A/N: I wanted to thank all of you for your wonderful reviews. It means the world to me that you would invest your time in something that I wrote. I've tried to make this longer based on what some of you said. I hope you like it xx
Maeve saw Otis walking towards her. Seeing the stressed and confused look on his face, every single bone in her body was telling her to run. She took a deep breath; she knew if she walked away from him now, he might never walk towards her again.
"Hey Maeve." Otis said, the nervousness evident in his voice.
"Hey." Maeve said, trying to seem calm.
"I'm sorry." Otis said.
"For what?" Maeve asked, confused at what Otis was apologising for.
"I shouldn't have come after you like that. After everything we've been through, I should've known you would've never pretended not have gotten the message. I just.. You were so mad at me and you had every right to be. I couldn't help but feel like maybe you just didn't want to complicate things." Otis said.
"It's okay, if the roles were reversed, I would've thought the same thing. But for what it's worth, I never got that message; Isaac deleted it before I ever got a chance to hear it. We aren't together anymore." Maeve said, blurting out the last part without much thought.
"I didn't mean to cause problems between you guys." Otis said, even though he was really happy to hear they weren't together anymore.
"You didn't. This was more about Isaac's compulsive need to feel like he was protecting me when in reality he was just making everything a lot worse." Maeve said.
"Well I'm sorry." Otis said.
"Are you? Really?" Maeve asked, suddenly feeling a little pissed off.
"Well, I thought you liked him and break ups suck." Otis said. He had a feeling he had said the wrong thing.
"Is that really all you have to say?" Maeve asked.
"I.. Um.. I just want you to be happy, Maeve." Otis said, knowing it wasn't what she wanted to hear, the second the words left her mouth.
"Are you really not going to address that message?" Maeve asked, charging towards Otis a little bit.
"I.. I didn't know if you wanted me to." Otis said, stepping back as Maeve approached him.
"It's not even about that, it's about what you want Otis. There was a reason why you sent me that message. So what is it? Do you want to pretend you didn't send it, because we can." Maeve said, crossing her arms across her chest. She was getting done with Otis' shit .She knew opening herself up was a mistake. Whenever she did, someone made her feel stupid for letting them in.
Otis knew he had fucked up, bad. He was trying to find the right words to fix what his awkwardness had screwed up but before he could, Eric walked up to him and Maeve.
"I'm so glad you two are talking again!" Eric said, putting an arm around both Maeve and Otis.
Otis and Maeve didn't say anything, they just stared at each other in the same way they had at that day in the bathroom.
"I interrupted something again, didn't I?" Eric asked, removing his arms from around the two of them.
"Not really. We're just back to the same old shit. Nothing really changes with us, does it Otis?" Maeve asked, storming off before Otis could say anything.
"Maeve! Wait!" Otis called after her but she was already down the hall.
"What the hell was that?" Eric asked.
"Maeve and Isaac broke up." Otis said, leaning his head against the wall of lockers.
"That's great! Why are you both so upset then?" Eric asked.
"Because she asked me about the message and I didn't say anything." Otis said.
"Why not?" Eric asked, clearly confused by how dumb Otis was being, again.
"I just panicked. I wanted to find the right words but they never come to me." Otis said, sighing.
"Do you even want to be with Maeve?" Eric asked, suddenly getting serious.
"Of course I do. Why would you even ask me that?" Otis asked, sounding a little offended.
"Because you keep sabotaging yourself. It's almost like just when you're about to finally get together, something in your brain goes off and you make sure you can't just say how you feel." Eric said.
"It's not that easy to tell someone you love them, you know?" Otis said.
"It's not that, you told her you loved her before. I think it's about your dad." Eric said.
"How is this about my dad?" Otis asked, turning to face Eric. It always struck a nerve when his dad was brought up. Of course he loved him but he had also scarred him in so many ways that he didn't know where to begin healing himself.
"I think you're worried about hurting Maeve. You're worried you're going to cheat on her or not be there for her. And somehow denying yourself her feels like a better idea than being the one who breaks her heart." Eric said.
"All of that would've been true with Ola too, so why did I choose to be with her?" Otis asked, clearly offended.
"Because what you felt for Ola was nowhere near what you feel for Maeve, which is why you're being like this. The fucked up part of this is that, you think by not being with her, you're protecting her from a world of hurt but what you're actually doing is making her feel like she isn't the person you want. You're not your father, Otis. You never have been. But by spending your life trying to not be like him, you're going to become him. This sabotaging a relationship that you want, that would be good for you, that's classic Remi." Eric said.
Otis tried to say something in response, anything that would get Eric to stop talking about this. He wanted to drag his feet, deny the clear truth in Eric's words but he couldn't.
"Otis, you need to stop overthinking yourself into not living your life." Eric said.
Otis was about to say something but before he could the bell rang. Eric gave him a supportive smile and walked away. Otis kind of wanted to look for a room where he could lock himself. He had gone and ruined this, again. Maybe it was because somewhere deep down; he felt he didn't deserve Maeve. But god, did he love her. He knew it wasn't Isaac he had to fight for Maeve; he had to fight himself, his own demons.
Maeve texted Aimee as she ran to the bathroom with tears in her eyes.
"I came as soon as I saw your texts. What's wrong?" Aimee asked, walking towards Maeve who was standing by the sink.
"I told Otis that Isaac and I broke up." Maeve said, wiping her tears.
"What did he say?" Aimee asked, putting her arms around Maeve.
"He said he was sorry and he didn't mean to cause problems between us. I asked if he wanted to talk about the message and before he could say much, Eric came and interrupted us." Maeve said, putting her head on Aimee's chest.
"It kind of seems like that conversation was incomplete but it wasn't bad. Why are you crying?" Aimee asked.
"Because I got so mad at him during the conversation, it felt like he wanted to do anything but talk about the message. And the fact he was talking to Ruby before that made me feel like he was kind of over it." Maeve said.
"I was with you till he talking to Ruby, they seemed like they were just friends." Aimee said.
"He was all smiley and Ruby was talking to him at school, she would never do that if it wasn't important. God, I hate this. I knew I shouldn't have been vulnerable. People really are the gift that keeps on giving huh? You let them in and they just fucking let you down." Maeve said, sobs escaping her lips between words.
"I don't think things are that bad, babe. This is just classic you and Otis. You guys are horrible at communicating. Especially Otis, he gets really awkward and squirmy at times. Maybe it's hard to talk about his feelings for him too." Aimee said.
"His whole job is helping people with their feelings. How can he be so bad at dealing with his own?" Maeve asked, still feeling really mad at Otis.
"It's really easy dealing with other people, dealing with your own crap is a whole other ball game. Anyone can tell he's crazy about you, Maeve. Just don't give up on him yet." Aimee said.
"But what if he isn't, what if this is yet another situation that ends with me heartbroken?" Maeve asked.
"You've invested too much of your heart into him to not give this a real shot, Maeve. " Aimee said.
Maeve just looked up at Aimee but didn't say anything. She was just so tired of feeling like this. She hugged Aimee tighter than before, hoping the hug would put the pieces of her that were breaking back together.
