Chapter 7

“Hmm I don’t know Issy, he could be a stalker or something,” was Marcie’s response after Isobell had told her about the guy on the phone she had been speaking to.

“How can he be a stalker? I haven’t even met him,” Isobell asked confused.

“Well he keeps on phoning you,” Marcie pointed out.

Isobell rolled her eyes, “Weren’t you listening? We phone each other, besides we don’t even know one another’s name. I was also the one who misdialled him, there is a million to one chance that I could of accidentally phoned my own stalker, even if I had one!” Isobell laughed.

Marcie eyed her sceptically before conceding, Isobell had been a lot more up beat than Marcie had expected after her breakup with Marcus. By the sounds of it, it had to do a lot with this guy she was talking to.

“Are you sure you aren’t just using him as some sort off…” Marcie struggled for the right word to say, she didn’t want to offend Isobell,

“Sort of…?” Isobell prompted her.

“Rebound guy.”

Isobell looked sharply at her friend.

“No of course not! I enjoy talking to him, how else could it be construed? I don’t even see him,” Isobell replied, a little hurt that her friend was questioning the relationship she had with a guy who was helping her getting through a difficult time, “I’ve only been speaking to him to two weeks.”

Marcie sighed before answering, “I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but I know you Issy, I had expected you to be a lot worse over what happened between you and Marcus. Despite how happy I am that you aren’t a wreak over a man who doesn’t deserve you, it’s not like you, I think your putting too much stock by this ‘relationship’ your having with the guy over the phone.”

Isobell breathed out in annoyance, and straightened a little on the settee preparing to fight this out with her friend if it came to that.

“I realise that, and frankly yes I am a little hurt at you thinking how pathetic and weak I am at controlling my own feelings. Yes I probably would have been worse if I hadn’t of spoken to him, but I’m not putting too much stock by this relationship,” Isobell bit out, she closed her eyes before looking back to her friend, this continuing in a softer voice, “I know you’re only concerned about me, but there is really no need to be, he’s just another friend I can talk to, someone not involved my day to day life, it’s refreshing.”

Marcie eyed her friend again, before smiling and teasing, “Oh am I not enough for you now?”

Isobell recognised she was only trying to lighten the mood between them, after they had just avoided an argument.

Isobell smiled, “Well, you know I’ve known you for so long, you are getting a tad boring right now,” Isobell smirked as Marcie stuck her tongue out at her, pulling her into a side hug Isobell continued, “I could never not have enough of you, you’re my best friend.”

Marcie left sometime later to go and prepare for her next date with the girl she had met at her studio, leaving Isobell to contemplate over what she should do next.

With her feet scrunched beneath her she sat staring at the phone, all the while worrying her nails with her teeth. A bad habit that had stemmed from childhood as a result of having no parental figure to stop her.

Isobell knew whom she should really call, but that warred against whom she wanted to call. She let out a snort of breath in annoyance, and closed her eyes allowing her head to drop back against the cushions. She had never been good at confrontations of this sort, give her a client at work and she was in her own. But a confrontation of the heart was just something that she wasn’t strong enough to deal with. But she knew what she needed to do.

With a surge of confidence Isobell rocked forward and snatched up the phone quickly dialling the number before she lost the nerve.

It rang once…

Twice…

Three times…

Four times…

Isobell was fighting against the want to slam down the phone before it was answered. Her hand was shaking, fighting a war with itself.

“Hello?” The response startled her.

“He…Hello Marcus its Isobell.” She hated herself for stuttering.

“Issy, I’ve been so worried, I thought you would never call.”

“Well, here I am,” she laughed nervously.

“How are you Issy?”

How am I? Isobell nearly laughed out loud at his concern. At this thought, she smiled to her self; she was obviously feeling a lot stronger than she thought.

“I’m fine,” Isobell paused a few moments to think over what she was going to say, if she didn’t get it right the first time round, no doubt he would niggle away at her through the chinks, and put her right back in the same position, “Look Marcus the reason I called…”

“Can I just say something Issy?” He didn’t even wait for her to reply, cutting right across her, “I just want you to know that I love you, and that I would never hurt you again.”

Isobell could sense that he was coming to realise that she wasn’t going to be brought back to him so easily, and so was trying one last ditch attempt. She thought of the stranger she had been talking to, and how he had told her he wasn’t worth it.

“Marcus, I can’t be with you again, I don’t want to be with you again.”

Once again he cut across her, “Issy you don’t really mean that, come on let’s not be like this.”

“That’s just the thing Marcus I do really mean that, you threw away any chance of being with me anymore when you cheated on me. How can I not know that you haven’t slept with anyone else?” Marcus made a sound of protest, “And no Marcus you can’t convince me otherwise. Trust is one of the most important things in a relationship, and I know I would never be able to trust you again. It’s not a relationship I want to be in.”

As clichéd as it sounded, the more she said the better she felt.

“Please Issy I promise…”

This time Isobell cut across him, “No Marcus, no more promises, you don’t have anyone to blame but yourself, everyone has choices, and you made the wrong one. Maybe we can be friends, maybe we can’t I don’t know, that depends on what we both do.”

“Please don’t call me to change my mind, goodbye Marcus.”

She heard his protests down the other side of the phone as she set it down, suddenly she didn’t care. Breathing in deeply she shut her eyes and laughed to herself. Marcie was right about the guy she was speaking to giving her strength; strangely he was all she could think about during the phone call.

Isobell hadn’t lied when she said to Marcus they could still be friends, he had been, albeit how much she didn't want to admit it, a huge part of her new life in New York, and he had helped her a lot. However due to Marcus’s demanding personality she knew it would take him a while to come round to what she wanted.

Again Isobell laughed out loud, and threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. She couldn’t believe it; even now she was being sympathetic towards him, and hoping that he would be her friend! She really needed help.

The phone rang again, and Isobell had a sneaking suspicion it was Marcus on the other end. Heaving a sigh, she dragged herself back off the chair to answer, and at the same time prepare herself for whatever else Marcus wanted to offer her.

“Marcus please can’t you just accept it?” Was with what she answered the phone.

“Oh, it’s me.”

Instantaneously a smile broke out over Isobell’s face.

“Oh hi! How are you?”

“I’m good thanks, you?”

“Not doing to bad.” There was an awkward silence for a moment, she could tell he wanted to ask, but not be impertinent about it.

“So… You can ask if you want.” Isobell offered.

She heard his laugh down the other end of the phone, making her smile in turn.

“I did want to,” he admitted, “but I didn’t know if you wanted to talk about it, I wanted to offer up the same courtesy you offered me when we talked about…” his words caught not knowing how to describe it, “Well you know,” he ended awkwardly with a laugh.

“Yeah sure of course, thank you for thinking like that, I appreciate it. Well I decided I should ring Marcus, I don’t know how long I was staring at the phone for. Finally plucked up enough courage to ring him and tell him that I didn’t want to be with him anymore. I’ve never been so strong in a situation like that before; I usually crumble allowing the other person to have their way.”

“I was just simple and straight forward telling him how I felt and that nothing he could say was going to change the fact that I was never going to able to trust him again.” Thinking about what she was thinking after her conversation with Marcus Isobell laughed again, “I almost had it perfect before afterwards I started to think about how I should really be friends with him. I’m too soft for my own good sometimes.”

“Don’t be silly, it’s an endearing characteristic… You do know that it’s not your fault don’t you?” He asked carefully.

“Yes, ironically I said that to Marcus. I told him it was his fault that he cheated, it was his choice. However if you had told me that straight after what had happened, I doubt I wouldn’t have been able to agree with you, in fact I actually think afterwards when I was running down the stairs, I was thinking what had I done wrong in the relationship for him to do that.” Isobell let out a sardonic laugh.

“I’m proud of you for doing that, as ludicrous as it sounds, me not even knowing you properly, let alone having seen you, I am proud that you were able to be strong despite factors from your past still being a big issue. I’ve seen far too many people be trapped by them… Me included.”

“Thank you that means a lot, and as for you, yes you may still be trapped by them, but at least you have made the first step about doing something for yourself.” Isobell added reassuringly.

“Thanks, how did you feel afterwards?” he asked curiously.

“Actually, I felt relieved, I knew that if I didn’t end it soon, I probably would have gone back to him,” she admitted.

“Well sounds like you did it at the right time then.”

Isobell’s mind turned to a more pleasant state after having shared this with him.

“Do you want to know a secret?” She whispered into the phone, feeling like a child.

“Always,” he replied also adopting the stage whisper.

“I kept on wanting to phone you instead, when I was staring at the phone,” She quietly admitted blushing.

He tried to bite his lip to stop a grin forming, but it was useless, he couldn’t stop its transit across his face. He wondered if she was the type of girl to have a cute blush.

“I can’t imagine why,” he teased, wanting to hear her laugh.

Soon enough he heard the sound of her laughter down the phone line.

“Oh you’re so modest,” Isobell proclaimed.

“As always,” she heard him reply laughing down the phone. The gruff sound of it washed over her pleasurably, she enjoyed listening to him laugh.

“Ha! Hardly, the other night when we were talking about acting you said you were the best there was! Now how is that being modest?”

“It… I mean… It just is!” He replied stuttering out an answer.

A few moments past before the both burst into laughter.

Catching her breath Isobell managed to reply, “Great comeback.”

“Hey!” He began to protest before conceding, “No it was pathetic really wasn’t it? I wouldn’t be any good at improv acting would I?”

“No I don’t suppose you would,” she joked.

“Hey this is where you’re meant to be the good friend and say,” he put on his best mock female voice, “ ‘Oh of course you would be good’ or something to that effect.”

“Oh I am sorry is that what I was meant to do? I’m not very adept at social etiquette.”

Like he had done unknown to her, Isobell tried to bite her lip to stop a smile spreading, and again like him she was unsuccessful.

“Humph,” he replied.

“Okay, I’m very sorry, I’m sure you would be great.” Isobell gave a little leeway.

“Damn straight I am,” he laughed, “Glad we got that sorted, now we both know I am in fact the greatest actor in the world, improv or otherwise!” He claimed with an air of aplomb.

Isobell just giggled at his way of speaking not knowing what to say.

“Go on you have to say it as well,” he replied to her giggling.

“Say what?” Isobell replied feigning ignorance.

“That you know I am the greatest actor in the world of course.”

Isobell just erupted into laughter at his self-assurance, but finally she managed to say it to comply with his ego.

“Thank you, I knew you would be a good friend.”

“It’s a wonder how you get to any auditions,” Isobell mused.

“Why would that be? I have legs.”

Isobell breathed out a laugh at his expression of ‘I have legs’.

“No that’s not what I mean.”

“What do you mean then?”

“I mean with an head as big as yours must be, it’s a wonder how you get out the door.”

Moments later she heard him chuckling that deep laugh of his.

“Man that was so cheesy.” He admonished, laughing at the same time.

Isobell blushed, knowing however it was cheesy.

“Hey, it wasn’t as bad as your, ‘you can misdial me any day’ line,” she had the urge to stick out her tongue when saying that, as if he was actually there talking to her.

She heard if renewed laughter, and an embarrassed cough.

“Well no, it wasn’t really, man that was really bad, I can’t believe I said that,” he admitted.

Isobell smiled, and then remembered something she had been meaning to ask.

“How did your audition go with Kroeger?”

“Oh great actually, well fantastic, I got offered the part. The best part of it was I got to have a conversation with Kroeger. But being the big geek of a fan I am, I managed to screw it up by stumbling over my words.”

“I’m sure he was flattered by your close attention to his works,” Isobell said trying to assure him.

“Ha. Yeah either that or thinking he had screwed up himself by offering the part when I was going to stumble over the lines.”

“No it won’t be, you’ll do a fantastic job. When does the filming start?”

“In about a month or so, these smaller budget films don’t hang around once they have the actors, they get straight in and shoot whilst they have them and the money.”

“Didn’t you say Kroeger could have been a huge director by now, working with a lot more money?” Isobell asked curiously.

“Yeah, but he believes that they way he works gives his film a better quality, and besides it’s mostly his own work that he shoots, rather than someone else’s. That’s why I admire him so much, he’s got such an honest quality in his films, you can really tell that he loves doing it.”

“So what’s your favourite film? Clichéd question I know to ask an actor, but I want to know.”

“That’s a hard one… I suppose it would…” He trailed off, and Isobell could hear movement in the background, and then the muffled sounds of a woman’s voice.

“Are you there?”

“Sorry, look I’m gunna have to call you back, bye.”

Startled the dial tone met Isobell’s ear. She couldn’t believe he had been so abrupt with her, then again it had sounded as though something was going on around his place, she hoped he would be okay.

However Isobell couldn’t help but feel a little jealous at the fact she had heard another woman’s voice in the background.

A/N So sorry this has taken so long to get out, I have just been crazy these past couple of weeks, I have two jobs at the moment, so I'm just sorting out my hours, but it'll be all sorted in the next couple of days, so updates should be a lot better.

Thank you to my very lovely reviewers!

fairEtales, Dreams of Death by Chocolat, funnechick (I'm glad you thought this, it is what i wanted to get across) Only4Miken, soaring glass, rachely (I hope this conversation is a little bit better, they do get longer as the story goes on), Lady Saffron of the Daggers.

Thank you all for your kind words.

Please reviews, thanks Jacksyx