forelsket | ronance

ELEVEN

WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT. PLEASE DECIDE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE.

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NANCY BIT HER fingernail as she stared at the screen. she liked the way it sounded when her nail slid across the top of her tooth- it acted like white noise in the background of her thoughts. however, the longer she tried to think of a lie, the more blank her mind became.

every message she tried to type, she ended up deleting. any word she wrote sounded stupid. there was nothing she could say that would make sense. plus, she hated lying to summer.

she eventually decided to just say 'what' in response, hoping that summer wouldn't catch on. a small part of nancy hoped summer didn't actually think it was about her, but she knew summer thought it was about her.

summer tried calling nancy, but she declined it. she couldn't talk about this- not here, not now. she sent summer a text, explaining that she can't call and they'll talk when she gets home.

nancy went back out to izzy's room and began to collect her things from around the room. izzy looked up from her phone curiously, wondering what she was doing.

"are you leaving?" izzy asked, sitting up in the bed.

"yeah, i should probably get home. summer's going to start asking questions if i stay longer"

"you know how i feel about summer"

"yes, i do," nancy replied, shoving her sweatshirt in her bag.

"then why are you still friends with her?"

'because she's my roommate, and she's my best friend' is what nancy wished she could reply.

"i don't know" nancy forced herself to say instead.

"by being friends with her, you're choosing her over me. over us. she hates me and hates our relationship. so, since you're friends with her, you're going against us"

nancy didn't reply- she didn't know what to say. after a few minutes, she broke the silence. "i don't want her to get suspicious and find out about us, okay? if she does, she'll drop me. i don't want that to happen, izzy"

"okay, sorry" she replied, but it didn't sound genuine.

"i think i got everything, i need to go back home now"

"wait," izzy got out of bed and walked over to nancy. "one more round before you go?"

"iz, i really just want to go home"

"oh come on," izzy moved close to nancy, sliding her hands across nancy's hips. "i'll make it worth your while"

"i love you, but no. i want to leave"

"please?" izzy looked at her, giving her puppy dog eyes. "just once more? i need you"

nancy sighed. she knew that izzy would beg nancy until she agreed to, whether nancy liked it or not. "okay"

-

nancy eventually arrived at home, and parked her car in a spot outside. she nervously walked up to the apartment door, tapping her hand against her side repeatedly as she walked.

she swung open the door, half-expecting summer to be waiting on the couch for her. nancy let out a breath of relief when she discovered the living room was empty and closed the door behind her.

as she walked further into the house, summer emerged from her room.

"where have you been? you've been gone for days" she asked, her tone reminding nancy of her mom.

"i've just been with mike" nancy lied.

mike was a senior in high school now, but he lived with the byers. joyce took him in after ted had kicked him out, which was shortly after he had done the same to nancy. mike had accidentally been too loud talking to will on the phone one night, and ted overheard their conversation.

"are you sure you haven't been with izzy?"

"izzy?" nancy laughed nervously. "why would you even-"

"robin's song. those lines. 'you still chose her familiar ways'. 'you went back to her'. are you telling me those aren't about you?"

"why would you just think it's me?"

"she just wrote the song- there's not even music for it yet. you told me that you two stopped talking because she stopped responding to you, but that sounds so unrealistic. she was obsessed with you, nancy. there's no way she'd just ghost you," she stopped to take a breath, making eye contact with nancy, "look me in the eyes and tell me you aren't back with izzy"

nancy returned summer's gaze, locking eyes with her. however, she couldn't force the words out of her mouth. it was as if something was preventing her from lying any further. "i can't"

"you can't?"

"i can't tell you that"

"so you're back together with izzy?"

"i am," nancy looked down, waiting for summer to reply. but she didn't. summer remained silent, and this only scared nancy more. "and i'm sorry i didn't tell you. i knew you wouldn't like it"

"so you did it anyway?" summer questioned in disbelief. "do you care about what i think at all?"

"i do! but she said we can make it work"

"and you still believe her?" summer laughed, possibly coming across a bit too harsh. "unbelievable"

"you don't have to be rude about it"

"i kinda do, nancy. i've been trying to get you to leave her for years. she says shit like this and never follows through with it. she only says it because she wants you to stay with her. but you can't see that, just like you can't see how awful she is to you. i've tried being nice and gentle about it, but it's never worked. so yes, i do have to be rude about it"

nancy was taken aback by summer's response, and it made her speechless. they only stared at each other, the air thick with tension.

"i'm leaving for a few days," summer spoke, her voice trembling. she wiped a small tear from her eye. "maybe you'll come to your senses while i'm gone"

before nancy could reply, summer went back to her room. it only took her twenty minutes to gather her things before she was out the door, leaving nancy all alone.