Page 22 of Piece By Piece

“Why would you connect those two occurrences? What I do with whom is none of your business and it certainly doesn’t concern Aliena.”

“Oh, please, we all know that’s bullshit. I don’t understand what the hell is up with you two but it’s clear that somethingisup!” he has the nerve to fucking exclaim. That does I for me and I snap.

“Oh, so there is something between us, huh? You didn’t seem to think that when youfuckedher inmyhouse. No, of course, I'm the bad guy as soon I do the same. Fuck you!”

“Whoa, what? You slept with Aly?” Lily interjects.

“Yeah, she didn’t tell you? Funny considering that you saw her hours later. You know, at the hospital after she was attacked on her way home since Mattheo didn’t think to give her a fucking ride home after he was done with her.”

Lily mutters something more but it’s Mattheo’s loud voice that demands my attention.

“What? What do you mean she was attacked?” he demands.

I shrug. “It seems I was the only one here with all the information. Ups. What did you think I fucked your knee up for?” I ask him, not feeling sorry in the least.

“I thought you did it because you are a fucking psycho!” he’s quick to reply. Of course, he’s not fully wrong. After the way he taunted me through that locked door, I really didn’t need much more motivation to take some of tumultuous emotions out on him.

Andrew sputters from where he’s sitting, entering the conversation for the first time. “Whoa, hang on.Youdislocated his knee?” he demands.Ups, I guess I forgot how twisted the whole story was and how little Andrew knew of it all. It looks like I’m going to be here for a while.

Cheers to that.

Chapter 13

Aliena

I’m still crying. I haven’t stopped crying since Sebastian locked himself in the bathroom with that girl and left me standing in the hallway like nothing more significant than a stray dog.

At first, I contemplated knocking on the door and demanding he got the fuck back out here so we could – I don’t know – talk this out? To do anything other than have him sleep with that woman. Especially after he dropped that little bomb about not having been with anyone since he met me.

That has to be a lie though, right? He picked up girls every other night and eventually disappeared with them. There’s no way he didn’t sleep with any of them.

In the end, I realized banging on the door would leave me in the exact same position he was in two weeks ago and thereby put me exactly where he wanted me. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. I also didn’t want to humiliate myself even further. All I really wanted to do at that point was go home and curl up in a ball in my comfortable bed, wearing some fuzzy clothes.

So I snuck out of the club and walked home to do exactly that. I learned my lesson from the last time, though, so I only walked along the main roads and kept my pepper spray in my hand. It was still early enough for a Saturday night, after all, so there were other people out and about.

Other than getting catcalled by a group of drunk men outside a bar in the less extravagant part of the city, I got home safely and untouched. I made quick work of taking off my makeup and changing.

Now I’m here, crying into my fucking pillow as I hold it tightly against my chest. On my birthday. Like a fucking idiot.

It’s a shame. No matter how hard Lily – or the rest of my friends try, my birthday curse just seems to stick with me. Something always has to go wrong and I’m particularly sensitive because I already got my hopes up that one year, it would be different.

I’m a moron and I feel like a bitch for ditching my friends without having said goodbye. I just didn’t want to face them in the condition I was in. They would have asked too many questions, and I didn’t feel like talking.

So I texted Lily that I was home and apologized about how I left. I also thanked her another million times and insisted on what a great friend was. Because she really is.

Knowing that she’d want a better explanation for my sudden departure than that, I turned off my phone before she could reply. It’s better this way. I’m done with the day.

I wake up with a headache and swollen eyes not long after noon. I hate sleeping in, but despite that, all I want to do as soon as I open my eyes is close them again. Instead, I force myself to turn on my phone and face a million textsmy friend sent me, scared that she might come over and bang down my door if I didn’t reply soon.

The last thing I want is company. I’ve always been this way when I was upset and luckily, I know Lily will respect that. To a certain point. She won’t accept being ghosted, though.

I start scrolling through the messages on my way to the kitchen to get some juice, surprised that I have a few from Mattheo and even some from Andrew. My heart feels a little lighter at their concern but at the same time, it has pressure building inside me. Now I have more people to reply to and appease.

I look up from my screen to search my fridge for the juice I was so sure I bought recently. To my dismay, it’s nowhere to be found. For fuck’s sake, another let down isn’t what I needed now.

With a sigh, I turn to my coffee machine instead. Caffeine it is, then. As that’s getting done, I lean against my counter and breathe heavily. I feel like shit, and it doesn’t get much better when my eyes fall on the letter my parents sent me. Without thinking much about it, I push myself away from the kitchen and pick up the letter. I already feel bad, how much worse can it get, right?

When I open the folded paper, I’m glad to see that the message isn’t too long.

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