Page 28 of Inevitable

We had covered nearly his entire life story in an hour and a half, but we only got around to talking about my major, where I was from, my friendship with Bash, and oddly enough, my irrational fear of the ocean. It didn't escape my attention that he seemed to tense up a bit and flared his nostrils when I brought up Bash.

“So Bash…is he the reason you chose to come to UT Austin?” he had asked me. I knew that it would sound like I was obsessed with him if I told him the truth, so I amended it slightly to make myself seem less stalker-ish.

“Not exactly…” I started slowly, “Bash was the first one who brought up the idea of me transferring, but I kind of fell in love with the city whenever I would visit. I just felt like it was time for me to push out of my comfort zone a little bit.”

It was possible I imagined it, but it looked as though Kit had relaxed a bit after I told him that Bash wasn't the entire impetus for my move to Austin. “Well, it doesn't matter what the reason was, but I'm just thankful that it allowed us to meet,” Kit commented smoothly, flashing me a smirk that made him look even more attractive. I blushed lightly, flattered by his interest.

“Honestly, so am I. This has been good for me, and I've had fun,” I agreed.

“I'm glad to hear that, Micah. Does that mean it would be appropriate at this juncture to ask you out on a proper date? Perhaps dinner and dancing?” Kit asked, a wicked gleam lighting his eyes.

I faltered a bit at his request. Something about it had my gut twisting, but I couldn't put my finger on the reason. On paper, Kit was a catch; he was well-educated, had a good career going, was attractive, charming, polite, and had treated me pretty well up to that point. So why did his proposal hang over my head like a dark cloud and sit heavy in my stomach like lead?

It had to have been Bash. That was the only reasonable explanation I could come up with for my strange resistance to saying yes to Kit again. It had to have been my ridiculous, pitiful heart that wasn't ready to move on from my best friend yet. I had to give him up. Kit was a good guy and gave me something Bash would never be able to: himself. With that reminder, I pushed back the niggling feeling in my brain and told him I'd love to.

“Perfect! This week's no good because I have a big case I'm working on, but how about the Friday after next?” Kit proposed.

“Yeah, that should work. Sounds great,” I said, mustering up a smile and trying to look happy about our second date.

Maybe I'd actually be able to turn the page on mine and Bash's tragic love story after all.

*****

I rolled into my apartment around half past two, a myriad of emotions running through me after the events of the last couple of hours. I hadn't walked more than five steps into my entry hallway when my phone went off, blaring at me in the voice of Freddie Mercury. In retrospect, maybe “You're My Best Friend” was a little on the nose as a ringtone for Bash, but Queen was fucking iconic. Honestly, the fact that myphone didn't chirp out “I'll Always Love You” when he called showed great restraint on my part.

I couldn't help the smile that swept across my face as I answered it, missing the fuck out of my bestie who had been agonizingly MIA from my life that week. We had made plans to hang out that night for one of our ritual movie nights complete with junk food, booze, and a sleepover. I had been looking forward to it for days. “Hiya stranger. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me,” I teased.

Bash didn't give me his standard chuckle and sarcastic remark. Instead, he was almost painfully quiet, and dread unfurled in my belly. “BB? You there?”

“Hey…look, please don't be pissed, I tried so hard to get out of it, but…” Bash sighed deeply.

“Let me guess. You can't make it tonight,” I said lightly, trying and most likely failing to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal and I wasn't super hurt by it.

“M&M, I swear I tried. My dad is in town and called, basically telling me to get my ass to dinner tonight and bring Ainsley with me. You know how he is. I couldn't exactly say no or he'd give me hell,” Bash muttered wearily. At the mention of Ainsley being at the dinner, my jaw tightened and my stomach soured.

I tried to let it roll off me. I really did, but my inner petty bitch awoke from her slumber and the claws came out.

“Hey, I get it, it's cool. I went out with Kit earlier today and I'm super tired, so I'll probably catch up with Rhys a bit and crash early,” I told him, playing it off like I wasn't affected in the slightest.

“Wait…what? What do you mean you went out earlier? Who's Kit?”

In the back of my head, I was fully aware that I was trying to provoke a reaction and maybe hurt his feelings a little, but that tempting green devil of jealousy was squatting on my shoulder and unleashing poison into my ear.

“Kit? He's the guy I met at the concert last weekend. We had our first date today, and it went really great! I can actually see it going somewhere with him,” I said cheerfully, tasting the words like ash on my mouth.

“Oh…I didn't know you had a date today. Why didn't you tell me?” Bash sounded hopeless and distraught, like I had just told him I had some terminal disease. I knew it would hit him hard when I started dating because he'd have to share me with someone else, just as I was still struggling to accept that I had to share him with Ainsley.

This was a natural and not at all codependent thing for bestfriends to go through. Right? Whatever. That's my denial to live with, so shut up.

“Well, it's not like we've talked much this week, BB. You've been crazy busy and I didn't think about it when we had lunch a few days ago.”

“Yeah, but after all that crap you gave me about hiding Ainsley and not being upfront with you, why wouldn't you just tell me? It's not like you couldn't have texted me,” Bash said a little angrily.Umm, hold up there bestie, what the fuck?

“Okay, this is wildly different from the Ainsley situation. She was your girlfriend for months and you lied to me about her. I didn't lie toyou, and I didn't realize I had to clear my entire social calendar with you. Should I have gotten your approval first, Dad?” I asked sardonically, lighting up with indignation.

“What the fuck, M? I didn't say that! I just would have liked to have known when my best friend had a date with some douchebag he met at a club!”

“You don't even fucking know him, Bash!”

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