"Dan, what are you thinking about?" Stacey sidled up to me, wrapping her slim, tan, arms around my neck and sliding into my lap as if she weighed no more than a kitten. She probably didn't, in reality, as her ribs protruded from her body and she had collarbones could have cut through steel. Unable to move in fear of launching her off my lap and onto the floor, my spine was pressed into the bed post. I attempted to smile through the pain.
"Just about how beautiful you are," I lied, trying to get Liz out of my head to no avail. Stacey practically simpered.
"You're sweet," She smiled cutely and pressed her lips to mine; breaking away shortly afterwards.
"What's wrong?"
"No, nothing. It was just a pleasant surprise, that's all." I said, not entirely truthfully. Stop thinking about Liz, focus on the gorgeous girl you're with that actually likes you, I instructed myself. I leaned forward so I had better access to Stacey's lips and melted into the kiss. It was nice. Nice being the operative word. There were no fireworks or explosions; it was just a nice kiss that would probably lead to nice upper body fondling which would probably lead to nice sex.
After a while I was ashamed to admit that my mind began to wonder and I realised that I was bored. I never thought it was possible to get bored of kissing a beautiful girl but apparently it was when the girl in question was someone whom, when describing her, you used adjectives like 'nice'.
"Um...Dan, I..." Stacey began, as something vibrated in my front pocket. I tipped my head back and laughed.
"It was just my phone," I explained, pulling it out of my pocket and checking my inbox. I had a new text. From Liz.
"I need to...just, one sec." I mumbled, getting to my feet so quickly that the blood rushed to my head. I scanned the text, then reread it. Once, twice, then three times. It was so typically Liz, the text, that I almost wasn't surprised. It read, simply, 'One last chance, Dan. Give me one final chance.'
"Who's it from?" Stacey asked, trying to peer over my shoulder. I swerved away from her, tilting the phone so it faced towards the ground.
"Oh, just Phil." I lied, something that was becoming quite a habit. "I'd better see what he wants, just give me two seconds." I made sure to close the door behind me so there was no chance of Stacey eavesdropping on mine and Liz's conversation, which I didn't doubt was beneath her. Liz picked up on the first ring.
"We don't belong together, Liz." I said, without even a hello.
"We do. It's me and you, Dan. It's always been me and you. We were the couple that everyone thought would last forever, remember. And we can. We can last forever."
"No. We can't. Our relationship is so fucking confusing; one day we're in love and the next day you're not talking to me. I can't deal with you anymore, Liz."
"Don't talk like that. Don't you dare talk like that. A day hasn't passed where I haven't been in love with you, Daniel James Howell, and you know that."
"Love isn't the basis of a relationship. Other factors have to be taken into account," I said.
"Fucking hell, Dan, can't you speak for yourself for once in your life instead of sounding like you're quoting a fucking law textbook." Liz snapped.
"See. This is why us will never work out. We can't go five minutes without having an argument."
"We can work on that, though. We can make it work, Dan." Liz's voice dropped to a whisper. It sounded like she was fighting off tears.
"No." I said bluntly. "How many times have you said that during the course of our relationship?"
"Too many times. But we're meant to be together, Dan. To be horrifically cheesy, you cant fight destiny." Liz said, and I could hear the laughter in her voice. I couldn't help but smile.
"I have a Stacey."
"And I have a Jack...at least I guess I do."
"You guess?"
"It wasn't exactly love at first sight." Liz admitted, after a long pause. "He's nice," She added. There we go, that ambiguous adjective again; 'nice'. "But he's not you." Liz concluded. I didn't speak for a few moments. I could hear her swallowing repeatedly on the other line; she was evidently nervous.
"A trial run." I said quickly. I could almost taste her confusion.
"What?!"
"I'll give you a trial run. We'll start our relationship anew. I'll ring the doorbell when I come to pick you up for a date instead of just walking straight in. I'll take you to restaurants and ask you about your life, rather than have us order in Domino's and lounge about in jeans. It'll be new and exciting and we won't dwell on the past. What happened, happened."
"So everything can't just go back to the way it was...back when everything was easy?"
"No. We can't pretend like it's all fucking a-okay, Liz." I started to get agitated. Why did she insist on pretending like everything was perfect when it wasn't. The only thing that I was sure of in all of this was that I was in love with her. I was completely, irrefutably in love with Liz Howard.
But sometimes love wasn't enough.
