Chapter 38

After Seth left the kitchen, I grabbed my toasts and put them in a plate. They were cold just like I liked them. I absolutely hated when my peanut butter melted everywhere so I took the habit of leaving them to cool down. I know… I'm a weird person. But that's how I loved it. I took a bite in one of the slices and smiled. They were perfect. The bread was so crunchy that every bite resonated and made it hard for me to listen to what Seth was saying to that girl on the phone. Not that I was trying to listen. OK, I was totally trying to spy on him, but I'd call it curiosity. I didn't care at all, but I was a curious person and I wanted to know who she was. I walked closer to the living room so that I could get a glimpse at the conversation, but I still couldn't hear shit. Seth was talking so low, making it harder for me to understand any word that came out of his mouth. My heart jumped in my chest when I heard him say goodbye and I ran to the counter as quickly as possible. There was no way in hell that I was going to let him know that I was trying to listen to his conversation with another chick. Why was I even trying to do that anyway?

"Sorry about that." he said as he entered the kitchen.

"Never mind."

Seth's face made me realize that I had said that in a very harsh way. It didn't sound good at all. I was trying to look detached from this whole 'a girl is calling you' thing, but I failed miserably. I totally sounded like the jealous girlfriend and that was not my intention.

"I mean… you don't have to apologize…" I added with a softer voice. "You don't owe me anything."

I thought this would do the trick, but apparently it didn't work. My ex-boyfriend was still giving me the look and it made me more and more uncomfortable. I took another bite of my toast so that I can shut my damn mouth. My mom taught me it was impolite to speak with your mouth full, so now I had a real reason to shut the fuck up. Seth let out a sharp laugh and it grinded my gears more than I expected.

"What?" I let out.

"Go ahead, ask me."

"Ask you what?"

"I know you're dying to know who that girl on the phone was."

I wanted to punch his cocky smile off of his face. I had not seen that side of him in forever. He was back to being the asshole he was when I first met him and I forgot how annoying that man could be.

"Aren't you going to ask?" he added.

I hated that he could still read in me like an open book. He knew me better than anyone. Of course I wanted to know who that girl was, who wouldn't? Every damn girl in the world wants to know who the new chick in town is.

"No." I said with a harsh tone.

"Fine."

He turned around and made his way to the refrigerator. The way he said that made me think he was mad and I had no idea why. This whole situation was so weird and I was sick of it. I was the one supposed to be mad, so why was he acting like that? He spent a few minutes looking at his food inside the fridge and the silence between us was unbearable. He finally grabbed and turned around to face me.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked. "You want me to act like the jealous ex-girlfriend?"

"No." he said with a sharp laugh.

"Good. 'Cause I'm not going to." I added. "Anyway, I already know who she is."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, she's that girl on your Instagram pics, isn't she?"

A smile lightened up his face and it made it even harder to follow. One second he was mad, the next he was smiling.

"Someone's been spying on my Instagram…"

"Yeah. Felix." I said to clear things up. "Not me."

My best friend was always stalking up other people Instagram and he would always barge into my room to show me their pics. Especially when it came to Seth. I made it pretty clear to Felix that Seth's life didn't concern me anymore and that he could do whatever pleased him, but deep down inside, I cared a lot more than I wanted. I acted like I didn't care about that chick in the pics, but then I would always go back and look at the pictures when my best friend had his back turned.

"Yeah… Felix." Seth let out.

"Yeah. Felix." I stated, annoyed.

Seth nodded. I couldn't tell if he believed me, but in my mind, that would end that stupid conversation. His phone rang and I was glad it did. I could tell that Seth wasn't done with me but at least that phone call would distract him from me. It was his dad. For a second, I felt bad. With all this stupidity, I almost forgot what had happened and I felt sad for Seth. He just lost his mom and here we were, fighting about something that wasn't important at all. Maybe that's what he needed though. To take his mind off of it for a second. After he hung up the phone, Seth turned to me.

"I have to go." he said.

I nodded, not knowing exactly what to say. He reached for his wallet in his back pocket, took one of his credit cards and threw it on the table. I looked at it for a second before meeting his beautiful brown eyes.

"Use this to book your flight back home." he said as he pointed the card. "I'm sorry you came here for nothing."

"Seth…"

"I'm glad you were here Ali, but it's over now. There's nothing more you could do. I don't want you to miss too much time at your new job. I need to go meet my dad for the arrangement. Take this card and take the next plane."

He smiled at me but I could tell it was fake. He knew me better than anyone but I also knew him very well. I didn't know what else to say so I nodded and picked up the card. He nodded too and without saying another word, he left.

I was staring at the flights on my computer and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what was going on with me, but there was a part of me that didn't want to leave Seth on his own. I didn't want him to be alone, but at the same time, I couldn't stay. He needed someone to go through this. He needed a friend and I couldn't be one. This whole thing earlier made me realize that Seth and I couldn't just be friends. Not after what we've been through. I couldn't stand the fact that there was another girl in his life and I had no idea why. It was not like I had the intention of winning him back. I knew it couldn't work out between us. After everything that happened, it was obvious that life didn't want us together. We weren't meant for each other obviously. But it didn't change the fact that I cared about him and that was why I couldn't just leave like that. I had to do something so I grabbed my phone and did the only I could think of.

"Hello."

I did not expect to hear that voice.

"Hey Dean… Is Roman there?"

"He's driving."

He stopped talking. The silence between us was so intense that I thought he might have hung up the phone until I heard Roman ask who it was.

"Seth's previous chick."

I tried to stay calm and nice but I wanted to yell at him. Since the very beginning, that dude had a problem with me and I never understood why. Now that Seth and I weren't together anymore, he should've been happy right? Well, he was even more of a dick than he ever was.

"Put me on speaker." I said, sharply.

It wasn't a request. It was definitely an order. I was not in the mood to play Dean's game and I needed to talk to Roman.

"It's about Seth."

"It's always about Seth." he replied.

"Put me on the damn speaker phone Dean!"

"Put her on speaker." Roman said in the background.

Dean mumbled something but thankfully he did what I asked. In fact, he probably did it because his friend asked him to. He couldn't say no to Roman. I wanted to thank the big man for ordering his stupid friend to do as I said but I didn't want to piss Dean off even more.

"So what about Seth?" Dean asked before Roman could say anything.

I could say what I wanted about this lunatic but I couldn't deny the fact that he cared about Seth. The two of them were like brothers and Dean had always been protective of him.

"How's his mom?" Roman asked, making my heart break into pieces.

"It's… It's over." I stuttered, trying to hold the tears in. "She's gone."

The guys stayed quiet, making it harder to keep my composure. A single tear fell down my cheek and I quickly wiped it off. I was not going to break down again.

"Listen…" I said after a while. "I need to go back home but I don't want Seth to be alone. He's going through so much and I can't just leave him…"

"So nice of you."

"Shut up Dean." Roman said before I could.

"Do you guys think you can come over?" I asked, ignoring Dean's shitty comment. "I know you're on the road, but…"

"We'll come. We have a show in buffalo in two days and we can come after."

I heaved a sigh of relief. Two days was better than nothing. Seth would be fine for two little day's right? I wished they could come over sooner, but I knew I couldn't ask.

"Thanks Roman."

I said my goodbyes and hung up the phone as I heard the front door open. Seth was back and I was glad he didn't hear my conversation with his friends. I didn't want him to know that I had called them to the rescue. He would argue about the fact that he was alright, that he didn't need anybody. Then I would yell at him that he couldn't stay alone and we would fight over another stupid thing. Seth walked pass the living room without looking at me. He didn't even say a word and went directly to his room. I decided to leave him alone for a while and continue to look at the flights, but I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing. I was distractedly scrolling down without really looking, thinking about Seth and wondering if I should go check up on him.

"Fuck it." I mumbled as I stood up.

I went to his room and found his door closed. I stood in front of it during a few seconds before I finally decided to knock.

"What?" I heard.

I slowly opened the door and tried to mentally prepare myself for what was about to happen. I had no idea how he would be. Was he still mad at me? How did the meeting go? Was he still crying?

"Hey…" I said.

"Hey."

"You OK?"

He was lying face down on his bed with his eyes closed. He looked exhausted and I couldn't blame him. I was too.

"Yeah I'm fine." he said without looking at me. "I thought you'd be gone. Did you book your flight?"

"Not yet… I wanted to…"

"Book it Ali."

"Are you gonna be…"

"I'm gonna be just fine. Go back home."

And with that being said, he turned his head away from me. That conversation was over.