Falling For Trouble {Completed}

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 (1 hour later, 6:42 pm)

Lyrics outfit:

Troys outfit:

They were all sitting in a booth at the diner. Alexander and Lyric on one side, Troy sitting across from them by himself on the other. The kids were sitting by themselves in the booth behind them, drawing on the colorable place mats with crayons the diner provided and snacking on their food occasionally in between chatting. Lyric and Alexander were talking and had been the entire time, Lyric attempted to include Troy in it multiple times but he kept giving them a reassuring smile at their comments or jokes that they made and then faded out of it, and Alexander seemed to keep pushing him out of the conversations even though this whole thing had been his idea. They had moved onto a different topic at this point, and while Alexander discussed something about his job that she was hardly interested in she hesitantly snuck a look over at Troy whilst Alexander was distracted with taking a bite of his Fettuccini Alfredo. He had his body semi-turned towards the entrance, spaced out and picking at the corner of his fingernail, and his food had hardly been touched. Lyric did a double take when she noticed how sad he looked, and frowned, once Alexander realized he no longer had her attention he paused, pressing his lips together to keep himself from babbling on any longer. She flashed him an apologetic look and disappeared underneath the table, carefully sliding up into the booth seat beside him and situating herself in at his side. "Is your food not good? You've hardly touched it." She inquired gently as an attempt to not spook him, which horribly failed considering it looked like Troys soul had left his body when he quickly turned to look at her. "Jesus-" Troy said, wide eyed, "...-Christ" Troy breathed out the word in relief when he realized it was just her, deflating a little. "When did you get there?" He inquired with a brief chuckle following his question, Alexander crossing his arms over his chest as he relaxed back into the booth. Lyric just shrugged her shoulders in response as she waited for an answer to her question, Troy sighing out an exhale and giving her a small reassuring smile before he began "It's good, I'm just not that hungry anymore" Troy murmured and Lyric hummed "Mm. Well, I can help you with that. We certainly don't want it to go to waste" Lyric offered as she took a small handful of the fries off of his plate, shoving every single one into her mouth all at the same time. Troy stared at her as she did so, his eyes exploring her in fright but also amusement, She played dumb, lifting up her shoulder in a half shrug, then covering her mouth with the sleeve of her sweater to speak. "What?" Lyric tried to say but it was muffled, so it came out as more of a garbled "Wurt?" Troy laughing, hard. "Don't you know it's rude to talk when you have food in your mouth, Lyric?" Troy inquired, earning a chuckle out of Lyric who slowly began to chew the large amount of fries, nodding in response to his question. Troy grabbed another fry off of his plate and simply stuck it into her mouth which made Lyric laugh, allowing the fry in with the others. "Mm..Mhm." She murmured flatly, nodding a little. She was struggling to chew them all. "Thank you, These are delicious" Lyric said muffled as she motioned towards her mouth, which made Troy smile. She finally chewed through the large amount of fries and cleared her throat before she spoke, picking up another fry off of his plate. "Try one" Lyric suggested as she offered it to his mouth, and Troy stared at her for a moment, hesitating. He took a glance at Alexander who just gazed back at him, releasing a quiet, but huffy breath. Troy began to turn it down as to not piss of Alexander, his eyes returning to Lyrics as he did so "Uhh, i'm not sur-" She frowned, and gently interrupted him, "I insist, they're so good, you have to" Lyric tried to persuade, he hesitated for yet another moment but then slowly leaned forward and gently took the fry out of her fingers with his teeth, holding eye contact. He chewed it and basked in the flavor for a moment, his face lighting up with shock. "Well damn, they're even better than they usually are" Troy uttered in surprise, "Right?" Lyric laughed out her response, which caused Troy to laugh as well just from her laugh, it was so contagious. They had now began to block Alexander out just as Alexander had done to Troy the entire time, They were in their own peaceful little bubble, but as you know, every bubble must burst. "Jesus just keep flirting with her right in front of me why don't you" Alexander hardly muttered under his breath, gaining Lyric and Troys attention again. She scoffed in disbelief at his accusation and Troy scowled quietly, but kept it subtle enough to where Alexander didn't realize Troy commented something about a dickhead in a whisper. "We aren't flirting, Alex, we're just joking around" Lyric reassured him and Alexander chuckled in disbelief at her response, he couldn't believe that she was so oblivious to how Troy acted towards her, "Aww we're friends?" Troy teased, attempting to break the tension a little..Lyrics gaze quickly shifted back to Troys with a big smile on her face, swatting his shoulder. He grinned wider, holding eye contact with her, "That, Lyric, friends shouldn't look at eachother like that" Alexander said, motioning towards Troy with a wave of his hand which caught Troy's attention again, Lyric scoffing in disbelief once again. "Like what?" Lyric inquired irritably. "Like they don't want to look away." Alexander uttered. Troy and Lyric looked at each other like Alexander was crazy, Troy scoffing when he looked back at him. "You're reading way too much into this, Alex" Lyric said gently "Lyric, please, I'm not-" "Jesus Christ, Alexander, get over yourself." Troy finally snapped, "Ive hardly begun to know her and even if I actually did know her, I don't want your girlfriend because I'm not you, alright? I don't go around messing with other peoples girlfriends." Troy irritably disclosed and Alexander sat up in his seat towards Troy, pressing his palms onto the tabletop "Shut the hell up Harvin!" Alexander whispered angrily "God i am so sick of you. I tried to be civil with you because i know Lyric cares about you but i can't fucking sit here and watch you eye fuck my girlfriend." He spat out bitterly towards him. "Alex!" Lyric whispered in a hushed tone, disbelief washing over her face. Troys fists began to tighten under the table and he went to say something in response but he remembered that this was his friends boyfriend, and that he didn't want to kick up old dust. Troy just let out a frustrated huff, deciding to leave before it went further downhill. He stood up and put his phone in his pocket, taking out his wallet..Lyrics gaze shifted to look at Troy, it was a bit gentler now "Where are you going?" Lyric asked softly. "I'm going to head home. If you'd like to you can still take Gabriel and I'll give you the money for his ticket and snacks." Troy muttered as he set down a 20 for his and Gabriel's food and a tip on the table. "Why are you always running from your problems?" Alexander egged him on and Troy scoffed, hardly giving him a single glance as he put his wallet away. "I'm not running, I am simply leaving so I don't do something dumb that I would regret." Troy stated and Lyric looked at Alexander, her eyebrows furrowing. "Alex, please, stop." She pleaded gently and Alexander seemed to have blocked her out, continuing "No, Troy, You don't face shit head on, not even a simple argument, and you never have been able to. Your sister always solved your problems for you when you were younger, and now that Alexis isn't here-" Troy interrupted his statement with a quick flash of his hand slamming down onto the table, making their dishes clatter disruptively. "You need to shut the fuck up!" Troy yelled emotionally as he pointed his finger in his face, he was so upset that his finger was visibly shaking. Lyric flinched a little bit at the sudden raising of his voice and her lips parted as she stared up at Troy, she was stunned. The diner went quiet, everybody had turned around in their seats, all eyes on him. Alexander stared up at him, swallowing through the lump in his throat, he realized he had gone too far. Troy shook his head a little as his chest rose and fell repeatedly with pure rage. "You don't get to say her name." Troy was barely able to whisper. "Not after what happened."

Lyric seemed confused, her eyes bouncing back and forth from Alexander to Troy a couple times. "What happened?" Lyric questioned softly, when there was no response from Troy her eyes shifted back to Alexander, her eyes curious but colder "What did you do." Lyric stated sternly and Alexander hardly looked at her, his eyes quickly returning to Troy "He is the reason she.." Troy began but paused, swallowing the swelling lump in his throat so that he wouldn't cry, and he continued. "He broke up with her and she killed herself." The words hardly left his lips in a whisper, and Lyrics eyes went wide. "Troy, I get that you're upset but it's really not my fault that your sister couldn't handle a simple breakup, how was i supposed to know that she was in a rough place, she didn't communicate." Alexander tried to calm the situation but when Troy's eyes went as wide as could be and he lunged at him he realize he may have not used the best wording that he could have. Lyric quickly jumped up and grabbed him by his biceps, she pulled him back from Alexander and he struggled to get out of her grip. "You were all that she had after our dad left!" Troy yelled, "You knew that you were all she had and you abandoned it all for what? Some fucking skank?! You KNEW that she was struggling again and you KNEW that you were leaving her in the same way that my dad just had, did you ever even take that into consideration?!" Troy practically screamed and everybody stared at the interaction, the kids staring at them in fright. Everything and every single person was completely silent, Troys heavy breathing the only thing even remotely filling the silence. "No.." All Alexander could manage is a whisper as he held back tears, "Well maybe if you had she would still be here!" Troy sobbed out and tried to go back at Alexander with the little bit of strength he had left and Lyric pulled him back against her, tears rising in her eyes. But Troy gave up on it after a few seconds and shrugged himself out of her grip, walking away. Troy shoved the door to the diner open and listened to Alexander speak softly distantly. The door slammed shut behind him but he could hear Lyric grilling his ass through the closed door for a moment before his ears began to ring. Everything became distant and started moving in slow motion, he could hear his heart pounding and it sounded like it was in place of his brain. He drug in the smallest amount of air into his lungs, struggling to get in the deep breath that he had attempted to take as he got hit with flashbacks left and right from that night. He clutched his chest and attempted to draw in another breath, but just wheezed, squeezing his eyes shut.

Finding her on the bathroom floor, my mom sobbing uncontrollably on the front porch steps as my uncle held her tight, his harsh eyes staring into the darkness of the night, blue and red lights, her blood on my shirt and my hands, the blood, so much blood. I had heard of the term 'I saw red' but i had never experienced it myself until that night, and here it was again, but this time it came from my pure rage instead of my sisters lifeless body.

Lyric came out after me with the kids not too far behind her. "Troy" Lyric said as gently as she could and I tried to calm down a little so i wouldn't take it out on her, the flashbacks slowly fizzling away. "I'm sorry" I hardly breathed out, my eyes still squeezed shut "No.." She began and I could hear her take a step closer to me. "No it's okay, please don't apologize." My eyes opened. "I went after your boyfriend...I may have killed him if you wouldn't have grabbed me." I took a pause, able to get a small breath into my lungs "I just can't let him talk about my sister anymore, she is dead for fucks sake, and i know...." "i know it's not completely his fault but fuck, Lyric, i really need somebody to blame for it besides myself" I hardly finished my shaky sentence and then a sob erupted from me as i said the last word and I covered my mouth. Lyrics eyes softened and she watched me carefully for a moment before looking back at the kids, motioning to the car. "Go wait for us" She said stern and they obeyed, moseying on to the car. "Look both ways!" She demanded, making sure they got across the parking lot to the car safely before looking back at me, her face softened again. "I understand, Troy" Lyric whispered "I don't blame you at all, i would've reacted the exact same way, in fact i probably would have reacted worse. And..between us? If he wasn't my asshole of a boyfriend, I would've let you kill him." She consoled me a little, a tempting smile tugging up at the corner of her mouth. I chuckled a little under my breath and watched her for a moment before I spoke, attempting to soak in how understanding she was. With the way everybody spoke about her i thought she would be a lot different, more cruel, but she's not even close. "Thank you.." I said softly. Lyric smiled a "You're welcome" and Troys eyes wandered after, and so did his mind once again, police sirens echoing throughout his head and ringing in his ears. After a moment she snapped him out of it by placing her hand his arm, his eyes immediately on hers again. "You still want to go to the movies?" Lyric asked softly and I nodded in response, she motioned me on. "Come on then" She said and smiled a little, heading off towards the car which I was forced to follow by the grip she had on my arm.