Hate You Too - Leonardo DiCaprio

-Not good enough

                                     Leo

"How'd you even know where my room is?" I crossed my arms as I rested against the car door.

A weird sickening feeling entered my body, nothing about this situation was pleasant. It was completely empty in the dark parking lot. Only a few street lamps near the road have a bit of light. It's 4:00 am, so the only noises around were the crickets.

I felt uncomfortable, but also stress free. I made sure to lock every door before leaving Avi in my room, I also brought her cell next to her just in case. She's still upset at me for throwing the note out the window. "Ignoring me" probably wouldn't be the correct way to describe what she did to me after I threw it, it was more that she stayed in her own thoughts instead or talking. She stayed quiet until she fell asleep on my bed.

I made sure that she was fully asleep, then drove to the meeting place, and now I'm here.

"I put the pieces together, I'm not stupid. There were many clues" he took a long drag of his cigarette "I'm surprised you actually came"

"You sent a threat, what else am I supposed to do?"

"Call the cops" he chuckled "you're not as smart as I thought you'd be. That's a good thing for me though...not so much for you"

"Avi wouldn't want them to be involved in all this" I answered simply. That time when we were at the police department was already bad enough, she probably wouldn't want a repeat of it.

His brows lifted for a second as he started down at the dark floor "so are you not going to ask why I wanted you to come here?"

"No, because honestly, I don't give a fuck"

Dry laughter came out of Ethans mouth "well you obviously do, because if you didn't, you wouldn't be here right now. You wanna know."

"You're wrong Ethan, I came here to make you stop sending me the stupid notes" I pulled five notes out of my back pocket, then grabbed Ethans wrist and aggressively shoved the threat filled notes into his hand.

Ever since me and Avi bumped into him in the grocery store and got Ethan slightly in trouble with the cops, he's been sending these notes. It never bothered me, but now that Avi almost saw, I needed it to stop. Of course I don't want her to know, it would make her more scared of Ethan than she already is.

I leaned back against my car and crossed my arms as Ethan flipped through the papers, thick black letters covered each one, making up horrid messages.

"And why should I stop? You deserve them" he looked up at me after studying the threats, the cigar hanging down from his lips.

"I've never done anything to you, nether has Avi. Why should I deserve them??" I furrowed my brows in frustration and annoyance.

"Stop acting so innocent" Ethan rolled his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Just saying, I'm not the only one who hurt her" he blew smoke into my face, but I didn't flinch "I still remember on our second date, at the beach. She was on a call with you, crying a lot. Poor thing" he frowned in the most unsympathetic way possible. "I've always wondered what you said on that call...it really hurt her"

"What you've said and done to her is much worse than the small fight we had"

He made a ticking noise with his tongue as he shook his head "comparing your wrongdoing to others just to make you seem less guilty is pathetic, everyone knows that" he stepped closer to me "stop acting like you're so much better than me. Because you're not, I'm sure that wasn't the only time you've made her cry"

He was starting to get into my head, I tried my best to not let him have that power over me, but after a while...I gave in.

"What about we make a deal?" He tilted his head a bit as he thought "you leave her alone, and I will too.
Ignore her, and let her find someone who's right for her. Because let's face it, you aren't good enough for her."

"I thought you wanted to be with her"

"Eh, I did some thinking, there's no point to all of this. I'm waisting my time. Avi's going back to LA soon. I'll just dump Gianna and find some other girl"

This felt...weird. Ethan didn't seem the type to just quit on something so fast, especially since he's been so invested in taking Avi for himself.

"But that's not the point" he continued "I just want you to think about it for a second, do you really think Avi would be better off with you? Do you genuinely believe that? Because I don't. She'd be happier with someone else."

"What the hell?!" A girls voice echoed from the distance.

We both turned our heads to her. I squinted so I could make up her image better. It was Avi. Still wearing her sleeping wear, looking half asleep as she stood next to her car.

Avi rushed to where me and Ethan were "what are you doing here??" She asked me, hers eyes focusing on Ethan.

"W-what are you doing here?" I stuttered, really confused.

"I saw you left the room, I found it suspicious so I followed you" she shrugged.

"You followed me?" I gaped at her.

"Can someone tell me what's going on" she ignored my comment.

"Nothing" I muttered, as I carefully led Avi back to car, away from Ethan.

I helped her sit in the drivers seat as she kept spitting out millions of questions.

Unexpectedly, Ethan grabbed my arm and whispered so Avi can't hear "just think about it" he then left, and walked across the parking lot to where his car was.

"What was that?" Avi looked back at Ethan driving away "what did he say?"

"Nothing, Avi. He said nothing" I repeated, not wanting to say anything else "are you sure you can drive back to the hotel alone?" I changed the subject.

"Yes, I can. But please explain what's going on!" She pushed.

"Drive safely okay, I'll see you back at the hotel" I ignored her question, then took the car door and shut it for her.

———

"Are you going to tell me why you were with Ethan in an empty parking lot at 4 am?!?" She sat at the end of my bed as I leaned back against the wall, looking down at her.

"I'll explain tomorrow" I sighed, not having any intention what so ever to actually tell her. It didn't feel good, lying to her. "Can we go to sleep, it's late"

She took a deep breath "fine"

It took her only two minutes to fall back asleep, but I just lay next to her, stuck in my thoughts. I went through everything that has happened since I've met Avi, good and bad.

What hurt after doing that, Is that it was hard to find the nice things. Moments that brought us joy...were rare. Suddenly all the difficult times started overtaking the good, making them small and hard to even remember.

All this thinking made me slowly become great full for Ethans words. I tried to deny it, but he's right. Me and Avi would never work out, nether of us would bring joy to the other. Even from the start we've been annoying each other.

I started to figure out what Ethan was trying to do. It was a genius plan actually, though it made me sick to my stomach because there's no way out of it. When he said he's over Avi, he meant it. But that doesn't mean he just wants to stop playing this little game of his. He's using me to hurt her...worst part is that now I have to. Because after all this thinking, I've realized it's better if we stay far apart.

Ethan wasn't getting into my head, he just uncovered the truth which both me and Avi tried to ignore. All the fights, crying, hurting each other, and constantly saying "I hate you". It would be selfish to not let her be, to not let her go. She'd be better with out me.

So I decided. That's it. No more.

"I'm sorry, it's what's best" I whispered, as if she were awake and listening.