Lexi's Love & War

Chapter 22

Cassie still hadn't heard anything from Isaac as the next morning dragged on. When she woke up the next day, she immediately regretted kissing him in front of Lexi. It was frustrating— every time Cassie tried to hurt her enemy, she'd unintentionally hurt Isaac in the process. In the entire time that she'd been trying to win him back, she had managed to hurt him in some way. Now he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her; him calling her a bitch last night had more than proven that. She sat on her bed in an attempt to convince herself that maybe— just maybe— Isaac would eventually change his mind and want to be with her instead.

A knock at her bedroom door interrupted her thoughts, but Cassie immediately knew who was there.

"Come in."

Mariana entered with a solemn look plastered on her features. She ran a hand through her long red hair as she took a seat on the bed. She'd already been filled in about her best friend's antics from the previous night by a mutual friend of theirs. At the time, she was unimpressed by Cassie's inability to keep her promise of behaving for once. But she didn't look to be in a lecturing mood— she seemed worried instead of irritated.

"Are you still thinking about him?"

"What do you think?"

At this, Mariana sighed. "It's not worth it, you know."

"But I can't stop! Seriously, it's fucking impossible to get my mind off him. Kissing Isaac felt so damn good...I missed it way more than I thought. But then he threw me off of him like I was nothing. It's like all those years we were together meant nothing to him anymore."

"Cassie, he's clearly moved on with someone else. I don't think— actually, I know that he's not gonna change his mind anytime soon. I really think you need to give up on hoping that he'll ever leave Lexi for you. I know it's hard to accept, but you don't really have a choice. Just give it up for the sake of your mental health, okay?"

This wasn't what Cassie wanted to hear, especially from her best friend. She needed to hear some kind of reassurance that Isaac would one day want to come back and resume what they once had. Yet even as she held onto this false hope, the sensible part of her knew well enough that Mariana was right. It was a hell of a bitter pill to swallow, but she couldn't avoid it any longer. Tears filled her eyes as she dropped her head towards the foot of the bed.

"You're right," she muttered in a weak voice.

As Cassie began to cry, Marina hugged her tight to try and comfort her as best she could. It wasn't a fun spot to be in, having to tell your best friend that her ex-boyfriend wasn't about to come back. Yet at the same time, Cassie knew that Mariana needed to do it. She was rather grateful for it, but it didn't make things less painful.

"Look," Mariana said, "it's clear that you need more time to move on. There's nothing wrong with that, okay? Take as much time as you need to get your shit together before you start dating again."

"If I start dating again," Cassie corrected.

"It'll happen, girl. I know you're really upset right now, so let's not talk about it anymore. I won't bring it up again unless you do," Mariana revealed. "Deal?"

"Deal. I'm not heading back home 'til tomorrow, so I'm just gonna spend the day here doing a whole lot of nothing."

"Well, I can skip out and grab some ice cream, if you want. We can stay here and gossip about school and other random shit. We haven't done that in so long!"

Cassie finally smiled. "That sounds like a great idea. Let's do it."

***

Lexi was full of many conflicting emotions long after her and Isaac's talk last night. Her head kept spinning, while her heart held fear for the unknown that was to come with her new relationship.