"Jay, are you okay ?!"Lisa proceeded to shake his shoulder a little in order to get his attention and when he raised his head to face her, she lets out a sigh of relief for at least he was alive.
"What are you doing here, sitting like this? You scared me! Get your ass up and go home!!" She told him off as she slapped his arm a bit yet Jay ignored her completely and just looked down again, hiding his face between his hands
"What happened?... Seriously why are you like this?" Lisa gave him a worried look as she could clearly see the other person's grief. Surely today was not the best day for her and she really wanted to get her rest as quickly as possible yet she couldn't ignore someone that seemed in a bad state as he definitely seemed right at that moment.
She took a deep breath after he gave her no answer then proceeded to take a sit on the dirty ground right next to him and wait for him till he decides to talk to her.
"For how much longer will you be sitting here?" He finally broke the silence that took over them after about ten minutes that Lisa was sitting next to him.
"All night if necessary. Surprisingly, I got quite comfortable sitting out here in the cold" She replied as her eyes kept observing the dark night sky that had gotten her attention.
"I want to be alone, what don't you understand." Jay's voice betrayed a bit his annoyance over her presence as he raised his head and glanced at her, trying to make her understand with his hostile gaze that he wanted her gone.
"I wanted to be alone too, but since we are friends from the university I can not leave you like that and neither can you." She placed a thin smile on her lips as she replayed, ticking Jay off even more than he already was for her he found Lisa very annoying and her comfortability seemed rather rude to him, even though Lisa was just trying to be friendly, but as always she was not good at making friends.
"You are really annoying and stop blackmailing me with this lie, I know you that you know! So What? The heck you want?!" He burst at her abruptly then he stood up to leave as he thought that every time Lisa brought up that lie he had said when they had first been introduced to each other, was only to remind him that she had dirt on him which she could use if she wanted to.
"I didn't bring it up for that purpose." She rose her voice a bit in order for him to hear her for he had already taken quite some steps away from her.
"And if you really just want to vent somewhere then you can vent on me. You have my permission for tonight and of course, I will not say anything to anyone." Her words made his feet came to a halt and turn around to look at her, thinking momentarily if she really meant her words. And if she did, why was she willing to listen to his issues?
The thought that she really must just want to be his friend crosses his mind as he approached her and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her up and dragging her with him.
Lisa was surprised momentarily by his action yet said nothing to him and just proceeded to follow him around, to wherever was the place he was taking her, which she found out soon that it was none other but a bar, ten minutes drive with his car from their apartment building. A quite noisy and busy place, in which the two ended up getting into, and started drinking.
"Is Sophia the reason you are like this?" Lisa couldn't hold herself from questioning him as she witnessed him gulping down his third glass of whiskey.
"It is," Jay monotonously replied and shot down his throat the whole remaining liquid that was on his glass which the bartender had just brought him.
Lisa gave him a pitiful glance after his confession for she sure felt sorry for him and understood his pain to a degree for she related to it in a way. However the more she looked at him and kept recalling the history he had with Sophia, the more she couldn't understand why had he done what he did to her.
"If you love her so much, why did you cheat on her then?" She ended up uttering her thoughts, as her eyes remained fixed on him, waiting for his reply and intending to analyze him based on the way he will speak, for she really wanted him to reply truthfully to that question.
"I did not do it. It was all set up because I had to keep her away from me. It was all my doing and it was necessary to happen but it was not supposed to end up like that. I looked everywhere for her. I wanted to explain to her but she disappeared and cut off all contact." Jay looked her straight in the eyes as he honestly spoke of the tragedy of his life, for surely that happening had ended him inside. He had lost the woman he thought of as the one for him. He had broken her and himself and had suffered for years on end, wishing to cross paths with her again.
Yet now that he had, Sophia belonged to someone else. She had someone else to call him, hers. Someone else to hug and lean on, to kiss to love. And he was someone whom she kisses over enthusiasm and doesn't even bother to give him an explanation. She ignores him as if he was nothing, just like she did earlier.
In Jay's mind, all someone could find if they were to take a look, was Sophia yet on Lisa's mind was running a different poison as his words had made her bring the puzzle pieces together and make an assumption that literally made her breath tie onto a knot on her throat.
"Jay...can you tell me your father's name please.?"
" Why do you ask? "
"Just tell me!" She insisted and Jay uttered his father's name with confusion written all over his face, only to witness Lisa's eyes growing wide briefly upon hearing it, only for her reaction to growing even weirder in his eyes, for she burst out laughing like crazy.
'Life is strange. And how a mistake can haunt you from all sides possible is stranger...Sorry, Sophia, it seems once again I am responsible for another wound of yours...Why can't someone just kill me already?!' Such were the thoughts that her hysteric laughter was hiding for right at that moment she would either end up losing her mind or laughing it off, for there was no in-between to describe the games life was playing on her.
"Bartender, bring another drink!" She ordered with a smile on her lips as she wanted to get herself unconscious as quickly as possible at that point despite the fact that she hated alcohol and its bitter taste.
"But I thought you don't drink?!" Jay raised his eyebrow at her, now a bit frightened by her behaviour that makes no sense.
"I will accompany you today. Cheers to our health." She clicked their glasses and gulped down her drink as if she was drinking water only for her throat to start burning up immediately and she to start coughing with an unpleasant grimace on her face, for the taste was as disgusting as she recalls.
"Let's just go. I drank enough" Jay decided that it would be better to stop this here as Lisa seemed ready to get wasted and he was in no mood to carry anyone home, so he paid for the drinks and pulled her outside with him, despite her complaints.
"Jay, I think you are drunk and you do not know where you are going, because the house is on the other side you know," Lisa told him after a bit that he was dragging her down the street.
"I'm not going to sleep at home today. I do not want to see Shiro." He confessed to her as he let go of her wrist and placed his hands in his pockets.
"What ?! And where will you sleep?"
" Here." He signalled with his head towards a hotel that was right by their side and he halted his steps right there because he intended to enter it.
"Fine, I guess, for as long as I know that you will be okay, you can do whatever you want. I will take my leave then." She didn't object to his idea for she understood the need for some isolation and turned to leave only to suddenly see in front of her Jamie and Theo, who were coming towards them, making both Lisa and Jay throw a quick glance glare at each other, especially after they noticed the third man who appeared behind the corner and was walking at a short distance behind Theo and Jamie.
"Oh! Lisa! And Jay?Together?" Theo uttered he just saw them and now it was too late for both of them to hide.
"And in front of a hotel, too" Jamie emphasized as they got close enough to them for his words to be heard, a wicked smile dancing on his lips with the aim of amicably annoying his friend.
The stare that Lisa and Jay gave them made Theo and Jamie burst out in laughter while Shiro, who had just reached them, give them an expressionless look, for he had lost Jamie's comment and as such was not able to understand what was funny.
"Come on, don't look at us like that, we are just joking." Theo playfully slapped Jay's arm in an attempt to ease his stare.
"Right. By the way, since we met how about we go home all together. We came with one car though but it's okay, we can fit in somehow" Jamie offered and Lisa was about to reply positively to him for she would definitely welcome a ride home, but before she got the chance to speak, Jay took hold of her wrist and pulled her by his side.
"You can go without us, Lisa and I have something to take care of," Jay told them and without waiting for an answer he pulled Lisa with him into the hotel, leaving the rest as shocked as she herself was.
"The heck are you doing?!" Lisa snapped at him as soon as they entered the hotel and were basically out of their sight.
"I just needed an excuse not to go home and of course I could not tell Shiro that I just don't want to see his face."
"Are you serious right now? Do you have any idea in what trou- Agh, leave it. I'm too tired to argue with you. Bye," She held herself back from exploding for she couldn't bring herself to tell him about the trouble he had caused to her with Shiro, nor she had any way of explaining honestly. So she just gave up on it altogether and ignored Jay's thankful words as she stepped out of the hotel, thankfully not finding them there.
She started her way home, walking towards the bus station and thinking about everything that had happened today, yet somehow her mind kept ending up on the misunderstanding Shiro must have gotten out of Jay's actions earlier.
'Why am I upset? Shiro already has the worst idea about me. And after all, he has no kind of feeling towards me ... except for hate of course.' She reminded herself and shook her head, commanding her own self to not be bothered over something she could not change.
All the drive home she was just aimless looking at the city and thinking about random things until she had to step out of the bus and drag her tried feet towards the entrance of the apartment building and into the elevator which strangely was waiting for her with open doors.
She approached it unaware that there was already someone inside it, who of course was not there by chance since he was waiting for her to return.
"How come you finished your business so fast? Was it just a quicky?" Shiro spoke to her as soon as she stepped inside and Lisa just ignored him as she left an exhale escape her lips and glanced towards the ceiling.
"Did you get tired? Well done to Jay, apparently he did a good job." Shiro commented again and this time Lisa couldn't control her nerves for she turned around and gave him a hostile look.
"Can you just shut up!! I have no appetite for your crap today." She responded coldly and went outside as soon as the elevator's door opened, but Shiro pulled her back in and slammed her against the wall.
Lisa, irritated as she was, grabbed him by the collar and turned him around, now she having him pinned to the wall and he just looked at her with an expression of surprise.
"You are to blame for everything! If you had not betrayed me back then I wouldn't have done what I did." Lisa shouted at him now, letting herself express her storming emotions and the anger that had dwelled up inside her.
"I wasn't I the one who was next to you when you laughed and when you cried ?! Just why did you do it, I do not understand. I do not understand you." She continued, now her voice softening along with the grip on his collar, a thing that Shiro took advantage of as with force he pushed her off of him, making her lose her balance and fall on the floor, where she froze momentarily.
"DO NOT SELL ME THESE CONFUSING LIES !!" Shiro replied to her furiously as the words she used were exactly what he thought the day he learned of her betrayal.
"Just disappear from my life once and for all...JUST STOP EXISTING !!" He shouted those words that were words of momentary anger and indignation but every word he said was engraved deep in her heart who had gone through a lot today and now it was as if she had emptied herself of every emotion.
As she remained silent, Shiro stepped outside, leaving her alone on the elevator floor to stare at nothingness with a lost gaze, as her breath got entangled in her throat and her energy left her body as if she had dived into a sea of sadness that was eating her life away.
"That will happen at some point but I have to correct my mistakes towards my friends before the moment of my last breath come...And then I will disappear, just as you wish...Just bear with me a little longer, for I can't die just yet"
---To be continued...