As I’m running after Lisa, I spot her leaning against a tree, trying to catch her breath. “Lisa!” I yell as I run over to her quickly. Her head spins as she looks at me with wide eyes. “Why the hell did you follow me?!” She shouts, confused. “I- I don’t know. Your reaction to seeing me felt really weird. I felt like I had to run after you.” I blurt out as my stomach starts turning anxiously. “Well you shouldn’t have!” She yells at me as she pushes off the tree to continue walking. “Well, what were you even doing here? You were supposed to be off sick today.” I blurt out, and she stops in her tracks. “So were you. You know Michael actually asked one of our classmates if they’d seen you cause you didn’t show up at lunch.” Lisa says before turning to look at me, clearly annoyed as she crosses her arms, “He then messaged me, asking if I knew why you were off sick. I didn’t tell him about the fact I told you I was off today and how you didn’t tell me you were also gonna be off.” I shift uncomfortably for a second.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t receive any messages from you guys about it.” I say slowly as I look away. “Cause we felt like you didn’t want to talk to us!” Lisa shouts angrily at me, and I flinch a little. “Well clearly you were skipping too. You can’t get mad at me for skipping by myself if you were clearly planning to do it yourself anyway.” I point out defensively with a slight huff. Lisa looks at me, furious, “You wanna know why I was off today?! Because I didn’t want to see you! I had no fucking clue how to tell you something so I was planning to avoid you!” Lisa yells at me, her brows furrowing.
I look at her surprised. I had no clue she was planning to avoid me. “What- what do you need to tell me?” I slowly ask. She stares at me for a second before slowly swallowing, “Remember how I couldn’t sleep over at Michael’s on saturday? Well, my mom had changed her mind and I was headed back to Michael’s with my stuff when I happened to walk past the park about a block away.” She starts to explain, as she avoids looking at me. I stay completely silent, not wanting to interrupt her. “I saw Michael’s siblings and they were shouting for their dad to watch them.” She says and goes quiet as though she’s second guessing what she has to say now. “Yes, and?” I suddenly blurt out, both curious and impatient.
She stares at me for a second before her eyes flick to behind me, then right back to me with an annoyed look. “The only other person in the park was your British guy. You know, my old boss.” She finally says, annoyed as her eyes flick to behind me a few more times.
I stay silently frozen as I stare at her. Her words, slowly sinking in. “What?” I slowly say as I stare at her blankly. She looks very annoyed again, “You fucking heard me! I said they were calling him dad! Specifically, daddy! Probably the same thing you’ve been calling him too!” She yells at me furiously as her eyes continue to flick to behind me and my cheeks start to burn at her words. “You- you mean, William? The guy I showed you guys a picture of? You’re sure it was him? Are you sure it was Elizabeth and Chris?” I question her slowly. “God damn it! Yes! Yes, I’m sure! I even saw them again on Sunday, too!” She yells. I stay silent again as I swallow thickly.
“Do you even know what this means?” Lisa blurts out after a minute of complete silence, “Damn it, Y/N! It means you’re banging Michael’s dad!” She yells at me. I still stay silent, not moving. After a second, I hear some movement behind me and instantly take a step closer to Lisa, “Could you walk me home?” I blurt out to her. I don’t turn around, knowing it was probably William that she kept looking at earlier. I mean if it was anyone else, she wouldn’t have continued talking so openly like that. She looks behind me again before slowly nodding, “Yeah, come on.” She says as she grabs my hand and starts to lead the way.
We stay silent as she leads me out the forest and past William's car. "How did you even know I was here?" I finally blurt out, staring at the ground as we walk. "One of my ex coworkers from Freddy's spotted William. It's this running joke they have since he was our boss and always acted like a stick in the mud, every time we saw him we'd take a photo and send it in the group chat." Lisa explains as we walk, "Well they happened to see him getting out his car with a girl and had a picnic basket. They took a photo and I instantly recognised you and decided I had to tell you before-" She trails off, "I don't know."
She goes quiet as we continue walking. "So when are you planning to send him the break up text?" Lisa suddenly blurts out. "What?" I look at her confused. "You're obviously going to break up with him…. You are breaking up with him, right?" Lisa stares at me expectantly as we walk, and I stay silent and go back to staring at the ground. "Y/N! You can't seriously be thinking about still dating him?!" Lisa exclaims with wide eyes. "I don't know!..And shut up!.. You're gonna wake people up." I point out. It's rather late now so most people are probably sleeping or at least getting ready to go to sleep.
She quickly shuts up as we keep walking. When we finally get back to my house, I sneak round back and look around by the back door for the spare key. Lisa waves as I enter the house and quietly make my way upstairs. It's completely silent and there's not a single light on as I make my way into my room.
I flop onto my bed and just stare up at the ceiling, silent and still.
Was I really going to end things with him? I mean he knew I was Michael's friend. He probably didn't know at the start but he picked Michael up after dinner and then a few days later I invited him round… He was in the house. Even if he didn't remember it was the house he picked Micheal up from that one time, he's picked Micheal up from mine a few times…. He had to have worked it out and then he didn't even tell me. Doesn't he feel weird doing all these things with his son's friends?......
Wait. I even slept over! I was at his fucking house and he knew! He was fucking avoiding me! He knew, and he never once said anything. He just played along! That JERK!
I can feel my eyes starting to burn with tears as my mind continues racing. I quickly shut my eyes tightly and roll onto my side, trying my best to just go to sleep.
