Inevitable

Chapter Three

It couldn't be possible. Could it?

"Do you like it?" A soft voice rung out, so sweet in nature, in tone, that it made their heart skip a beat. They looked up from their ice cream, having been busy eating it in deep thought. Riley sat opposite of them, at the other end of the table.

"Huh?" Lilith inquired, partially distracted by their thoughts but also by the image of Riley participating in strange hand motions. Extremely strange, and that coming from them is unusual. Fortunately, Mabel was purely focused on getting her question answered.

"The ice cream, Lily." She pointed out, her eyes shining radiantly as she practically poked fun at Lilith, who couldn't care less about it. Mabel was the sole person allowed to do that, everyone else would be told off directly. Riley eyed the two curiously.

"Oh. It's good." The hand motions became more frantic. Lilith worried about how Mabel truly did not notice it, sure, she was looking at them and her eyes didn't wander anywhere else but still. They found it weird how much of Mabel's attention they managed to capture.

"Just good, huh?" Mabel teased and Lilith smiled, a bit dazed. What did she want them to say exactly? It was good, how else are they supposed to elaborate further when that was the furthest they could elaborate.

"Just good, yeah." Lilith said, still agreeing with their previous statement much to Mabel's dismay. The girl looked downtrodden as her brows furrowed, Lilith tried not to grimace and turn into a self-deprecating mess. They were unsure of what went wrong, yet clearly something did. They had said the wrong thing.

Silence loomed over all three of them for a while, Lilith snatched a napkin from the napkin dispenser on the table and cleaned up around their mouth. Somehow, Riley managed to break the quiet. How exactly she succeed in making the air feel less tense, Lilith was uncertain, and it truly did not matter. All that mattered was that the attention was off of them, and they could breathe again.

"So are you guys dating anyone?" Wow, way to be a subtle matchmaker, Riley. Even Lilith could notice it from a mile away, but Mabel didn't seem the tiniest bit surprised or otherwise affected. It wasn't shocking, she was known for being so friendly that she would openly answer all questions directed at her. It got her in dangerous situations sometimes, but it was how she was wired. And Lilith liked everything about her, so it her gregarious personality never bothered them.

"No." Lilith replied, choosing to play along with whatever Riley was plotting, mostly out of gratefulness for saving them seconds before. To their surprise, Mabel frowned once more. This time it was less of a confused frown like the previous time, it was angrier if anything. That concerned Lilith immensely, they stared at their dirty, chocolate-stained napkin instead of making eye contact.

"Really? Because I could have sworn you and what's her name were a thing?" Lilith paused. Mabel wasn't supposed to know about that. Riley paused too, clearly confused as to what was happening. Not that Lilith could blame her, they were having a hard time understanding the conversation too.

"I thought..." Riley trailed off when Lilith gave her a pointed glare. It didn't matter what Riley thought, because what Mabel claimed was not the full truth. It wasn't even close to it.

"We hooked up, if that is what you were referring to." Lilith stated calmly, watching Maeve seethe in frustration which befuddled them. Why was she so mad? Lilith didn't think her to be against casual sex.

"You guys didn't date?" She questioned to which Lilith shook their head and chuckled, it was impossible to refrain from laughing. The answer was clearly no. The tryst with the girl, whose name Lilith cannot even recall, was nothing more than a drunken entanglement. It was brief and meaningless. In fact, if Lilith wasn't feeling drunk, lonely, and devastated over Mabel going on a date with some random dude who she met at Walmart, it wouldn't have even happened.