Say Hello For Me

t h i r t y - s i x || love is war

"I thought I told you about movie night last night," Vy says, twisting her hair around the tip of her finger. Like a movie replaying in her mind, she recalls the night before. Confusion overwhelms her innocent brown eyes as she tries to untangle the web thread by thread.

Neither Liam or Nessa are emotionally ready to lend a hand.

Nessa feels like the room is shaking, the walls seconds from caving in. By the way Liam's blue eyes keep drifting back to hers in between seconds, she knows he's not here for Vy. And suddenly, they're no longer standing in the eye of the hurricane. If anything, they're standing directly in its destructive path. The hurricane is coming right for them, and it should be.

The walls start to shake even harder, but now, Nessa's not sure if it's just her brain pounding inside her skull.

"It's raining pretty hard out there," Vy twists her head around, eyes pinpointing the gloomy sky behind the window, "and since you two already know each other, would it be alright if Liam stayed with us until the rain passes over?"

Nessa says the only thing she's allowed to given the circumstances. "Yeah, don't worry about it."

The only conversation circulating in the room comes from the speakers in the television. All three of them are squished together on the couch that's really meant for two with Vy stuck in the middle. An untouched bowl of popcorn rests on the coffee table next to Nessa's art history textbook only deserving of glances.

Vy's spent the last five minutes answering a series of texts from her mom. They haven't seen each other in months. Her eyes are practically glued to the screen. On the other hand, Liam's eyes keep finding their way over to Nessa, but she's staring straight at the screen avoiding every form of communication.

"God, how is my phone is dying already?" Vy groans suddenly, the couch shifting as she stands up. "I'll be right back guy. I think I left my charger in the car."

"I—" Nessa's barely able to get a word out before the front door slams shut, a gust of wind blowing a stack of miscellaneous papers astray. "Have a charger, Vy."

She's painfully aware of the lingering silence in the room and the fact that it's just the two of them now. Her apartment has never felt so small. There's absolutely nowhere to run.

"What are you actually doing here, Liam?" Nessa wonders, her heart fearing the answer. "I need you to tell me that you're here because of Vy. Because if you aren't I don't know if I can ever—"

"You know, nothing makes sense right now," Liam confesses, his eyes falling to the floor as a sigh escapes his lips. "Don't you think it's fate that we ran into each other, Nessa? Doesn't that mean anything to you at all?"

"Fate?" she repeats after him in disbelief, the word seeming worlds away. "Liam, I'm afraid to break it to you, but fate doesn't ex—"

"Is that so?" It sounds like a challenge coming off his tongue. "Don't act like you don't believe in it, Nessa. I'm finding it very hard to grasp that someone who waited for a call every night for over a month doesn't believe in fate."

"I'm not the one who called every night."

"Well, I'm not the one who picked up the phone."

"Liam, it was my job. Is this your way of convincing me that whatever this is," Nessa waves her hand in the air in the space separating the bodies on the couch, "is a good idea? You're going to insult me and think I'm going to run into your arms openheartedly?"

"My arms are open."

"Did you suddenly get amnesia or something?" She stares back at him, their eyes locked in a connection that radiates intensity."Because the last time I checked, you were dating my best friend. You are still dating her! Did you know that she's head over heels for you? Do you know what this would do to our friendship?"

"But—"

"I'm not a cheater, Liam," she says, shaking her head. "And I'm not going to let you be one either. Vy deserves more than that. She deserves more than this."

"I'll end it," Liam manages to say without stuttering, the offer standing open in the air. He's thought it over for the past week, tossing and turning for hours before his mind finally lets him sleep.

"No," Nessa refuses immediately, standing up from the couch. She paces from left to right, digging her fingers into her hair in frustration. "You are not breaking up with Vy. Not for me, you aren't."

"What about us?"

"There isn't an us."

It's not the response Liam's expecting, his mind unprepared for the detour. He's made the mistake of wearing his heart on his shirtsleeve, and now, he's getting burned for it. As Nessa continues to talk, he fidgets in his seat.

"Liam, you don't even know anything about me. We're practically strangers. You're not making any sense!"

His mind is screaming at him to let it all go. The voices in his head are trying to show him reason, but it's his heart that wins the battle in the end.

"We were strangers," he begins, standing up from his seat, "but we're not anymore, Nessa. Ever since that day I found out it was you, you became more than just a voice behind a phone. And that terrified me because you became a real person. The entire game changed.

"At first, I thought I was going crazy. What kind of person develops feelings for someone he's never met? For all I know, you could've a serial killer, someone who pushes kindergarteners off swing sets, a man pretending to be a woman!"

"A man pretending to be a woman? He must not have hit puberty yet then, so that would actually make him a boy." Her wit finds a way to make it into the conversation.

"You know what, Nessa?"

"I'm afraid to say what."

"I wish you pushed kindergarteners off swing sets because, then, that would give me a reason to hate you. I wish you were a serial killer because, then, I'd be forced to listen to the flashing lights. If you were a man, this would be a thousand times easier."

He pauses, his eyes finding their way to hers. She doesn't know what to say in response.

"But you're not a man, and you haven't tried to kill me yet, so I'm positive you aren't a serial killer. If you have a murder weapon, now is the time to use it."

"My darkest secret revealed," she jokes, pointing a paintbrush at him.

"And I doubt you'd actually be able to push kindergarteners off swing sets if you can't even manage to walk on the sidewalk without running into someone."

"That was a complete accident." Nessa's trying so hard not to smile, but the muscles in her face pull the curve of her lips upwards.

"Instead, you ended up to be beautiful with this wicked sense of humor. You are everything I pictured you to be and more. So forgive me if I ended falling for you despite the fact that you openly declared that you liked Papa John's more than Domino's.

"I take my pizza very seriously, Nessa If that doesn't tell you how I feel about us, then I don't know what will."

"You fell for me?" she asks, biting nervously on the edge of her lip.

For a minute, she allows herself to think of an alternate universe where things are different -- where Liam had run into her that night at the party instead of Vy, a world where her heart wasn't being torn to pieces with words.

"Nessa, I'm—"

In that moment where Liam allows himself to pause, someone else finishes the sentence for him.

"In love with you," Vy says from the doorway, the expression on her face completely unreadable.