Tell It Like It Is
Chapter 24
"Oh. It's just you," Anya muttered sleepily as she released the door and let it slowly swing closed in his face. Corey and Lizzy, who stood nearby brandishing a golf club and over mitts, shot her questioning looks as Anya pulled off her sleeping mask and adjusted her pajamas. "It's Will," she muttered and both girls' confusion doubled.
"Why did you close the door on him?" Corey asked, still hugging her oven mitts for safety and rushing across the room to open the door again.
Lizzy shot Anya a shared disbelieving look. "Are you kidding me? How about because less than 12 hours ago he agreed to marry another woman?"
Corey shrugged and tried not to smile. "Closure right?" she said far too brightly for such an ungodly hour then swung their apartment door open again. "You weren't leaving were you?" she shouted down the hall without even looking. About half a second later she realized that Will was standing in their doorway, his nose had to have been pressed against the door not moments before.
"Why would I leave?" Will asked as Corey opened the door wider to signal that he enter.
"You honestly let him in?" Anya asked in disbelief. "Who are you and what did you do with my pessimistic roommate?"
Corey smiled against her nature and shoved Anya in the direction of their rooms. "C'mon," she prodded, "don't you have a hot date with the stockbroker tomorrow?"
Anya glared daggers at Will, but her silent protests fell on deaf ears as he was locked in a staring battle with Lizzy. Eventually, she gave up and followed Corey back to their rooms.
"So…" Will breathed eventually, his eyes still locked into Lizzy's.
Lizzy shrugged. "Looking for a little rebound action?" she asked simply.
"No," he replied quickly.
"Then why are you here?" she asked, smiling slightly, as if she couldn't care less.
Will stuck out his bottom lip as if calculating odds or doing addition in his head. "How about because I love you?"
Lizzy snorted and tried not to laugh. "You didn't really expect me to jump into your arms with that declaration, did you?" she asked, her face etched with humor and not the bitterness that it once held. "That wouldn't have worked on me even when I was sixteen and completely smitten with you."
"I'm not stupid-"
"Really?" she squeaked, drawing out the eally. "Because intelligent men don't actually go through with their weddings when they claim to love someone else."
Will rolled his shoulders around, as if loosening up for a big boxing match. "So? It's not like I actually got married…"
Lizzy practically cackled. "Because your fiancé is a cheating whore, which I had warned you about, not because you were having second thoughts."
"But I was having second thoughts. Second and third and fourth and hundredth thoughts, for that matter. I just felt obligated," he replied, her light tone starting to make him frustrated. If she wouldn't even take him seriously…
"Well then you did a great job forcing yourself to stop thinking," she muttered, her face still pressed into a superior smile.
"God, why can't you just stop being a smart ass and let me love you?" he asked, tugging at his hair in frustration.
She scoffed at him. "Because every time I do that, I seem to get hurt the whole exchange. It's like you flit into my life and make me fall for you whenever you feel like it, but then move on, because I'm not good enough. I'm not your 'one,' apparently"
"But you are," he replied, gesturing emphatically.
"No, I'm just the one that got away," she replied. She was still so composed. A big part of Will just wanted her to get angry.
"Maybe in the past you were, but not anymore. This time I'm not letting you get away. This time you can't talk me out of it. I'm not leaving this hallway. I'll sit for however long it takes. I'll wait until I waste away because that's how I feel without you. Wasted."
"Oh cut the lines," Lizzy replied evenly. "This isn't a cheesy romance novel. This one you don't get to talk your way out of. You and I are history. Our lives are just too different, our personalities clash, and we've both just hurt each other in so many ways that we can't even take it back."
"But being without you would hurt the most-" he attempted.
"Shut up," she interjected, her voice rising merely a decibel. "You always say those stupid cheesy lines. They worked when I was 16, but not anymore. Don't tell me what you think you should say. Tell me what you want to say, Will. Tell it like it is."
Will took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine all the words that floated through his mind every time he looked at Melanie even though they were about Lizzy. "You are the biggest question mark in my life, Lizzy. You're… the one thing I can't control. I hate that I can't make you do anything. It drives me insane, and yet I miss it when it's gone.
"You kick in your sleep, did you know that? You kick me in the shins and in the morning I used to have bruises. One night you actually managed to pop me right in the jaw and remember how I told you that Eddie accidentally punched me over a violent game of Hungry-Hungry Hippos? You used to kick me awake at night and you know what sucks about it? Now I look at my bruise free shins and I think something just seems wrong. Or I wake up in the middle of the night, swearing that I felt someone kick me.
"You're my question mark. I want my question mark back… because without it my life is just a paragraph punctuated by periods."
Lizzy looked at him for a second then laughed. "You know, there are always exclamation points."
Will rolled his eyes and threw his hands up as she continued to laugh. "How are you taking this so lightly?"
Lizzy shrugged. "Guess I just learned to live without your snoring, which is the reason I used to kick you by the way, and the way your hair stands up like you've been electrocuted because you pull on it when you're frustrated. Sure I miss those things constantly. Some days I wake up and my body just kind of aches for you. But the bad things outweigh the good. The many hours I spent crying over you are twice as long as the ones I spent laughing with you. I'm tired of hurting."
Suddenly Will understood why she was so passive about this whole conversation. She didn't really care that he'd apologize a thousand times if she asked, she was over it. She'd moved on and he was still stuck in Lizzy Land.
He set his face with determination and his body seemed to become ten times heavier. "I'm not leaving this room without you."
She shrugged. "It doesn't matter. You can stay. I'm leaving for New York in a week anyway."
Sigh. I knoooow. It sucks, doesn't it? Even makes me a bit depressed how stubborn she is
Don't worry, this is supposed to loosely resemble P&P, remember? Plus I'm not an "Evil Sea Witch." I don't torture intentionally. Do you really not trust me at all?
Wait it out. We still have a whole 2 chapters and an epilogue.
(Oh and Lacey. I messed up. I was just hoping no one would notice. His name is Eddie. It's always been Eddie. I just blacked out.)