𝑳𝑶𝒀𝑨𝑳𝑻𝒀 - 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨 { ✓ }

• 17

『 LOYALTY 』
{ irl }

!!! tw : mentions of animal abuse !!!

•

nobody has a good feeling about this.

matt, nick, and cora are all anxiously waiting in the van a few blocks down from mae's house. they want to be able to drive mae and chris away as fast as possible and just can't wait to get this over with, even though they're not even the ones who have to talk to alice.

meanwhile, standing on the porch, chris notices how uncomfotable mae seems. she's fiddling with her fingers and her breathing in clearly uneven.

they're both feeling intense deja vu because last time the pair was standing on this porch, it was raining and they opened the door to see alice and rian making out. but what's most important to mae is that it wasn't just her and chris. jeff was there, too. and she will do absolutely anything to get him back.

mae jumps when she feels a hand on her shoulder. she whips her hear around and realizes it was just chris. "are you okay?" he asks her.

she nods, "yeah. yeah, i'm fine."

"you don't have to do this if you don't want to. we'll all understand if you decide that you want to back out and go back home instead. we can get ice cream on the way back, if you want." chris tells her.

"no, i can do this." mae says, more to herself than to chris. "if i can't even talk to her in order to get my own dog back, then i would be proving rian right. i am pathetic."

chris doesn't respond to that. he knows she's right. despite how fucked up it is, she would be proving him right. chris sighs and opens the front door, letting mae to walk in before him and lead the way.

the moment they walk into the house, they both can hear alice's voice as she laughs at something that probably wasn't even funny.

mae follows the sound to the kitchen, chris walking close behind her. sitting on the countertop they see rian. alice is standing between his legs, laughing at something he had said. chris notices as mae's breath hitches at the sight.

"oh!" alice says, chuckling like she didn't just hear the front door open. "mae, you're here already? i was-"

she stops speaking when she notices the boy towering behind her.

"uhm... why is he here?" alice asks, pointing at chris as if she's disgusted at the sight of him being in her house.

"funny you ask that." mae says as she glances over at rian who is still sitting on the counter behind alice. "why is he here?"

"i needed moral support from my boyfriend." alice explains giving her sister a cocky smirk. mae's eyes widen at the word she called him. boyfriend? they're dating? "i'm sure you of all people can understand how encouraging rian can be."

rian chuckles, placing a kiss on the top of her head, making alice giggle. "no, she doesn't understand, actually. i'm only like this to women that im in love with."

mae wants to cry, scream, and everything else that could possibly get these raging emotions of her out. she dated rian for almost a year and he never said that he was in love with her. yeah, they said that they loved each other all the time. but not that they were in love. which are two very different things.

mae would continuously try and send rian hints that she want him to tell her that he was in love with her. but she thought he just never picked up on them. truth is, he just didn't care. because he's been in love with her twin sister this entire time.

"oh, don't look at me like that. i've moved on, maeve." rian says, placing his hands on alice's waist. "i suggest you do the same."

"yeah? well..." mae thinks, trying to come up with something to say that would piss him off. "i have, too."

rian's eyes widen for a split second before quickly returning back to normal. "i'm not stupid. i know you're lying. who would ever want to go out with you?"

chris' hands ball up into fists by his side. he's been staying out of the argument this entire time, but he just can't do it anymore. the look on mae's face breaks his heart and he can't hold himself beck from speaking up.

"i would."

everyone looks up at him, surprised. mae gives him a questioning look but she doesn't say anything because the expressions of horror on alice's and rian's faces are priceless.

chris automatically regrets what he said the moment it leaves his lips, but he can't take it back. instead, he just continues talking, digging himself a deeper and deeper grave of lies. "we're dating, actually."

alice audibly gasps. rian is clearly pissed for some reason. and mae is in shock. flabbergasted if you will.

"i thought we came here to talk about jeff." rian says, removing his hands from alice's hips and crosses them over his chest. he scoffs, shooting a harsh glare at chris. "not about maeve's nonexistent love life."

"her love life is actally very existent." chris responds. "oh, yeah. but only with a man she's in love with." his words make mae's cheeks start to feel extremely hot.

even though they both know that they're lying about being together, mae feels flustered. ugh, why does he have to be such a good liar? if he didn't sound this confident in what he's saying, she wouldn't be blushing this much.

"regardless of my love life, i want my fucking dog back." mae snaps. "where is he?"

"in his grate in the basement." alice says with a sinister grin. "i suppose we got sick of listening to him whine all night."

mae's jaw clenches in anger. alice can do whatever the hell she wants to mae, but purposely neglecting her dog? that's crossing the damn line. because mae knows damn well that alice didn't feed jeff, either.

frankly, chris isn't at all a dog person. he doesn't really like their noisiness and how dirty and loud they can be. he just thinks that it's too much and he's too lazy to deal with it. but he would do just about anything to get this dog back. just to see mae smile again -- like she did shen they first met at mcdonald's. the way her eyes lit up, the way her laugh sounded, the way she grinned. chris already misses it, and it's only be a day.

"chris, i'll be back." mae tells him, clearly worried about her pet. "i'm going to the basement to get jeff, okay?"

mae turns to leave the room. while she has her back turned, rian quickly hops off the countertop and grabs her by the wrist. he opens his mouth to say something to her.

but before he can get any words out, chris' fist comes into contact with his nose.

rian stumbles backward, nearly falling to the floor. when he lifts his head, there's blood drooling from his chin down his face.

"do not touch her." chris says with his voice threateningly low.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧.˚ₓ
a/n:
i'm an absolute slut for protectiveness
idk if that's toxic or not but whatever
i had to add it in here for my own happiness