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"I say this because I love you–you need to get your shit together or get out."
I don't know how to deal with conflict, or more specifically, conflict with Isaac. He wasn't someone like my mom, where I could cut him out of my life without the slightest bit of remorse. He was someone I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with, he wasn't temporary, so what do you do in that situation? Probably not what I'm doing, which is avoiding him at all costs. It wasn't one of my smarter ideas, I'm well aware of that, but I couldn't risk facing him and not knowing what the hell to say. So I did what I did best, hid and wallowed in self pity.
Mandy hates me for it. Not because she hates me or my idea, in fact she agreed that hiding was probably my best bet until I figured out my life, but she quickly changed her mind when it was her apartment I found shelter in. I mean, it's not like I could hide in my house, Isaac and my mother both know where that is. And he also knew where Selena lived, so she wasn't an option either. It was really only Mandy's house that remained hidden, leaving it as my only option.
Looking up from my laptop, I saw Mandy standing with her arms crossed over her chest, eyebrows furrowed. "I agreed because I thought you'd have your mind made up by three days, but you haven't, which I totally get but..." she hesitated for a moment, making me raise an eyebrow. "But I wanna get laid and you're being a total cockblock by being here."
"You're kicking me out so you can have sex?" I can't say I wasn't surprised. After all, this is Mandy, she didn't have a single mean bone in her body. It'd make sense that she'd only kick me out for something as minuscule as hooking up. "That's...fine. I'll just spend the night at Tom's."
Mandy's face fell. "You mean Tom's been an option this whole time?"
I shrugged, lowering my laptop screen. "I mean, Isaac knows he lives in that building, but he doesn't know what apartment, and I don't think he's crazy enough to try to find out." Or at least I hope he isn't. "I'll just call Tom and–"
"You don't want to resolve this with Isaac, do you?" I stopped my movement, gaze snapping back to Mandy, who's lips were tugged into a deep frown. "Is that why you don't want to talk to him? You don't know how to break it to him?"
That wasn't it. Or at least I don't think it is. I don't want to end things with Isaac. So we hit a few bumps in the road, what couple doesn't? Well, I've only had one another boyfriend besides him, and we never got into little spats like Isaac and I do, and we weren't even soulmates. But that's just one relationship. What do I know? This could be normal for soulmates, it's not like I have anything else to go off of. Only the thousands and thousands of stories published in the magazine that spoke about the perfect relationship of soulmates, and my sister and her husband, and can't forget my parents. All soulmates that I haven't seen fight as often as myself and Isaac, but every relationship is different, right?
I hadn't realized I dozed off until Mandy called my name, forcing me to leave my thoughts and face her. She wore a look of concern, eyes looking over me, hoping to catch sight of what I was feeling through my eyes. She must have seen something because she let out a heavy sigh, hand going to rub the back of her neck. "You don't have to–"
I quickly shook my head, pushing my doubts of Isaac to the back of my mind. "I'll just text Tom, I'm due to spend some time with him anyways." I saw Mandy slowly nod her head out of the corner of my eye, still seeming hesitant on the matter, but not making an effort to protest. I received a response from the boy almost instantly, a smile unconsciously tugging at my lips as text after text came through, a spam of heart emojis taking over my screen. "Yeah, Tom is fine with it."
I looked up to Mandy to indulge in her reaction, only to see her eyebrows furrowed once more, calculating look in place again. "What?" She quickly shook her head, blank expression settling before she walked away silently. Weird.
Though it wasn't requested, Tom waited for me in the lobby, the boy's face visibly lighting up when I stepped into the building. Wasting no time, he threw his arms around me, causing me to drop my bag in the process. I let out a huff of air when he lifted me off the ground, a breathy chuckle passing my lips. "Okay, Tom, I get it."
"You went almost a week without seeing me," he muttered, before dramatically inhaling. "Nice to see you still smell the same after all this time."
I pushed away from Tom at that, an amused smile spreading when I caught sight of his grin. "You're so dumb," I snickered, reaching for my bag, only for Tom to sling it over his own shoulder. "You better not be like this all night."
"Can't promise that."
I realized something when I stepped into Tom's apartment. As cheesy as it sounds, his apartment is one of the few happy places I have. It's not tainted with negative memories, only one misfortune happening here, and even that ended in the two of us hugging it out and spending the rest of our time happy together. I found myself fighting a smile as I walked further into the apartment, before flopping down onto the couch, a sigh of content leaving my lips. This is it. The sense of peace I've been searching for while hiding away at Mandy's apartment, I've got it.
"For someone who claims they didn't miss me all that much," I cracked an eye open to look at Tom, his lips turned upwards into a sly smile, "you don't put on a believable act."
"I did miss you," I admitted bashfully, feeling the heat creeping up on my cheeks. "Mandy is great and all, but you know you and I have got something special." For a moment, I saw something flash in Tom's eyes, but as quickly as it appeared, it vanished. Instead, he grinned widely at me, before throwing a pillow in my direction. I let out a laugh as I covered my face, the pillow bouncing off my hands. "Too cheesy?"
"You know I don't like cheese," he joked with a roll of his eyes. "Now, what are we doing for dinner? I'm feeling–"
I'm starting to think the world is against me. Like, if there is a higher figure overlooking all of us and everything we do, he enjoys making my life much harder than I find necessary. Because there's no fucking way that this was going to happen without some sort of assistance.
Tom and I shared a look as he was cut off by urgent knocking on his door, and by the look on his face, I knew he wasn't expecting any company. Slowly, he made his way to the door, taking a peak through the peep hole as the knocks continued to sound. My heart dropped when he turned back to me with a grim expression, and that was all the explanation I needed. With my nod of approval, Tom pulled open the door, revealing a very disgruntled Selena, with an equally disgruntled Isaac.
"Vee, I'm sorry," Selena rushed out, while Isaac's eyes roamed around the apartment before landing on me. I could feel my throat constricting as we made eye contact, and the heavy weight of guilt settled on me as I saw the look of hurt in his eyes. "He came to my apartment and asked about Tom, and I didn't know you were here until–"
"Selena," I spoke over her, putting a stop to her rambling. "It's...okay." My eyes drifted to Tom, who's eyebrows were furrowed in concern. "It's okay," I repeated for him, only tearing my eyes away when he nodded. "I guess... we should talk."
Tom stepped back, opening the door wider for the two. I watched as Selena hesitantly stepped into the apartment, and when Isaac began to follow her in, my eyes widened. I quickly shot up from the couch, rushing to the front door to usher him out again. Confusion washed over Tom's features as I proceeded to push Isaac out of his apartment, following him out. Shooting Tom a look that said I'll explain later, I shut the door to the apartment, heaving out a heavy sigh immediately after.
This is exactly what I didn't want to do. Talk to Isaac before I could figure out what I wanted to say. Truth was, I have no fucking clue what I'm feeling at the moment. My mind is in shambles, and with all that's happened recently with my mother and the heavyweight of my position at work, the last thing I wanted to think about was the feelings of doubt I had for the boy standing across from me. It's something that made me think too much, and I wasn't too keen on having a headache just for his sake. So I pushed it away, waiting to deal with it at the very last second, and that just happens to be now.
"You've been avoiding me," Isaac breathed out, and for a second, I thought I saw his lip quivering. He quickly diverted his gaze to his shoes, my heart stopping at the sight. This wasn't right. The few times I actually thought of my confrontation with Isaac, I'd imagining me being the one crying, not him. It's as if the blame had been shifted to me once more, my mind being in utter turmoil once more. "You told Selena to not tell me where you are, why?"
"I..." I hesitated, the sound of my thumping heart distracting me. "I wasn't in a good state of mind, Isaac, I wanted to talk to you when I had everything figured out."
He lifted his head, tear filled eyes meeting mine. "So you just toss me to the side like I'm nothing? We're soulmates, Venus, we're supposed to figure things out together." He sniffled, hands wiping viciously at the tears already shed. "Not...move into another guy's house and skip work just to avoid seeing me."
"I'm sorry, Isaac, I am but..." I stopped myself as I registered the words that were about to come out of my mouth. Was I really about to tell Isaac the real reason I haven't been able to see him? I knew when Mandy said it that it was the truth, and as much as I wanted to try to convince myself otherwise, I couldn't. I couldn't see Isaac because it may be the last time I'd see him as my boyfriend. Maybe my mom was right. I was destined for loneliness, because if this is what it takes to have a soulmate, I'd much rather be alone.
"Vee?" I swallowed harshly at the sound of his shaky voice. "Vee, don't do this." He must have seen it in my eyes, the visible pain in them as I prepared to speak. "Vee, please, you can't do this."
"Isaac, we can't–"
"No." I tensed up at the sudden change of tone, his shaky voice replaced by a much deeper one. "You aren't doing this."
"You can't just–"
"We are soulmates," he cut me off, my heart sinking as he stood taller. "You don't get to end this, that isn't how it works. We're together for the long run."
Isaac, the sweet boy who was once scared to show me his numbers because he thought I'd be disappointed in him, was scaring me. The green of his eyes had gone a shade darker, no longer warm and welcoming, his narrowed eyes leaving me feeling nothing but cold. His height over me didn't help in the slightest, the boy practically towering over me, appearing much more intimidating as he stared down at me. I hadn't expected for him to deny me breaking up with him, so I struggled to form a sentence, allowing him to continue speaking.
"From now on, things are changing." I shivered when his hand gripped onto my hip, pulling me towards him. "We are going to talk things out, not ignore one another. If you're staying at someone else's house, you tell me, not just go. And I want to meet your parents." His eyes looked past me for a moment, and a scowl settled on his features. "And no more staying at Tom's house."
I quickly pushed against his chest, freeing myself from his grasp. "That isn't your decision to make," I breathed out, my heart beating a mile a minute. "This is my life, Isaac, you can't just try to–" I let out a yelp as I was tugged forward once more, Isaac's hand wrapped around my wrist.
"We're soulmates, Vee," he repeated once more, head lowering until his lips grazed mine. "What's yours is mine, and vice versa, so therefore your business is my business. Capisce?"
I'd already stared to shake, nothing but fear coursing through me as I looked into the eyes of the boy above me. Swallowing harshly, I nodded slightly, a shiver rushing down my spine as I unintentionally brushed my lips against his. And like a switch had been flipped, a grin spread across Isaac's lips, green eyes lighting up. "Great, because I missed you, babe."
I could still my heartbeat in my ears when Isaac wrapped his arms around me, bringing me in for what I'd usually think was a warm embrace. "I missed you too," I breathed out, pushing back the disgust I felt at the sound of the lie that slipped past my lips.
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i mean, idk if anyone caught on before that isaac is emotionally abusive, i tried to make it known in the parking lot scene last chapter where he quickly made vee feel as if things were her fault and he was the victim when it was the opposite
but if you didn't catch on then, this chapter is a clear indication that isaac is emotionally and now somewhat physically abusive
i wish vee could just be happy already i love her too much