This is Where We Lie
Warnings: fwb, college students, non-committal relationship, emotional toxic, mentions of sex, angst
A/N: Welp! Again, I can't help but write and I can't help but be nervous about this at the same time. To all Mother J fans out there, I hope I did these characters justice. (T___T)
Character Pairings: Avi and Isla, How Not To Villain
“No, you and I, this is where we lie. Here, just here. We cannot go further and we cannot go back. And this is where we end.”
Isla froze midway, about to eat a forkful of steak, as he plopped down uninvited on the chair across her. She raised an eyebrow at him as she puts the utensil down on her plate, silently questioning what he was doing. The man didn’t answer her questioning gaze instead he looked at her intently. With their eyes meeting, catching each other in a staring game, trying to measure who’s going to have their resolve crumble first.
Isla blinked first as uneasiness started to get to her. Why does this guy always get the best of her? He gets under her skin—both good and bad ways. An itch she can never soothe no matter how much she scratched.
Isla looked down at her remaining food that has gone cold, gently toying the hardening meat. None of them said a word. On her part, she doesn’t have anything to say. She doesn’t have anything left to say. She decided that words weren’t enough when he went missing-in-action for two weeks. And just heard from her sister that he’s exclusively dating someone named Annie.
She couldn’t forget how her sister looked at her with pity. To which she scoffed, telling Lola to stop with those looks, that she is fine and that he was nobody. Lola knew that her sister was just putting up a façade, feigning nonchalance even though he was the one—the only one who got closer to her sister.
Everybody knew Isla is difficult to approach and is hard to crack. Imagine the people’s surprise when they saw her hanging out with other people, him no less, than she normally hangs out with. People considered them a ‘thing’, so people was even more surprised when the news about Annie and the guy spread like a wildfire and that she was just a ‘friend’.
Friend is too weak of a word to label her. Friends don’t kiss and make out. Friends don’t call you in the middle of the night to hang out. Friends don’t spend the nights together, in between the sheets, skin to skin and bodies connected as one. Friends don’t do that. Isla was never just his friend yet she was neither his lover.
So, what are they? She couldn’t tell.
Isla was brought back to her reverie when she heard a soft clearing of throat, reminding her that she wasn’t alone. Her deadpanned gaze quickly snapped back at the guy in front of her. There was a growing, deafening silence in the air that she could her hear her heart beat as her chest rises and falls. There’s also a gnawing discomfort of the accidental encounter.
“What the hell do you want, Avi?” Isla spoke, breaking the quiet trance between them. Avi swallowed hard, eyes looking unsure and hesitant. He lost all the confident he had when he first got here and that he was unsure himself why he had showed up in front of her. Of all times, why now? Now that she’s doing well by herself. Now that she had picked her self up from the fall. The fall the he caused. Avi blinked. He doesn’t know.
Isla let out a breath before standing up, dragging the chair a bit on the floor catching Avi slightly alarmed and off guard. “Wait,” he said, before grabbing Isla by her wrist whose eyes widened in surprise by his sudden action. “Oh, I’m sorry.” Letting her go. Instinctively, she wrapped a hand on her wrist as if her skin burnt by his touch, breaths heavier than a minute ago.
Isla’s hidden revulsion became obvious. “I’m tired of your games, Avi.” Her voice laced with thick displeasure of his actions since the time he suddenly showed up in front of her today. She saw how Avi tried to opened and closed his mouth—words never seem to escape. Her patience is growing thin. She doesn’t need this. She doesn’t need him.
“I want you back.” Avi blurted out, without thinking. He saw how her face shifted from irritation to confusion to disdain as she registered what she had heard.
Isla sarcastically laughed like she heard the funniest joke ever said and written, earning the stares of the people in the restaurant. She laughed at the absurdity that he wanted her back.
“As what, Avi?” Isla wiped the invisible tears as her fake laughter died down. Avi just could only stare, rendered speechless for the umpteenth time in this conversation. “As your toy, Avi?” Isla continued. Avi felt the weight every time Isla uttered his name. He looked down, starting to feel remorse over what he did.
“I loved you, you know.” she said in a quiet whisper, barely audible yet Avi heard it loud and clear for he already knew.
“I do, too. I love you.” He tried to grab her hand but she whisked it away before he could.
“Not enough to make you commit, though.” She couldn’t help but point out.
“Isla—" she cut him off.
“No. You and I, this is where we lie. Here, just here. We cannot go further and we cannot go back. And this is where we end.” Isla concluded and without waiting for his response, she walked away leaving him as what he had done to her. And for her, it’s for good.