An Unwritten Chapter

Never Meant To Be

Joe didn't like the idea of meeting Rache at all, it was as if the history is repeating itself again. Mia's friends coming into the mix always felt like a bad sign for him, but Mia convinced him otherwise, saying that Rache wasn't like her old friends and that she is different. He wanted to believe her fully but decided not to. He said straight that he will be keeping a close watch on who Rache's friends are and will never talk to her, no matter how important. He had enough of toxic people twisting his words.

Mia and Joe's coffee date was postponed due to this madness, that's how Joe saw it, an absolutely unnecessary madness of digging the dirt back up again.

The day Joe never wanted to come, finally came. If only he could stop time, he wondered whether he it was doable when he sat on his bed staring at the clock. Reliving his stupidity was bitter for him. Letting out a groan, he got up to leave, his face made it so evident he didn't want to be there when he showed up at the ice cream parlour they had picked for their little meeting. Mia didn't pick up on it, but Rache did, she started worrying that it was because of her. Well, to be honest, it was a little because of her, but it doesn't matter now though.

Mia had brought a journal with her, she was serious about this, if it was any other day Joe would have found her quirkiness cute. But this day wasn't that day, 'you seriously brought something to write things down?' he sounded surprised and annoyed. 'Yes', Mia raised her voice but instantly regretted it, her tone was calmer when she said, 'I know you don't want to talk about that again. But just once do it for me? Please' she looked at him with hope-filled eyes. She knew he would anyway say yes, but she needed to use one of her secret weapons to keep Joe under control.

Then it began.... A trip down the memory lane.

Most of you loved your high school days, but Mia found it too mundane. She wanted some rush in her life, that was until she met a friend of her friend's. He had changed her world upside down. Some of her friends didn't like it, importantly her best friend Audrey didn't like it. To be exact, she didn't like Joe, but she never told Mia why. His look? His attitude? His friends circle? Mia couldn't figure it out, but it didn't matter to her anyway, her boring life became fruitful ever since she started dating him. But using the word dating won't be fair to what they shared, as I had mentioned earlier, they never met outside, and they never spent time alone. But they both knew what they had was true and sincere and that's all that mattered. Audrey was dating someone too, someone Joe knew, what the guy and Joe had wasn't friendship by then, one day they were fighting, and the next day they were hanging out. But when it comes to the friendship between men, it was quite normal, but Audrey didn't understand that either, but she pretended to be cool about it for Mia's sake. All was going well, and everyone was Mia's friend until the drama began.

The fight began between Mia and a girl Shelly, who had helped her and Joe get together, apparently because of her boyfriend, Joe got into some trouble. But that wasn't what made the drama stir up, it was another girl who had said something she wasn't supposed to, to Mia and she had passed on a message to Joe through Audrey. That was when it began, the first mistake Mia did, trusting Audrey with the message, she had betrayed Mia in the recent past, but the way Audrey always hyped her up made Mia trust Audrey.

The message she had passed on through Audrey to Joe, never reached him, but surprisingly enough the two girls who hated Mia's guts now got to know about it, and obviously, they decided to make things worse. You might be wondering why Mia had to pass a message through another person to Joe, well Mia's mother didn't like the idea of her being associated with a boy while still in school; so, she confiscated her phone and grounded her, Mia's state was bad, she anyways never went out, now her life revolved only around home and school.

All these matters gave Shelly the upper hand to manipulate the issue that was the talk of everyone at school. She decided to play with Mia's love life, or so Mia thought all along until she learnt the truth when she heard Joe's point of view after a few years.

'So, you are saying that Audrey did this?', the air around them was silent. She was staring at Joe with a blank expression, ad Rache didn't even breath. Joe as confused with Mia's look, 'Mia we talked about this, why are looking at me like I did this on purpose? I was so stupid those days and you knew that, and your friends...', he paused and decided to rephrase it, he didn't want to make Mia any madder. 'Those girls took that as an opportunity and drifted us apart. Can't we just focus on the fact that we're almost together now and happy?'

Mia wasn't satisfied, because she felt as if she had lost the best days with Joe because of them, and that was the truth. The Joe she knew originally is not the Joe sitting in front of her right now. He had changed, he had dated someone else, she felt that he was happier and more comfortable with his ex than with her, and it wasn't her fault. But she didn't realise that. All she could think of was betrayal and Joe not trusting her enough to at least try and talk to her once before passing on a message that he doesn't want to date her anymore.

What had really gone down was pretty strange for everyone involved, Mia couldn't digest the fact that Audrey, the person who always hyped her up would do something like this to her. Apparently, after Joe confronted Shelly years later about what really went down, she had confessed saying that Audrey was the one who had told her that Mia was seeing someone else now. Joe, who was a fool at the time had believed Shelly's words and had ended things with her.

When he got back in touch with Mia and talked to her about this, it was too late, he had dated someone else, and Mia was too hurt to recover from what had happened. But what seems pointless is, Mia talking about this all over again and acting as this was all news to her. It was funny when it happened the first time though, Mia was so riled up to shout at Joe when he sent out that request, but it all went away, when he simply said, 'you were the one who started dating someone else'.

Getting back to the important point here, is that Audrey and Mia aren't friends anymore, Audrey started avoiding Mia when she started talking to Joe again after the breakup, things became worse when she confronted her with the accusation Shelly had made about Audrey saying that Mia was with someone else.

The question remained why Audrey did what she did, or whether Shelly was even telling the truth. The three had long forgotten that it was getting dark, with the issues in hand. Rache wanted to say something about it, but she was reluctant to speak up in front of Joe. She kept fiddling her fingers the whole time and didn't interrupt once with her opinion during the discussion. She tried to talk to Mia but Mia was too busy scribbling something on her journal, and Joe was too busy to notice it as he had his face buried in his palms.

'Umm guys...', Rache began, Mia stopped scribbling but she didn't look up, she kept staring at the messy doodle she had made on her journal. 'I think we all should just get back home. Especially you, Mia', suddenly Rache's voice turned firm and Mia snickered. 'Now why would I want that? I don't want that... I don't want to go home, I want to get lost', and she looked up and stared into Rache's eyes, but her face was blurry as her eyes were filled up with tears.

'Wish I could see Audrey now, I'd punch her right in the face and knock some teeth off'', Mia sighed again. These violent tendencies of Mia had been gone ever since she finished school and she had become a calmer person ever since she met Rache. But for some reason, well not for some reason, we all know the exact reason she started getting angrier now.  'Mia you should stop this', Rache held her hand only to realise Mia's true emotion. Her hands were shaking, she wasn't really angry, she was weak and she was losing herself all over again by reliving these moments. 'C'mon let's get you home now', Rache forcefully picked up Mia off the chair. They both had forgotten that Joe was still there, to be honest Rache hadn't, she knew he was still there and he would want to take care of Mia, but she also knew that being with him won't do Mia any good. 'Get yourself home and text her later', she told Joe in a very low voice so it wouldn't grab Mia's attention and walked out of there.