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44: "Quit calling me Christopher."

Bria

I woke up in the middle of the night, still next to Chris. His dad didn't say anything about me staying here?

I looked over to see if he was asleep, instead he was sitting up, hunched over, staring at his phone. At this time at night?

"Chris." I said, startling him.

"Yeah?" He asked, locking his phone quickly.

Throughout our relationship, I'd never suspected him of doing things behind my back. Ever. So right now I felt ridiculous. He couldn't.

"Who ya textin?"

"My Dad. He left earlier, going to visit this guy from high school."

"Ohh. Cool. Sorry about falling asleep before we could..you know."

"It's cool." He said, going back to typing away on his phone.

"It's not too late." I said sitting up.

"Mhm." He mumbled, not really listening.

"Chris." I said more sternly, swiftly taking the phone out of his hand.

"Bria stop-" he said trying to pry the phone from my hands.

"Can you just talk to me for a second?!"

I looked at the unlocked phone, a text thread was still put up. The top read

Addison

I didn't bother reading the texts, I figured I shouldn't.

"Is this a friend of yours?" I asked him.

"Don't act like that, we aren't technically together."

"Since when did you care about technicalities?"

"Since...well- Braden- and.."

"Mmhmm." I said calmly, before laying back down. I'm not gonna flip out and explode on him. He's right, we aren't together.

Not by just talking to some random guy to piss him off, that's just stupid. Just by treating our relationship as one of a friendship, that's clearly what it is to him.

"Bria I'm sorry."

"Bria."

"I'm not dating her or anything, we were just talking."

"Do what you want Christopher, I can't control you." I told him, trying to force myself to go back to sleep.

—

Christopher

I woke up with a guilty feeling in my stomach, hopefully Bria had gotten over last night, and we'd be good now. She was in my bathroom doing her hair when I decided to finally speak up.

"Going to work?"

"Yeah."

"You want me to go get Forest now or-"

"It's cool, I'm bringing him with me today."

"In the store?"

"I just stay in the back and sort clothes, I think he'll be ok Christopher." She said chuckling.

"Chris." I corrected her.

"Hm?" She looked over at me.

"Chris. Quit calling me Christopher."

I thought we were past that shit a long time ago.

"I'm calling you by your name." She said, stepping out of the bathroom.