Lie to Him, Moan for Me!

It's your life. You do what you want!

Two days passed.

And nothing changed.

I stayed buried in my room, wrapped in the quiet kind of stillness that wasn't really peace — just avoidance. The walls felt too close. My thoughts too loud. Liam's words played on repeat in my head like a song I didn't want to hear but couldn't stop humming.

"I want to try again. I want to fix this."

But it wasn't fixable. Not anymore.
It had already cracked — quietly, fully — beneath the weight of everything I couldn't admit.

I didn't know how to feel. I didn't know where I stood. All I knew was that nothing made sense, and the not knowing was suffocating.

Even worse was the loneliness. The isolation I'd carved out for myself. I ignored the outside world — texts, missed calls, knocking at the door I never answered.

Emma and Ava had been relentless. Invites. Voicemails. Little reminders that they were still there, still waiting for me to come back to myself.

But I didn't.

I couldn't.

Until today.

Emma didn't bother texting first. She burst through the door without warning, her bag slung over her shoulder and that no-nonsense glare already on her face.

"Maya," she said, hands on her hips. "Get up. You're coming to the party."

I didn't look at her. I didn't move. Just pulled the blanket tighter around me, like that could shield me from the world she was dragging back in.

"I'm not going."

"Too bad." She was already pacing. "Ava's outside, and you've got about five minutes before she walks in here with backup."

"Emma—"

"No. Don't even try. You've been hiding for two days, and I've let you. I've let you cry, sulk, avoid, spiral — whatever this is. But this ends tonight. You're getting out of this room."

I sighed, eyes fixed on the ceiling. "I'm just tired."

"No," she said, walking over, voice softening but not backing down. "You're exhausted from pretending you don't care. From pretending you're fine when you're clearly not."

I stayed quiet.

She sat on the edge of my bed, her tone shifting. "Look. I know things are complicated. I know it's Liam. And Nathan. And all this stuff you haven't said out loud yet."

My chest tightened.

"But you don't have to figure it all out right now," she said gently. "You don't have to choose. Or explain. Or feel guilty every second you're breathing."

I swallowed, eyes burning.

"Emma, I don't even know what I want anymore."

"Then that's your answer," she said. "You don't know. So stop acting like you do. Stop tearing yourself apart trying to give everyone what they want."

She leaned forward, searching my face. "Maya, I love you. But fuck Liam. And fuck Nathan. You're the one stuck in the middle of all this, and you're the one bleeding for it. You're allowed to be messy. You're allowed to screw up. You're allowed to feel lost without apologizing for it."

I blinked fast, trying to keep it together.

"But what if I ruin everything?" I asked, barely more than a whisper.

Emma smiled sadly. "Maybe you will. Maybe you already have. But that doesn't mean you have to keep punishing yourself for it."

Her hand closed gently around mine. "Come with us tonight. Not for them. For you."

And somehow, I nodded.

Just once.

It wasn't certainty. It wasn't clarity.

But it was something.

..

Emma was already rummaging through my closet by the time I got out of bed.

"No more oversized hoodies," she muttered. "We're done with hiding. Tonight, you're dressing like the main character."

I raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. "Pretty sure you're the main character in every room you walk into."

She grinned. "Exactly. And tonight, you are too."

She yanked a hanger free and held it up with a flourish.

It was a dress I'd forgotten I even owned — black, silk, unapologetically short. Thin straps. Open back. The kind of dress that didn't whisper, it dared.

"I am not wearing that," I said flatly.

"Oh, you are absolutely wearing this." She tossed it onto the bed like it had already been decided. "You'll look like danger incarnate."

"I'll look like a walking breakdown."

Emma snorted. "Please. You'll look like every ex's worst nightmare — hot, unattainable, and not giving a damn."

I rolled my eyes, but she was already tossing heels onto the floor and pulling makeup out of her bag like this was a mission.

"You're not doing this for Liam," she said as she handed me the dress. "You're not doing it for Nathan. You're doing it because you forgot how powerful you are when you stop trying to please everyone."

I held the dress in my hands for a long second. The fabric was cool, smooth. It shimmered faintly under the dim light, like it had been waiting for a night like this.

I took a breath. "Okay."

Emma turned, practically beaming. "Hell yes."

I slipped into the dress. It clung in all the right places, slid low on my back, dipped just enough in the front to make a statement. I stared at myself in the mirror, unsure if I recognized the girl staring back — not because she looked different, but because she looked like she wasn't hiding anymore.

Emma whistled behind me. "Oh, Maya. You're a weapon."

She stepped up beside me, fixing a strand of hair that had fallen loose.

"Tonight," she said softly, "you're not anyone's anything. You're just you. Beautiful, bold, and a little dangerous."

I didn't know if I believed her. But I wanted to.

And tonight, that was enough.