Third Person POV:
A night at the Jones' house was common practise, both of them knew that and with their new bloomed relationship, there had been less of insults being thrown around until a couple of weeks ago, with the topic of colleges popping up.
Both of them had been anxious about choosing the right one but both of them knew that whatever they chose, they were bound to not be near each other. This had in turn led to a bit of tension between the two of them as they had been in a few arguments about 'the right university' and had come to a conclusion that there was no point of talking about it if it would just lead to disagreements and no progress.
Unfortunately for them, their parents had decided to make it the sole topic of the dinner.
Isaac had zoned out of the boring conversation once again and had instead turned to scraping his fork against his plate making a scratchy sound that was starting to get on Zavier's nerves.
Clueless, Isaac carried on but only Zavier was getting annoyed since the parents were so dissolved in their conversation whilst Francesca had been lucky enough to have some sort of after school meeting that she had gladly gone to in order to miss this tense dinner.
"Stop doing that."
Isaac slowly looked up, meeting the fed up eyes of Zavier who glared at him. "You're being childish."
Isaac rolled his eyes and stopped... but only for a second before carrying on making it even louder this time, slowly dragging the fork across the plate whilst looking up at Zavier with a smile.
"What were you saying?" Isaac pretended to politely ask watching as Zavier narrowed his eyes at him.
"You're so fu-" Zavier stopped suddenly, looking to the side remembering that their parents were still there. He pretended to itch his forehead but secretly flipped Isaac off.
Eventually, Isaac stopped scraping the plate after his mom was alerted by Zavier of the noise so Isaac sat in silence fidgeting with his hands in his lap.
Their parents didn't seem to notice their lack of contribution to the conversation with Isaac and Zavier only giving nods to things they'd say when Isaac stood up from the table and 'excused himself' to the toilet.
He deliberately took as long as he could walking at the pace of a snail and having a nice look around of his house to avoid walking back to the table. Alas, he couldn't catch a break because as soon as he emerged from the toilet, Zavier was there to meet him leaning against the wall.
"Oh great." Isaac muttered. "Look who decided to follow."
"You've been acting really immature."
"The fuck do you mean by that?"
"At the dinner. I know we're not on the best of terms right now but we can still act like friends."
"Wait, did you come out here just to lecture me?"
"No, I was just suggesting."
"Yeah it's easy for you to suggest when you're not the one who's been left on delivered for 2 weeks." Isaac glared as he moved closer to Zavier against the wall bla. "Oh and even easier to suggest when you're not the one who's been deliberately avoided for the past week, only being spoken to if you had to at soccer and that one time I was in a conversation with Myles you suddenly remembered I existed again..."
All he was saying was true. Of course he had jumped at any opportunity to interrupt Myles' and Isaac's conversations but that wasn't the main point.
He was just nervous... scared even. Preparing himself for when he wouldn't be seeing Isaac nearly every day. A week without Isaac had already been torturous for him, now imagine months... even years. Isaac hadn't told him yet but he already knew that he'd got an early offer to Michigan whilst Zavier was planning to go to Washington.
He zoned back in but didn't pay attention to the words spewing out of Isaac's mouth and instead vocalised his thoughts, whispering them very quietly. "I think we should stop seeing each other." I think we should end this?
"What?" Isaac's rant came to an end as his question came out breathy, trying hard to look into Zavier's eyes but Zavier didn't look up. "You don't mean that."
"Yes I do." Zavier felt his voice waver a bit, forcing the courage in him to look up into Isaac's eyes, regretting it as soon as he saw the worry written all over Isaac's face. He had done this so many times with other girls yet Isaac's was different. He was normally in control because he was the emotionless one. After having to do this a few times, he had soon grown accustomed to it but with Isaac, he actually felt something- but it was too late to feel. Time wasn't on their side and Zavier was not prepared at all for when the time would come for them to be forced to split.
Isaac stepped forward, hoping Zavier would utter the words that he was joking but he never did, instead he stepped away, shaking his head at Isaac. "We're not good together. We were more like a casual hookup, experimenting... but it got way too out of hand." Zavier forced the words out. He didn't believe one thing he was saying himself; if it was just a casual hookup, why would he look forward to talking with Isaac all the time? Why would Isaac be the only thing to consume his mind at all times? Why would he make every opportunity to be as close to Isaac as possible?
Zavier pushed the thoughts down. He was saving himself the heartbreak, he told himself, he would have found a different way to screw it up anyways in the future so it was better he ended it here before he could screw it up more or even worse, Isaac would be the one to do it.
"Is this a joke?" But Zavier shook his head again. "I'll see you back in there." Zavier simply entered back into the room where their parents were with what looked like to Isaac with no remorse whatsoever but Zavier knew if he had stayed any longer he would've given in and exposed his true worries.
Isaac had no choice but to silently enter back into the room after Zavier, masking on a smile for his mom who barely glanced up at him. His thoughts were a whirlwind though as he tried to understand why Zavier was saying this. Was this why he had been ignoring him? To try and lessen the pain?
Because it hadn't worked at all.
Isaac felt as shit as he know he would've felt even if Zavier had announced this a week ago before the ignoring. Zavier... was ready to throw this whole thing away. After all the opening up Isaac had gave to him, after all the emotional words that had been exchanged... after all the touches that had meant everything to him but apparently less to Zavier.
Isaac peered up, catching Zavier's eye for a millisecond before Zavier instantly diverted his gaze to the walls.
Too ashamed to even look at him, Isaac thought. It honestly felt like a lump had grown on his heart, he just didn't believe Zavier would throw him to the side like that.
Yes, Isaac knew that Zavier was known for his flings. In fact, he was one of the people who would speak up against them, labelling Zavier different synonyms of player in much less nicer ways, but he had never dreamed that one day he would be in the position of those same naive girls.
Isaac stood up with his cup and went to the kitchen for some water, ignoring Zavier's not so subtle attempts to try and look at him. So fixated in his thoughts, Isaac underestimated how close the kitchen island was and felt his toe meet the edge before expected.
It was like he was watching himself in slow motion as he tripped, the glass smashing on the ground immediately and feeling a glass piece pierce into his hand.
"ISAAC! What's happened?"
Isaac could hear his mom getting up but he really didn't want her to worry so he mustered up the most nonchalant tone he could, "I'm fine mom. I just dropped my cup and-" He glanced down at his hand, wincing as the blood started to bubble out. "I've got a small cut." He lied.
It went quiet, heightening Isaac's worries a bit as he got up, staring down at the glass scattered on the floor.
"Don't worry about clearing up the mess yet. Zavier can help you clean your cut up, I've got some band aids in my drawer, you know where they are."
No, not Zavier, Isaac wanted to say but he could already hear Zavier's footsteps coming from behind him.
"Oh shit, you said it was a small cut." Zavier immediately held onto Isaac's wrist but Isaac glared at him and pulled his hand away. "I can manage myself thanks."
Isaac walked out to his parent's room, knowing Zavier was following close behind, and went to their bathroom first and rinsed his hand under the tap. It stung a bit but not as much as Zavier's surprise breakup, he thought bitterly.
Isaac angrily walked out of the bathroom to come face to face with Zavier. Zavier could see Isaac's expression soften a bit before the wall came back up, stronger.
They truly had just let their relationship take a full loop.
Isaac went around Zavier not saying a word and pulled out a bandaid but the blood kept coming out.
Zavier could see that Isaac's hand was still bleeding but he knew Isaac would be way too stubborn- or hurt- to ask for help. "That's not going to work." Zavier spoke as Isaac rushed back into the bathroom to avoid any blood dripping onto the floor.
Isaac didn't say a word but Zavier was right. He was attempting to remember what to do with kind of deep cuts like this when he felt Zavier enter the bathroom too, standing behind him. Isaac's thoughts immediately shut off and he hated himself for it.
He hated how weak he was around Zavier; no matter the strong façade he could try to put up. "Give me your hand." Zavier ordered but Isaac ignored him. "Fine then." Zavier grabbed Isaac's wrist forcefully, turning off the tap with his other hand.
Isaac could feel pressure in his hand and looked down to see Zavier pressing his hand with a rag. "What are you doing?"
"He speaks."
Isaac didn't appreciate the sarcasm coming from Zavier. At all. As if Zavier hadn't just ended everything good that had ever happened between the two of them.
He thought of his friend's reactions: Harrison would probably say "I told you so" whilst Gemma would want to hunt Zavier down. Dillon was definitely not his friend but he could see the gloating look that would be on Dillon's face. Embarrassment added to the long list of emotions he was feeling.
"What are you thinking about?"
Isaac slightly flinched having forgotten that Zavier was still helping him. "I can do it myself." He snatched the rag from Zavier's hand and left the stuffy bathroom that had only seemed to get stuffy when Zavier had joined.
"Please don't be angry with me, you don't under-"
"Why are you doing this?" Isaac cut in, his voice barely above the sound of a whisper.
"Let me help." Zavier held up a bandage wrap and walked towards Isaac but Isaac hid his hand behind his back.
"Don't touch me."
"Isaac let me do this or your hand won't get better."
Isaac looked to see true concern on Zavier's face and since his hand was still dripping, he reluctantly held his hand out to Zavier and gave the rag to him.
"Thank you." Zavier used the rag to wipe the remaining blood off then gently wrapped the bandage around his hand.
Isaac watched as Zavier put his full attention to his hand and let his questions tumble out, "Why did you pretend all this time?"
Zavier let go of Isaac's hand and went to turn away but Isaac grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Did everything we do mean nothing to you? Absolutely nothing." Isaac's voice came out as strong if you weren't looking at him, but Zavier was able to see Isaac struggling to hold back the emotions in his face as his eyes started to water.
Zavier felt horrible, absolutely horrible when he let his gaze linger on Isaac's lips for a second too long before snapping back up to Isaac's eyes. Zavier was sure that Isaac would call his bluff out or tell him to get out but Isaac didn't even seem to notice-or care- as he stepped back from Zavier, a bitter chuckle starting in his throat when he was given no answer, almost making Zavier shiver, and not in a good way.
"You won Zavier like you always do. You've fucking played with me, made me your toy if that's what you were after all this time. Well done because you've done it. Done it perfectly."
Zavier was rendered speechless, further proving to Isaac that this really all had just been a game.
A stupid, silly game that he had managed to get tangled in and somehow come out loving, yes loving, a guy who couldn't even look him in the eyes.
I love you, Zavier wanted to say, we were never destined to work but how could he be the one to say that when they'd never tried?
Still seeing that Zavier had nothing to say, Isaac shook his head and walked out of the room leaving Zavier to truly understand the effects of what he had done.
a/n: stupid zavier? anyways hope u enjoyed :) my a/n's are so dry now hahahaha
(written 06/02)
(half update) omg I'm just reading all the comments from the previous chapters and TY FOR THEM AHAHAH it makes me laugh seeing the responses so tytyty v much. im posting these last two chapters at the same time so HOPE YOU ENJOY/ENJOYED this fic ;)
OKAY WHY IS THIS GETTING READS HAHAH I'm so sorry for taking so long to post these but here they are so 👄