Don't Forget About Me.

It was 1pm when Alex finally woke up, only to find himself in bed alone. He looked at his watch, and laid in bed for another 20 minutes before finally deciding he needed to move. He called out Lisa’s name before slowly gathering up some relatively fresh clothes and making his way to the bathroom to take a shower.

Half an hour later Alex resurfaced from the bathroom wearing a pair of tight black skinny jeans and a grey glamour kills tee, after carefully positioning every strand of hair exactly how he wanted it, before calling Lisa’s name once again only to receive no answer.

“Lisa, where the hell are you” He muttered under his breath as he began making his way to the kitchen in search of some sort of substance would make his stomach stop growling at him. He checked his phone on his way there, only to be surprised to find he had no messages, missed calls, emails, nothing.

“What the hell is going on?” He questioned aloud. It was only then that he stopped and looked at his apartment properly, and noticed that all the pictures that had previously occupied his walls were gone, no trace of any of them at all, not even a nail in the wall.

“Very funny guys, really. Now can you please give me my pictures back, so we can go out today?” And once again he received no reply. “Fine, fuck you all, I’m going out with or without you, you’ve got until I put my shoes on then I’m going without you.” But by the time Alex had finally pulled on his black and white Nike dunks there was still no sign of life other than himself in his apartment, so true to his word, he picked up his keys from the kitchen counter, slid his phone into his pocket then walked out of the door, locking it behind him.

Only then did he realise he didn’t have any real plan as to where he was going today, he just decided he was going to make a point, and started walking wherever it is his feet want to take him. Turns out aforementioned place happened to be the local park; it wasn’t anything big, just big enough to contain your typical playground. When Alex arrived there he decided it was a nice enough day to just sit on the grass away from the chaos of all the people and just relax.

After about 20 minutes Alex just happened to have opened his eyes for a brief minute when he finally saw her, the person he’d been looking for all morning.

“Lisa!” he exclaimed whilst running down the grass bank towards her

“Lisa!” he repeated when she still didn’t reply, it was only when he called her a third time that she began to turn around and face him.

“Lisa! I’ve been looking for you all morning!” He grinned, only then noticing a man Alex had never seen before standing with her. “Who’s this?” he added whilst eyeing the stranger.

“Sorry, do I know you?” Lisa responded whilst looking at him with a curious look on her face, this must be some sort of big prank, Alex thought to himself.

“Really funny Lise, seriously, where were you this morning? First I wake up to find you gone, along with all the pictures from my apartment, what’re you and Jack planning?” Alex laughed, but soon stopped when he realised she looked genuinely confused.

“C’mon Lisa, it’s me, Alex, your boyfriend? We’ve been together for years! I mean, if you don’t want to be with me, I would’ve rather you say it to my face than leave without so much of a word and then refuse to acknowledge ever knowing me.” Alex could feel the lump in his throat, the stinging behind his eyes, and his palms started to sweat, but he stood there with a pleading look on his face, waiting for her to answer him, he needed that at least. It was only then that the stranger spoke up.

“Lisa, what the fuck is he talking about? You’ve been with him for years?” His voice gradually escalated, “What the fuck is going on!” He shouted before taking a step away from her, a look of disbelief and anger on his face.

“What? No! I’ve never seen him before in my life John!” She pleaded, before grabbing the strangers hand and turning back to Alex. “Who the hell do you think you are coming over here and making accusations like that!?” She shouted whilst walking closer to Alex, her finger extended, pointing at him, he voice still increasing in volume. “ Me and John have been together since high college and I have never, nor will I ever even think of cheating on him, especially not with you!” She closed her eyes and lowered her hand before taking a deep breath, and reopening her eyes in order to regain eye contact with Alex “So if you’d excuse me, I’d appreciate it if you never come near me again.” She added calmly before tightening her grip on the strangers hand and storming off. Leaving Alex stood in the middle of the path with his eyes threatening to spill over any second now.

In a quick bid to keep what remains of his dignity, Alex ran to the nearest wall, jumping over it and running through the woods to a place he knew the way to all too well, from frequent trips here when he was a young boy. After just a few minutes Alex finally came to a stop outside an old wooden door, which had fallen off one of its hinges and was now starting to rot due to its age. He placed his hands on either side of the door and lifted it, careful not to ruin it more than nature already had, and manoeuvred it gently encouraging the last hinge to break, before finally gently placing it to the side of the now empty doorway.

It wasn’t much inside, what used to be fairly recognisable furniture, was now rotting wooden frames with material that was blackened due to moss and mould, the walls were ruined with damp, and the floor was worn and lumpy from the weather gaining entrance he guessed after the door had broken. It had changed a lot since Alex had last been there, he could see that someone had brought a bench in here, probably to provide a slightly more sanitary place to sit, and there was also a small table next to it which held an old portable gas lamp. He tried not to think of the last time he was here, and instead took a seat on the bench, and let the tears fall as he thought through what had just happened.

He’d just lost his girlfriend. Wait, could he class it as losing her, when according to her she didn’t have a clue who he was? What could he have done to make her want to forget his existence over night? And who was that John guy? Everything was fine between them last night wasn’t it? They didn’t fight, right?

Alex thought back to the previous night when once again Lisa was staying over, Alex couldn’t understand why she ever felt the need to go home, she was at his apartment more than his own and the majority of her things had gradually been brought over and left here over the years, to anyone else it would’ve looked like they already lived together, but that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to live together, of course they did, they were madly in love, they just each liked their own space, they liked to have Lisa time, and Alex time, as well as Lisa and Alex time, which each of them having their own apartment allowed them to do, and they were fine with that.

Last night they’d come home from a day out with the Jack, Zack and Rian, Cassadee, Flyzik, and Vinny, as well as the rest of the crew and some of Lisa’s friends, Alex’s band mates had come over for a few more drinks and to watch TV before deciding to head home, finally leaving Alex and Lisa alone.

After Alex had changed into a pair of his black sweatpants and an old plain white tee, and Lisa had changed into her pyjamas that consisted of baggy pants which were decorated were checked with black and shades of blue and pink, with a black long sleeve top, which had a picture of Snow White’s ‘Grumpy’ on the front of them, they decided it was time to snuggle up in bed and watch Alex’s favourite movie ‘The Fifth Element’, they had every intention of watching the full thing, and maybe even squeezing in a shorter movie after it, but the chaos of the day didn’t dawn on the two until they were comfortable, which is why they both ended up sleeping on the couch that night, after only getting half an hour into the film. It was at this point that Alex had a realisation.

“Wait,” he said aloud, “then how...” he trailed off back into his thoughts as he realised he had woken up in bed this morning, with no recollection of ever waking up and moving there, and Lisa definitely wasn’t strong enough to carry him, so unless for the first time in 25 years Alex had began sleep walking, there was no way he could’ve possibly got from the couch to his bed.

It was at this point that Alex finally stopped crying, and realised it had gotten dark outside. Really dark. Luckily he always kept a lighter on him, not because he smoked, hell no, but because years of hanging around with people that do, taught him that at some point in your life, you will find it useful to keep a lighter on your person. And with that he blinked a few times to allow his eyes to adjust to the newly discovered darkness, before lifting up the small gas lamp and fiddling with it until he managed to successfully light the fuel.

With the lamp still in his hand he pulled his phone out of his pocket to see how long he’d been sat there. “8:00pm” the clock read, and yet still no-one had tried to contact him. He didn’t even get this much peace and quiet when he asked for it, what the fuck was going on? He tried rebooting his phone, with the idea that maybe something was going on with the server, and for whatever reason turning his phone off and on may fix it. After a few minutes of waiting Alex realised that his plan hadn’t worked, and no-one really wanted to get in contact with him.

“Fine, fuck you all.” He cursed as he stood up, deciding that with the time now being 8:15pm, he should probably start heading home. He considered leaving the lamp here and feeling his way back to the path, but quickly decided against that when he realised how long it had been since he’d visited this place, and although he may have easily found his way here in the daylight, it was a whole different story at night time.

“I’ll come back with it tomorrow.” He decided to himself, and with that he held the lamp out in front of him as he began walking back in the direction he thought he had come. The first few minutes of his walk went smoothly, finding very little obstacles in his path, and then he reached a few brambles that, due to Alex’s horrendous luck, tore little holes all over his glamour kills t-shirt. He shivered as he realised just how cold it was tonight, and the new addition of holes to his clothing didn’t help his temperature one bit.

After another ten minutes of fighting with brambles and trees, Alex resurfaced from the woods, and after placing the gas lamp on top, jumped the wall he had previously crossed earlier that day. He then retrieved the lamp and continued the fifteen minute walk back to his apartment, with the lump in his throat threatening to let a sob break through any minute now.

When he finally reached his door, he pulled his keys out of his pocket and fumbled about with them until he found the right one, allowing him to gain entrance and lock the door behind him. It was only when Alex blew out the flame in the gas lamp, stripped himself of his torn clothing, and collapsed on his bed in the foetal position that he let himself release the tears that had been building up behind his eyes, and with that he continued on crying until he finally fell asleep.