“Honey, she’s having a rough night, okay? I trust that nothing happened. Just let it go,” my mom intervened.
“What’s wrong, Alice dear?” My dad could be so bipolar.
“It’s nothing. Girl stuff,” I sighed.
“You’re not pregnant, are you?” his voice became hushed.
“Dear God, Dad, no,” I scoffed.
“Okay. Well I love you and I’m here if you need me.” He went back to making supper and my mom just gave me an ”I’m sorry” expression.
“I didn’t know hobo was the look in the city,” Dillon looked at me as I walked into the living room.
“Shut up. Scoot over,” I hit him with a pillow.
“What crawled up your butt and died?” he scooted down to the end of the couch.
“Just leave me alone, okay?” I sat down and watched “The Santa Clause” with him.
Christmas was the season of togetherness and hope. I felt neither and not sure I would for a very long time.
Twenty-Five
“I’m home,” I let myself into the apartment.
“Ali? Hey, sweetheart!” I watched as Jesse walked down the hall towards me and embraced me in a tight hug.
“Oh, I’ve missed you so much.” I kissed him.
“I missed you too. How was your flight?” He took my bags and we headed to the living room.
“It was fine. What about you? How was Europe?” I sat on the couch as he poured me a glass of wine.
“Magnificent. I have so many pictures.” He handed me one and sat beside me.
“I’m glad you had a good time. How’s your family doing?” I took a sip.
“Really great. My dad got a promotion so they’re making twice as much now.” His family was already loaded. Now they’re really loaded.
“That’s great. You fall in love over there?” I grinned jokingly.
“Nope, only thought of you.” He kissed me again.
“Good reply.” I snuggled against him.
“What about you?” I felt my heart drop a little.
“No, of course not. What’s for supper?” I changed the topic quickly.
“I was gonna do takeout. Chinese or pizza?” Felt good to be home.
“Chinese. I can’t believe I start classes again tomorrow.” I walked to the kitchen to grab the Chinese menu and look through the options.
“I start classes too. Oh, hey, Marlie called and left a message. You’re supposed to text or call right away.” He came up behind me and looked at the menu over my shoulder.
“Oh yeah? I’ll text her in a minute. Before I forget, could I make you my plus one for the wedding?” I turned around as he wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Why yes you can,” he started kissing me.
“I think we need to workout before we ate all of these carbs,” I bit his lip.
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” He started kissing my neck and the rest, well, we’ll just let your imagination play it out.
“I literally don’t want you to leave me,” he held me close to his chest in the morning.
“I can’t miss the first day of classes,” I stretched out.
“Fine, let me start the coffee.” He got out of bed and put on his boxers.
“You’re perfect,” I sat up and put on his oversized tshirt.
“Nope, that’s you.” He kissed me before leaving the room.
I checked my phone before going to the restroom and no surprise, Jackie had already called me more than once. She would just have to wait until I went to class to catch up.
“I gotta get going so make that coffee to go,” I came out all ready and grabbed a granola bar.
“Ah come on, really?” he turned around with a coffee cup.
“Yes, get me a thermos and I’ll take it with me.” I grabbed my bag.
“You look cute,” he handed me the thermos.
“Well thank ya. I’ll see you tonight?” I took a sip.
“You sure will. Have a good day. Tell Jackie hi for me.” He kissed me.
“Will do. Love you.” I returned the kiss.
“Love you too, baby.” He waved while I walked out the front door.
As I reached campus I saw Jackie waiting for me outside of our first class’ building.
“Jackie, hey.” I hugged her.
“I’ve got some news.” Her face made it look like it wasn’t good news.
“What’s up?” I didn’t want to freak out but my heart started to pound.
“Jesse cheated on you,” she blurted.
“What? No, you’ve gotta be wrong,” my face went blank.
“I got this picture sent to me. It was when he was in Europe.” She showed me a picture of him and a girl half naked making out.
“This could just be photoshoped.” I was in denial.
“Ali, sweetie, there is nothing photoshopped about this.” She looked sorry for me.
“We literally just had sex last night. He’s been acting completely normal.” Now I was shocked.
“Well he’s been two-timing you. I’m so sorry you had to find out like this. I thought you’d rather hear it from me than from some rando in class.” We walked into the building finally.
“No, thank you for telling me now. What should I do?” I didn’t know if I was hurt or mad or both.
“Well what do you want to do?” I knew she had a plan but she wanted to make sure I wanted the same thing before saying anything.
“I want to get him back. I want to destroy him.” We sat down together in the back of the classroom.
“Let’s do it. There’s this welcome back party on Friday. I say we do it then. It’s at the same club we went to at the beginning of the year. The owner’s daughter caught him cheating on his wife.” New York was something else.
“Alright, let’s do it,” I turned back to the front of the classroom.
Pretending like nothing was wrong was the worst part. We went out for coffee after our classes and had an early supper. I told him I was going to stay at the dorms that night because I was tired and really needed the rest. He took the bait and dropped me back off at the dorms where Jackie was waiting patiently.
“How was it?” She looked worried.
“He’s acting like nothing is wrong. I wanted to kill him when we were at coffee. I need to go to the studio for a bit.” I started changing into my workout clothes.
“Gonna do a Footloose reenactment?” she grinned.
“Very funny. No, I’m just gonna work on some routines I’ve been making up.” I put my sweater on over my sports bra.
“Alright, well don’t do anything stupid that will get you hurt. We need you for the end of the year recital.” She turned on the TV.
“I won’t. I’ll see you in a bit.” I took my bag and left the room once again.
As I was dancing to ”Who Are You” by Fifth Harmony I saw someone come in from the corner of my eye. It was a girl from one of my dance classes. I paused the music and turned to her.
“Can I help you?” I was a little short with her.
“You’re Ali Burns, right?” she walked towards me.
“Yeah, why?” Something didn’t seem right.
“You’re with Jesse?” she looked me over.
“Yeah.” I wanted to vomit at the thought of him.
“You should probably end it.” She was snotty with me.
“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t take advice from strangers.” I leaned into my hip.
“You’re obviously not very smart, are you?” She got this evil grin on her face.
“I’m very smart, thanks for asking. What’s going on? Who are you?” I was getting sick of her being here.
“I’m Elizabeth and I’m the girl in the photo. See, what you didn’t know is that he invited me to Europe. He introduced me to his family as his girlfriend. He’s been with me for longer than he’s been with you. I think it’s time you excuse yourself.” I was in complete shock. How could he do this to me?
“Did you kn
ow about me?” I was hoping she was not okay with being treated like this.
“Not until about an hour ago when I grabbed ahold of his phone while he was in the restroom,” she sneered.
“I had no idea about any of this.” I was still in shock.
“Well end it. Now,” her voice was rigid.
“You’re just going to let him treat you like this?” Was this girl stupid?
“Oh, honey, you shouldn’t feel bad for me. I had him first,” she chuckled and walked out of the studio.
This guy was more screwed up than I thought. I mean, I know cheating on me with some random girl was bad but the fact that he’d been dating her for longer than me while none of us knew about it is pretty bad. I gathered my things and walked back to the dorms. As I burst through the door I let myself fall to the ground in tears.
“Ali, what’s going on?” Jackie jumped off the bed and plopped down beside me.
“There’s been another girl this whole time, Jackie. In fact, I’m the other girl.” I started bawling as she held me in her arms.
“What? You’re kidding me.” She was genuinely surprised too.
“Yeah, apparently it’s the same Elizabeth from the jazz class we took last semester.” I let myself unravel.
“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. Damn, if I did I would’ve beat his ass a long time ago,” she rubbed my back.
“Yeah, well that makes two of us. I’m just going to end it now,” I wiped my tears.
“No, don’t. Wait. Please just wait two more days.” Did she have something up her sleeve?
“What do you have going on?” I gave her a look.
“Nothing. I just know you should definitely make him jealous,” she grinned.
“Fine, but I can’t promise I’ll want to spend much time with him.” I picked myself up off of the floor.
“Trust me, neither would I. I can’t believe he would do that. I truly thought he was a better guy than that.” She seemed really disappointed in him.
“Was I supposed to meet Jesse, Jackie?” She planned it.
“Maybe. Look, you were new and I knew he was a good guy. Well, I thought he was. I just thought you two would get along.” Now I could tell she felt bad.
“How about from now on you make sure the guy is single first,” I half laughed.
“Got it,” she laid back on the bed.
“Do we have ice cream?” I sat beside her, moping.
“Yep, I’ll grab it. And we also have Cheeto Puffs.” She got up and went to our mini fridge.
“We should watch ’How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.’ I turned on Netflix. I deserve to splurge. Tonight has sucked.
“Basic white girl status, here we come,” Jackie laughed.
As I laid in bed that night I thought about my life and how every time I thought I was out of the water someone would dunk me back under. I never caught enough breath for even a second. I didn’t know what I even wanted from life anymore. I felt so hopeless. I just wanted to be happy and not have to constantly worry if someone I cared about was going to betray me. I knew I didn’t need a guy to depend on but I did know that that was the road I could have very well been going down. I swore to myself that I would only get into a relationship when everything about it felt right. Here goes to trusting my heart one last time.
The Wedding
“Jackie, let’s go. We gotta get to the airport.” I put my suitcase in the taxi.
“I’m coming. Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for making me your plus one.” She put her huge bag in the back as well.
“Yeah, well I’m sorry that we have to be gone for an entire week. I’m sure that’s not what you are looking forward to.” I shut the trunk and got in the backseat.
“Are you kidding me? I get to go to the beach and make out with hot Cali guys. Thank you,” she grinned.
“You’re such a horn dog,” I shut my door.
“I know. JFK airport, please,” she instructed the driver.
“Okay, so when we get there you’ll be staying in our guest bedroom which is down the hall from mine. You have your own bathroom and a back patio.” The driver pulled to a stop in front of the airport.
“You’re kidding? This is going to the best vacation I’ve ever been on.” She paid him and we headed into the airport with our bags.
“Yeah, well you gotta be with my family all week so don’t get too excited.” We headed towards check in.
“I think I can handle it,” she laughed.
“Sometimes I can’t even handle it,” I sneered.
“That’s because they’re your family. That’s what family does. But that’s just because they love you.” I really liked Jackie.
“Oh and you’re going to be meeting my other best friend Marlie. I think you two will get along great.” I secretly was afraid that they’d get along so well they would both forgot about me.
“She sounds like a lot of fun. So what are we doing for the bachelorette party?” By that time we were already boarding the plane. Marlie treated us to first class even though I told her she didn’t have to.
“Well that’s actually tonight. When we get in, we have like a half hour to get ready and then we’re heading to this exclusive club and I’m not sure what else will happen. No strippers. Don’t even think about it,” I caught her mid breath.
“Ah come on. Why not?” she pouted.
“Marlie didn’t want any so I didn’t get any.” I buckled my belt.
“Well it’ll still be fun. Plus who needs a stripper when I can just pick up a guy for free and sleep with him too,” she winked at me with a devilish grin on her face.
“You need to keep it in your pants,” I laughed.
“Oh, hun, it’s not going to happen.” We started to take off.
“Well just don’t catch anything,” I leaned back in my seat.
“Don’t worry. I always make sure they wrap it up.” Yeah, she was a sexual deviant.
“Okay, you little sex queen, I’m gonna put in my headphones now.” I pulled out my music and turned on my relaxation playlist and she went to reading her magazine.
When we landed I could immediately feel the air change and I couldn’t wait to see everyone again. After I ended things with Jesse life was a little rough. Jackie helped me a lot but she couldn’t stop the words that people said about me. I was transferring back home anyways. I decided I wanted a career as a journalist and San Diego has a perfect program for that, plus I’ll be home.
“There they are!” my mom pointed me out in the crowd.
“Hey, Mom!” I gave her a hug and then my dad.
“This is Jackie. Jackie, this is my mom and dad.” I introduced them to each other.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Burns.” She was so polite. It was so weird.
“Please, call us by our first names. I’m John and that’s Marsha,” my dad smiled.
“Alright, now that that awkward intro is over wanna take us home?” My parents weren’t usually so formal.
“It’s good to have you back, dear.” My dad grabbed my carry on and we went to go get the rest of our luggage.
“Dillon home?” We got into the back of the Escalade.
“For once, yes. He even cleaned the house for me last night. I don’t know what got into him.” my mom closed her door.
“I do,” I looked over at Jackie in her form-fitting tank top.
“What?” she buckled her seatbelt.
“You’re probably right.” My mom laughed as we pulled off.
“My brother thinks you’re hot and wants to impress you,” I laughed.
“How old is he?” she leaned in and whispered in my ear.
“Too young for you, trust me,” I glared at her jokingly.
We pulled up into the driveway and out came my brother all too willing to help.
“Dillon, this is Jackie. Jackie, Dillon.” She gave him a hug and I wouldn’t be surprised if that turned him on.
“Very nice to meet you, Dillon. Your sister tells me
a lot about you.” She was being sweet.
“Ali, you’re back,” Carter came out of the door and swooped me into a big bear hug.
“Carter, can’t breathe,” I hugged him.
“Sorry, I’ve missed you! Hey, sorry for being an ass the last time you were here,” he put his hands in his pockets.
“Hey, we talked about this. It’s fine. I’ve missed you too. I actually have someone I’d like you to meet.” I brought him over to Jackie.
“Jackie, this is Carter.” She turned to us and her face went into pure shock. I knew she’d think he was hot because he was.
“Jackie, hi. I’m Carter. Nice to meet you.” He shook her hand.
“Oh, trust me, the pleasure’s all mine. Are you Jake’s brother?” She gave me an OMG look.
“Younger brother, yeah,” he smiled and his dimples got deeper.
“Well I think we should get to know each other a little better.” Good bye, sweet Jackie. Hello, sultry Jackie.
“Sounds great. I’ll have Ali give me your number.” He’s still got it.
“I’ll see you later then.” She let her words hang as she went inside.
“She’s fucking sexy,” Carter stopped me.
“I know and she’s all yours,” I grinned.
“You’re the best.” He gave me a high five and went to grab the rest of our bags.
“Want me to show you to your room?” I walked up behind Jackie.
“Does it include that hottie?” She put her arm around me.
“Ha, no but it does include a balcony.” I grabbed one of her bags.
“That’ll do.” She followed me upstairs.
“This is it.” I opened her door.
“Wow, this is amazing.” She set her bags on the bed and walked out onto the balcony.
“Alright go ahead and unpack I gotta get ready too.” I headed off to my bedroom to get ready.
“Ali I’m here!” I heard Marlie walk in as I was putting on the last of my makeup.
“I’m upstairs.” I yelled and I heard her footsteps follow.
“You look hot! Damn girl.” She stood in my doorway.
“Um no you do but thank you.” I gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Can you believe I get married tomorrow?” No, I couldn’t.
“I know it’s crazy, but crazy good.” Crazy good that it wasn’t me. Stop being selfish Ali.
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