Yeah, I Hate You Too, Sweetheart.

Chapter 16 - Justin

 "Okay, I think I get your point now."

 Avery sighed over the line, sounding stressed. I didn't blame her. Pretty much all of this was my fault. 

  "You need to go and talk to her, Justin," she said suddenly.

I blanched at the thought. Laila certainly did not want to talk to me right now. I definitely knew that for sure.

 "I can't, Avery," I said, my voice sounding weak. "I can't talk to her."

"Justin," Avery sighed again. "You've got to go man up and talk to her! Don't think that you can just walk away and not apologize! You made her cry! I wasn't even there, but I know you really hurt her."

  She didn't need to tell me that. I already knew well enough what I'd done to Laila.

"I know," I muttered, my voice dropping. "I know."

  And I couldn't even begin to think about how I was going to apologize for this one, to make up for it. What could I do? 

  "Go and talk to her, Justin," Avery said again, this time more firmly. "I'm sure she's dying to talk to you more than you're dying to talk to her."

 I pursed my lips. "Yeah, right."

 Avery laughed over the line. "You never know until you try. So go and talk to your novia and then call me right away and let me know how it goes."

 "I don't know what a novia is," I said to Avery exasperatedly.

 Seriously, I didn't even take Spanish. How the hell was I supposed to know what she was talking about?

  "It means she's your sweetheart."

     A light rain had begun to fall outside, just proving how unpredictable Portland's weather could be during the summer. I walked down the stairs from my room with stiff legs, more than nervous about what I was about to do. Avery had been right, though. I definitely needed to talk to Laila.

   I heard the sounds of darts being thrown long before I made my way down to the basement what felt like an hour of searching for her later. 

  Laila was throwing darts at the dartboard across the basement with furious accuracy, and I was glad that I was behind her and not in front of her line of vision. 

  "Laila?"

 My voice was cracked and raspy. I didn't even recognize it. Just goes to show you how much of an ass I was, I guessed. 

  Laila barely glanced over her shoulder at me with a fleeting look before she turned and went to yank the darts out from the dartboard. 

  "Hi," she said flatly a minute later.

 That hardly gave me any more encouragement to keep talking, but it had to be done, didn't it? I stepped off the bottom step and took a few hesitant steps towards her, keeping my distance. 

  Laila didn't say anything else after that. She just kept throwing the darts at the board, hitting closer to the bull's eye each time she did.

  "Was there something you wanted?" she finally said, her voice sounding hollow and dull.

I took a deep breath, trying to form what I wanted to say, but I didn't know how. What had Avery said earlier? Just be myself? It wasn't like that had gotten me anywhere in the past before, had it?

  "I wanted to apologize," I forced myself to say, my voice way too quiet for my liking.

 "Apologize for what?" Laila said, tossing a dart more forcefully than she should have.