Ryan, for his part, managed to keep his composure. Mostly, all Alisa got at this point was a tired roll of the eyes. "I think you already had your hero in Alistaire Shaw, Alisa. Your employer, your lover, your...everything, really." He sighed, then. "This isn't about him, though. This is...honestly, this is about you not seeing the situation as it really is."
He shook his head. "Alisa, I came to see you when you were injured. Anytime you needed help - like needing your car, for instance - and you reached out to me, I was there. Friends do that. I never actually bailed on you. Sure, I broke up with you because our romantic entanglement became too complicated, and it's not fair for you to lay that on me when you couldn't decide who you actually wanted do be with. Besides, friendship? There's many different kinds. Maybe you're trying to stick me into the wrong friend slot."
He shrugged. "Believe whatever you want, Alisa, but I never lied to you, I never played you, I never set out to ruin your life. I dated you despite my family disagreeing with my decision on it. I've been there for you as much as would be reasonably possible, but come on. There, at the Pier, you're the one who brought up how you wished you could have told me that you loved me. You're the one who told me that you changed the color of your eyes for my brother. Do you have any idea how bizarre all of that was? Any reasonable person would have stepped away."
He took a deep breath. "I admit that I'm generally a pretty immature guy. I still spend my Saturday mornings in my Pokemon pajamas eating cereal and watching cartoons on Netflix. But I never once ran away from you, as you put it. I stepped away because you were being uncomfortably clingy and indecisive. Remember how you wanted to be an actress for five minutes there? Oh, you'll find some way to justify it, but that felt like you trying to get back into my world somehow. Like you'd lucked out with Alistaire so you were running back to me." He shook his head. "Whatever soap opera life you've got running on in your head, Alisa, snap out of it. I mean, listen to yourself, right now. I'm not the one who sounds like a lovescorned teenager."
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He shook his head. "Alisa, I came to see you when you were injured. Anytime you needed help - like needing your car, for instance - and you reached out to me, I was there. Friends do that. I never actually bailed on you. Sure, I broke up with you because our romantic entanglement became too complicated, and it's not fair for you to lay that on me when you couldn't decide who you actually wanted do be with. Besides, friendship? There's many different kinds. Maybe you're trying to stick me into the wrong friend slot."
He shrugged. "Believe whatever you want, Alisa, but I never lied to you, I never played you, I never set out to ruin your life. I dated you despite my family disagreeing with my decision on it. I've been there for you as much as would be reasonably possible, but come on. There, at the Pier, you're the one who brought up how you wished you could have told me that you loved me. You're the one who told me that you changed the color of your eyes for my brother. Do you have any idea how bizarre all of that was? Any reasonable person would have stepped away."
He took a deep breath. "I admit that I'm generally a pretty immature guy. I still spend my Saturday mornings in my Pokemon pajamas eating cereal and watching cartoons on Netflix. But I never once ran away from you, as you put it. I stepped away because you were being uncomfortably clingy and indecisive. Remember how you wanted to be an actress for five minutes there? Oh, you'll find some way to justify it, but that felt like you trying to get back into my world somehow. Like you'd lucked out with Alistaire so you were running back to me." He shook his head. "Whatever soap opera life you've got running on in your head, Alisa, snap out of it. I mean, listen to yourself, right now. I'm not the one who sounds like a lovescorned teenager."