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“We …” Violet glanced over at Charlie. “We got stuck together and neither of us exactly like fighting, I guess.”
“No, we don’t," Charlie added. “At first, it was weird, but then it got easier over time.”
“When you said it got easier, I expected stilted conversation and awkward pauses," Liv said. “I even had flash cards in case it got awkward. But this? This is … this is way beyond what should be possible.”
“We’ve been living together for over a month now. We wouldn’t have survived if we didn’t," Violet said.
“You did all of this while living on separate floors?” Lewis asked.
Violet and Charlie glanced at each other. How much did they want to reveal the time they had begun to spend together? How many questions did they want?
Eventually, Charlie spoke, “We like the same foods, so we started eating breakfast together.”
“I … started grading in the dining room because of how much space I need," Violet admitted.
“Willingly?” Liv asked.
“Yeah, so we’re spending a lot of time together these days.”
Liv was looking between them, wide eyed. “Okay, so you really needed to be trapped together.”
“And ruin my apartment. It kind of helps I was literally homeless,” Violet said.
“You were never homeless,” Charlie said. “I wasn’t going to kick you out.”
“Yeah, I know that now. But the fear of being kicked out made me stop antagonizing you for five minutes so we could talk.”
“You still antagonize me. I think dragging me to a sushi bar with a conveyer belt is the definition of antagonizing.”
“Okay, but it’s consensual antagonizing.”
“Yeah, we’ll go with that.”
“I think I just witnessed a bomb timer hit zero with no explosion,” Liv said. “This is … so cool! Like you guys are friends. Lewis, isn’t this awesome!”
Lewis looked between the two of them. “Charlie, can I talk to you?”
“Me?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah, you. Let’s go out to the lobby.”
Charlie gave Violet a confused glance, before he stood and walked away. Violet watched them go, worry filling her. Why did Lewis look so confused? And why did she feel like they had done something wrong by being friends?
~
Charlie
“What is going on?” Lewis said, turning to Charlie.
“Why do you look so freaked out?” Charlie asked. They were out of eyesight of the table, and at his friend’s panicked gaze, he almost wanted to try and escape back to it.
“Last time I saw you two, it pained you to agree with her. People don’t change overnight, okay? What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Charlie," Lewis said. “You can’t pretend like this is normal. You hated each other for six years!”
“And then I dumped Lauren," Charlie said. “Lauren was … this weird cloud over my mind. She instigated most of it. She would talk down about Violet and tell me I was justified in being an asshole when I wasn’t. So … when she was gone, Violet and I were able to talk. Really talk.”
