WHY ALWAYS HER? - (TNN - REECE & VARIOUS)

CHAPTER SIX

As Reece stared intently at the bathroom door, his heart felt ready to burst as it once again swung open. Out came Marjorie, closely followed by Mia. He noticed immediately that they were holding hands - he knew Marjorie would have initiated that, wanting to ensure Mia felt comfortable. His beautiful, thoughtful girl.

Together they headed straight for the table, clearly determined hash this out. As Marjorie sat beside him, Reece looked into her eyes, desperately searching for a sign that she still loved him. Of course he found it - he could tell she was annoyed with him, but despite that he felt a familiar sense of calm wash over him as he saw into her heart.

Mia had settled herself next to Charlotte, and the pair had immediately grasped each other's hands. Seeing how tightly Mia was holding onto Charlotte, Reece felt so unbelievably guilty he felt tears forming again. On this occasion, she hadn't done anything wrong and he'd just humiliated her in front of everyone just to feel better about his own issues. He felt like a bully.

"Right" Marjorie barked, using her managers voice. "You need to apologise Reece, your behaviour was completely uncalled for. Then I think we all need to talk, cos there's clearly some underlying issues here, and we're not going on like this."

Reece turned to face Mia, hoping she would meet his gaze. For a moment he really thought she wasn't going to but then she looked up at him. Strong as ever, the fire had returned to her eyes - he could tell she had definitely been crying though.

"Mia I'm sorry for what I said earlier. You'd done nothing wrong, and I took my anger out on you. You didn't deserve that." Reece couldn't believe how much his anger had dissipated. Before, it felt like he had hot coals behind his eyes but now he just felt empty.

Mia didn't respond verbally, she just nodded her head slightly. It scared Reece to see her like this, no anger, no witty comebacks - just pain. For the first time in forever he took the time to truly look at his ex girlfriend, and he was struck by how fragile she really was. Just a little thing, abandoned by her Dad, used by his own Father and tossed to the side. He'd always wondered why, after so many of their 'throuple' sessions, Mia would lock herself in the bathroom, emerging later with puffy eyes. She'd been so unhappy and he'd been too blinded by sex to see it. He knew it wasn't his fault either, it's not as if she'd told him what was really going on. Since he'd found out that she was only into women, he'd felt pangs of worry - had he ever hurt her without realising? He never could quite reach her - she would initiate sex so often, but he never truly knew her body and he always felt so unsure. Sometimes, he would watch her turn away from him afterwards, closing herself off, making sure he didn't try to hold her, and he knew that she was sad. He could just never figure out why. Over the past few months, seeing how affectionate Mia was with Charlotte had forced him to relive every awkward moment, every time she had flinched away from him.

These thoughts swirled around his mind and he suddenly realised - Mia didn't get everything she wanted either.

It wasn't always her.