Everything is Green

Chapter 26

"What— what's wrong?" Lizzie says as she slowly stands up from her seated position on the bed and walks towards you.

    You turn to look at her, unaware that your face is showing anger like she's never seen before. You don't say a word. You hand her your phone with the message thread with Audrey still pulled up, showing all the articles she just sent you. Lizzie takes a moment to look at your phone. Her face does not show surprise, but almost a sense of acceptance.

"You knew" you say bluntly.

"Y/N I — I can explain" she says nervously.

"Explain? Now you want to explain? Lizzie these articles were posted over 12 hours ago. They have pictures of my face, my full name, where I work— let's see, what else" you say as you take the phone back from Lizzies hands. "Ha! They know where I'm from, who my parents are— my fucking parents Elizabeth"

"I know it looks bad—" Lizzie starts to say before you cut her off.

"I don't care how it looks! I care that you lied to me, straight to my face. Multiple times. How many times did I ask you if everything was okay? How many times did I ask you what was going on? And how many times did you sit there and lie to me with every response?" You practically shout.

"Y/N I tried to fix it. I tried to make it go away. I've been on the phone all day with my team trying to get rid of the articles but when I refused to make a statement they just kept digging and it kept getting worse" Lizzie says, stepping closer to you, reaching her hands out in attempt to hold you. You push her arms away and step further away from her.

"And that's supposed to make any of this better? The minute you found out, you should've told me. Instead you acted like everything was all fine and dandy and made me look like a complete idiot at the airport, trying to cover my face when they already had photos of it. Look at these Elizabeth" you say, turning the phone to face her. "This photo was taken at your house last night, and you knew. When I asked you why you rushed me inside so fast you said it was nothing. ANOTHER LIE!" You yell.

"I knew if I told you, you would freak out. So I hid it from you to give myself time to make it go away. I know I should have told you and I'm sorry I didn't but I didn't want to see you like this and I didn't want it to ruin our trip" she says, her eyes becoming glossy.

"Well look how that turned out Elizabeth. You somehow managed to do both of those things" you respond.

"Please don't say that Y/N" Lizzie says softly, attempting to reach for you again. You hold a hand up, stopping her movements.

"Oh you'd rather me lie to you? Now we get to pick and choose when we want to be lied to? You never gave me that option. We literally just had this conversation. We both promised. We both agreed to go through this together, to be there for each other through whatever came up. And not even a day later you've already broke your side of the promise. I brought you home, introduced you to my parents, told you about my fucking brother. I was finally open with you, I finally let my guard down for 2 seconds, like you were asking me to, and this is what I get in return? You really think that low of me that I can't handle a few articles going around? Do you know how shitty it feels to have my ex be the person to tell me instead of the person I'm in a relationship with. Ha— relationship. The tabloids can say whatever they want but I think we both know you can't have a relationship when the foundation is built on top of a bunch of fucking lies" you continue to shout at Lizzie.

"Y/N can you please stop yelling at me? I'm sorry, okay? Can you please tell me what I can do to fix this?" Lizzie says, a tear finally escaping the lid of her eye to make its way down her cheek. She once again reaches out for you, this time you let her succeed. She wraps her left arm around your waist and brings her right hand up to cup the side of your cheek. You refuse to look down into her eyes, scared that if you do, you will break right in front of her.