I Don't Do Lonely Well

The remaining few weeks of Warped fly by, and Virginia is packing up her things before I know it.
She turns to me, all teary-eyed and arms crossed over her chest tightly. “Alex…I don’t want to do this.” I can hear the weight in her voice from trying so hard not to cry.
“I know,” I soothe, pulling her into an embrace. “But you know that it’s going to be about the same if you were here, right? Cody’s going to be travelling some, I’ll barely be home, and you’ll be in a high school from 7-5.”
“I don’t want to grow up. I don’t want to move back to LA. I want to stay here forever with you.”
“I know. I want you to stay, too, but this is just another step in our relationship, right? If we can take this, we can take anything. You and me.” I slide my fingers through hers. “Forever.”
She smiles a little and looks down at our hands. “It’s just going to be weird sleeping alone.”

“You’re sure you don’t need me to come with you?”
Virginia takes a deep breath and nods. “I can’t make this any harder on myself, Lex.” She glances over at the security. The first tear falls from her eye. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
I cup her face, and a few tears roll past my fingers. “Listen to me, Virginia. You’re the single strongest fucking person I know. You’ve made it through more than any of us thought you would. You can do this, and I’ll be there if you need me. You’re my fiancée, therefore my number one priority. I’m going to support any decision that you make with everything I have, including this one.”
She throws her arms around me and just cries into my shoulder. “You’re the best thing to ever happen to me, Alex.”
My chest gets heavy, and my throat gets hot as she steps through the x-ray machine. She glances back at me, waves, and heads for the terminal. I watch her until she’s out of sight, pull my keys from my pocket, and head home.
It’s really weird to walk into an empty house. A lot of the pictures are gone; all of Virginia’s warm-weather clothes are gone. I pull the sheets of the bed back and climb into it. As much as I can be strong for Virginia to her face, it’s killing me to see her leave when it’s hurting her so much to. I’m worried about her and how she’ll deal if things get tough, but she’s got her family out there and some old friends. I’m worried she’ll run herself down too much like she normally does.
I’m worried she’ll meet someone else and suddenly fall out of love with me.
I get that it’s probably really illogical for me to think that she would. We’re engaged, and sometimes I think she’s actually more in love with me than I am her.
I end up falling asleep thinking about our last breakfast date for a while—stealing pieces of her omelet, her stealing pieces of my pancakes, and one spilt orange juice.

“Alex, we’re going out tonight,” Cody hollers throughout the apartment. I close my laptop and roll out of bed, exiting the bedroom, and finding Cody in the kitchen.
“You’re eighteen.”
He lets out a laugh and pulls out his wallet. “This says it’s my twenty-first birthday.” My eyebrows pull up in pure astonishment at this kid’s ability to have so many fake ID’s, and that the bar knows he’s not twenty-one yet still sells him alcohol. Maybe because they’re all Virginia’s friends.
“Alright. Call us a cab. I’m not driving tonight,” I agree. Cody laughs and picks up the phone.
Jack and Zack meet us at the bar. My plan to get absolutely wrecked quickly falls into place, and things start feel like they did back before I met Virginia when it was just the guys.
Don’t get me wrong, I fucking miss the girl, but I needed a night like this.
I wake up the next morning in my old apartment to Jack shrieking like a child. “Holy fuck, shut up!” Cody hollers. Something shatters, and a large round of laughter explodes. I pull myself off the couch and head for the kitchen.
“What the fuck is going on in here?” I wonder. Another round of laughter ensues, and all I see is a broken glass, Jack staring at the shards of glass, and two other laughing guys.
“What is all the noise about?” another voice groans from behind me. I turn around to find Grace running a hand through her messy hair.
“Well, good morning, sunshine!” Jack greets. Grace’s lips pull into a tired smile, and she collapses against him. He wraps his arms around her and rubs her back. “Bloody Mary?”
“Please.” I take a seat next to Cody. “Why is there broken glass on the floor?”
“I knocked it over.” Jack shrugs.
Grace scoffs. “You’re a child.” She kneels down to pick up the glass.
“When did you get here?” I wonder. Grace, Jack, and Cody laugh. “And where’s Zack?”
“Zack’s still puking,” Cody replies.
“Jack called me last night,” Grace says with a shrug. I look at my best friend with a questioning look.
“Yep,” Jack answers with a smirk on his face. I laugh and shake my head. “So, anyone up for the bar again tonight?”
“Hell yeah!” Cody chimes in.
“You’re not even twenty-one,” Jack jokes. “Your vote doesn’t count.” Grace and I laugh.
“Let’s do it,” I agree.

Jack and I stare down our line of shots. “I’m going to hate myself tomorrow for this,” I sigh. We clink our first glasses together and pound down the line.
Ten shots and one drunken call to Virginia later, we’ve managed to create quite the party with the few people in the bar on a Monday night. Grace and Jack are hanging off of each other, Cody’s somehow managed to get his new girlfriend in, and look who walks into the fucking bar.
“Alex! Hey!”
“Lisa…” Shit.
Seeing Lisa at the bar is the last thing I expect. "What the hell are you doing here?"
She just shrugs. "Out with my friends. What else?" She glances around me. "Where's your girlfriend?"
"Fiancée," I correct. "And she just moved back to LA for a job opportunity."
"Huh, too bad she couldn't stick around." Lisa shrugs and takes a sip of her beer. I look for Jack as a distraction, but he's already extremely distracted by Grace. I sigh heavily. This is going to be a long night.

And goddamn. I hate being right sometimes. "You know, she's not even that pretty. I don't know what you see in her." I glare at Lisa. With the amount of alcohol I consumed, every word she says is a ticking time bomb, and I'm about to explode. "I mean, she's probably already found some other guy to sleep with while she's there. I would have."
And boom goes the dynamite. "Hold on one fucking second, this is my fiancée your talking about and I would take her over you in a fucking heartbeat. So, quit talking shit about her to my face. It doesn't make me like you more. If anything, I want to take back the time I spent with you and put it towards my time I don't have with Virginia."
"Seriously? Alex, you know how much better I am than her." She corners me against the bar and runs a hand up my chest. I swat her hand away. "Babe, come on."
"Stop, Lisa."
"Just come with me." She tries pulling on my belt loops.
"Jesus fucking Christ!" The entire bar falls silent at my uproar. I push Lisa off of me, and apparently a little harder than I intended to because Cody and Jack are both pinning my shoulders back. Lisa trips over a chair behind her, collapsing into a crying ball on the floor. "Who the fuck do you think you are to talk about Virginia like that! She's five times the woman you'll ever be. So, you can take your jealous, selfish ass and get the fuck out of my life!"
"Alex, calm down, man," Jack mutters, restraining me a little more as I try to shove him off.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the bouncer interjects.
"You don't deserve shit, Lisa! Go to hell!"
"Listen, if you don't get out I'm going to call the cops." Lisa picks herself up and marches right back up to me, her mascara running down her cheeks.
"I can go to hell? How long were you cheating on Dani with me? News flash, Alex, you're not so fucking innocent yourself. So take your precious fucking bitch of a fiancée and have a good fucking life! You two deserve each other. You're as much of a whore as she is!"
I will never in my life strike a woman, but I seriously consider it right now. "Really? She's the whore, but you're the one coming into me. Fuck yourself, Lisa!" I can feel Jack's grip on my shoulder tighten. I try to shove him off again, but he and Cody have straight-armed across my chest.
"Or you could continue your cheating lifestyle and do it for me." Her lips pull into a smirk, and the only way I can describe what happens next is just my vision going red, hands restraining me with all their strength, and shattering glass before two cool pieces of metal click closed around my wrists.