Love Me Not

Chapter 6

“Eve what are you watching,’ Gabby said perching herself on the back of Eve’s armchair which rocked terrifyingly but didn’t somehow didn’t actually overbalance taking the pair of them with it. 

Eve pulled out her headphones and paused the video that was playing on the screen of her phone, “Dido and Aeneas.”

“The opera—Yas’s obsessed with that,” Gabby pointed out. “Wait Please don’t tell me you’ve gone back to stalking Yasru again. That was only okay when you were on the junior circuit and didn’t know him in real life.”

“Shush and don’t say that too loud we’re in a public place Gabs,” Eve said hushing Gabby glancing around the room furtively but thankfully it was empty. “It wasn’t stalking I just like to stay informed.”

“You pretended to be Japanese and joined his fan groups in Japan on the Internet,” Gabby countered with a deadpan expression. “Anyways why are you watching that opera?”

Eve looked down and to the side unwillingly to meet the Canadian woman’s eyes, “He recommended it to me.” She was going to tell Gabby that they were doing it for their duet but Yas probably wouldn’t like that considering his attitude the day before.

“Come on Eve,” Gabby said frustrated. “The entire point of this plan of ours was to stop you being so lovesick and sad all the time—this obsession isn’t helping you at all okay.”

…

“Yas,” Wakaba said marching along the corridor. Yas quite terrified looked around to see if he’d be able to hide anywhere but unable to escape fast enough he held his ground. “What are you doing to Eve.”

“Wait what that’s what you want to ask about,” Yas said confused now. Wakaba looked really angry but Yas wasn’t sure what he had exactly done. Sure he might have been slightly cold towards Eve recently but they just hadn’t been hanging out as much as they had before.

Wakaba glared at him and unimpressed by Yas’s weak defence, “Why did you lie to her about the balcony.”

“What do you mean,” Yasru said as he tried to formulate an argument against Wakaba but he just couldn’t completely predict what type of argument the younger skater was trying to make.

“Don’t you think she has a right to know about what happened,” Wakaba asked her voice hard and urgent and Yas looked around trying to work out if there was anyone else around who might be overhearing either of them.

“That’s it Wakaba okay,” Yas said his voice angry. Why didn’t she get it? Why did she care? “Nothing happened between us.” 

…

“What do you want me to do then Gabby,” Eve asked confused about what the other girl was driving at. “I’m trying to do what’s right okay—I just don’t know what that is anymore.” This entire thing was messing with her head and since she’d been on tour her mental state was a complete mess.

Gabby looked pensive for a few seconds, “I know you Eve. You’ll always do the right thing. It’s never the easy thing but you’ll always choose to do what’s right at any particular moment.”

“Thanks,” Eve said smiling gratefully at Gabby. Somehow the other girl had known exactly to say to cheer her up. “Does it mean something that Yas implied I’m like Dido cause I’ve already done Anna Karenina and I’m not sure how many times I can play suicidal women who are ruined by their menfolk.”

“Do you want it to mean something,” Gabby said cryptically before laughing. “Besides if you’re Dido he’s Aeneas and they were crazy in love with each other.”

Eve laughed bitterly at that, “So crazy in love that he left her behind even though he knew she would die.”

… 

“If it was nothing then why are you so defensive Yas,” Wakaba said her tone angry and her voice frighteningly quiet. “Why wouldn’t you just tell her about it.”

“Because it means nothing,” Yas pointed out. “She wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t been so wasted okay. If she knew what had happened when she was on the balcony with me she’d just be completely humiliated. She’s better off unaware of what happened Waka.”

Wakaba scoffed at the male skater, “How do you know what Eve would have wanted to happen. And what are you going to do if Eve gets her memory back from that night? You must know that if she realises you’ve been lying to her about something like that she’ll hate you.”

Yas glanced down. Wakaba was right about everything that she was saying he was making a stupid mistake and as much as he could be annoyed that Eve wasn’t hanging out with him as much. But considering that he was keeping something like this a secret from her she was completely justified in not wanting to be around him. Lifting his head he finally said, “I know.”

…

“Stop overthinking stuff Eve,” Gabby said pragmatically. “Does it really matter whatever the connotations of whatever Yas said to you. Surely the fact that he thought of you when it came to one of his current favourite pieces of music means more than whatever he’s actually comparing you to,”

“What did I do to deserve being your friend?” Eve asked giving Gabby a one-armed hug. 

Gabby laughed and Eve could feel the vibrations from that laugh colliding against her chest, “Nothing Eve. You don’t need to do anything to have friends just let other people in to see the real Eve.”

…

“Well, are you going to bloody well do something about it then,” Wakaba asked her voice sharp attacking and tearing into Yas and he flinched away from her words. “Are finally going to act like an adult and face up to Eve and tell her the truth.”

Yas looked down ashamed and humiliated by all the barrage of words that Wakaba was attacking him with. She didn’t get it did she. It was a mistake of Eve’s and he wasn’t going to humiliate her by bringing it up again to her. She wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t been so drunk and Yas didn’t want to be faced with her rejection when she found out what had happened on the balcony. “No I’m not going to tell her,” he snapped back yelling at the petit Japanese skater who was standing in front of. He breathed in heavily a couple times and his voice broke as he added his voice completely empty, “I can never tell her.” He wasn’t able to look up to see the Japanese skater leaving as quickly and purposely as she had arrived.

…

“I love you Gabs,” Eve said finally pulling away from the other girl. “Now if you don’t mind I want to finish watching this opera to see if I’m able to work out where he’s coming from.” She smiled at the Canadian skater as she left Eve alone in the common room without glancing back towards her and her ponytail swaying almost hypnotically. 

…

“We need to do something Gabby,” Wakaba said matter-of-factly to the Canadian skater. After their conversations with both parties, they had mutually decided to meet and talk through what they had learned. They needed to be able to come together and work out what to do next for both Eve and Yas because based of her talk with Yas the situation that was currently going on between them seemed incredibly toxic for the pair of them.

Gabby sighed, “That’s right this entire mess is destroying Eve’s self-esteem and I don’t want it to be going on any longer. I don’t even care if she ends up with Yasru anymore.” These were big words for Gabby a self-proclaimed shipper of the two and one of their biggest advocates. 

‘Yasru doesn’t seem cooperative. I tried to see if I could get him to tell the truth to Eve about that night on the balcony but he refused point blank. There’s something going on with him which I can’t put my finger on,” Wakaba mused thinking back to her conversation with the Japanese skater but all she could think of was his desperate face at the end before she’d left him.

“We need to sort this out—this silly plan is clearly not working out fast enough,” Gabby said frustrated. It had been a good idea to make Yas jealous but as far as she could see all it did was cause more trouble and no resolutions. It was making Eve feel bad because she felt as though she was using Nathan to further her aims without him knowing and Yas was still blind and just looked as though he had was constipated whenever he saw Eve being happy with anyone.

Wakaba laughed briefly, “Do you think we ought to go rogue—to help them of course.” If they waited for Eve or Yas to do their thing the tour would be over before anything actually happened and Wakaba would be back in Japan when all the beef was going down in TCC and she wanted to be able to watch some of the drama that could be guaranteed to ensue.

“To help them,” Gabby agreed. This entire thing was just so annoying she wanted to tie the pair of them together and leave them in a life or death situation to make them tell the truth but apparently, that wouldn’t be tactful enough and may or may not be slightly illegal. “The problem is what can we do we can’t throw those two together any more than we already are. And Eve’s already doing a good job of making Yas jealous he’s just an uptight little s**t who doesn’t want to see the truth.”

“That’s a little harsh,” Wakaba said trying to calm Gabby down. The other girl was getting worked up and protective over Eve and they had to keep this as business-like possible if they wanted to operate at maximum effectiveness. “But you are right we need to find something that matters to the pair of them.”

“Well that’s easy,” Gabby said tucking her hands into her pockets before looking up again at the Japanese skater. “It’s their duet.”