CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

"You spammed me," Aurelio said. "Not Matt. That's why I came here in the first place." Fumbling for his phone, he mumbled, "I can show you." He saw Blair's texts. He knew he did. But when he checked his chat with her, there was nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He frowned and stared harder at the screen, and his heart could have ripped out of his chest right then and there.

"Elio," Blair said, showing him her phone, the texts she had sent Matt. "I'm sure I texted Matt, not you."

Aurelio wanted to laugh, but there was no energy in his system. And he wanted to cry, but there were no tears in his eyes. Wilted. He felt so wilted and tired and he just wanted to curl in a corner and disappear.

"How is that possible?" Aurelio said. "We were literally still dating two days ago."

Blair cocked her eyebrows. "Elio...Listen. You're great." She let out a small breath, and she took a moment to think. "You're so reliable and trustworthy and sweet, and you're a good friend. But I'm into Matt." Her expression was serious. "I'm so in love with him, that I broke up with him for the whole smoking thing, and I got back with him even though I knew he hasn't completely quit yet."

Everything felt so fragile right now. Reality felt like glass, or like Aurelio was looking at it through glass.

"Elio? Are you listening to me?"

"Isn't this whole thing what happened with us?" Aurelio asked. "You told me. When we were at the lake, and we kissed, and you told me you were proud of me 'cause you couldn't taste the cigarette."

"I kissed Matt when we were at the lake," Blair said. "I told Matt that I was proud of him."

Aurelio hated that he couldn't come up with a stronger reaction. The incredulity no longer affected him the way it used to. All he could do was look at her. He slept for five hours, and he was still tired, and he wanted to sleep forever, and this didn't make sense. Nothing coming out of Blair's mouth made sense, and neither did any thought coming out of his brain.

"We never dated and you don't smoke," Blair said. "You wouldn't. It's not like you. Even Matt...He's not proud it. He doesn't think smoking is cool or something. You know, he never ever smokes around anyone. He always does it when he's alone. And I don't understand why, Elio. I don't understand why he likes hurting himself like that."

Aurelio knew why, but right now he couldn't focus enough on that topic.

"So..." Aurelio's voice was low. "So, you're telling me, all this time, you and Matt were dating."

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying."

"So if we meet up with Matt now, you could kiss him. In front of me or Leslie. And that would be normal."

"I have no idea why I'd specifically kiss him in front of you, but yes, that would be normal. Every one knows we're back together."

"Okay. Come with me."

"What?"

"Let's go see Matt."

"I mean, I want to see him, but--"

"Yeah. So come."

Aurelio took Blair with him. They went outside, and they walked, and everything was dull and dreary. The world felt so dead. Blair said something. Actually, Blair said a lot of things. But Aurelio couldn't focus. He kept walking until he made it to Matt's place, and there, Matt was just stepping out the front-door, closing it behind him.

When Matt spotted Blair, he raised his phone. "Battery was dead," he said. "Don't kill me. I didn't mean to ignore you."

Blair chuckled and skipped towards him and hugged him, then looked into his eyes and pecked his lips. Matt gave her this small, relaxed smile. Aurelio remembered thinking that Matt would appreciate Blair's loving nature. He remembered thinking that Matt and Blair would make a better pair than him and Blair.

Leslie came from the backyard, and she stood silently beside Aurelio. Then she nudged his shoulder.

"Wanna watch them make out, you creep?" she said, chuckling. Aurelio kept staring ahead, motionless and emotionless. Leslie's amused expression dropped. A tone of alarm echoed in her voice. "Elio?"

"They're kissing," Aurelio said, pointing at Matt and Blair. He looked at Leslie with wide eyes. "They're kissing, Leslie."

"Yeah. They got back together. You didn't know that?"

Aurelio shook his head slowly. "I was dating Blair. It felt so wrong. But I didn't do anything about it."

"Um, no you weren't." Leslie laughed. It wasn't a nervous laugh. It was a genuine one, as if what Aurelio had said was so untrue that the mere idea was funny. "Dude. Imagine dating your best friend's girl."

Blair glanced back at Leslie and Aurelio, then she stepped off the porch and took Leslie by the arm, leaning towards her ear. She whispered something, and then both girls glanced at Aurelio with worried frowns.

"Everything's reversing," Aurelio said.

Leslie approached Aurelio again. "What's reversing?"

"All the weird things. Everything that felt wrong," Aurelio said. Leslie's fingers were around his wrist, and he was walking with her maybe. Or more like she was guiding him into walking away. He didn't know what he was doing. "Everything's clicking back in place," he mumbled, craning his neck to a throw a last glance at Matt and Blair. "After I opened up to you." He set his eyes on Leslie again. "When I acknowledged the problem. That's when things started to change again."

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Thank you for reading/voting/commenting! Updates are gonna be a lot more consistent from now on cz i finish my finals this week ❤️