Chapter 3

Olivia Miller's POV

Anyone bad mouthing your best friend would make you feel angry and that's what I was feeling. But I was in his house, eating breakfast and he looked after me all night so I could not really get angry with him. I took a deep breath while thinking how to respond to that without offending him.

"I know both of you had a nasty breakup. Too many things happened for a one month relationship like a total scandal. She said something about you, you said something about her but I did not believe any of you. You both were angry and said things that you did not mean. That doesn't mean it's fine for you to call her manipulative after all these years." He snorted while shaking his head. I felt like he was mocking me or something. 

"You are always naive, Livi. She was manipulating you all your life and now marrying your Ex, you are still defending her. Well, it was expected from you. You always do everything with out expecting anything in return but people take you for granted because of this." He said softly. 

"What do you mean?" He sounded like I was some selfless saint. 

"We are talking, aren't we? Finish the breakfast first then we will talk. You need a lot of strength to face all these and I don't want to waste our breakfast because of her." He continued to finish his breakfast.

After the breakfast, I was sitting with my glass of juice and thinking what did he mean that time. His couch was so soft, I could sleep on it all day.

I was enjoying the softness of the couch when he came back from his kitchen with his black coffee. He looked truly different. He was wild, bike and leather jacket kind of kid but the Alex in front of me was calm and collected gentleman. He caught me staring at him and stare back after sitting beside me. I should have looked away but something in his green eyes made me curious. Again I felt the pull like I needed to go close. 

He was the first one to look away with a smile. "You did not change at all." I did not know what made him say that. "Can you talk directly to the point? I hate to ask the meanings of your words."

"I thought, I was over with that phase but your not so innocent eyes still have the same effect on me." He sipped on his coffee.

"Effect? Enlighten me." I unconsciously folded one leg under another and that made my short dress to ride up. I was used to sit like that on my couch so, I did not think anything before. I gave all the attention to him. 

"I always felt a pull towards you. I caught you to check me out many times and the look in your eyes were something else. To be honest, I wanted to date you but nothing good was happening that time because my stupid ass trusted a witch." He shouted in anger and frustration. 

"But you were dating Sarah. I would not have accepted you even if you asked me out that time. I do not think that dating your best friend's Ex is a good idea. It only becomes complicated for everyone later."

"Your best friend knew well about this and she was the one who took advantage of it." It's obvious that I was trying hard not to believe anything. It's hard to change our point of view all of a sudden. We mostly believe what matches with our thoughts, beliefs and what we want to believe. 

"I know you are not believing but what am I going to get out of this? Nothing. So, I don't have any motive to lie that too to you."

"Okay then start from the beginning like what happened or not. Only then I can even decide to think about it." I was going behind my bestie but it was upto me if I believe him or not. I was totally in a serious mess. 

"I always liked you but did not know how to approach you. You were not like other girls you know so, I could not just go in front of you and ask you out. Sarah was always with the basketball team so I had a chance to ask her for help and she, acting like a sweet angel decided to help me. But I did not realize that it was a witch acting like an angel." The anger and hatred was clearly seen in his eyes and it's not possible for that to happen only for a month break up. Were they hiding something from me? 

"She then proposed me a way to get to know you more. She said that you would be comfortable around me if you know that I am Sarah's boyfriend. I did not agree at first but seeing how stayed far away from the guys, I decided to go along with that plan. She told me to not worry about it as she would tell you about our fake dating after a few days when you would be a lot comfortable with me. I believed her, like the stupid I was, I believed her. I was desperate for you and my brain did not functioned that time clearly. After that day, she started to show her true colors."

Deep down I was feeling that he was telling me the truth. But I knew Sarah from my childhood and there's no way I could think that she was capable to do it. She was high maintenance, rude and a bitch. She always expressed how she was feeling about something and she never filtered it. There was no reason for me to doubt her except for the marriage with my Ex and obviously dating secretly before that. "What happened after that?"

"She said that we need to act like a perfect couple in front of you to make it look like we were in love and I would approach you for a idea to surprise her with a date. Remember when you helped to surprise Sarah? It was not a surprise at all. She started to get clingy even when you were not around. She was bossing me around. when I started to decline her approaches, she started to blackmail me saying she would tell you nasty things about me so that I could never get to take you out. That one month and half was a total nightmare. She was planning to stretch it as long as she could but her luck was cut short." 

Alex gave a smirk but it was not something cocky or a proud smirk. His hatred for her was too evident and he was trying nothing to cover it. He could be lying about everything because of that intense hate. Love and Hate both have the ability to make anyone blind.

"We were in a house party obviously you were not there. She was so drunk that she could not even walk. She cling to my arm and was mumbling something while laughing. I tried to hear her incase I got to know something about you. She was laughing at my stupidity. I lost my chance with you as soon as I agreed to her plan. Because Friends Exs are off limit for you. You do not entertain that idea. I was cursing myself so bad for it and decided to end everything." I was trying to catch up. 

"Whole basketball team knew about her desperate attempt to be my girlfriend and my desperate attempt to get close to you. It was a huge blow for her and she told me that you would never believe me over her. That's why I never tried to confront you with everything." He sighed. 

I took few moments before speaking. I was thinking about what to tell him after he would be done with his story. "I wasn't that shy. If only you had approached me first like any normal guy. I can not say that I believed everything but I will think about it. I have to see everything in a different light. I definitely trust Sarah more than you so, it will take time."

"You can trust me as I take care of your drunk self last night and I did not take advantage of you. Even now when you are flashing your panty, did you see me even look at there?" He was serious but his smile gave it away. 

I looked down and saw I was indeed flashing my panties because of the way I was sitting. I immediately fixed my dress while sporting burning cheeks. "You are a true gentleman, no doubt there, buddy."

We exchanged our numbers to contact later and I finally returned to home. The first thing I did after returning to my studio apartment was to take a shower. After getting cleaned up, I checked my phone for texts and emails. I had no text but emails were piling up. I started to sort them out before my mind drifted to Sarah. Was she really the reason why I never get to go out with the boys whom I liked?