“I-I’m sorry,” Alana says weakly, picking up the shards of glass around her feet. I watch her for what seems like forever, waiting for her to say something but she doesn’t and when I walk towards her and she stands with pieces of glass in her hand, she just looks at me like I’m a stranger—her eyes wide, a little rounder, and they’re sea green, not stormy grey.
“Iaaan,” I look over and see my cousin Blue drunk off his ass and slumped down on a chair. I forgot that he was even here. I turn back to Alana, who is wearing an apologetic weak smile.
“You must be Asshole Number Two?” she says with a weak laugh. I look at her confused.
Is this a fucking joke? The girl who walked out of my life after ripping through it like a storm acts as if she doesn’t know me?
She swallows hard.
“Uhm. He has you saved as that in his phone.” She attempts to explain but I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about, and what the fuck is she doing here and why is she acting like she doesn’t know me?
“This is Megan, she’s crashing with us.” Blue attempts to get up but falls back in his chair.
“Megan?” I say it, as if it disgusts me. She glances at Blue and then back at me nervously.
“I know this is unexpected, I hope it’s okay.” Her voice is small and she tosses the glass shards in the garbage. She walks over to Blue and puts his arm around her neck then looks up at me as if to ask for help. I take in every inch of her, same dark hair, but it’s shorter falling a inch of two below her shoulders instead of down her back how I last saw it and it’s straight instead of wavy, same pink pouty lips. But the satisfied grin that usually rests on them is replaced with a timid half smile. She has on an oversized jacket, a black top, and loose jeans with old tennis shoes that look too big for her feet. My girl wouldn’t be caught dead in this shit.
“That’s all you have to say to me?” I ask, trying to hold on to the last piece of restraint I have.
“Sorry I got so drunk, I had the worst fucking day,” Blue answers and I shake my head. I wasn’t talking to him but they both seem to think so.
Am I crazy?
“Babe, are you okay?” I look back at Theresa, who’s giving me her best come fuck me look. I have no idea in hell why she’s called me babe. We had sex TWO maybe THREE times and then she started showing up at my apartment and I had to shut that shit down fast. There’s only one girl who broke who my heart into a thousand damned pieces that I wanted to wake up to knocking on my door, that I prayed for to show up in the middle of the night. And she’s standing in front of me like she doesn’t have a fucking clue who I am.
“Don’t call me that, Theresa,” I say, sounding colder than I mean too.
“Oh I’m sorry, excuse me I didn’t mean to disrespect your little girlfriend here,” she shouts at me angrily.
“Look, I’m not his girlfriend! I’m just trying to get my friend to bed,” Alana says pleadingly and I feel like someone stabbed me in the chest. No, no this can’t be the girl I knew. This isn’t my girl. My girl is all fire, like a whirlwind. If she saw me now there is no way she would just stand there, she wouldn’t let Theresa refer to her as my little girlfriend. I’ve got to figure it out. My heart is pounding. I take my phone out and while she’s distracted trying to help Blue, I snap a picture.
“Oh I get it. Fine everyone get the fuck out then. Now!” Theresa screeches. She’s spewing profanity and Alana looks like she’s going to melt into a puddle and die.
“You won’t even look at me!” she shrieks. I send the photo off to Devin.
“I don’t know what your problem is but I don’t have time for it right now,” I tell her coldly. My attention has much bigger things to be on.
“Mal calm down,” Tim, the other bartender, says as he’s coming out from the back.
“Can we please go?” Alana—or Alana’s lookalike—pleads quietly. I stare at her a few seconds and shake the thoughts from my mind. I grab Blue by the arm and hoist him up and we all make our way out of the bar.
“Wash away my sins!!!” Blue sings once we’re outside. It’s started to rain and he’s grinning like a crazy person. I glance over at Alana and she giggles and my stomach knots. That’s Alana’s laugh, sort of.
I open the door and practically drag Blue’s ass up the stairs. I hate that he’s drunk. I need to know how the hell he knows her. We finally make it to my apartment door and I open it up and let them in. I help Blue over to the couch and he falls onto it.
“Don’t throw up on my shit dude,” I tell him and he only grunts, slightly lifting his head up.
“His things are in the car.” Every time she speaks my stomach does a flip. I turn on the lamp and it illuminates the room. She crosses her arms over her stomach like she’s protecting herself. Her eyes are strictly on Blue.
“He found out his girlfriend was cheating on him tonight. Well actually, we saw them,” she explains, her eyes glued to the floor.
Look at me ALANA!
I scream in my head. As if she heard me, her eyes slowly meet mine before they lock on my chest.
“So you’re not his girlfriend?” I ask again to make sure I heard her right. She looks confused.
“No, we’re just friends,” and I think back to him on the phone announcing he was at my house and staying for a few days with some girl. I never thought it was THE girl, or a fucking doppelganger.
“Uhm can I use your bathroom?” she asks casually. I nod slowly trying to figure out what the hell is going on. When I hear the door shut I run over to Blue and shake him.
“Hey, hey! Where the hell did you meet her? Why are you calling her Megan?” I say, frantically shaking him.
“That’s her name, leave me alone fucktard I need to sleep,” he slurs, pushing me back.
“How’d you meet her!” I whisper loudly and he groans and attempts to push me back again.
“Tell me and I’ll let you go to sleep,” I demand.
“She’s Katie’s brother’s girlfriend,” he growls before grabbing one of my couch cushions and putting it over his head.
“I vaguely recall the girl’s name he was into being Katie but what makes my stomach crawl is that he said she is some dude’s girlfriend. My lips are pressed so firmly together they hurt. I squint away the tears in my eyes. I head into my bedroom and slam the door.
I know I’ve got to get it together. Maybe I’ve finally lost it, maybe this isn’t her, but no…it has to be her. There is no way she could see me after everything and pretend she doesn’t know me. She’s not a damned actress, and she wouldn’t come here to where I live and pull this shit. I crash my butt on the bed and try to think. It could be her sister. Alana grew up in foster care and had no clue who the rest of her family was. It’s possible, but what are the chances that her twin sister would end up here? If she is her sister she probably thinks I’m nuts, but then why would she look at me like that when I first saw her? She knew me, who I was. Or did I imagine it?
I’m so fucking high!
I get a bottle of water and start to down it hoping to clear my head. If this is her though, and she’s fucking with me, coming here pretending she doesn’t know me and making me lose my mind again, I’ll kill her. She has no idea what I went through when she left. I head back into the living room.