Song: good 4 u- Olivia Rodrigo
........................................
Nate
The moment I stepped into the flat I was greeted by Spoty's mewling and coming to rub against my legs. I couldn't stop a smile. "Hey buddy." I set the empty paper boxes by the couch with my still undone second suitcase and pick up the cat, caressing its long white fur and it purred with the attention. "I've missed you."
"Aw. Aren't you guys adorable?" Kyle got in after me; closing the door with his foot as he too dropped the boxes, making them fall sideways and ignored my glare. "Hey there." he reached out to scrap him behind his ears and Spoty tilted his head, eager for more attention. He was such an attention seeker.
"How had he been?" I wondered, moving to sit on the couch tiredly and the cat wrestled from my arms to settle on my lap face up so I could pet his stomach. Home, sweet home. "He played it nice?"
"He'd been a sweetheart." Kyle slouched on the couch too, closing his eyes and stretching his arms behind his head. "You're running out of tins of his food, tho." his nose scrunched. "By the way, what are those? They smell weird."
I rolled my eyes. "They're cat food, Ky. What do you expect that to smell like?"
"I don't know... Have you ever tasted them?"
"Have you?"
"Can't say I have," he shrugged. "But a guy gets curious."
I chuckled, resting my head back against the pillows as well. "You're disgusting."
"Whatever. As if you've never thought it as well."
Kyle had always been kinda blunt. With little to no regards as to what people usually consider acceptable or appropriate. We met in New York on my Sophomore Year when we both were paired on the dorm.
I hated him at first -he was all too easy going and always up for anything, and competitive like hell; but the feeling was mutual. We kept having run-ins and disagreements that affected the field and so our coach forced us to take a few punishments together. At some point I started not-disliking him, bonding over parties and suddenly instead of hating him I was comfortable with his presence around. He was chill and fun and hear me out when I stressed -which I did a lot, and even if I don't speak about it he noticed and was there for my downs.
So here we were now. He was one of the few things I would actually miss from New York, but he'd said he'll come visit soon.
"So," he hummed resting comfortably back with his eyes still closed. "You were saying?"
"When?"
"Before fur ball here interrupted us."
I chuckled, rubbing Spoty's stomach and it purred harder. "Can't remember."
"Yes... about last night."
Oh, yeah. That weird feeling struck me against like a lightning. That hadn't gone like I expected it to go. Like at all. And whether there had been moments I thought were great, looked like it was a whole misunderstanding from my part again.
Kyle smiled. "I never took you for someone that would spend his time singing along to some cliche old songs."
I threw him the couch pillow, but he laughed, taking it and pulling it behind his head to rest even better then. "It's not like that. It was actually pretty cool. And Kimmy introduce me everyone."
I really needed to make some contacts in the new city. Once I officially move I won't know anyone and I was barely days away from fully installing there for good. All settled and nice. I hoped.
And then there was Hailey.
Now that was an issue I had initially thought as a perk, maybe to make amends, to regain contact... Despites being a couple, we had been friends too. I had missed her more than I would allow myself to think.
For the fist year apart, I couldn't even look at another girl without thinking about her. About what we had. What I gave away. I couldn't spend a night without remembering all the things I wanted to tell her and couldn't anymore.
I'd loved her so much, I'd felt so lost without her, so dependant... the last months of our relationship I'd become too reliant on her. I was emotionally vulnerable and she got me wrapped around her finger. What she felt, what she thought; my own choices revolved around that, and considering that when I moved to Pensilvania with my uncles I was in the process of discovering myself. I couldn't rely on someone to that level.
It was proven how much she could affect me when I found out she lied and my world stumbled. I didn't need that at the moment. I couldn't deal with that on top of everything.
I never mean to hurt her in the process, but sometimes you need to be selfish and at that moment my own sanity was at risk. I had lost my home and my mother -who I still couldn't describe what kind of relationship we had at this point. Being molded by someone else would only add pressure to my self-knowledge. Despites my opinion on the matter, I wasn't ready to be in a relationship at the moment.
So yes, I took a selfish choice.
And yes, she had every right to be mad at me for it. I just wished she wasn't.
I really don't want to be something she regrets.
I let a long breath through my nose, controlling the aching turmoil in my chest at the memories and Kyle turned his head to look at me. "Hailey was there too."
"Hailey?" he frowned. "That's your high school girl, isn't she?"
"Yep."
"Yikes." he joked and I smirked, but it wasn't genuine at all. Kyle knew part of the story, not all, but enough. "And how did that go?"
"She was there with a date."
"Oh man." he shifted and I shrugged, thinking back about Andrew.
I didn't know how to feel about that. Unsettled? I mean, I'd known we each had moved on, it's been too long, but actually seeing it was different. I didn't like it. Like at all. Maybe that was the reason I decided to stay even after Kimmy left. And for some reason they fight and she was down. I liked that even less.
There was a knock on the door and we both glanced there. I wasn't expecting anyone.
Spoty rolled to his pawns again and hissed, his back arched and barely relaxed when I caressed him again and left him on the couch when I stood. He curled over Kyle's spread hand, glaring the door as I headed there.
I should have known this was a bad sign, but still I opened and my stomach clenched at the sight of Alissa standing there with her arms folded.
Her shoulder-length blond hair was all brushed back, curled at the ends and her eyes narrowed at me. She was in a fitted grey dress and her nails were navy blue and polished, matching her purse and heels. So she was back at her usual style, like before she wore baggy clothes to convince me there was a swelling belly under them.
I didn't want to see her. In fact, I'd broken up with her at least thrice now. Why did she keep coming up?
"Alissa-"
"Where were you?" she pushed her way in, not even caring to be invited or if I might have someone in. Which I did. Kyle's brows pursed at her abrupt entrance and he lowered his feet from the coffee table, alert. Spoty scurried away at her sight, hiding in my room as she scanned the place.
I had most of my stuff already packed and the rest down in piles ready to be put away in the boxed we just got. Kyle was supposed to help me. The place in Providence was almost ready for me. I would put everything in a storage while I paint and bought the rest of the furniture I needed, but I was leaving.
It was weird to empty this place. This had been my very first place. For my own. I moved here just after graduating, when I got the job in the main headquarter and it felt like it had been important even if I'd only stayed here for some months. Even if the landlady had been a total nightmare and the hot water barely work. It had been my first home. When I'd arrived just an hour ago, I had planned on packing everything left with Kyle, have some takeout and chill. Like a farewell of a kind.
Alissa was never in the plan. And her presence only shadowed the whole chillness of the schedule.
"I see you've been busy." she snorted at the sight of my suitcase I brought with me from Providence. It was almost empty, ready to be filled with more stuff I would be moving. Her glare, then settled on Kyle. "You told me he wasn't here."
"And I wasn't." I answered for him, overpowering the initial shock and feeling now the irritation instead. I was especially bristled by the fact that she acted like it was perfectly normal for her to be here demanding things. "How do you know where to find me?"
"Because this is your place?" she answered in a duh tone. "I literally just saw you entering."
Kyle coughed into his fist. "Stalker much."
She glared at him, her chin up and those grey eyes sliced through me once more. "Aren't you gonna do anything?" she gestured towards Kyle. I would, like I usually did. But we weren't together anymore.
I sighed. "I think you should leave."
"Who's Hailey?" Alissa tilted her head relentless, her lip curling in a sneer and I frowned, realizing she must have been eavesdropping before even knocking. I felt so sick about this whole situation... "You've been seeing her?"
"Drop it, okay?"
Her arms folded. "Does she know about me? I think that might be something she would want to know."
"Oh, she knows." drawled Kyle from his spot attracting her attention and he smirked at her. "We had a blast going all over you."
"Alissa." I cut before she could throw a fit over his provoking. Her nails were on the verge of scratching her skin and her glare turned at me, softening but I pushed it all down. "We're over."
"You and her or you and me?"
"Both."
She laughed and I feel like screaming, my chest tight. "No, we're not."
"Yes, Al. We are."
"A break up goes both ways, you know? Therefor I don't accord with this." she dismissed it with a hand and kept going as if nothing. "I hope you haven't lost your grey suit with all these boxes... or have it wrinkled. My father wants us to meet them tomorrow for dinner and you know how picky he gets."
Unbelievably. I felt airheaded and more cornered the more she declined my statements.
"We are not having dinner with your parents."
"Yes, we are. Tomorrow night. I've been trying to tell you the whole week. He's not happy about the last encounter so you should buy him something. I got you an exclusive wine."
"Alissa."
"What?"
I took in a deep breath, but it was useless. "I'm not going."
"You are."
"We're over."
"So you keep saying." She rolled her eyes, not taking me seriously and eyed her nails, daring to look bored. "Are you done now?"
I never felt such an urged to cry and scream at once. Something about this version of Al just gets under my skin like no one's ever done before. Stressing me.
"Oh my God." Kyle stood before I could actually do something dramatic and walked past us opening the door and holding it like that. "This is getting tiring. Get out already."
"Excuse me?" she looked over at me. "Nate-"
But Kyle didn't let here. "Don't 'Nate' him. Enough of this." and something in his firm determination spiked mine back into life. "Your moment is over. Nate doesn't want you here and you're starting to piss me off as well. Accept it with elegance and move on. Now go."
"You're kicking me out? You? Kicking me?" her voice rose the more it developed her incredulity and I felt her sharp gaze snap back to me. "This is how you want this to end?" she asked me in disbelief and I almost looked away.
I'd never been one to actually voice my feelings, or even spoke them properly when I did; and her relentless pushing was oppressing. I didn't know what it was about her that made me freeze like that. It was as if I had no power on anything. Not even on our relationship seeing she wouldn't accept the breakup.
I had wanted this to be a painless ending, but she was making it so difficult and with all those calls and striding in my life as if nothing I was becoming apprehensive. And I wasn't like that. I struggled to keep eye contact, determined to end with this.
"Yes." I stated and Kyle straightened his back, as if he'd been afraid I would mess up and now he could breath easier. I probably would have if he wasn't here and this conversation would be repeating over again in a few days. I need to cut her delusion short. "We were happy, we were good for a while, but it's over now, Al. For good." her eyes glimmered making me weak but I forced it down. It probably wasn't even real. "Let's remember it like that and move on. If you keep showing up like this I would have to fill a restraining order."
I hadn't realized things were that bad, but once stating it, it hit me. She was verging the stalking. Making me uncomfortable and trying to monopolize my life.
She gasped. "You wouldn't do that."
"Let's hope I don't have to."
She held my gaze some more moments, stretching this tension and I watched thousands of different emotions swirling in her eyes. She wasn't content with this, she was angry and sad and humiliated and nostalgic and a whole lot of other feeling struggling to take control. I inwardly prayed she didn't force me to take such a drastic step. I didn't want to get her an order, but things couldn't keep up like this.
We'd been apart for a month now and it felt like these weeks had been worst that the relationship itself.
Alissa then scoffed, looking away and clenching her hold on her purse. "You're unbelievable."
"I'm sorry things-"
"Whatever." she cut, pushing her shoulders back and Kyle rose his brows as her new attitude. Guess the crocodile tears were just as fake as I assumed them to be. And that somehow hurt even more. How could I have misjudged someone so badly? "You'll regret this."
And with that threat she marched away, barely giving us time to process it. As soon as she was gone, I felt weak and lowered to hastily sit on the couch. Kyle closed the door with a wry laugh and Spoty got out his hidden spot and crawled his way back to my lap but my mind was still fluffy.
"Come on." Kyle moved to my already empty kitchen, took the last two beers and came to sit by my side.
I brushed my eyes as he opened them and passed me one.
I hate feeling this weak. Like really, it stirred awful memories I struggled to bury through the years.
"You put her in her place. That girl needs some serious reality check. Here," he rised his can. "To your promising move and to leave this all behind."
Leave this behind. Yeah. My hand was almost shaking as I lifted mine too. "Cheers to that."
Hailey
I closed the apartment door behind me, feeling my muscles relax at the familiar sight of home and kicked off my heels, loving how the coldness soothed my aching feet and holding the phone up with my shoulder as Ted kept going: "I really don't know what you expect from a dating app."
"Trust me, I'm fully aware now." I assured moving further in the place and to the kitchen, where I served myself a glass of fresh water and then walked back my steps to the living room where I took a spot on the table. My legs and mind were tired after the long day of more stupid researching and Stella's corrections. I felt like I could finally relax. "Anyway, so that didn't go as planned and I'm back to step one."
"You say it like it's bad." he chuckled. "You have the chance to find someone to fall in love with. I say that's kinda sweet."
My lips pursed. Of course he would say something like this. He's always been a romantic. Well, I used to be the romantic, but for obvious reasons my thoughts on the matter had taken a turn for the realistic. But Ted? He was still dating his first and only girlfriend: Bethany. I can still remember when they start, and things only evolved for them. If he hadn't taken the stupid, suicidal decision to enroll with the marines, I would be so jealous about their sugarness.
I knew Bethany, she was a sassy, cute pixie dream girl with an opinion about everything once you get to know her enough for her to be comfortable sharing it. She had become part of the family as well -as much as Shane didn't like her. We talked from time to time now that Ted was away and I knew she didn't take well his decision, but they were too in love to let it drown them.
They were cute, but they were also one in a million. So that may help Ted remained the romantic he was, yet now his comments looked as pointless to me as my idealism must have felt to others some time ago.
"Maybe." I said instead. "That's a cool way to see it."
"Right?"
"Mhm, now go on." I slouched backwards into the chair. "Tell me about yourself."
"Well, there's nothing much. It's been a chilly week, but they are moving us soon."
"Where?"
"Hails," he sighed. "I can't tell you that stuff."
I pursed my lips. Ever since he'd enrolled I'd researched all out open wars and possible destinations, but most of the information was confidential. Obviously.
We already got one purple heart in the family and I really didn't want another. At least, since Ted was so young, I was left to think they would take that into consideration and only sent him to the less dangerous expeditions. But he never tells me much.
Ted called once a week at least and we try keeping in touch like that. Most of the time it was me telling him about Providence life because he'd never been one to speak, but to listen; and also, now he barely could tell me anything about his days.
"Right." I tried not to let through my disappointment. There were other voices in the background, faint voices and I could tell it was his mates, each having their time contacting family and friends. Because his time was limited. "Have you called mom yet?"
"Mhm, I usually called her first, and you and Matt."
"And Bethany last."
"Yeah, well," I could tell he was blushing for the way he scoffed. "I can stretch it with her the remaining time."
I smiled, feeling the fluttering at his cheesiness. "You guys are something else."
"Whatever." he scoffed again and I laughed. "Look," Ted adverted the attention and lightening the tone. "If you're really that desperate I knew a lot of guys here. All really looking forward for another reason to come back."
Desperate. Ouch. He meant it as a mock, but it was kinda true and it sting more than he intended. I covered it quickly. "Really funny."
"Yeah, but not really a joke."
Again, he was joking indeed, but I wasn't. I was kinda pathetic wasn't I?
"I don't know." I joked back like I was actually considering it. "They would be hot for sure, and, you know, men in uniform..."
"Yes," I could almost hear the smile in Ted's voice just as Shane entered the living room, brushing his eyes with the crazy bed-hair from his nap.
"Hey, have you seen the- Oh." he stopped seeing me on the phone. "Sorry."
"Is that Shane?"
"Yeah." My brother frowned and I mouthed 'Ted', making his eyes went wide just as he spoke again on the other end of the line:
"Oh, can you... Can I talk to him?"
Shane shook his head frantically, all sleepiness gone as he scurried his way to the kitchen. As it'd been happening the last times. I suppressed a sigh. "Sorry, Teddy, he's busy. He sends you his best wishes"
"I see..." he saw right through my lie, he meant. I could hear the sadness in his thick voice and my own mood downed. Ted sighed. "Tell him I'm sorry."
Sorry. Always the same.
"Sure." I bit my lip, knowing this was finally coming to an end and my stomach clenched like always. I hated hanging up. I could never know what will happen on his end until we speak again. But he had limited time and he was still yet to call Bethany. So I decided to take the lead: "Take care, okay?"
"Always." he reassured firmly but it didn't undo the knot of nerves in my guts.
"I love you."
"Love you too, sis. Later."
I glanced at the screen, the seconds of the call passing until he hang up and it halted completely. Always the same. And still I always get this awful feeling.
Then Shane came back with a mug and laid lazily on the couch, as if that just didn't happen, but I knew him enough to know that him being this calm about anything was enough signal that something wasn't right. My nails taped against the surface of the table.
"That was Ted. He's fine." I informed and he hummed taking a sip, apparently unbothered. "He says he's sorry." still no reaction. "Again."
"Okay."
I narrowed my gaze, halting the tapping and instead forcing my hand flat on the table. "Are you ever gonna tell me why you two aren't talking?"
"No likely."
I huffed. They've been like this almost since Dad died. They argued about something. That was all I knew. Ted enlisted and Shane acted like he didn't exist anymore.
Considering Ted was the one apologizing, I had two theories: he was trying to be the big man, or he was the one that screw up. Whatever the option was, it feel a bit too much go on this far without even talking.
And it hurt me to see how they were like this when they used to be close... well, no. They'd never been 'close' in a conventional way and used to fight a lot, but it was the kind of fight that they secretly enjoyed. Shane provoked him all the time and Ted was easy to get riled up. Maybe that was why it made my heart break to see him avoiding his twin completely now.
"He's your brother." I tried softly but I could already tell I was messing it further by the way his shoulders tensed -yet I was already speaking: "And he's in a tricky position. You can't keep shutting him out like that."
"Shutting-" his hands tightened its hold around the mug and he let it on the coffee table, getting up sharply. "Whatever. It's so you to just take his side."
"Shane..."
"Don't wait up for me." he picked the keys and messily fixed his hair brushing it backwards, but it fell back framing his face. "I have an exam tomorrow and I'll be back late."
He was lying, I knew; but still I could only watch him leave with my heart up my throat.
........................................
Hey! What are your thoughts on each their drama? Alissa and the twins quarrel? Let me know your thoughts! And if we get to 860 votes I'm posting next one that is ready and kinda wild LOL. I leave it in your hands <3
Kyle Hendrick (Ross Butler)
Don't forget to comment, vote and share.