invasion ↠ jackson avery ✓

14

[BELLA LEDFORD]
Seattle, Washington \ San Francisco, California

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

Believing one thing to be faced with the truth of something else can be an incredibly hard pill to swallow. The bitterness it leaves behind can be intoxicating if one doesn't know how to get rid of the taste, but thankfully, Bella Ledford was a master. Life threw a good handful of those little things in her path, dressed in the sweetest coating she has ever tasted in her life so, of course, she went ahead and sucked on them until the juice lasted.

Jackson waited until they got to his apartment, with plenty of food to last them for a while. His home felt familiar to Bella, having been there on a previous occasion. They got comfortable in the living room as the TV provided some background noise to their aimless chatter, almost like they preferred to work their way up to the big conversations. One of these big conversations had to be the on-going rumour about Bella quitting her job.

"I just don't understand what drove you to make the decision," Jackson told her and he sounded like he expected an explanation. Dragging her response out, Bella swirled her spring roll around in the sweet sauce. How could she explain this to him? "I think the worst part of it all is that you couldn't feel like you could bring the issue to me."

"What do you mean?" she questioned as she chose to focus on the latter part of his concern.

"You have to admit that after I got a seat on the board, things haven't been the same with us. Not really," he told her with his nose practically in the takeout box. "I know you said earlier that we're still friends and we're still okay, but it doesn't feel that way. It definitely didn't feel that way when I heard about you quitting because you never came to me about it. In fact, you went straight to my mother."

Oh, no.

Lie or... well, Bella couldn't tell the truth. She couldn't be honest. Thinking on her feet, trying to come up with the best answer possible, she resulted to confirming his doubts.

"Okay, yes, you... you do have a point," Bella sighed, and looked at him with overexaggerated shame in her eyes. Since she had no talent at lying, she needed to gather all of her smarts and pull this off somehow. This was nothing more than a white lie, maybe not even that since there was some truth to what she was saying. "I—I think the idea of you becoming my boss has definitely shaved off some of the cushion that our friendship could fall back on. When I came here, you were the only one to show me kindness and... and I think, even though I only really worked one day after you were made board member, it did change our dynamic."

"Look, I know that I've been busy even before I had to take on the extra responsibilities and we may not have had as much time to hang out, but that surely is not the reason why you quit. Right?" he continued to fish for the one thing Bella couldn't give him. The truth. If she did, he probably wouldn't believe her.