Counting Stars • [Casey x Izzie]

Increments Of Two

Izzie

"So this is it?"

I held back the tears as they stabbed and stabbed and stabbed at my eyes. The wounds would just be salted if I let them fall.

"After all we've been through; everything we've said, everything we've done. After all the things we promised?"

"Casey..."

"I thought we were in this together... no matter what."

**

Four days ago...

"Baby!" I screeched.

Her cold hands pinned me to my bed and removed one to tickle my stomach. I hunched over laughing.

"Say uncle."

"I--" I couldn't stop laughing. "Al-alright!"

She seized her torture. "That's what I thought." She smirked and I let her have the remote.

"You're such a dick." I said as I positioned myself on the bed to hug her from behind.

She leaned back into my chest as she chose a movie. "That's what you get for having terrible taste in movies."

I rolled my eyes even though she couldn't see. Then I dropped a light kiss on the back of her neck, causing goosebumps to rise in it's absence.

"But I do have amazing taste in women."

She craned her head back to look up at me. "You're so corny."

I allowed a toothed grin to meet her lips as I whispered... "And the thing that rhymes with corny..."

Then the doorbell rang.

My head immediately snapped up.

"Are you expecting someone?" My girl asked.

I shook my head as I manoeuvred to leave the bed, but not before Casey grabbed my arm and stole a quick kiss.

"The kids are still at my grandparents and my mom shouldn't be home yet, so I don't know."

"It's probably just a salesperson." She reasoned.

"Yeah..." I agreed and went downstairs to get rid of them.

The doorbell rang twice again before I opened it to...

I instinctively closed my free fist, digging my nails into my own skin like it was playdough that I couldn't feel. My other hand gripped the doorknob tightly, getting ready to slam the door shut.

"Wait!" He slammed his hands between the door and frame.

"Get the hell out." I gritted.

"Izzie, come on. Let me in."

"Nate, I swear to god if you don't leave in the next five seconds, I'm calling the cops."

"But I have information you'll be interested in"

That made me more determined to slam his head between the hinges.

What fucking right does he think he have to make claims like that? To say that I still need him for anything made my blood boil to the point of no saving. I was angry at how easy people think it is to trade your submission for simple knowledge.

"Like hell I'm interested in anything to do with you."

He shoved the door a little wider to send it opening wide.

"Oh, Izzie..." He dared to laugh. "But you'll be interested in what it has to do with your little girlfriend."

I froze. My throat closed and not in the way I liked. Breaths couldn't come through fast enough to compensate for the blood that wasn't rushing to my brain. I hated that whatever he planned was working. I was listening. Why is it that the people we never want to hear from ever again are the ones that can easily make us listen?

"What the hell are you talking about?" I kept my voice low.

Casey was upstairs in oblivion about the current situation and I preferred to keep it that way.

"You see," he invited himself into the home he used to roam around in freely, "Izzie, in life people rarely stay."

He was being awfully vague which only registered as buying himself time.

"Get to the point." I was growing impatient.

"You left me." He said with enough bitterness for a whole city. "For her. And now..." he smiled. "She's leaving you."

When I was next lucid, my hand was red and Nate's cheek was flaring up. Slapping him was something I had always wanted to do but never had the courage to till now.

How dare he. How the hell dare he treat me like he did, claim that I was at fault for leaving him, then say that Casey was leaving me. He really wants to make anything up to make sure we fall apart and the lengths he will go to just to send the message is pathetic.

"I didn't leave you for her. You tried to cheat on me with her. But I guess you're not as good at picking girls up as you say because she ended up with me when your lines didn't work."

He grinded his teeth, holding his anger back. "It still doesn't change the fact that she's playing you."

"Get the hell out of my house."

"Izzie?" The only voice I ever wanted to hear was last one I needed in this room.

I turned to the bottom of the staircase as she appeared. When she saw Nate, she had the same instinct to ball her fist. And as much as I would like her to beat him to a pulp, I'd prefer that my girlfriend didn't become a convict.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

Nate, being the diabolical bitch that he is, laughed.

"Great! You can tell her yourself."

It suddenly began to hit me that maybe Nate was being serious. I swallowed. And instead of defending Casey, I stared at her in anticipation. Did I really not trust her as much as I thought I did? There was just something... that thing that she does where she looks completely shaken yet, not at all surprised.

"What is he talking about?" I asked her.

"I don't know."

"Oh, Casey. Tell her the good news, come on."

I swear... I really swear... I witnessed the soul encased behind her glass green irises shatter when they locked with mine. It was then that I knew our souls were truly bound together, because I physically felt mine break.

It was one of those moments, when you just know that whatever comes next... it was going to break you.

Already, not even knowing the truth I could feel the rain that came before the storm and it was only a waiting game until everything that was ever built right here... was gone.

"I guess I'll have to share it for you... Izzie," He smiled wider than he had ever smiled at me. "your girlfriend is moving to London."

The sound that echoed through the room, or it could have just been in my head, it was my heart hitting the stone wall that I had lowered for the girl in front of me.

The girl I fell for.

The girl I loved.

The tears that stung the rim of my lashes dropped in increments of two. One for my loss and one for being a fool.

The sound was loud, it was so present.

That was when I realized it wasn't my heart that fell.

"What girlfriend?"

It was my mom's.

**

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that this book is ending soon, and I want to get it all out before I publish my original stories.

I also might be deleting the Zahid and Sharice chapters because they were fun but not really necessary.

This chapter and the coming chapters are the rough ones for you emotional people so prepare haha.

See you soon xo