"On the first page of our story, the future seemed so bright. Then this thing turned out so evil, don't know why I'm still surprised. Even angels have their wicked schemes and you take that to new extremes. But you'll always be my hero even though you lost your mind."
-Rihanna, Love the Way You Lie Part 2
Disclaimer: I don't own House of Anubis
Dedication: To kswiftie13 for being the first to answer all the questions :)
"I'm Joy Mercer. Can we talk?"
I almost jump out of my skin at the name. The one Fabian has spoken of once and only once, the one who broke his heart. This girl is the reason Fabian didn't tell me he loves me back. First I'm angry, and then she speaks again.
"Before you try and kill me –and I know you have reason to- please hear me out." Her voice was kind and I was getting good vibes from her. It was strange. I should hate her, but her tone is making me have second thoughts.
"What do you want?" I ask, trying to make my voice seem cold. But it came out more as a sigh.
"Let's go have a drink. And I'll tell you the whole story." Joy promises.
We get our drinks at the bar and I cut to the chase quickly. "What's this story you have to tell me?"
Joy sighs. "Once Upon a Time, I was the new girl at school. I'd moved from Liverpool when I was eight years old to Australia for my dad's job. I came back eight years later. Now, everyone is a teenager and they've already got they're core group of friends. Even though I had known them all as kids, they were completely different people now and I was still the new girl. No one really knew who I was. At eight years old, everybody was still being dressed by their mums so who could really know who we actually were? I remember seeing girls I once knew to dress in pink dresses, now wearing fishnets and black lipstick.
Joy sips her wine and continues, "Then, I had just come back from lunch. I –of course- sat alone. It was bio class and we were all assigned seats. I was assigned to sit with Fabian. He was kind and welcoming unlike most of the guys in that school. He told me that, he knew what it felt like to be out casted. He was the new kid last year. We were fast friends. Best friends. We did everything together. Laughing, talking, watching TV, going to the movies. Hell, we even went shopping. If only I knew then, we were only meant to be that. Just friends."
"He asked me out," she remembers, "It wasn't any big thing, we went to a movie. It was just like every other time we went to the movies. But, this time I held his hand. I should have known then that it didn't feel right. I learned then that you never should start a relationship with a guy after you've been friends for so long. You just can't, it become a whole world of awkward. And you lose them in the end. Either way, we dated for all of high school. One day we were doing something just the two of us. It wasn't really a date, just the us in my basement playing the Wii. Fabian had just swung the remote at the wall by accident and we both just died laughing. It was like we used to be. That's why I let it slip. I had said 'I love you Fabes' and he'd taken it like… romantically. It wasn't what I intended, but I was too nervous to tell him so. He never noticed, but when he told me he loved me, I wouldn't say I love you too. I'd say, yeah or bye or something. It was my mistake. Telling him I loved him, but not meaning it that way at all. I meant it, in a way as friends. Because that was what that night felt like. Like we were friends again. The way we used to be."
Joy was almost choked up at this point. I offer her a tissue and she gently wipes her eyes, "Then it happened. We were Seniors. The college letters were coming out. Fabian was accepted to Oxford, but I had never even applied. As soon as I got my acceptance to UCL for photography, I knew that there was no going back. I wasn't following Fabian to Oxford and he sure as hell wasn't following me to UCL. I wasn't dragging my past with me to my future."
Joy sighed, "I walked to a café to have a coffee. I hadn't told Fabian about my acceptance yet. I need to plan out how I would break to news about breaking up to him. So I got my coffee and turned to sit down when this guy rammed into me, spilling both out coffees. He apologized quickly and offered to buy we another coffee, which I gladly accepted. There was something about him. Maybe it was the twinkle of his eyes or the way he smiled but, there was something different about him that made me forget I had a boyfriend at all. We talked for that whole night. It was different than the way Fabian and I talked. Fabian and I were friends. We were afraid to push boundaries and talk about really personal and in-depth things. And I had only known him for a few hours."
Joy took a deep breath in and I knew it was about to get bad, "Then Ashton –that's his name- kissed me. The way it felt made me forget everything completely. It made me forget about UCL and my Fabian troubles. I didn't even hear the bell above the door of the café ring, signaling someone's arrival. I did hear Fabian scream my name though. He never gave me a chance to explain. I wasn't cheating on him intentionally, at all. But I did break him. I tried so many times to talk to him about it but he never let me."
Joy turned even more toward me then she was, "But that's why I wanted to talk to you. I know you can tell him. Get him to let me explain!"
"He'll be so mad that I spoke to you." I muttered, "I have to wait for him to be ready, for the right time! If I don't than he won't listen."
"I get it, take your time." Joy smiled, "I'd like to get to know you though. We should hang out sometime."
"Sure, we can get lunch tomorrow?" I offer.
"I can't," she says, "My boyfriend and I are getting off tomorrow morning. We're staying with his cousin here in Paris."
"Who's your boyfriend?" I ask.
"Ready babes?" a voice interrupts us.
"Yeah," Joy smiles, "Nina, this is Ashton, my boyfriend."
I smile. "It's a pleasure."
"The pleasure's all mine." He says, kissing Joy's head, "Let's go."
I watch them walk away and smile.
"Wow."
I know, another short one. Sorry :(
I'm going on vacation, so there won't be any updates until the 31st! Sorry! I won't get online either, so PMs will be slow. Review!