Two Can Play At That Game

17.

"What do you want?"

Brooklyn bit her lower lip and shoved her hands in her pockets. Her bag was digging into her wrist, but she stayed still.

It had been a couple of days since Brooklyn had spoken to Michael, and since Chris stormed away from her. She had called Chris dozens of times, leaving countless voicemails and text messages. He never responded to any of them, so Brooklyn decided to ambush him directly so he wouldn't have any other choice but to talk to her.

"I need to talk to you," she said, picking her words out wisely.

Chris narrowed his eyes. He didn't look much better than Brooklyn felt. His hair was mussed up, his clothes were wrinkled and even torn in some places. His eyes were droopy with purple bags underneath them.

He sniffled, letting out a dry cough. "Talk."

Taking a deep breath, Brooklyn shifted her weight and prepared to speak. During the car ride to his dorm, she had tried to think of excuses to tell him. When she stepped out of her car and made her way to see him, she still didn't have anything to tell him. Brooklyn opened her mouth but no words came out. Instead, she felt that familiar feeling in the pit in her stomach and her throat close up. Tears welled up in her eyes and this time, Brooklyn didn't fight them coming out. She let the tears easily fall down her face, sliding down her cheeks and splashing onto the floor. She allowed herself to sniffle and let her nose clog up. She let her face scrunch up, not caring about how bad it looked.

She held herself with her own hands, just sobbing as Chris looked down at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I swear," she cried, using her fingers to brush the tears off her face even though she knew it was no use. "I'm not crying j-just so you'll f-feel bad for me."

Brooklyn looked down at her boots, watching as her tears stained them a slightly darker color than what they should've been. She flinched as she heard Chris's door creak. Looking up, she saw that he had opened the door wide enough to let her in. Letting out a sniffle, she brushed past him and into his room.

Chris sat on his chair by his desk. Brooklyn had been inside his room many times before, but this was the first time she felt awkward in it. Or even with him.

"Okay I know Michael showing up at my house was weird," she started, rocking back and forth on her heels. "And I admit, I was going to lie to you and make up some dumb excuse. But now I'm going to tell you the truth, I promise."

Before she could lose her courage or think twice about her choice, she started to explain everything that had happened with Diana. She babbled on about how she made up a stupid revenge plan and how she tied Diana up and tormented her. It felt good to tell somebody else what had happened. Chris was a good listener, and it made Brooklyn uneasy not being able to read the expression on his face. He didn't change his pose until Brooklyn finished the story with showing him the text messages X sent.

"Why aren't you telling the police?" Chris asked, as Brooklyn was putting her phone back in her bag.

"If we tell the police, the media will be all over us," she said. "And we'll be in a lot of trouble when we admit that we had something to do with Diana's disappearance."

Furrowing his brows together, Chris let out a big breath through his nose. He looked tired and disappointed. But what bothered Brooklyn was that he didn't look surprised. She had expected him to make a big fuss of everything, but he sat there looking up at her with unreadable eyes. If she had to guess, Chris seemed like he had something he wanted to say but was holding it back.

With her hopes down, Brooklyn let out a small laugh. "So I guess this is it then..."

Chris's eyes widened and he finally gave Brooklyn the reaction she was waiting for. "No! What?" he demanded, shaking his head and jumping to his feet. He swallowed, kneeled down, and grabbed one of her hands inside of his. "I get what happened was an accident. And I know you regret it. I'm not going to break up with you, Milani."

Brooklyn let out the breath that she had been holding. "Really?"

Nodding, Chris offered her a tired smile. "I'll help you find out who X is."

The two of them looked at each other, just grinning at each other. Brooklyn felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off her chest. She was able to breathe again. Now that Chris knew everything, she realized that they would be closer than ever. She wouldn't have to hold back and think of any more lies.

Chris's phone went off. He pulled it out and made a face. "Sorry, I have to take this," he apologized and he left the room.

Taking a deep breath, Brooklyn looked around his room. She sat down on Chris's chair by his desk and tried to picture him doing work on it. There was an open textbook on his desk along with some graph paper with numbers and equations scribbled all over it. Brooklyn's gaze lingered elsewhere to where a bright orange triangle was sticking out of a thick psychology book. She pulled it out. It read 44 Main Street, Manhattan. Brooklyn narrowed her eyes as she pulled her phone out, entering in the address. She wasn't completely sure why she was so interested in the address. It somehow seemed familiar to her. She had just finished putting in the address when she heard Chris's familiar voice say, "-alright. Bye." As quick as she could, she jammed the orange slip back into the book and jumped onto her feet. She closed her phone right while the search results were loading. For some reason, she felt antsy.

"Sorry about that," Chris apologized, once again. His guilty look suddenly turned into an expression of concern. "What's wrong? You look freaked out."

Swallowing, Brooklyn tried to play it off with a laugh, but it sounded more like she was choking. "I totally forgot. I have to, um, meet my friends for lunch," she lied. She wanted to slap herself for making such a pathetic excuse and having a shaky voice.

Chris raised a brow, clearly not believing her. "Milani, we just had a discussion about honestly, like, three seconds ago."

Brooklyn inhaled deeply, imagining that she was her strong, confident self. She straightened her posture and looked right into Chris's eyes. "And if you don't believe me, that's your fault. If you want I can send you a picture when I get there," she snapped. Her phone that was in her hand started feeling heavier by each passing second.

Pursing out his lips, Chris shrugged and let his lips twist into a half smile. "Fine, yeah. I believe you. No need for a photo. I'll see you later, then."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Brooklyn nodded as her farewell. Chris leaned in for a kiss, and she obliged. His lips felt odd against hers. Maybe it was because she felt guilty for lying to him, or maybe it was because of the weird address she found hidden in his books. Brooklyn willed herself to relax-just so Chris wouldn't expect anything and she could continue her sleuthing-and tangled one of her hands in his hair and the other cupping his cheek. She felt him tense against her body, which was exactly the response she was looking for. As he was just about to deepen the kiss, she pulled away and gave him a wink. "Seriously, I'll see you later," she smiled, keeping up her façade.

Chris nodded, still looking a bit surprised from her performance. "Yeah," was all he managed to say.

Brooklyn brushed back him and left his dorm as quickly as she could. 

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published: 10.30.16

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A/N: Hey! I promise that from here it gets a lot more interesting. Hope you guys are enjoying! 

This next part is my favorite *evil laugh* 

anyways, add this to your library, vote, comment, follow me. you know the drill ;) 

until next week! 

-elizabeth