Three ways to love

Chapter Nineteen

"I've been hanging out with Johnny lately and apparently we're friends. I always thought I couldn't be friends with my ex"
"Wait, when did you start hanging out with Johnny again?" Nini asked.
"About couple weeks ago. Why?"
"So you don't find it odd that he broke with his girlfriend roughly about the same time you two started hanging out"
"He broke up with his girlfriend?" Naomi was confused.
"Based on the look on your face, he didn't tell you"
"No, he did not"
"Well when he broke up with her, she was pretty pissed or at least that's what Jaemin told me" Nini explained.
"I need to go talk to him"
"Yeah. See you later"
"Bye"

||

She knocked on his door and he opened it with a smile. She looked mad.

"Hey Nao, what are you doing here? Is everything okay?" He asked as he let her in.
"No, everything is not okay. Why didn't you tell me that you broke up with your girlfriend?... two weeks ago"
"Shit"
"Yeah, shit. I just have to ask. Did you break up with her because of me?"
"No... Yes... Sort of"
"Sort of?" She was confused.
"I told her... about last summer. She did not take it well..."
"What do you mean?"
"Well she tore some of my clothes, she spread a rumor around the campus that I'm a manwhore and now you're not the only one Mark won't speak to and then she called me all kinds of names"
"So she's crazy"
"Yeah, pretty much. Someone should definitely warn Mark"
"What do you mean?"
"My ex and Mark's girlfriend are sisters"
"Well that explains a lot"

||

"Well, welcome to singlehood. It's actually pretty fun when you get used to it"
"About that, look Naomi there's something I've been meaning to say" He said as he looked at his hands.
"Oh no no no. You're not saying what I think you're saying"
"What do you think I'm gonna say?"
"Something like 'You're single, I'm single, maybe we could get back together because we were so perfect'"

A moment of silence occurred.

"I still love you"
"I love you too but if you don't recall, we broke up for a reason"
"Ohh, we broke up because you had a crush on Mark"
"It wasn't a crush, I was in love with him and I hate myself for this but I still am"
"But he doesn't deserve you!"
"Neither do you! You lied to me all summer and now you lied again. I really thought we could be friends but it's true what they say; you can't be friends with your ex" She said as she walked out the door.

||

"How did it go?" Nini asked Naomi as Naomi walked to her room and sat on the bed.
"We're not friends anymore... You were right, he still had feelings for me"
"Damn. Well maybe someday you can be friends again"
"Yeah" Naomi started tearing up all of a sudden.
"What's wrong?"
"It's just lately I've been feeling really blue because Christmas is coming and I usually spend this time of the year with Mark"

Suddenly Nini got an idea.

"I'm so sorry to do this right now but I just remembered that there was something I needed to do. Are you gonna be okay?"
"Yeah. Go do your thing" Naomi assured.

||

Nini knocked on Mark's door. He opened it.

"Sis, what are you doing here so late?" He asked as he let her in.
"I'm so fucking mad at you"
"Woah, what did I do?"

"What did you do!? Let me tell you what you did. You left Naomi alone when she needed you the most, when all she wanted was a friend who was there for her. Almost every night I hear her cry and I know it's because she misses you. She hates herself for missing you so much. You're the reason she doesn't hang out in our group anymore because it hurts her that you pretend like she doesn't exist. Now she hangs out with her other friends all her free time and I barely ever get to hang out with her. It's all because of you! An hour ago she cried because it's Christmas soon and she's used to spending it with you. Worst of all she's going to be so devastated when I tell her that she's going to have to spend her birthday by herself because I have a school thing I can't miss. How could be such an inconsiderate asshole that you can't see how badly she's hurting!? I hate you so much!"
"But who am I to convince you. Maybe this will light up something in your stupid fucking head" Nini added as she handed him a flash drive.
"What's in this?"
"The songs she wrote about you" Nini said as she walked out of his apartment.

Once she was gone, Mark went to his home studio and put the flash drive in his computer and started listening.

On the second song he could hear her voice crack from holding in her tears.

Once the songs were over, he was about to close audio but then he heard her voice.

"I hate that I wrote these for you. I hate that I'm still hoping that you'll come back. It's all for nothing because you clearly don't care about me, I guess you never did..." She sobs at the end of her sentence and then the audio ends.

"What have I done...?"