Coder Girl 2 /Dreamwastaken/

՞՞30՞՞

The way he was clinging onto my every word without offering any explanations was really starting to annoy me.

"What's your friend's name?" He asked, and I, having no clue about the relevance of that information, wondered if I should or should not share it.

"Why does it even matter?"

"Is it really that hard to answer a simple question like that?" He raised his voice again, making me want to slap that attitude out of him.

"Olivia. Did that fucking help?" I struggled to keep my voice down.

"No, it didn't, but it might later," he ran his fingers through his hair, "you said you've known her for a while?"

I nodded, letting go of a huff. It felt like he was just asking pointless questions and getting nothing out of them.

"Did you go to school with her?" He asked again, making me nod again without even making eye contact.

He looked up, taking in a drag of air and cursing under his breath instead of vocalizing his thoughts. It seemed like he was having a moment of realization, and I wanted to be a part of it too.

"What?" I asked, and he waited for a while before answering.

"Your friend might be her friend- fuck, she said her friend.. gosh, yeah it's- yeah.."

And I was supposed to make sense of that nonsense.

"What?" I repeated.

And with another long drag of air, he tried to explain it in one breath.

"She said she came to watch her friend graduate, and today when I asked where she got all of that information, she said from her friend, and also, when I asked who her friend was, she said that you'll know her because you went to school and college together and she's known you for longer th-"

"Jesus Christ, slow down?" I put my hands on each side of my face, the only thing staying in my brain being the amount of times he used the words 'she' and 'friend'.

He repeated everything, this time with more details and at a slower pace. Honestly, I didn't want to believe him, but since we began dating, I had distanced myself from many people out of fear that trusting them could lead to something bad. Olivia was one of those people. We had lost touch because our conversations soon started to feel one-sided, with her asking about specific details about my relationship with Clay, and receiving vague responses in return.

"Listen, only because I know you're not gonna let go of this, I'll talk to her. And we'll put an end to this whole thing, okay?" I requested.

If I had to decide, I wouldn't even talk to her. I'd rather lock myself in the house until these issues somehow resolved themselves.

"I'm not ending anything until I find out who's the fucking dickhead that tried to drug you-" he just had to disagree, "no, actually, I'm ending them when I find out."

"Just let go of it," I sighed, "I'm sure your ex made up all of it cause half of what she said doesn't even make sense."

"It makes sense to me." He shrugged, and my interpretation of it was that he just stood up for his ex. And that flipped a switch in me.

"Yes, it makes so much sense that a guy I slept with 4 years ago randomly decided to send me flowers and spike my drink at my graduation."

"Are you sure it was just 4 years ago?" His words made my eyes go wide, eyebrows shooting up in disbelief.

I'm gonna pray he didn't just accuse me of cheating and meant something else.

"Excuse me?" I chuckled.

"She said you rejected him multiple times and-"

"Holy shit, stop fucking bringing her up!"

My own voice caught me by surprise. I didn't expect it to come out that loud and aggressive. But I wasn't regretting it cause I had some things to say.

"You are fucking talking to me about my life, and you have the nerve to keep bringing up the bullshit your crazy obsessed ex had to say about me," I swallowed back all of my frustration for it to burst out like this, "and if she's such a reliable source of information for you, maybe you should consider going back to her fucking house and discuss my life with her!"

"Lizzy." He tried to put his hand on the side of my arm, but I jerked away.

"I'm trying my best to keep myself together and ignore the fact that you met up with your ex, so please, at least be kind enough to stop bringing her up!" I replied, my voice tightening, on the brink of breaking if this continued any longer.

He groaned at my words, coming closer to me before speaking.

"I'm trying to help- ugh, this isn't easy for me, Liz. The idea of anyone trying to hurt you or getting near you drives me fucking insane and I can't just sit and wait to see what happens next. I love you so fucking much and I'll do whatever it takes to make sure you're safe, I'll do fucking anything, even if it involves meeting up with people I fucking hate-"

"And what about me, Clay? What about how I feel? Cause I don't really feel safe when you meet up with your ex behind my back, and I don't feel loved at all when you come back shouting at me and acting like it's my fault that all of this is happening or as if you're trying to help and I'm just- fucking complaining, being difficult and- and- ugh, just give me a fucking break."

I noticed his expression soften, before I turned away to regain control over my face. Emotions that I had been suppressing throughout the entire conversation finally began to surface.

"Liz... I-" he sighed, hopefully finally realizing the weight he put on me, "I didn't mean to."

I felt him gently pulling me into his arms.

I fought back tears, but with his hand gently cupping the back of my head, holding it against his chest, his arm wrapped securely around my body, and his head bowed down to press his lips on top of my hair, my eyes began to burn despite my efforts.

"Can you do something for me?" I spoke, voice quiet, and words muffled against his shirt.

"Anything," his breath brushed against my hair.

"Let me try to figure this out on my own, yeah?" I felt sick about the possibility of him receiving made up details about my past from others. "I'll talk to Olivia, and we'll sort this out. Don't go back to your ex, don't tell her anything and don't ask her anything."

He pulled away, hands cupping my face as his thumbs brushed over the corners of my eyes.

He nodded in approval.

"I'm sorry."

And pressed a kiss on my forehead.