After the eventful morning we all had, Bailey, Ivory and I spent the next of the school day at the diner Lindsay and I had exchanged some words in. I told the girls what went down in the bathroom, leaving out the audio proof I had. I knew for sure I was being played, but my pride wouldn't let me share that with anyone. It was bad enough that Cole knew about it and was probably doing his victory dance somewhere, knowing he had finally proved Black wasn't innocent.
What he didn't know was that I wasn't convinced. The whole Lindsay story just didn't make sense. He wasn't a criminal, I didn't think so, but there were certain things I remembered that made me unable to believe him entirely.
Flashbacks
''See, Aiden, me and you might have more in common than what you think, am I right? So why fight, when we can just join our forces for something we could both benefit from?''
He shook his head, disgusted. ''Me and you, have nothing in common so you better forget about whatever you had in that sick mind of yours, because I am done helping your ass.''
~~~
''That's different'' he said under his breath, loud enough for me to hear. I scoffed and crossed my arms over my chest. ''Sure, Cole.'' I rolled my eyes.
''You don't know what I know so you better drop it and stop accusing me of things I didn't do.''
''I didn't accuse you of anything I simply mentioned what I heard come from your own mouth, in your own words'' I said, trying to hold my ground.
''Should know?'' he chuckled ''You have nothing to do with this so it'd be better for all of us if you'd just stay out of it'' he said, his tone harsh.
~~~
''Then why don't you tell me about it?! It's not that hard Cole, plus I do have something to do with it, I know it now. Aiden told me'' I said, turning to look at him. The car stopped abruptly at a red light, making both of us jolt back in our seats.
''He what?!'' he yelled, his fist colliding with the steering wheel ''That fucking idiot'' he murmured, probably not wanting me to hear, but I did.
Present Time
What a shame that the only person that could give me the information I needed was my tormentor.
"Evelyn" I felt Ivory's hand on my shoulder. I shook my head, coming back to reality. "We lost you for a second, what's up?" she asked, eyes holding sympathy. "Everything's fine, I'm just a little lost, that's all" I told her. I could sense Bailey's eyes on us, studying our conversation intensively. "We'll talk about this after... the commercial break" she said and headed towards the bathroom, making me laugh.
Bailey put a hand on top of my own, making me turn my attention to her. I looked at her, questioningly. "Where do you think all of this is coming from?" she asked, catching me off guard, as someone else would say. "You mean the Aiden situation?" I asked and she nodded.
I huffed, "I have no idea" I said and we shared a moment of silence before I spoke again. "Should I try to get something out of Cole?" I asked and she shook her head. "Aiden" she corrected me, making me scoff.
"I know what you're thinking, but that's the only person that can give you the truth. Talk to Aiden" she pleaded before Ivory took a seat next to me once again. She laughed "Your phone's ringing again" she said and pointed towards the vibrating device. I rolled my eyes, flipping it over to see the caller ID. Three guesses who it was.
"Dude he hasn't stopped calling, would it hurt to answer once, just to see what he wants?" Bailey suggested and I looked away running a hand through my hair, my thoughts all over the place. "Are you serious? No way. He was a pig to her, the only thing he deserves from her now is silence" Ivory fought. I declined the call, listening to Ivory. I was going to talk with him eventually, just not now.
~~~
"...when it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year..." I sang along to the F.R.I.E.N.D.S soundtrack as it could still be heard over the running water of the shower. Hours after the talk with the girls, I was taking a shower, getting ready for my... date? Could you even call it that? I knew I didn't see Bryan romantically, not now, nor when he went to our school.
Thoughts were occupying my brain. Was I leading him on? But how am I leading him on? I saw him once, he wanted to hang out and that's what we're doing. Nope. No one's leading anyone on. But then why am I preparing for this as if I'm meeting the love of my life? Maybe this is all happening because I'm mad at Aiden and need a confidence boost.
I sighed, realizing I was overanalyzing things and stopped myself from going any further, as I knew I was going to go crazy if I continued. I -unfortunately- had to get out of the shower to get ready and I dreaded every second. I wrapped a towel over my body and another around my hair, before stepping out of the shower. I put on a shirt and pair of pants I found laying on my bed and took my hair out of the towel, preparing to fight it with the blow dryer.
I looked at my open closet and pile of clothes that had formed on top of my desk chair. I had spent way too much time thinking about what I'm going to wear that I ended up messing up my room. Ivory didn't help much either, she told me to 'Put on a dress and be sex-ey', a piece of advice I was definitely not going to take into account.
I put the F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode on full volume so that I could still hear it over the blow drye. Cole was the only one home anyway and he was downstairs so I could cause all the sound pollution I wanted. Aiden could be in his room and I could be disrupting him, but I didn't really give a damn about that.
Moving my hand like a crazy person trying to dry my hair, I felt the left side of my bed vibrate, signaling that someone was calling me. Being the anxious-in a rush-unable to form coherent thoughts girl I was at the moment, I didn't think to turn off the blow dryer and ended up answering the call with the chaos as my backround music. "Hello?" I yelled into the device and heard someone faintly speaking "Speak up I can't hear you" I spoke again to whoever was at the other side of the line, as I didn't check before sliding the green button. Finally, I heard them.
"Turn off the fucking blow dryer". I froze.
I did as I was told, holding the phone at a distance from my ear, internally cursing myself out for not checking the caller ID. Aiden had called and I answered, so now I was forced to speak to him. I paused the episode I was watching and contemplated throwing my phone in the closet to pretend there was no signal, but it was too late.
Slowly I put the phone back to my ear. "Yes?" I spoke into the phone, surprised my voice didn't break. "Can we talk?" my eyes widened as the very dreaded phrase came out of his mouth and I had no idea what I should say back. "I can't talk right now, I'm not home" I answered, saying the first -and probably lamest- excuse I could think of. "I can see you through the window, Evelyn" he said, sounding... annoyed? No, no he wasn't annoyed, he seemed... defeated.
I remembered that he had been calling me all day and never got a call back and I decided to be understanding for a moment and let him say what he had to say. I didn't have to agree or run back to him, and probably wouldn't, but he deserves to at least the chance to say something for himself other than "I'm an asshole"
I knew I was being too nice and that I probably shouldn't give him that opportunity, but I knew him and a part of me still hoped that there was more of him than he showed this morning or during that recording.
"I'm sorry. I know you don't want to hear me and I know Cole probably told you something so now you hate me but you haven't given me the chance to explain myself. You said' you heard me' and I don't know what you heard, but I promise it's not what it sounded like. I don't want us to be like this and I surely don't want you to avoid me"
"I don't understand and you're not helping me either. You keep going back and forth between treating me like shit and flirting with me and I won't take any more of it. How can I even be sure it's not what it sounded like? Put yourself in my shoes for a second. I'm in the perfect position to be getting played and I know for sure I'm being lied to. This morning, you humiliated me in front of our friends. What's going on? When are you going to tell me? Where is this coming from? I don't even recognize you, Aiden"
My eyes were starting to tear up again, but I blinked the tears away. I wasn't sad, It was just my body's way of telling me how tired my heart was after everything it had been through in such a short period of time.
"I've told you I'll explain everything, I just need time-"
"How much more time Aiden? Huh? I've been hearing this excuse from the moment you came here. I don't have any more time to give to you. Don't you see that this is all pointless? Whatever is going on, you can't fix it on your own and you can't keep me in the dark about it for much longer, either. You need to give me the answers I need, and if you don't I'll just find them myself-"
"-You can't find-" he started, but I cut him off. "-Watch me. I'll fucking find Lindsay and get my ass beat again, I don't care. I'm sorry Aiden, but my patience has run thin." I spoke and removed my phone from my ear, ready to hang up, when I heard his voice coming from behind me.
"Wait" he yelled, the sound coming from his window. I stuck my head out of mine, hoping I wouldn't catch a cold as my hair was still wet. "I'll tell you what you need to know, just don't go to Lindsay" he begged and the recording on Cole's phone started playing in the back of my head.
"Why not? Are you scared she'll tell me something you don't want me to know?" I pushed him further and he ran a hand through his hair, a frustrated sigh leaving his lips. "This is all Cole's fault" he muttered, making me even angrier.
"I told you, stop talking about my brother" I yelled, and prayed that said brother couldn't hear us from the living room.
"You believe him, don't you?" he scoffed and I huffed "Why shouldn't I? He's not keeping me in the dark about things that involve me like you do" I edged him, seeing the veins in his neck start to get visible as he got angry.
"You're unbelievable" he said but I ignored him, shutting the window and shooting him a middle finger. Not a second later, he was calling me. "You're more annoying than a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, you know that?" I spoke first and heard him chuckle from the other end "I'm not finished, you can shut your window all you want but I'm coming over there"
I froze, blood rushing to my head. "No don't! Please, don't. Cole's here and I'm getting ready so please just don't" I begged and hoped that he would have some respect left in him and listen to me.
"I don't give a fuck about either" he stated, as expected and I rolled my eyes. "Where are you going, anyway?" he asked and I sighed, "It's none of your business, but I'm going out with Bryan" I said, a cheeky laugh leaving his lips when he heard. "Oh, Bryan. Bryan the golden boy, Bryan is the greatest guy of them all, let's all stop what we're doing to applaud him" he spat, irony lacing his voice, making me want to jump into the phone just to smack his arrogant face.
"You're the one to fucking talk? Do you even realize you're not in the place to be making comparisons here? Are you serious?" I spoke, charging at him, but he did nothing but chuckle at my words, making me angrier.
My stance changed in an instant, though, when I heard him fumble with the keys "No, Aiden, please don't, I can't handle you two fighting again, please don't" I begged, realizing he was about to come here.
That seemed to work, because for once I heard silence come from the other end. I heard a breath escape his lips, and finally he dropped the keys , letting me let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding.
"Fine. But I need to see you. Tonight" he insisted and I ran a hand through my hair. "I'm going out with Bryan tonight, we'll do it tomorrow" I explained, my tone calm. "Do I look like I give a fuck about Bryan?Tonight. Text me when you get home" he said, sure that I would and I could feel that he was about to hand up.
I smiled "Like hell I will" I replied and felt him tense up, before he laughed. "You shouldn't have said that" was the last thing I heard before he hang up.
Dear Lord, please have mercy.
~~~
What and ironic title am I right
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