"I know what you're doing. You just want to destroy me, don't you? I showed you kindness even after what you did to me and you repay me by dating my fiancé?"
Rody is absolutely erratic, pacing back and forth across the tiles in his office, throwing his hands up in exasperation. His breathing is heavy as he struggles to remain calm, head swirling with a cocktail of destructive thoughts, torn between wanting to kill Vincent or kill himself.
"She's not your fiancé, though." Vincent tells him, voice remaining neutral as his eyes follow Rody's restless figure. He barely flinches when Rody sends an incisive glare his way, coming closer until their faces are barely a hair's breadth apart.
He is trying to antagonize him, Vincent realizes, instead of admitting he is hurt. Not that he blames him. He cannot begin to imagine how soul-wrenching this entire situation must be for him.
"That's not the point." Rody practically spits through a shaky exhale, wide, frenzied eyes boring right through the optics of Vincent's glasses and delving into his very soul.
"Yes, it is. How was I supposed to know she dated you? She never mentioned you by name."
Vincent does have a point.
But Rody is currently incapable of listening to reason, too caught up in the monster his own head has created. After so much pain and betrayal by people he's loved throughout his entire life, he constantly feels as though people are out to get him, out to intentionally hurt him.
Him lashing out like this is one of the many ways he has developed over the years to protect the terrified child that yet lies within him, one who breaks down at the slightest hint of abandonment or rejection.
"You don't know how much I want to ruin you," Rody's voice trembles as he speaks, his anger slowly giving way to what truly eats him alive from within; a deep and adulterated sadness. "Ruin you the way you're ruining me.. but when it comes down to it, I am powerless against you. I let you take and take and take, knowing I could never take even a sliver from you because I'd feel bad."
Vincent is at a loss. He feels as though his hands are tied and that everything he might attempt in order to alleviate the situation will only result in making matters that much worse. He doesn't know what to do.
Seeing Rody like this because of him leaves a gaping hole within his chest.
"Rody, you can't seriously be thinking that I did this on purpose. What would I stand to gain by doing that?"
"I don't know. Maybe you like seeing me in pain because of you."
It feels like a punch to the gut, that Rody has him capable of dating his ex fiancé just to hurt him further. If only Rody could understand what Vincent feels for him, he would never think that.
If only he knew that the only thing inside Vincent's rotten heart that remained unsullied by the corruption of growing older was the love he held for him, he would never say that.
"That's not true and you know it." Vincent tries to reason, despite knowing it won't do much to help. He still feels obligated to say it.
"I don't know anything anymore. I don't think I ever really knew you either. Tell me, Vince.."
Rody pauses for a moment and visibly deflates, the corners of his lips downturned into a most miserable frown as he heads for his office chair and sulks down onto it.
"Was there ever a point where you actually cared for me? Even a little bit? All the time we spent together.. was any of it real?"
His voice breaks around the edges and, along with it, so does Vincent's heart. The protectiveness that he had always felt toward Rody resurfaces tenfold, fueled by the miserable expression upon his face.
YOU ARE READING
The Death of Our Innocence (Dead Plate Swap AU)
Fanfiction[𝘾𝙊𝙈𝙋𝙇𝙀𝙏𝙀𝘿]+[𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝘃𝗲] Two childhood best friends turned into strangers reunite thirteen years later, under unfortunate conditions. Rody once a carefree and rowdy teenager, had taken life seriously and became a businessman. A...
