The sunlight enters through the window forcing me to open my eyes. I roll over the bed wanting to cover my face but I give a jump when I see that I'm not alone. I hesitate before moving once again hoping that the boy beside me is asleep and does not notice my presence. Stealthily I strip off the blankets2 and sit on the bed looking around me, this is certainly not my bed therefor I'm not at my room. I have no idea where I am. On the walls I see some old movie posters, in front of the window stands a desk with a little dust and some unarranged sheets. The walls painted blue and the brown closet gives me no clues as to why I decided to spend the night here.
I walk to the bedroom's bathroom and when I get there I look in the mirror; my whole person is a mess. My hair looks like a bird's nest and the remnants of my makeup are slightly smeared across my face. I grab a towel and dampen it a bit to try to repair my face. I wish I could remember what happened last night. I go back to the room and pick up what's left of my clothes from the floor without taking my eyes off the boy on the bed. I quickly get dressed and move to the door. Before I leave I take one last look at the unconscious body, his hair has been removed from his face and I manage to slightly recognize him. It had to be Dylan Salvage. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy, as long as we don't take into account his long history with women.
I grab the doorknob, gently open the door and walk out without making much noise. I walk down the stairs at a fast pace until I reach the front door, open it and walk out of the house wanting to run away from all the things that happened last night. Again I make an effort to remember each and every event that happened yesterday but my mind refuses to cooperate.
I walk through the entire private until I reach my house, I enter carefully and go up to my room trying to make as little noise as possible. I get to my room and fall into bed heavily, little by little, sleep overcomes me and I fall asleep once again.
My alarm goes off making my headache increase. I grab it with one hand and throw it to the floor making it break into hundreds of pieces that will be impossible to repair. Excellent, I continue to commit clumsiness. I get up still with my eyes closed and groping my way to the bathroom, where the first thing I do is to reproach myself for how swollen and horrible my face looks. I continue watching myself until my face disappears and I run into Dylan's idiot face and his smile, only that it seems totally different from the one he gave me last night, it looks quite sincere, so much that I begin to doubt that he is actually the bearer of it. I shake my head convincing myself that a smile like that from him would be almost impossible to receive.
I get into the bathtub and let the icy water soak me while for the umpteenth time I dig into my mind hoping to find some memory that will tell me what I did and I get frustrated when I get nothing. I mean, I didn't drink so much alcohol yesterday to have completely lost my memory either, however I reluctantly keep on bathing. I get out of the shower and go back to my room to get dressed in whatever I can find in my closet that won't make me look completely weird. I finish getting ready and go downstairs for breakfast not surprised to see that my parents are not there.
I grab the keys to one of my dad's cars and go for a walk. I get to a square in the center of the city, park my car in the first empty spot I find and decide to go inside. I start walking aimlessly looking outside the shop windows until I see Dylan reflected in one of the windows. I turn around quickly and I see him in front of me chatting with a girl. I raise an expectant eyebrow, the brown-haired man looks at me and stops paying attention to the pretty company he has, he gives me a smile without showing his teeth and apparently blushed a little. Will he remember what happened last night? I really doubt it, I guess he took a while to wake up due to the big hangover that must be attacking his body. He looks away from mine and turns to continue talking to the girl, she approaches him and kisses him on the lips, it doesn't seem to bother him so he stays for a moment with his lips glued to hers. After a few seconds I realize that I must look very stalkerish while they kiss so I decide to look away and continue on my way. After getting that scene out of my mind I pay attention to the store I entered, a very small store in the style of dark academy and Harry Potter, they have showcases with some bracelets and very old accessories and the music in the background seems very tender considering the color that the place projects. The air smells like a mix of hot chocolate and vanilla. and would be enjoying it if someone hadn't shouted my name forcing me to turn around. What timing. The owner of that voice is Dylan and he approaches me almost running waving a hand as if I wasn't paying attention to him already.
"What?," I ask hostile coming out of the nice antique store I was in.
"Here," he hands me a chain. "You forgot it this morning when you left my house," controlling my urge to hit him for saying in public that I was with him, I take the chain from his hands.
"Thank you for telling the world what happened," I turn around, taking the opposite path from the one I was following.
"Allie, wait," he lets go, but I'm already too far away and too upset to turn around and go back.
"Who does that idiot think he is to embarrass me?," I stammer as I awkwardly slip the chain on. Once I put it on my neck I keep walking without paying attention to where I'm going, my eyesight blurs slightly, stupid alcohol, I stop for a moment inhaling all the air I can fit in my lungs and then let it out slowly, I repeat this process two more times, I get back on my feet and when I'm about to move forward, an arm stops me. I turn to see who is stopping me and am met with Dylan's surprisingly shy smile. Again, what timing.
"Allie...," he smiles. "I'm sorry about a moment ago, I didn't mean to upset you I was just hoping to do a good deed by returning one of your belongings to you since you left it forgotten..."
"Do you remeber what happened?" I asked interrupting him.
"Not much, I only gave you your chain because of what I was explaining before you interrupted me", he purses his lips with noticeable annoyance.
"Not today," I growl slightly. "Last night. At the party," he puts his hand to his head and starts scratching the back of his neck, then looks at me with regret. Apparently he's not the only one who's ashamed of what happened yesterday.
"Listen...," he raises one of his hands and threatens to put it on my cheek, surprisingly I stand without avoiding what comes next. Every time I feel his breath closer and closer to my face and I have to admit that I don't mind at all having it this way. Thank life a shrill voice screams his name forcing us to turn away from each other. Dylan curses under his breath and sticks a little closer to me apologetically with his eyes. I still don't understand.
"Who is she?," The girl asks Dylan, who instinctively takes my hand and pulls me slightly closer to him.
"I already told you Barbie, she's my girlfriend," okay... he made out with this girl a while ago but I'm supposed to be his girlfriend. That makes perfect sense.
"Your girlfriend? I thought it was a joke," the girl who calls herself Barbie has a bit of disbelief in her look and it's directed at me rather than Dylan.
"Well now you can see that it's not," the girl gives me a dirty look again and then smiles trying to make up for the murderous looks she's been giving me since she arrived.
"What's your name?," Her voice is quite soft, nothing compared to the scream she made earlier. I'm surprised at how quickly she changes her mood, she must be some kind of reptilian or something. And it's because of those comments that you don't have a boyfriend, my inner self mocks.
"Allison," I reply without any feeling in my voice. She looks at me as if she doesn't believe what I'm saying so I try to give her the liveliest smile I can fake at the moment.
"Nice name, my name is Barbara, but everyone calls me Barbie," she says while waving her hands and making many gestures with her face. After that short introduction she starts talking about God knows what with Dylan while I count the minutes to escape from that torture. About ten minutes later she looks at her watch and frowns, clearly disappointed. "I have to go. It was nice meeting you, and you don't have to say it, it was nice meeting me too," she pouts with her hand tossing her brown hair behind her back. "See you later, Dylan," she smiles in his direction and winks at me.
"What the hell was that?" I reproach him as I walk away from him.
"I'm sorry, I have a little past with Barbie and I needed a way to escape from her," he explains arrogantly talking about her as if she was a disease he wants to avoid, noticing my penetrating look he shrugs his shoulders and scratches the back of his neck.
"And what do I have to do with that? I'm not your friend, let alone your girlfriend, so please stop dragging me into your bullshit because I don't plan on putting up with it. I don't want to have anything to do with you so I'll just walk where I was going and pretend nothing happened and I recommend you to do the same," I move to go around him so I can go on with my business, unfortunately he moves next to me preventing me from passing again.
"But last night..." I raise a hand to shut him up, feeling the blush rising on my cheeks.
"Last night nothing that needs to be remembered, happened," I lie, because I really do want to know what was going through my mind during that party. "Nothing happened for me and I hope it's the same for you," another lie.
"Nothing happened for you? " His annoyance becomes noticeable and all traces of the tender person of a moment ago disappear completely. I'm really sorry, but for me it was something important," he walks away from me.
"So you come, pretend to be my boyfriend, apologize to me, bring up the subject of last night, tell me how important it was for you and then leave? Great, that's how life progresses," I tease once he's gone.
Ever since I ran into Dylan a while back at the commercial, I haven't stopped coming around, I guess a part of me wishes I could see him again and ask him all the questions that are running through my mind. Of course, none of that has happened, so I'm content with having bought a bunch of stuff that I'm sure I won't use. Leaving that aside, lately I've been feeling bad, of course I haven't been going to check myself, I mean, I've been eating a lot of crap and that's probably what's hurting me.
I walk towards the exit of the place when I get a little dizzy and I am forced to hold on to a pillar. A girl approaches me and makes sure I'm okay, before I can answer her my nose is flooded by a strange and nauseating smell.
"What do you have there?" I point to the bag in one hand.
"It's fish, I bought it at the restaurant back there. Do you want some?" She unzips the bag so I can see what's inside and I almost vomit at the sight of the food on an aluminum tray. I refuse his offer, holding back my nausea. Again she offers me his help saying she can take me to a hospital or to my home to make me feel better. I deny again and thank her for his help and wait until I stop feeling dizzy so I can go home. When I arrive, I get out of the car and go inside waiting for my parents to arrive. A somewhat unpleasant smell guides me to the kitchen. I find my mother cooking something unfamiliar. I walk over to where the stove is and see something rather disgusting in the pan.
"Mom" I say, holding my breath. "What is that?," I cover my nose so I don't have to smell the unpleasant odor.
"Fish," she starts chopping vegetables and pouring them into another pot, she turns to look at me and her face changes. "Are you all right? You look a little pale," I assure her I'm fine as I take a glass of water.
"Mom, are you sure that's not spoiled," I ask in disgust. I take another sip of water and hold it in my mouth for a while.
"For God's sake, don't be rude," she rolls her eyes and continues preparing the food, "I would never buy something that was spoiled," I walk away from the kitchen and go up to my room to avoid the smell again.
Comments (0)
See all