybe after today, you won't even be that."

"Exactly, If he had ever wanted to be more than friends with you, don't you think it would have happened over the years?? There have been plenty of opportunities, which neither of you two took. To choose this moment to voice your feelings, was very selfish and mean. You, caused trouble from the very beginning and you ruined this reunion for everyone. Including yourself."

Veronica, who had now started glaring in the direction of the door with balled fist and tears streaming down her face from anger and hurt, wasn't crying because of their lecture on her behavior. In fact, she didn't care about their words at all, even if they were the truth. The reason for her tears were Anthony's cold reaction towards her. She had never seen Anthony like this, and never in a million years did she think he was even capable of speaking like this, much less to her. Especially over some 'stranger'. She didn't see what was so special about her, and the fact that Rebecca's actions caused Anthony to get angry at her, made Veronica's dislike for the future Mrs. Davidson grow even more.

But as sad as she looked to an outsider, Veronica's tears couldn't count for much sympathy from the other guys in the friend group, who just said, "If you are going to cry about it, don't do it in the first place. Geez!"

Outside Anthony had finally caught up with Rebecca and grabbed her wrist from behind to stop her from running away any further. He was lucky his legs were so much longer than hers, because otherwise he would have had an awfully hard time catching up. In that short delay between their departures, Rebecca had managed to walk off much further than Anthony had anticipated. He was quite impressed with the distance she had managed to cover, but he was mostly relieved that he had managed to catch up with her before she got too far. Even if Rebecca was a strong, independent woman, she was still in an unfamiliar place. It was dark. It had become considerably cold. And she was alone and upset.

The moment Anthony grabbed her arm, Rebecca turned around with a glaring look, which immediately softened up when she noticed who it was. This quickly turned into a sad face with an apologetic quivering bottom lip and reddened eyes along with a splash of red on the tip of her nose. She was clearly upset, and appeared on the verge of tears, but the person she was upset with, wasn't Veronica, it was herself. Because the first words that left her mouth were, "I am so sorry Anthony. I am sorry for ruining this first meeting with your friends. I know how important it was to you for me to meet your friends and to have them like me. I just didn't know how to handle that girl Veronica. I don't know why, but I have been feeling she doesn't like me from the very beginning. Everything she says and does make is so clear she doesn't want me there. Now that she had actually taken my seat, I just had to leave."

Rebecca was about to apologize again when Anthony placed a finger on her lips to silence her. He looked at her with his usual kind eyes, which exuded a type of warmth that Rebecca liked. A type of warmth she needed and wanted in her life. With that, and his equally warm words, Anthony calmed Rebecca down. He said, "There is no need for you to apologize. I should be the one apologizing for not noticing what was going on until now. When I heard that last remark, the previous things she said during this evening played back in front of me and I noticed how mean she has been to you. I can't believe you put up with all of that and that I was able to be so blind to it all, forcing you to face it all on your own."