One Hell Of A Life

chapter forty two: stubbornness.

Simon POV:

"Freya, I don't want to hear it; I'm sorry." I put my head in my hands, elbows planted firmly on the kitchen island.
"I won't stop saying it, mate. You need to realise that Freezy's in the wrong–"
"Oh, yeah? Where's your proof, then?!" I slammed my hands down. After receiving no reply, I retaliated with: "I thought so."
"That's weak." Freya flexed her jaw in frustration, "Bare weak. Look..."

"Can you not live with the fact that Em cheated, or something?" I shouted.
"I can't live with the fact that those messages are forged, and you're not giving her a chance to explain!" She pressed a hand to her forehead.
"An explanation isn't enough, sometimes." I muttered.
"What else do you want? Why are you so obsessed with evidence?" Freya sat back down, looking straight at me.
"Because, as far as I'm concerned, if there's nothing to prove, then it's a false allegation." I flexed my jaw, sticking my chin out defiantly.

She sighed, cursing my stubbornness under her breath.

Em POV:

I needed to stop mourning myself. I needed to get out of fucking bed, out of this spiral of depression I was falling down. And, as ill as I felt, I knew that it'd be wholly better for me.

For two hours, I was in the gym. Living near Harry, we use the same gym, and I ran into him and Lux working out.

"Fitness February, huh?" I nudged Harry, next to me on the treadmill.
"Yup. Top of the leaderboard." He replied rather proudly.
"Get in." I grinned.
"How are you doing?" Harry made eye contact with me, furrowing his brows in sympathy.
"I-I'd rather not, if that's al–"
"No; sorry, my bad." He looked down guiltily.

"Aloha, motherfuckers!" Lux grabbed my shoulders.
"Hello, Callum." I rolled my eyes, a smile tugging at my lips.
"And how are we this glorious morning, Olatunji?" He asked me.
"Decent." I told him.
"You sure?" He tapped my back comfortingly.
"Mmh hmm." I nodded.

I wasn't decent. Well, actually, I was sort of getting there. But not in a place where I was getting over the whole fiasco.

It'd been over a week, goddamn it. I needed to pull myself together. My fans were wondering where I was - with me not posting on YouTube or any of my socials - and weather I was okay. The sheer amount of tweets that I had been seeing with my name mentioned was a reminder of how prevalent I was, and how much of an influence I could make on others.

I did a bit of cardio, but feeling dizzy after just twenty minutes' jogging, I did bail on the treadmill and decided to work on my arms with weights.

An hour after that, I could feel the lactic acid buildup in my deltoids especially, so I stretched off and spoke to Harry and Cal again on the way out.

"Only two hours?" Harry grinned.
"Yeah, Dinho; not feeling too good." I confessed.
"Go to the doc's about it, Em. Just to be safe." Lux advised.
"I'll be going in a couple weeks, anyway, for a check up, so I'll give it a mention then. I don't see much point in going before that appointment." I shrugged, taking a sip of my water.

"We don't live in America - healthcare's free. You might as well, man." He nodded.
"Nah, it's fine. I'm sure it's nothing serious, anyway. Just a few dizzy spells here and there–" I hiccuped, "and those."
"I mean, if there's no way we can coax you..." Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Nope." I grinned widely.
"Stubborn child." Cal rolled his eyes.
"Hey," I slapped his arm lightly, "rude."

Cal POV:

When Emmy had left, Harry and I began talking amongst ourselves.

"God, she's just like Simon, isn't she?" Harry shook his head.
"Harry!" I hissed.
"Well, it's better me saying it now than in front of her, isn't it?" He pointed out.
"Well, with all the influence he had on her life when they younger - it's just what you expect." I replied.

"I would never have imagined them being together, you know." Harry confessed, "They just seemed too close as friends to start a relationship."
"I could tell that she liked him." I shrugged.
"For how long?"
"It was on and off," I reckoned, "I don't think she ever got to the point - when he was with Talia and even before then - that she liked him that much, y'know?"
"I mean, good. It was better for everyone, that way." He said.

"You're right, though. They pretty much grew up as siblings. Fought like brother and sister, too." I almost chuckled. "I just can't believe that it's all over."

a/n:

shortish one, sorry!

i can't emphasise enough how much i appreciate the support on this book. we're on over 8.5k reads at this stage, which seems absolutely surreal. thank you so much.

thanks for reading,

lee x