Chapter Text
Ok, so this was not how she thought this trip would go. Harper basically denying their whole relationship, throwing Abby under the bus while everyone stared at her was the tipping point. She wouldn’t let a friend treat her like that, so why would she let the woman she wanted to spend the rest of her life with get away with this shit?
Here she was now, packing her bag in a hurry hoping she could get out of the house without evoking any more drama, but naturally, her prayers had not been heard when Harper came running down the stairs, meaning John couldn’t stop her…
“Abby please, let me explain I-“, was Harper really trying to plea with her right now?
“What is there to explain, Harper? You threw me under the bus, by making sure it’s clear you are not a lesbian and we’re not dating. Well, congratulations. Your wish came true because we’re over.”
“What? No, please. It’s just some words I didn’t say. Who cares if they know or not. All that matters is that I love you, right?”
Abby looked at her, completely speechless as she realised she did not recognise the person in front of her.
“”Just words” ? Are you serious? This isn’t just a small thing! You lied to me for months, made me pretend to be someone I’m not and then made sure you got out fine, no harm done and didn’t care if it hurt someone else- If it hurt me. This is a lot more important than just love.”
“I don’t understand why it’s so important for you that I come out to my parents. Especially since you always say you don’t care about that.”
She couldn’t help but huff out sarcastic laugh, no way Harper was that dense…
“It’s not about you coming out, it’s about you lying to me! I just told you that but you were too busy thinking of a way to get out of this instead of listening. I didn’t care about you coming out, but excuse me for hoping that my girlfriend would have my back when Sloane revealed everything. You didn’t even have to do anything. I know you think that these are just words but guess what, the action behind them hurts. You say you want to build a life with me but it just seems like you don’t want to change anything to actually be with me. You’re just lying to yourself and to me if you think this – us – is something you want.”
Luckily, she finished packing her clothes and accessories by the end of her sentence and left before Harper had time to react. She quickly stormed out of the mansion, throwing a quick “bye” at Jane and sat down in John’s car, sighing deep as they drove away.
Before they started the long way back home, they made a quick detour to the next gas station to get some snacks for the drive when Abby remembered the pets John was supposed to take care of.
“John, if you’re here, who is watching the pets?”
“My therapist is taking care of them right now but we should have a discussion about the fish at some point…,” he admitted ruefully as they walked to the cashier.
Abby already prepared for the worst as he started explaining, “Ok so let me preface this by saying that no one would disagree that fish belong in the ocean…” Great, that will be a fun conversation with the owner…
“…so I would say, that while they perhaps aren’t in a… living condition right now, they live their best life in fish heaven as their remains will travel through the ocean.”
“You do know that the pipes that are connected to the toilets don’t actually reach the ocean, right? If your only source of that knowledge is Finding Nemo I’d like to remind you that it’s a cartoon.”
John got quiet as his whole speech and encouragements for Abby were, in fact, based on thinking they would reach the ocean after having been flushed down.
A few minutes after starting the drive back, Abby fell asleep while John talked about one of the authors he might represent soon. Naturally, he didn’t wake her, knowing the last few days must have been anything but easy for her especially with how it ended. He felt terrible for her. As much as he was against the whole “asking her father for permission” thing, she did not deserve to be treated like that, but it was Abby, who was known for being too nice and having John step in for her before it actually broke her.
The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was John mumbling about a story of one of his authors that with time all merged into one for her, unable to decipher which part belonged to which story; there were just too many.
Through a sudden jab, she woke up and quickly realised, John was trying to wake her up. Tired she blinked into his face before looking outside; they were in front of his apartment complex.
“What…are we doing here?” was all she was able to utter, still more asleep than awake.
“Come on, did you really think I’d let you sleep in your apartment tonight? You should know me better by now. Get up, because I think we both know that I cannot actually lift a 1000 pounds…”
Abby chuckles lightly while taking her duffel bag from the back seat “Thanks”
Soon they arrived in John’s apartment and he quickly prepared the guest room for her. “If you need anything, you can always wake me, ok? Good night.”
He was so sweet and an amazing friend. Sure, the fish might not be the best indicator for that but who else would drive hours to a town just to pick up their friend without even been asked to do that?
She was lucky to have him because she was sure she could not have survived the rest of the evening without losing her mind completely. Now she just had to find a way to fall asleep since the initial tiredness had worn off and Abby was left with her thoughts, which wasn’t exactly a good place to be… Normally she’d scroll on social media but the phone had been turned off ever since John admitted to teaching Harper how to track her so they shut it down completely just to be safe. Obviously, Abby knew she’d have to face her eventually; they did live together after all and she needed her things, but the longer she could postpone all that drama, the better. Soon she succumbed to sleep, leaving the weight of this whole mess for the morning.
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John was the first to wake up the next and prepared coffee and a simple breakfast, ready to talk with Abby about everything, planning the next steps and be an open ear to listen if she wanted to rant about everything that had happened. At 11 a.m. she finally resurfaced from the guestroom looking more than just tired, it was clear she had cried a little and was mentally exhausted. John let her have a few minutes of peace before starting to talk about what to do next and if she had a plan.
“Honestly, I have no idea what do. I should probably move out all my stuff before she comes back but for that, I need a place to store everything. I don’t even know where I can sleep the next weeks because for some reason, sleeping on the couch in the apartment with the woman I just broke up with, doesn’t sound enticing…” she ran her fingers through her hair, groaning more out of annoyance from the situation she found herself in more than anything else.
“Why don’t you move in with me?” John said it so casually as if it was the most obvious solution, getting Abby to stare at him in disbelief.
“What?”
“Yeah, could be nice. We have lived together before so it’s not like we don’t know what it’ll be like and I get to save a little on rent. And if I have to be honest, I missed you. We haven’t been hanging out as much as we used to the last few months”
She gave him a half-hearted smile, contemplating if she should agree or not, because truth be told, she missed him too. A lot. But Harper wasn’t exactly happy that she spent so much time with him and she didn’t want to fight with her so she complied. It was stupid but she thought that’s what people do, sometimes they have to make sacrifices and if that meant that she’d see John only half of the time she was used to, then so be it. By now though, she realised it was only her making sacrifices, her making sure Harper was a 100% content even if it meant she had to neglect her own needs and wants. Not anymore. She was done with Harper; that much was clear. It did make her feel weirdly guilty, to be over it so quickly, because if she was honest with herself, she was done with her. The person she spent the last few days with, wasn’t the one she fell for and it certainly wasn’t the one she wanted to spend her life with. Maybe she could have forgiven her if she owned up to it and gave a sincere apology, but even that was too much to ask for as all her “apologies” was her excusing her own behaviour, blaming everyone except herself. That version of Harper was one she definitely couldn’t justify spending any more time with, but she should drift her focus back to John, who was still waiting for an answer.
“Sorry, I zoned out. If it’s truly ok for you, then I’d love to move in! I missed you too.”
John nodded, clearly happy about the outcome before asking about the next steps.
“Ok so let’s talk strategy. When do you want to move out? If you’re ready, we could do it today, that way you don’t have to do it in front of Harper and have a few days before deciding if you even want to meet up with her.”
“That’s probably the best and quickest way to get through this and the only important stuff I have there are my books, some decorations and paintings anyway. The rest she can keep for herself. Luckily she was too stubborn to allow the furniture I had to go anywhere near her “carefully crafted aesthetic” as she said.”
Ok, maybe she was a little bitter about it, Abby concluded.