"Don't let me interrupt the latest Billy bashing session." Billy strolled through the living room as he shot a glance towards her. "I'm just getting the last of my things and then I'll be out of here."
"Kyle told us about your little arrangement," Jack said dryly. He turned towards his brother, his eyes sizing him up. It was hard to know what Billy's true motives were. There were times he thought he might be genuine. The concern he'd seen in his eyes when he'd showed up at the hospital seemed completely sincere, but the petty, vindictive tone in his voice now seemed equally earnest.
"You said you wanted me close by, Jack. Your words, not mine. I think your exact phrasing was something about wanting to know my exact whereabouts when I hit bottom."
Phyllis cut her eyes at him. "You told him that? You said you wanted him to stay here?"
"I thought it was better than him taking off again to who knows where to do who knows what, but if it's gonna be a problem … if you don't think you can handle being here with …"
"Last time I checked this was the Abbott house and she's not an Abbott … at least not yet. She's a little banged up right now, so I'll give her a few weeks before she has you at her feet again."
"Stop it." She hissed the words through clenched teeth as she felt the familiar venom rise up inside her. "You're being an ass."
"Just being myself. You see, I'm tired of trying to twist myself into lotus positions to be someone that you want, someone that you approve of. I've been doing it my whole life and I actually convinced myself that you were different … I convinced myself that you weren't like the Abbotts, that you weren't like Victoria, that you weren't like my mother and all the other people that have tried to keep me in line all these years. I convinced myself that you really accepted me for who I am, flaws and all, but it was a lie, wasn't it? It was all a nice story to tell to the gullible idiot who'd believe it."
"That's not true. That's not what I was doing. I wasn't thinking that. I wasn't …"
"You know what? It doesn't even matter now, because I know better. I've seen the light." He lifted his hands above his head as he raised his voice dramatically. "I know now what everyone tried to tell me about was true. I know that you can't be trusted. I know that you can't commit. I know that you can't be honest. You made a fool of me once, but you won't do it again." He stepped closer to her, the pain on her face inspiring more anger in him. A month ago, her pain would have wrecked him. He would have done anything in the world to take it away, but now it seemed almost offensive. How could she stand there in front of him and presume to act wounded? After what she'd done? Everything he'd done to her had been retaliation. Too much? Too far? Probably. But he would have never even considered such an act had she not struck first.
"That's enough, Billy." Jack's voice was stern as it echoed through the now still room. "Phyllis doesn't need this right now and I'm not gonna stand here and listen to it. Nothing productive is happening here. I've asked Phyllis to stay here. She needed a place to take it easy for a bit and I needed her help with some things at Jabot. I'm not kicking you out of the house, but I'm not gonna let you stand here and berate her because of your bad choices."
"My bad choices? As if she played no part in this at all? As if nothing she …" He stopped as he saw Jack's hand raise.
"The sequence of events has been well established for all of us here … for the whole town for that matter. We don't need to rehash it over and over again. You said you're moving on, so why you don't you do that? Get your things and go get settled into the pool house." He watched as Billy stood still, his eyes slowly moving from the floor to her face.
"Fine," he hissed. "I don't need to be here anyway."
She exhaled slowly as she slumped down on the sofa.
"You alright?" Jack placed his hand on hers as he studied her face. "I know that was exactly what you were trying to avoid."
"Well, it was bound to happen eventually. And he's not completely wrong, Jack. I've lived up to every awful thing everyone warned him about. I've done exactly what people told him I would do and no matter how much I apologized for it, it doesn't change the fact that it happened."
"No," Jack watched as she leaned back against the sofa. His hands quickly fluffed the pillow behind her. "It doesn't change what happened, but it certainly doesn't excuse his behavior either. What he did … I don't …"
"Please." She brought her hand to her head. "I don't even want to think about that right now. I can't."
"Of course. Of course not. Why don't I help you get settled into my room and you can just rest for the rest of the afternoon. I'm sure you can find some of those crazy dramatic movies you like so much."
She couldn't help but smile at the suggestion. "They could probably use my life as a solid plot line of one of those," she groaned. "I swear, I thought this kind of stuff was behind me. I really thought that I'd come to the point in my life where all the chaos was in my past and I could look forward to a future with some stability and …" She stopped, confused by the look on Jack's face. "What? What's that look for?"
"Phyllis? Stable? I don't know about that. I think you've already liked to keep things interesting and there's nothing wrong with that. Don't let Billy get in your head. He's just trying to throw barbs right now and he's gonna use every weakness he can think of to make you doubt yourself. It's how he keeps from looking at his own faults."
"That might be true, but you gotta admit, with everything I've done and all the mistakes I've made, I must be crazy to still be making the same stupid choices."