NOTHING BUT A BAD TASTE. (✓)

20. SEALED FATE

( unedited )

"HOLDUP... YOU KISSED WHO?!" Blaze almost leapt out of her seat in response to Maya's blurted admission; unable to control her shock and equal disgust. This was the very same man who flaunted his infidelities to Maya like it was something to be proud of and bolted as soon as life got all too real. Blaze had to reluctantly watch her best friend lose herself and disintegrate into a shell of a woman; despising love, laughter and life — knowing that there was nothing she could say or do that could rescue her from the murk she had now made her home.

But time, therapy and Ebén had given Maya her rainbow why; and the dark clouds in her head didn't persist anymore. She was finally seeing the sun shine. So, Blaze couldn't understand why she was choosing to go back when she knew what she knew.

"Reuben." Maya had little to no confidence as she uttered his name; awkwardly scratching her neck.

She wanted to protest that it was mere curiosity that caused their lips to lock and how their kiss didn't set off rockets of butterflies deep within the well of her stomach; but she didn't because truthfully none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was that she had kissed someone else.

Her ex.

"What kind of cis fuckin' sabotage is this?!" The belts in Blaze's voice were at its peak and rising — aghast that Maya chose Reuben's chaos over safety with Ebén. She had always spoke about wanting calm, tranquil love after years of nonchalant, bare minimum love and now she was ready to risk all the things she wanted for that same, familiar chaos.

It all seemed like madness to Blaze.

"He... k-kissed me first," Maya said out, impulsively, pulling her bottom lip with her index and thumb, trying to wash out the odour of him that was still lingering on her bottom lip. The taste wasn't even appetising and Maya wanted to be rid of it.

"That kiss never should have happened. Period." snuffed Blaze, unwilling to listen to whatever excuse Maya was about to drum out of her devious lips. Blaze saw this simply — Maya had torched her own refuge and had blindly ran back into the direction of the only charred house on the street expecting a different, happier end. Insanity, Blaze thought.

"You know what he's like Blaze. He's..." Maya said in a shy whisper, trying to form words into sentences but they were stuck in that guilt-riddled brain of hers.

"I can't actually believe... that you're TRYING to justify your bullshit?!" Blaze's cackle turned the mood into an awkward one; as she set her eyes on her friend. Maya didn't need a friend that would co-sign her bullshit and Blaze wasn't the type to keep mute when she knew her friend was doing some fuckery in an attempt to keep the peace.

She was going to hold her accountable.

Rhodes took awkward but frequent sips of his beer glass, seeking refuge in the envelope menu he was loosely holding. Eve sat, her back pressed up straight against the ridges of her chair, taking small sips of her Merlot trying to ride out the growing tension.

"I'm not." Maya vehemently shook her head and caused the liquid in the leftover glasses to ricochet.

"You fuckin' are, Maya and it's embarrassing."

"Ma chérie... people are staring." Eve said through her closed teeth, as she held her glass up to her lips and took a slow, lengthy sip to hide her horror.

"Let them," was Blaze's dismissive two worded reply; choosing now to take a gulp of her half glass of Rosé. She paused for a half second; trying to piece everything Maya had told her — just in case, there was an angle where she was being unreasonable.

"Why, Maya? Why risk everything for... him?" she continued, still finding the whole thing maddening.

"He came on to me." Maya started shifting in her seat; she could feel Blaze's eyes clawing at her and searing holes on her chest just by her eye contact alone.

"I'm assuming you set him straight, yeah?"

"Well, I-I tr— " Maya's stutter was proof that she had done no such thing or even attempted to.

Blaze's head was almost peeling off her shoulders as she shook it, visibly disappointed, in her friend. Maya could feel Blaze ticking — not with anger but with disillusionment as could Eve and Rhodes. "And what happened to you not wanting nothin' to do with that piece of shit? He really hurt you, Maya."

"I still don't and I know he did, Blaze."

For the second time today, Blaze scoff-laughed at Maya's naïveté, "Lipsing him made any point you were making redundant. The bloody prick has got you exactly where he's always wanted."

"He hasn't," Maya said defiantly; only now finding the strength to exhale and defend her actions. "He knows exactly what I think of him."

"And that is?"

"An asshole."

"Right. And yet, his tongue was in your mouth." Blaze retorted back; miffed that Maya was oblivious to the fact that she was dancing with satan's spawn.

"Correction: his tongue was in MY mouth. Like I said, he kissed me." Maya continued to labour her own defence; refusing to accept the possibility that she might have done something to bring about that kiss.

"Hmm, you keep saying." Blaze took another gulp of her glass finally finishing it; her hands in pursuit of Eve's fingers to hold, to caress and to just be still.

Rhodes picked an inopportune moment to the fill the silence and perk up the mood, "Maybe I should rally the server and ask when we're about to get our food..."

"Good idea," Eve noticed his cue, "Especially now that we've cleared out the basket of bread." Blaze, however, sat all stony — "My appetite's... gone."

"Maybe, you ate too much bread baby?"

"Hm, that and other things."

"Blaze, why the hell are you givin' me so much shit? Like, I don't get it. I already feel bad en—"

"I ain't givin' you shit. I'm holdin' you accountable. That's what friends do." said Blaze; her gaze re-centred on Maya who seemed to shrivel in her seat. "Do you even remember what you said to me after that son of a bitch walked out on you?"

"No. That period of my life is kinda like a... haze."

Blaze nodded; "You said...you never wanted your heart to EVER be in that type of crossfire again. Maya, he fuckin' turned your life upside down and felt no type of way about walking out on you. You even pleaded, begged... on your fuckin' hands and knees t-to" Blaze's husk was almost breaking into floods of tears, "for that asshole to stay and I watched as he did all of that and I couldn't do shit to help you. So forgive me, if I aint too pleased about some damn kiss with your ex. You've got a fuckin' man in Ebén who would move mountains and you're doing this?!"

For the first time since their back and forth, Maya was silent. Eerily silent because she knew. Whilst, not directly, but indirectly she had allowed Reuben to worm his way back in and have his way with her.

"Does Ebén know?"

"Not that I know of but nothing stays quiet; especially when it's about us" Maya said dejectedly.

"You need to tell him before someone does it for you." Maya nodded in agreement, "I know I do."

But she was already too late.

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I'm about to start off by saying that if you have never had a friend like Blaze hold you accountable, then this book ( including the first one ) and this chapter certainly isn't for you. I'm not trying to see comments about how Blaze is "rude" "harsh" etc, Blaze is real and we could all do with a friend like that and if you have a friend or friends like that, you're lucky fr. At the end of the day, if your friends don't hold you accountable when you're doin' fuckery then do they even gots you like they say they do?