Lexi's In A New City

Chapter 25

It was only a week or so into the new semester, but Isaac's birthday was already in a couple of days. He knew he wanted to celebrate the occasion with his friends, but he also wanted to carve out a good chunk of time that day so that he and Cassie to go out on a date. He didn't care what they ended up doing or where they went; he just wanted to enjoy his birthday with his girlfriend.

"You don't want to spend the entire day with me?" Cassie asked as they were in the thick of discussing upcoming plans. She had invited her boyfriend over to talk about it, but it seemed as though it wasn't going to end well.

"Well...I want to spend time with you andmy friends," Isaac explained. "I thought you'd be okay with it because it's not like I'm asking you to hang out with them, or saying that I don't wanna spend time with you whatsoever. We'll be alone during our date, I promise."

"That's not good enough for me."

"Uh...what?"

Cassie crossed her arms over her chest with a frown etched on her face. "Why can't you just hang out with me?"

"It's my birthday, Cassie— I should be able to spend it however I want. I don't understand why you want me all to yourself. If you wanted to hang out with Mariana for your birthday, for the sake of argument, I would be fine with it."

"You're lying!"

"What? No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are! You know what I think? I think you just don't wanna spend time with me at all."

"Why the hell would you think that? We were just discussing us spending time together on a date! What more do you want from me? And where all is coming from?"

Cassie scoffed and rolled her eyes with disbelief, but didn't reply.

"I don't get it," Isaac said. "I thought after our talk on New Year's, all of our fighting would finally be over."

"Did you really think that?"

"Yeah, I did!"

"Maybe all this fighting wouldn't fucking happen if you were a better boyfriend!" Cassie shrieked.

Isaac could only stare with a mixture of horror and anger. "You're not serious, I hope."

"Oh, I'm sofucking serious," Cassie said. "Now get the fuck out of my dorm, you bastard!"

At first, Isaac didn't budge from where he was standing. But when he saw just how serious Cassie looked, he cursed under his breath before hightailing it out of there. He ran his hands over his head and face, exasperated that their calm discussion had deteriorated into a fierce argument so quickly.

What the hell is her problem? I didn't think I was being unreasonable or difficult, he thought.

Isaac hustled back to his dorm, eager to get away from what had just transpired. When he entered, he saw Felipe and DeShawn playing fighter video games in the main room. They were so absorbed in their game that they almost didn't noticed their friend enter. But DeShawn spotted him just a couple minutes later, looking distant. He paused the game, much to Felipe's annoyance.

"Hey!" Felipe exclaimed.

"Dude, your roommate's here," DeShawn chastised.

"Oh yeah! Hey, dude. You look mad as hell. What's wrong?"

"I'll tell you in a sec," Isaac said before disappearing into his bedroom.

"Alright," Felipe replied.

Isaac went into his room and sent a quick text to Cassie.

Isaac: Cassie, I'm sorry if I upset you. It wasn't my intention, I swear. I'll spend my entire day with you if that's what you really want! I really don't wanna fight over this, babe. Please get back to me ASAP. I love you.

Knowing that he wasn't going to get a response from her anytime soon, Isaac put his phone away before joining his friends again. He grabbed a controller and began playing as well.

"So, what's got you so upset today?" Felipe asked.

"Cassie kicked me out of her dorm 'cause we got in a fight," Isaac revealed.

DeShawn stifled a laugh. "Another one?"

"Didn't you guys literally fight less than a month ago?" Felipe added.

Isaac couldn't help but chuckle when he realized that his roommate wasn't wrong. "Yeah, we did. But they're both over stupid shit— they aren't anything to worry about."

"Jesus, you two have been fighting a lot lately," DeShawn remarked.

"I don't think we've fought that much."

"Yeah, you have."

"It seems like there's always something wrong between you guys," Felipe piped up. "To be quite honest, I'm sick of hearing it."

"If it makes you feel better, I'm just as sick of having to go through it," Isaac replied.

"I bet!" DeShawn exclaimed. "Seriously, you guys have changed...but not for the better. You're not the happy couple you guys were back in high school. I don't know what the problem is now, but something's wrong with you guys. It's like you two can't get along anymore. I'm not blaming you, obviously, but something's up. At least, that's what I think."

"It's really not a big deal, you guys," Isaac insisted. "Cassie and I just got in a disagreement or two over nothing. That happens to a lot of couples, you know. I'm not gonna worry about it too much 'cause this fight will blow over in a few days. I know it will."

Felipe and DeShawn exchanged uncertain looks, but they didn't say anything else about what had happened. They went back to playing their video game, as did their good friend.

As for Isaac, he was quite irritated that there had been yet another fight between him and Cassie. But he didn't really think that they had fought a lot since starting university. A part of him didn't want to think back to all the fights they had had, yet another part of him acknowledged that their relationship had definitely changed over the past few months. Still, Isaac didn't worry too much about this particular fight because he knew that he could resolve it before his birthday rolled around. All he needed was to give Cassie a couple days to cool off, and then make things right between them. It wasn't always an easy thing to accomplish, but he was always able to pull it off.