Love Creates First Class Liars

For the next ten minutes Zack, Rian, Carson and I impatiently waited while Jack kept trying to get Kat to remember his name.

“Come on, I know you know who I am!” He cried.

“I don't know who you are,” She sighed for the hundredth time. “Sorry.”

“Here's hint, it starts with Jaaa...”

“It's Jack,” Rian said, rolling his eyes.

“RIAN!”

“Shut up, Jack.”

“And um, well you know I'm Alex,” I said wanting to get back to the point of why we were here. “You know Jack and Rian and that's Zack and Carson,” I told her pointing to everyone.

“Okay. And um, I'm Kat.”

“We know.”

“Right..”

“So here,” I said as I pulled the printed out article from my pocket. I tried to smooth the crinkled paper down before handing it to her. “This was from when we were in high school.” She looked up at me with wide, curious eyes before taking it.

“Oh my god,” Kat whispered as she scanned the paper. I saw a tiny tear drip down her cheek, that she quickly wiped away. “He lied to me.”

I sat down on the bench next to her and pulled her in for a hug. Even though she was upset right now, I felt like dancing around like an idiot. She finally realized it was all a lie and would come back home and everything could go back to the way it was before.

“It's okay, Kat. He's not going to hurt you again,” I whispered as I kissed the top of her head.

“Hey, we're here for you,” Zack contributed as he sat down on the other side of her. Before I knew it Rian, Jack and Carson had joined the group hug and Kat actually looked happy.

“Thank you,” She said with a small smile.

“Let's go get ice cream!” Jack shouted and we all happily agreed. Kat had walked to the park so she was going to come in our car. I made Rian drive and Carson called shot gun. It was crowded in the back with four people and only four seats and so Jack who found himself without a seat, sprawled on top of everyone ignoring our complaints.

When we arrived at the ice cream parlor, we all ran out of the car, eager to order.

“Um..I'll get peanut butter chocolate and can she have a cookies and cream?” I asked. She nodded and set about getting our scoops.

“How did you know what I wanted?” Kat asked. And then it hit me. Even though Kat knew Harley was a liar and would hang out with us more even if she didn't want to, she still couldn't remember anything.

“Oh, um it used to be your favorite,” I muttered. “I guessed it still was.”

- - -

Once we finished our ice creams, Kat had told us that she wanted to go home now and confront Harley.

“I'll text you later to tell you how it went,” She told me. I nodded in agreement and opened the door for her once we got to her house. “Thanks for everything you guys.” As she walked towards her house, I followed her at her heels.

“What are you doing..?”

“Walking you to your door. What kind of guy would I be if I didn't?” I smirked.

She didn't have a reply and just smiled. Once we reached the door, she turned around before walking inside.

“I know this must be hard for you,” She began.

“You have no idea.”

“But it's hard for me too.”

“I know.”

“I really hope we can get to know each other better,” She said, a smile playing on her lips. “Or at least I hope I can get to know you better. Apparently you know me pretty well.”

“More then you think,” I said. She turned to go inside and I grabbed her wrist stopping her.

“Kat?”

“Yeah?”

I leaned down and slowly kissed her. Instead of her kissing back like I expected, she stiffens up and doesn't move, as if frozen.

“Are you okay?” I asked concerned as I pull away swiftly. Her eyes are wide and unreadable. It she confused or frightened? Maybe a bit of both? I couldn't tell. I had known her for so long usually I knew exactly what she was thinking but this was different.

“Alex?” She gasped.

“Um, yeah?” Kat stared at me for another good thirty seconds before running inside and slamming the door shut.

What the heck just happened?

- - -
Kat's POV
- - -

I was about to go inside when Alex said, “Kat?”

“Yeah?” I replied as I turned around to face him. He slowly leaned forwards and gently pressed his lips to mine. It wasn't anything like what I was used to. Harley kissed me with forcefully and I didn't feel anything kissing him. Kissing Alex was like being thrown into another world. It was soft and sweet, full of love. As cliché as it sounds, fireworks seemed to be exploding in the still air around. And before I could kiss back, memories swam through my mind, racing towards me like bullets.

Alex pulled away, confused by my lack of reaction. Suddenly the guy standing before me, was not just a man I met yesterday who claimed to be not only my best friend, but boyfriend. He was Alex. The guy who had always been there for me, through thick and thin. The one who held me close when I was scared and laughed at all my pathetic attempts of trying to be funny. The guy who stayed by my bed, night and day, whenever I was sick and bought me gallons of cookies and cream ice cream just to cheer me up on bad days. As I stared into his chocolate brown eyes, I remembered every last detail about tour with Rian and Zack and Jack and Carson. And there was Matt and Vinny and Evan and Colussy and Greico and Jeff too. Memory after memory flew at me and there were to many for each of them to be replayed in my head.

“Alex?” I gasped. Then a horrible picture of Harley repeatedly punching me filled my mind and my eyes filled up with tears. I remembered Alex and Jack running inside and beating the crap out of him after seeing me crumpled up and broken, lying on the floor. Then Alex had sat on the ground next to me with my head in his lap as he whispered reassuring thoughts while Jack called nine-one-one.

“Um, yeah?” He replied, completely confused. But I couldn't pay him attention for now all I could think about was the past month. Harley had repeatedly told me that he loved me but I couldn't tell him it back because it just felt wrong. I told him I just needed time to recover from the accident, but that wasn't it. It was because I had been in love with a guy I didn't know existed and he was standing right in front of me. That thought by itself was overwhelming enough, never mind the thousand of memories from my past twenty three years all running back to me. And with that, I ran inside and slammed the door shut.

I sprinted upstairs and started a hot shower. Whenever I was upset or confused, showers were the first thing I turned to. The hot water running down my body never ceased to calm me down. I stepped into the the bath tub, and slowly began cleaning myself with vanilla-scented shower gel. Once I finished washing my hair and had shaved, I reluctantly stepped out of the shower to wrap a thick, fluffy towel around me. Just as I was searching for clothes to wear, my phone rang.

To: Kat
From: Harley

hey i'll be home around 5 love u

I angrily threw my phone on the ground. How could he lie to me so easily? My phone read three o'clock so I had time to think about how I would confront him. But first I had to get dressed. I threw on a pair of dark denim short-shorts, a Mayday Parade v-neck and my comfortable black TOMS. After drying and straightening my hair, I looked in the mirror embarrassed by what I saw. Harley had encouraged me to get gauges, to get colored contacts and even to get tattoos. He told me that dying my hair would be a good change after such a horrible accident.

Lies, all of it.

He just wanted me to look different so no one would recognize me. Well, he succeeded. I didn't even recognize myself anymore.

Without a second thought, I removed the colored contacts unveiling my shining green eyes. It was almost three-thirty now and I still had quite a bit of time before Harley got home. Grabbing a few dollars, I rushed downstairs and outside heading in the direction of the local CVS.

As I walked inside a blast of refreshing air hit my body, and I silently thanked god for air conditioning. It was pretty hot outside as it was mid-August. I skimmed the shelves of air dye until I found the color I wanted, “Bubblegum Pink.” Smiling to myself, I skipped up to the counter to purchase it.

- - -

My phone read five-oh-one. Harley would be arriving home anytime soon. I check myself out in the mirror one last time. My hair was back to the way it used to be, blonde and bubblegum pink. It perfectly described me and can't believe I ever dyed it. Long gone were the contacts and instead my green eyes shone proudly at my reflection. Although I couldn't get rid of the tiny gauges and tattoos, I didn't really mind because even I had to admit they were kind of cool. At least I looked like me now.

The sound of a door being pushed open followed by heavy footsteps interrupted me from my thoughts. I took a deep breath and walked downstairs.

“Hey Kat,” Harley said as he heard me walk in. He turned around to face me, and his mouth popped open in surprise. “What the..?”

“Guess who I ran into yesterday?” I asked. When there was no response, I answered my own question. “Well, I was at Starbucks when this guy named Alex Gaskarth came and sat down with me. And he said some things that at the time I thought were pretty crazy. He told me that I was really good friends with the band All Time Low and I actually accompanied them on the Warped Tour. Apparently, I hit my head because I was drunk and tripped over a rock.”

“He's lying,” Harley choked out and I laughed.

“That's what I thought at first too! But wait it gets better. He asked me to meet him at the park today so I did and he brought friends. Rian, Zack, Jack and Carson. Alex gave me this article from some newspaper that was written four years ago when we were in high school. It said something about you and me in an abusive relationship? Do you remember that Harley?”

It seemed he was still shocked and there was reply, yet again.

“At first, I was upset. Like, really upset. And they drove me back because I wanted to confront you about it. Honestly, I was still confused. You know, with the memory loss and all that shit. But then the funniest thing happened. Alex kissed me! And when he did that, I remembered everything.”

Harley's shock turned into anger and before I knew it I was pressed up against the wall with him breathing in my face.

“I only lied because I love you, Kat. Can't you see that?” He begged.

“Get off me,” I hissed. But he refused to move.

“If you keep seeing them, I'll kill Alex, and then I'll kill you. If they ever approach you, you're memory is still gone. Do you hear me? You don't know anything.”

And with that, he backed away and slapped me across the face.

“I'll kill Alex,” He whispered. “And then I'll kill you.”