Somebody That I Used to Know

Over the next few days, I was bedridden. I couldn’t pull myself out of the depressive slump I was in no matter how hard those around me tried. On Monday morning, there was a knock on my bedroom door. I stayed quiet and pulled the covers up over my head. I hear the door open and two sets of footsteps walked into my room followed by the pitter-patter of the paws of my two pets. I felt my bed sink on both sides of me and two pairs of arms wrap around me as the smell of cologne and cigarettes filled my senses and easily reminded me of the last time this happened…

“I’ve fucking had it, Ivana!” my mom’s on and off boyfriend of the last three years screamed as he stomped around in our kitchen downstairs, most likely putting on a show as he gathered his belongings.

“Jakob, be quiet! Anastasia’s upstairs in her room trying to sleep and she can hear everything you say!” my mom said in an attempt to shush him as I listened to the conversation from the first step at the top of the stairs just a few feet away from my bedroom door.

I couldn’t help but think this was my fault; she started dating Jakob when I was thirteen because Ronnie and I bought her a subscription for a dating site so that she could meet more people and try to get over my low-life father walking out on her because of me.

“Anastasia, Anastasia, she’s all you fucking think about, isn’t she? She’s the fucking problem! Send that emo bitch to live with her father and get rid of her! All she does is sit in her room cutting herself, listening to music, and fucking those two future drug addicts that are going nowhere in life just like her!” he screamed.

I traced the scars that lined my upper thighs with my thumb nervously; terrified by the fact that people other than Max and Ronnie knew about the secret I tried so hard to hide. A moment later, I heard a slap echo through our house.

“Don’t you dare talk about my daughter like that, you prick. Get out of my house,” she said as she opened what I could only assume was the front door, “and don’t come back.”

I heard his heavy boots stomp out of the door and I slowly but carefully tiptoed back to my room. When I closed the door behind me, I noticed Ronnie standing in front of my window as he helped Max climb in. I wiped a few tears from my eyes as I walked across the small room to sit on my bed. Max finally made his way in the room and they sat on either side of me.

“Annie, what’s wrong?” Ronnie asked me.

“I think my mom just broke up with Jakob, they had a big fight and he called me an ‘emo bitch.’ I don’t know what to do.” I mumbled as I pulled at the sleeves of my hoodie.

I crawled under my zebra print comforter on my bed and curled up in a ball as a few tears fell from my green eyes. Max crawled under my blanket as well and wrapped his arms around my front, my tears staining his chest. I felt Ronnie do the same as he wrapped moved under the covers and wrapped his newly tattooed arms around me from behind…

I knew it was them just by the familiar feel of their warm bodies near me as my body slowly relaxed. They both shifted around on top of my purple sheets before they each made their way under my covers with me.

“Don’t you guys hate each other?” I asked as I looked into Max’s hazy green eyes.

“We made up; you know by now that Max and I can never manage to stay mad at each other for very long.” Ronnie explained.

“Yeah, besides, Ronnie told me what happened.” Max said as he moved his hand down to my stomach where I was beginning to show.

I groaned at his words and buried my face in my pillow. I did the calculations the day I found out I was pregnant and I was currently almost three months along.

“Annie, he’s the only person I’ve told.” Ronnie said.

“He also told me that apparently the two of you finally realized how much you actually love each other.” Max said with a smirk that made me blush.

“What exactly did you guys want?” I asked them as both men cuddled into me.

“I was thinking, and I think you need some cheering up.” Ronnie said.

“Ronnie invited me over and we decided to invite some friends over. We can all hang out by the pool in the backyard and Ronnie can barbeque some food.” Max suggested.

I felt a smile worm its way onto my face as I nodded my head.

“Okay, we can do that.” I began as I sat up in bed, “Who did you invite?”

“We invited the guys from the band, Alex, and some of my friends that you haven’t met yet.” Ronnie said.

I nodded my head and the two boys sat up next to me.

“One of you needs to pick out a bathing suit for me while I take a shower and stuff.” I said as I crawled out of bed.

I went to take a quick shower, shaving and washing a week’s worth of oil and grime from my hair. I wrapped myself in a towel before I stepped out of the bathroom to find that the boys were successful in their search and found me the perfect thing to wear. I pulled the clothes on and pulled my hair up into a messy ponytail before walking out of my room and down the stairs. There was no body in the living room or kitchen so I walked through the glass door in the kitchen to see that our backyard was full of our friends. I smiled at the sight and walked towards Ronnie who was standing by the grill wearing a ‘kiss the cook’ apron.
I wrapped my arms around him from behind when I reached him and smiled into his back.

“Thank you.” I mumbled.

Ronnie turned around and hugged me. When he pulled away from me, he placed two fingers under my chin and made me look at him.

“I love you.” he whispered to me.

I smiled and got on my tippy-toes to kiss him quickly. When I pulled away from him, I was pulled into someone’s thin arms. My face was pressed against someone’s chest and I couldn’t help but smile at the familiar smell. When the arms loosened around me slightly, I pulled away to see Alex.

“Hi, best friend!” I said happily.

He said nothing, looking down at me with a smirk that easily confused me.

“What are you smirking about?” I asked him.

He leaned down to my ear which took some effort on his part considering I stood at the relatively small height of 5’2 while he stood at what was about six feet.

“I told you that you were in love with him.” he said smugly before walking away from me.

I shook my head with a smile before I made my way over to one of the comfortable chairs we had by the pool. I sat down and stretched my legs out in front of me as I watched Sailor happily swim in the pool with Alex and Max. Ronnie walked over to me, picking me up and sitting where I had been previously before he set me down on his lap and wrapped his arms around me. I leaned my head on his chest and we watched out friends as they all acted like young children in or around our pool.

“What do you want for your birthday next week?” Ronnie asked me, breaking the silence.

“I can’t believe you remembered my birthday,” I began as I shifted around in his lap slightly to smile up at him, “I barely remembered it.”

“How could I not remember your birthday, I’ve been celebrating it with you for the last twenty years.”

I smiled and moved in to place a quick kiss on his lips. When I pulled away, his brown eyes were piercing into my green ones and one of his arms were wrapped around my waist with his large hand resting on the slight bump on my stomach that held what he had claimed as his baby.

“For my birthday, I want you. I just want to go out to eat or hang out at home or something. I don’t want anything big.” I said to him and I leaned in to him and rested the back of my head on his shoulder as I placed my hands over his.

“Angel, I wanted to talk to you about something.” he said as we both watched our lovable, over-sized husky push Max into the pool.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked.

“You know how much I love this house, but I think we should move. This place has too many bad memories.” he said.

“Where do you think we should move?”

“Well, if we move to Los Angeles, we’d be closer to Epitaph and your job plus we wouldn’t have to drive half an hour just to go to a friend’s house.”

“Ronnie,” I began with a sigh as I turned around a bit so that I could look into his eyes, “that’s a big transition. We’d be so far from our parents, and from your brother. Do you really think that’s the best idea?”

“Yeah, we could get a nice house in a good neighborhood with a big pool in the backyard. What do you say?” he asked hopefully.

“We have a nice house in a good neighborhood with a big pool in the backyard. I love this house!” I said with a groan.

“But, Ana, wouldn’t you like to raise our baby in a place that doesn’t have such bad memories?” he asked me, making me flinch a bit when he mentioned our baby.

I sighed and looked away, my brain slowly putting together all of the words he had been saying and reminding me of the last time we had this conversation.

“You already bought a new house, didn’t you?” I asked as I looked down at him with a knowing smile.

Ronnie hung his head down like a little kid that had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“I thought you were going to say yes.” he mumbled, making me laugh a bit.

I placed one of my hands on the side of his face and brought his lips to mine.

“Let’s do it…”