Haven't I Been Here Before?

I looked in at myself standing in the mirror, wearing Kali’s clothes. I’m not sure exactly how I got to this point, but it was a question I planned on asking myself before the evening was to be over. Kali was standing behind me fussing with my hair while I gave an evil glare at this stranger looking back at me in the mirror.

I was wearing a nice outfit and was more dressed up than I had been in a looong time. All I can say is that there was make up and a skirt involved and that my feet would be begging for amputation before I even left the house. I knew that this lunch “date” was a disaster waiting to happen; yet there I stood, shifting uncomfortably.

“Kali, I don’t want to go threw with this,” I whined for the millionth time, and turning around to face her.

She smacked my head back in place so she could continue with my hair and said, “It’s to late now girl, I’m not letting you back out after going this far.”

I wanted to stomp my foot and run to my room to slam the door. Unfortunately I don’t think that that kind of thing would work on Kali. She was going to drag me to the door, kicking and screaming if she had to, and then hand me over to Ryan. It’s like she wanted me to suffer.

---

“There, done,” Kali said, a smirk on her face. My hair was in a million little twisty things that I’ll admit, looked really good.

“Thank you,” I told her begrudgingly. I hadn’t even left yet and I just wanted to be back home. My stomach was turning knots and six thousand little ‘what if’s?’ were popping up in my brain. Which is when I heard the car pull up.

“Just in time,” Kali said with a wink. I would never forgive her for this.

Kali grabbed my arm and started walking. Which is precisely when I grabbed a hold of the door-frame and wouldn’t let go.

“No, Kali! Please don’t make me do this!” I was frantic, my words coming out at an alarming pace.

“Laney, calm down! The man’s not going to kill you! Its just lunch, chill.” Easy for her to say.

She grabbed both of my arms and marched me down the stairs and I couldn’t help but think she was the best friend from hell.

“Hey, baby,” Kali said to Michael when we got down stairs. He was giving me an evil glare. Then I spotted Ryan in their living room. He looked almost like a god, like he was too big for the space to contain him. He had on a million dollar outfit, I’m sure. It just looked[/i[ expensive.

I started in toward the living room; time to face him, I thought. Then Michael grabbed my arm in a death-grip. I looked around for Kali, but she wasn’t there.

“Are you wearing her clothes?” He asked me, angered.

I wanted him to let go of me, pronto. “Yes, dumb ass. Do I look like have anything nice to wear?”

He practically snarled at me and then let go. He was one scary motherfucker. Scarier than my date-like-thing with Ryan.

I tried not to literally run into the living room to get away from him.

“Hey, there you are. Are you ready?” Ryan asked, a chemically charged smile beaming down at me. The answer was no, I wasn’t ready. But I would go with him anyways, because that’s what weaklings like me who don’t know how to control their own lives do. They go.

“Sure,” I said and followed his lead out the door. I didn’t waste time to turn back and look at Kali, who I knew would be excited that I hadn’t decided to hang on to the door frame again.

---

His car was, as expected, extremely fancy. Like, the kind of fancy that I’m afraid to breathe on. When we got to it I wanted to stop dead in my tracts and ask if he was serious, that that was his freaking car.

But he opened his door and hopped in, then proceeded to look at me like I was mentally challenged or something. I opened the door and got in.

“Sorry,” he said, “I’m not used to having girls who want me to open the door for them get into the car.” I snorted (not very attractively, I might add) at the comment and decided not to correct him.

“So. Where are we headed?”

He smiled like he knew a secret that I didn’t. “It’s this fab little Italian restaurant that a friend of mine owns. It’s not to far out.”

I turned to look out of my window. I didn’t care how far out the place was, it was going to be an awkward ride there. Especially considering that I didn’t really care for him and the only reason I was in this predicament was because Kali has great persuasion powers.