Whoever She Is

“Can you please just answer my calls or something? I am telling you the truth, if you just FaceTime me or let me come and see you, or you come see me, then you’ll know. Have you even opened any of my texts? Just, please, Kimberley.”

Kimmi sighed and deleted the voicemail. She knew it was a mistake to even bother listening. It had been three days since Hallowe’en. She’d had a brief discussion with Flyzik and had his texts muted ever since. She ignored his calls and generally went on acting like he hadn’t existed.

She was making herself a much needed cup of tea when Tessa entered the kitchen, coming to stand needlessly close to her.

“…Can I help you?”

“Yeah. You’re in a mood. And you left the party early and wouldn’t tell us why. And you haven’t wanted to talk to us since.”

“I just want alone time.”

“You don’t have any photography appointments booked for another week, you always have alone time right now!”

“…So?”

“Kimberley, we need to talk to you.”

She held in a sigh as Tess dragged her through to the livingroom where Elyse was sitting on the couch. Tessa forced Kimmi into the armchair and then sat on the couch with Elyse.

“Is this an intervention or something? I feel like my parents are about to scold me.”

“So moody!” Elyse exclaimed. “Seriously, we need to tell you something, but you didn’t wanna speak to anyone the other day. You’ve had three to shake off whatever is bothering you and this can’t wait any longer.”

Kimmi put her tea down on the coffee table. “Okay, fine. What is it?”

“Aled was at the party,” Tess blurted.

“Way to ease into it,” Elyse rolled her eyes.

“I’m sorry!”

“…Aled was what?” Kimmi asked calmly, though she certainly didn’t feel calm.

Elyse sighed. “He was asking around for you, asking if anyone had seen you or seen a girl in a Minnie Mouse outfit. Asking if anyone had your number so he could just call you himself, stuff like that. It was so weird and out of the blue. He bumped into us and started begging us to put him in contact with you. He was honestly babbling.”

“Yeah, it was creepy though, he was wearing a Mickey outfit,” Tessa added. “He said something about his ‘plan had backfired’ and he just needed to talk to you himself.”

Kimberley felt like the blood was draining out of her body. “He— he was wearing a Mickey Mouse outfit.”

“Yes! Just like yours and Matt’s. We were trying to find you to warn you but then we got your text that you’d gone home and didn’t wanna talk about it. And we couldn’t find Matt anywhere either.”
“What happened with Aled?”

“We threw him out, duh,” Elyse reassured her. “He was being fucking weird. We know what he’s like. Doesn’t contact you for months and then one little thing reminds him of you and he’s all up in your DMs again.”

“He hasn’t done that in a long time.”

“Because you blocked him on everything! So now he’s showing up in person in the same outfit as you and some other guy, begging to get your new number? It’s fucking obsessive.”

“We told him to get lost or we’d call the cops,” Tess added. “I think he knew we weren’t kidding because he left pretty fast, but he didn’t look happy about it. We wanted to tell you sooner but you kept telling us to leave you alone. But this could be dangerous.”

Kimberley had never felt so stupid. She was quiet for a few long moments, staring at her cup of tea.

“…Are you gonna say anything? Are you freaking out? Because if you wanna call the police, we will back you on that. He’s basically harassing you. Or trying to.”

Kimberley shook her head. “It’s not that.”

“Then…?” Elyse raised her eyebrows.

Kimmi sighed, and looked at her friends. “I’m sorry I’ve been in a bad mood. I just… I just realised I am a terrible person. I basically ghosted Flyzik because I thought he did something awful and hurt my feelings but I think it’s been a huge misunderstanding.”

Tess and El looked at each other, mildly confused and hugely intrigued. “Uh… go on…?”

“At the party, we split up, and he was supposed to meet me somewhere but he didn’t show. When I went looking for him, I found him with this girl… I don’t know who she was, but she was all draped over his lap and he was touching her and… they went upstairs together. And he looked right at me and didn’t even seem to care. He looked at me more than once and it was… weird. So I left. Because I figured he’s not worth having around if he’s gonna be romantic and kiss me and flirt and then go to bed with somebody else right in front of my eyes? But if Aled was wearing the same costume… what if…?”

“Oh my God,” Tessa covered her mouth with her hands. “Shit!”

“Oh my fucking God. So if that was maybe Aled then where was Flyzik the whole time?” Elyse asked.

“That’s the thing,” Kimberley sighed. “The morning after the party, I woke up to a dozen texts from him asking if I’m okay and how he’s sorry he had to leave? And that some crazy guy in another Mickey costume attacked him and he’s at the doctor… I just thought he was making up weird excuses. I thought he was insane. I told him that I saw him with the other girl and I wasn’t interested in the drama and I didn’t wanna hear his lies. He begged me to hear him out and talk in person but I muted all his texts and… oh my God. He must’ve been telling the truth. What if Aled confronted him?”

“Holy shit!” Elyse stood up, too hyped up by the whole story to stay sitting. “Holy shit. Okay. So Aled attacked Flyzik, wearing the same costume to… to… I don’t know, make you think he’s the better match?”

“But if it was Aled, and he wanted you back, why get with another girl when you’re right there?” asked Tess.

“He’s tried to make me jealous before,” Kimberley sighed, shaking her head. “I bet that’s what it was. He thinks if I get jealous, I’ll come running back. Remember that time he commented flirtatious stuff on the photos of every female friend I have on Instagram? Even you guys? I messaged him to quit it because it was weird and he thought that meant it was working.”

“So… his plan that backfired was that you didn’t go running to confront him? To get you to talk to him? That’s twisted.”

“He's twisted!” Elyse said. “You need to call Flyzik.”

“Yup.”

Kimmi nodded. “I know I do. I just don’t know if he’s gonna want to talk to me now.”

/////

Kimberley decided the best way to hash this out and fully piece together what happened at the party would be in person.

So she drove straight to Matt’s place as soon as she’d finished talking to her roommates. Well, straight there, with the exception of one stop.

She was nervous to knock on Flyzik’s door – she hadn’t even told him she was coming, she just wanted to go there as fast as possible and talk in person. But she wasn’t going to get anything done by standing on his doorstep stressing about it. So she took a deep breath and knocked.

Matt answered after a few seconds, and Kimmi couldn’t hide the shock when she saw his appearance.

He had a black eye, various other bruises, a split lip, bandage across his nose…

“I— you’re here,” Matt said, stunned. “I thought—”

“Oh my God, your face. Matt… I am so sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. Are you okay?”

“I… yeah. A bit sore but it could be worse.”

“I am so sorry,” Kimberley repeated. “Tess and Elyse told me they saw my ex at the party and threw him out, that he was wearing the same outfit you were? And I realised you weren’t lying to me at all. It was all him.”

“Your ex,” said Matt, realisation hitting him like a ton of bricks. “He was so possessive. I thought you had a stalker or something. Well, I guess you kinda do, maybe.”

“His name’s Aled, he’s… not the most stable person, apparently. I never thought he’d do this though. I haven’t had contact with him in a long time, so this is… I’m just really sorry. I’m sorry he did this to you.”

“It’s okay, really. I know the whole story is far-fetched, I can’t really say I blame you for not hearing me out.”

“I feel terrible though, you were hurt…” Kimberley resisted the urge to reach out and touch his face. Partially because that would probably hurt him and partially because it would probably be fucking weird. “I can’t believe he did this.”

“It’s really okay. The doctor said I’m gonna be fine, I thought he broke my ribs kicking me but I’m just a bit battered and bruised.”

“Kicking you? Have you called the police or anything?”

“…No.”

“Why not?! Look at you!”

“Do you wanna come inside to talk about it?”

“Oh, uh. Yeah. Hang on.”

Kimmi picked up a box she’d placed on his front step and walked past a slightly puzzled Matt into his home. She took it straight to the dining table and placed it down, with Matt following closely behind.

“Mind telling me what’s in that…?” he asked suspiciously, noting the airholes.

“I got you a present,” Kimberley looked slightly sheepish. “It was a bit of an impulse buy. Which I quickly realised when I left the pet shop. And if you don’t want them, that’s fine, I’ll take them home with me.”

Matt laughed just a little, slowly opening up the box to reveal two grey and white dwarf hamsters. He laughed more upon seeing them sleeping tucked into the corner.

“Uh, this is… this is the weirdest present anyone’s ever gotten me.”

“Well, the pet shop didn’t have any mice, so hamsters were gonna have to do. I got you your own Mickey and Minnie. It’s honestly okay if you don’t want them though, I got a cage and stuff too, it’s all in my car, but I can take it all home and just keep them if you’d prefer—”

She was cut off by a sudden, but gentle, kiss.

“I love them, thank-you. I’ll keep them on the condition you look after them when I’m on tour.”

“I— yeah. Uh. Sure.”

The kiss threw her off a little, and she found herself in a bit of a daze as they retrieved the cage and all the supplies for Flyzik’s new pets from her car and got them set up. Neither of them mentioned the kiss, or the incident at the party. Not until Matt was attaching the water bottle to the side of the cage, and Kimberley noticed something else.

“Oh my God, did Aled scratch you too?” she said, grabbing Matt’s wrist to get a better look at his arm.

There were welts running up and down his forearm, the skin clearly broken in some places.

Matt faltered. “N-no, um. Th— they… those were me.”

Kimberley let go of his arm, surprised. “Oh.”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. I do it when I’m stressed. I mean, I’m always stressed, I don’t always do that, but just when I’m especially tense or… just don’t worry about it. Never mind.”

“Why were you feeling especially tense?”

Matt finished attaching the water bottle and sat back on his chair, not quite making eye contact.

“Just felt a bit out of sorts. Since the party. I didn’t want to report it to the police, alright? It just doesn’t seem worth it. I’ll probably never see the guy again, so.”

There was silence while Kimberley took that in, just the sound of the hamsters scuffling around their new living space. She didn’t know what else to say, but maybe there wasn’t anything she could say.

Instead, she reached for Matt’s hand, wordlessly lacing their fingers together, and placed her head on his shoulder.