I Could Write It Better Than You Ever Felt It

Three days had gone by. I felt those three days go by fast and slow at the same time. Each day I continued to fall deeper into this comfortable awkwardness. As soon as I would begin to feel ok with my surroundings, something would smack me back into reality. Well, my reality.
I didn't really know what was real and what wasn't anymore. I know everything I'm saying right now doesn't seem to make much sense, but that's how I felt. Nothing made sense. My stress level was increasing as I juggled between keeping the lives of Alice Loran and Alice Wentz seperate. I was trying to balance my emotions of being both thrilled and terrified of
living on this tour bus with these people. Not to mention life on the road takes a lot out of you as well. I was losing sleep, and I felt as though I barely ate.
It's not that I didn't want to do these things, but they just felt so...un-important at the time. Eating less and losing sleep seemed like such miniscule issuses compared to everything else that was going on. I had far too much on my mind to concentrate on anything.

But the one thing that I did put a lot of thought into was the phone call Alex and I had made.

After the Niagara Falls excursion, we spent a good portion of the afternoon doing searches on the internet. Soon enough we had finally tracked down the store where I had bought my journal and we dialed the number found on the home page. The website stated that the shop was indeed located in Pennsylvania, which was a good sign. At least that factor had stayed the same.

The phone call was very weird. The man who answered sounded like the one who sold me the book. I asked if he remembered me and after some brief chatting he said he did. I explained what was going on and he was very polite about it. He believed every word I said-as if this was a common complaint he received. Once I felt like he understood what was going on, my questions poured out.

"Well...why is this happening? Does anyone from my old life realize I'm gone? Why doesn't Alex know who I am, but all of his friends do? Can you change everything back?"

I must admit I felt extremely stupid pleading on the phone with a complete stranger. And a weird one at that. But he believed me without any hesitation, and I was desperate.

"All I can tell you is to wait. This has happened for a reason."

The line went dead. Goosebumps ran up my arms as I felt a chill. It was a very unsettling moment. Alex and I stared blankly at each other. Neither one of us said anything. What could we say?

Those words rang through my head day in and day out.
Was he serious? I mean, he could have just been messing with me; It did sound like something out of a fortune cookie.
But still, I couldn't shake it.

I can't say I know what he was like before I appeared here, but Alex seemed stressed out too. He spent countless hours on the weirdest parts of the interent, looking for ways to change things back to normal. Occasionally he would tell me something about myself, something that I wrote about, that I had never even told him in the first place. As ridiculous as it sounds, my story seemed to be trying to grab a hold of us. We continued to fight it, but resistance was getting more and more difficult.

"What happens if we both start believing in this whole thing!?" Alex asked me one night.

I was lying on the couch in the lounge area flipping through a magazine when he barged in.
It was odd because usually I was the one asking the 'what if' questions and freaking out. But then again, everyone except for me had been drinking in the front of the
bus, so It could have been the alcohol asking. I had never seen Alex drunk before so I put down my magazine and looked at him, intrigued.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "I guess then we just...live like that?"

"We should write a note or something. So if we do change, we can find it and maybe snap ourselves out of it...like a time machine."

"You mean a time capsule?" I smiled. He nodded.

"Yes!!"

"Where would we put it?" I yawned.
It was about three in the morning. The talking and laughter I had listened to for the last couple of hours had died down. Everyone else was heading to bed.

"I..." Alex paused and yawned after I did. "I don't know."

"Let's just change lives then so we can stop worrying about it and get some sleep." I joked.

"Hah, I know...My drunkness is turning into sleepiness." He rubbed his face with his hands.

"They all were concerned you weren't drinking with us ya know," He told me, as he took a seat on the floor across from me. "You're alter-ego is a partier."

"Yes, yes she is." I laughed.

"You don't drink in real life, do you?"

"No, not really. But I don't have that many friends...so maybe that's why." I shrugged.

"It's fun...but sometimes it's not..."

"Wise words." I smirked. Alex laid down flat on his back so he was looking up to the ceiling.
He closed his eyes before speaking again.

"Alice, do I ever end up getting a crush on you in your story?"

"No, just Jack. Why?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Positive." He paused briefly before chuckling.

"All the girls love Jack best." He joked.

"That's not true." I laughed.

"They like me best?" He sat up again and looked at me with drunken hopeful eyes. I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm pretty sure they would all prefer you and Jack to just date each other."

Watching his face fall from hopefulness to horror made my entire night.

"Why!?" He scoffed.

"Because you're both just so precious." I joked. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Goodnight." He told me, but he didn't move. I picked my magazine back up.

"Goodnight."

Alex laid back down on the floor and closed his eyes again.

"Not going to bed?" I asked. He didn't answer. I ignored it and continued to read. A few minutes later Jack joined us.

"Hello ladies!"

"Jack...they want us to be gay..." Alex mumbled.

"Ok, good." He replied, not having a clue what he was talking about. He stepped over Alex and hopped on top of me.

"Come lay with meeee." He pleaded. This was our nightly routine.

"No, I'm comfortable here!" It was getting harder to push Jack away, but I must say I was proud of myself.

"Alright, alright. Why didn't you come drink with us tonight?!"
I didn't get a chance to respond.

"All I can tell you is to wait...This has happened for a reason..." Alex mumbled the shop owners words aloud. He was still drunk, and half asleep. Jack threw a pillow at him.

"Alex, shut the fuck up, you fuckin' hippie."

I think I laughed myself to sleep.