The Lying Game

41.

What's yours will find you.

E M A N I

"I didn't have a chance to explain myself the other night." Will starts. We had just finished our dinner and moved to the living room. It was simple pleasantries throughout dinner and it felt weird. Neither of us knew what the say and both of us were waiting for the other to cave in. Will finally decided to break the ice so here we go.

"Once we bought the house—once I bought the house." He corrects himself. "I started working for my dad and my anxiety attacks kept coming back. I'd always had nightmares and could never sleep a full night. I didn't feel safe in that room anymore. I could barely breathe when I went in there." He stops himself and takes a deep breath. "I only came into the room that night because I wanted to show you my piano. But everything felt right and I honestly felt tired for once." His eyes silently beg for me to believe him and I suddenly feel bad for not listening last night.

"Thank you for telling me that and I wanted to apologize in the way I acted last night. I shouldn't have went off like that." I respond.

"But what you said was true." He adds. "and I appreciated the honesty."

"I wish I said it in a better way with more context, again I'm sorry Will."

"Thank you Mani." I used to hate it when he called me that because that's what Jason called me. But sitting in front of Will right now, they're not the same person. I would've never had these kind of conversations with Jason. As much as Will thinks I'm this brutally honest person, it's also I just feel really comfortable being honest with him.

"What did you wanna tell me?" Will leans his face in my line of direction, pulling me back from my thoughts.

Are we reqlly doing this? Yes E, stay true to your manz. That was a Jasmine response not me.

I stand up and pace a little. "Oh um It's hard for me to say this but this is withholding my growth and this new chapter of my life with you. But um," I face back to him and deep breath. "The person I was previously with before we met was abusive and treated me terribly: emotionally & physically." William's facial features drop and he looks concerned and taken aback.

Keep going, E. "We were together at Georgetown from sophomore to senior year. He started getting aggressive senior year and it got too bad I had to seek help and file a restraining order against him. He was kicked out of the school and went to jail for something else. He just recently got out and he came to see me."

"He was here?!" William stands up and his booming voice made me jump. His nostrils were flaring and his chest was heaving up and down. He looked tenser than a rock.

"Nonono, he never came here. He contacted me multiple times and I tried my best to ignore him. But there was that time we ran into him." William's head perks up. "Do you remember when we went to the cupcake shop late at night and that man asked for a picture with you?" He squints trying to remember and his eyes widen as he remembers.

"That was him?" I nod my head. "Emani that was months ago, is he still harassing you?"

I shake my head. "No it was taken care of."

"How?" He questions. He's trying not to display anymore anger but his fists are still clenched.

Man he's really not gonna like this part. "Jasmine knew about him and she told Phoenix and they had it handled." William sits back down and his leg bounces up and down while staying silent.

"Will?"

He looks at me and looks back at the ground. I move closer to him. "I'm supposed to looking out for you. I don't want people doing what I should be doing." There's more to it than that but he won't say it.