Folding her arms across her chest, Nathalie bit her lip and stared hard at Wren, wondering what was going through his head when he decided to text her. Was it because he just wanted to make sure they were still engaged or because he genuinely wanted to fix whatever was left of their friendship? She had spent so long trying to convince Wren to talk to her, tell her the truth so they could finally be on the same page and when the time came that she didn’t want to talk, he felt like getting everything out in the open. It was hard for her to stand in front of him and not remember the exact words of their fight. She could close her eyes and hear every word they’d yelled at each other. She could remember throwing him out the door and running to Rowan a few hours later. She remembered it all and she thought she’d been past it but it still hurt.
Nat wasn’t arrogant enough to think that she hadn’t hurt him as well. It didn’t matter that she never involved herself with Rowan to spite Wren—all that mattered was she’d told him the truth to spite him. They’d both walked away from that fight looking at each other in a new light. Nathalie wasn’t sure if she could overlook that but Wren apparently could and that meant that she at least had to try. Realizing that and convincing herself to go through with it were two completely different things, though, and Nathalie didn’t exactly have a good track record of keeping her anger in check when it came to Wren. She’d never been one to deal with her problems—they settled in her throat and threatened to choke her every single day, but she’d grown used to the feeling of being unable to breathe. If that was how she wanted to deal with her wedding, that was what she’d do. She didn’t care if Wren wanted to uncover the problems that had been rooted deep into the foundation of their friendship.
When Wren took a step towards her, Nat automatically turned around and walked back to the couch. “You’re sorry?” she repeated, a small laugh escaping her lips before she could hold it in. “Well, that’s good to hear. Considering you tried to put me down and shame me for doing the exact same thing you did, I’d say I at least deserved an apology for that.” A note of sharpness punctured her voice and Nathalie looked at him with a challenge in her eyes, daring him to disagree with her. “If you think I’m going to apologize for hitting you, it’s not going to happen. I probably shouldn’t have done it, no, but you did deserve it. And as for being friends…” She trailed off, lowering her eyes to the floor and choosing her next words carefully.
After a beat of silence, she shrugged her shoulders. “What do you want me to say, Wren? No?” She scoffed and gave him a small, sardonic smile. “When have I ever been able to tell you no?” The sad truth hit hard, showing just how far Nathalie would have gone to ensure Wren didn’t mess up his pristine image for the benefit of his parents. He would have done the same for her, she thought. If it had been her who needed help, he would have done it no matter what. That had to be something, it had to be enough for her to grab on to to help her move past that wall she’d built up between them over the past two years.
His news about Quinn made Nat’s eyebrows go up in surprise. She was curious, of course, but there was a part of her that wasn’t even surprised. Wren had liked Quinn far too much to ever stay with him. Really, she should have seen it coming, but all it did was remind her that Wren not seeing Quinn anymore was him severing all ties before their wedding. “And I suppose you want me to extend the same courtesy to you,” she assumed, her mind automatically going back to Rowan. There was no way she would be the first one to bring up his name, if it was even brought up. “Why did you end it?”
Of course, this wouldn’t be as easy as he had desperately hoped it would be. He wanted for the two of them to be able to talk to each other again, laugh together again - even just because the idea of coming home to a house as cold as this didn’t exactly make things easier. Sometimes, Wren even wondered whether he’d been wrong in telling Nathalie the truth about himself. Had he given up too quickly? What would’ve happened if he’d continued pretending? Would he ever have been able to convince himself that he was in love with Nathalie? Would he ever have been able to bury the fact that he was gay so deep in his mind that there’d be days where he wouldn’t even think about it? Wren wasn’t sure, but sometimes he couldn’t help but wonder if would’ve been better.
He crossed his arms while she talked and simply nodded, knowing that his apology was long overdue and not at all enough to make up for the things he’d said, but he noticed the change in her voice from flat to slightly angry, and he was scared that it would result in a fight again - that it would show him that from now on they would only be able to communicate by fighting. “I’m not expecting you to just pretend everything’s okay,” he said as clarification, shaking his head as he looked down at his arms. He’d asked her to be friends as a kind of peace-offering, a sort of clandestine way of asking if they could somehow move past or forget about the last few weeks, not a way to simply pretend that they were madly in love and loved spending time together. “I’d just like not to fight with you all the time.”
When Nathalie spoke again, Wren furrowed his brows and answered quickly. “No,” he said sincerely, even though it might’ve sounded strange. “I don’t expect anythin’ of the sort from you. I just.. just knew I couldn’t do it anymore.” He couldn’t deal with the self-hatred he felt after spending time with Quinn, the panic-inducing secrecy that took about five years of his life every time he heard a sound nearby when he was with Quinn, couldn’t even think about the fact that in two days, two people had found out. He knew he’d strayed a lot lately - with Quinn, of course, and then Arlo showing up, and it was about time for him to stop living in sin like he had.
“Anyway,” he continued, more than ready to stop talking about Quinn (mostly because it hurt tremendously even just mentioning his name), “For the wedding, I think I’m going to ask Finn to be my best man. I can’t think of anyone better suited.”
