Play Pretend | ✓

31 | awards

(dedicated to compartmentalisation cuz she's one of my best friends ever, and a mad football fan like me...stay the same, my rabbit!)

I took the first flight back home.

Apparently, Tyler too came home, a few days later. But I was too tired, too heartbroken, to care. I'd completely lost the ability to think straight without reliving that morning, those texts, those news stories.

So I shut them all out. I turned down interviews, refused to answer calls from reporters or anybody other than my family and Paris. Paris had come over as soon as I'd reached home from LA and spewed profanities at Tyler once I'd told her what'd happened. Even my parents were really disappointed in him. That day, Ris had taken me to her apartment and made me stay the night with her. We'd talked, cried, watched The Godfather trilogy, eaten truckloads of ice cream and chocolate and then stayed up till late at night, having heart to hearts. I was really grateful to her for how she supoorted me that day.

But now, I was completely cut off from the world, barring my family and Ris. I hadn't even opened any kind of social media, so I was basically a recluse. For about two weeks.

Two weeks later, my mom called me downstairs, claiming there was someone who wanted to meet me. I didn't want to go, but Mom practically forced me to.

Going down, I wish I hadn't.

Kiara sat on the couch, a stern expression on her face. I froze when she glanced at me. Her expression softened slightly, but she still looked pretty intimidating.

She stood up. "Hello, Liz. Come sit here."

I warily went up to her and sat on a loveseat.

She sipped the coffee Mom had given her. I could imagine Mom practically freaking out that an Oscar-winning director was at her house, sipping her coffee. But taking one look at Kiara's face made all those thoughts fly out of the window. This was not the time for speculation or imagination. Kiara meant business, I could see that.

Finally she put down her mug and looked at me. I forced out a "How've you been, Kiara?"

"How have I been? How about you answer your own question? You've been holed up inside your house, refusing to come out, refusing to contact any of us, refusing any work that's coming your way! What the hell is this? It's time you stopped moping around for a stupid boy! There are so many directors who want to cast you after seeing your wonderful skills. People, especially newbies, don't get opportunities like this often! And what are you doing? Throwing these opportunities away with both hands! You're not answering any work-related calls, not even responding to our attempts. Directors are reaching out to me thinking they can get to you through me. How can I tell them you haven't even kept any contact with me?"

I winced. Kiara had hit the nail on the head, and it wasn't something good to hear, at all. I cast my eyes downwards, hoping some force would come and end everything I was stuck in, once and for all.

I looked up. "Kiara, I'm sorry for ignoring you and Jackie and the others. I know you all care for me, and I'm grateful for it, I really am, but these few days I just needed some time alone. I needed isolation. I didn't want anybody's pity."

"Liz, darling, you seriously think we pity you? We all love you a lot, and if you'd only said you wanted space, we would've given it to you without any protest. But at least you should've told us something, spoken to us at least once in all these weeks. And anyway, all that's in the past. I now want you to get up, revive yourself, and return to daily life. I know it'll be tough at first, but you've got to do it. How much longer will you stay like this, moping around, being depressed, for one boy? It's about time you showed him who's the boss, and who doesn't give a damn."