Dizzy Hurricane

“I like her,” I confess to Ally, immediately feeling awkward about it.

Her eyes widen and she does her cute but, fake because she is really nervous, laugh. She flips her hair three times, a clear sign that she is disappointed with something. I wonder if she knows that I notice these little things about her? I know that she thinks that I don’t like her, and I want to leave it like that. She is my ex girlfriend’s sister, my best friend and confidant. I really don’t want to further complicate our friendship. I already did that with Kellin and one complicated friendship is all I need. It’s not like Ally is sitting around pining for me anyway, she is clearly still in love with Jack. The married dude, a guess we have more in common than before. I sneak a glance at Lizzy and feel the need to throw up. I will get over her this year, I swear. Anyway, I really do like Naomi, I didn't mean for that to happen.

“Well that’s good news then,” she fidgets with the end of her jeans as she pulls her legs in closer to her. “That’s means that you are making progress with the whole Lizzy thing.”

I shrug and I smile, “Uh yeah, yeah. I am getting there.”

“That’s great Vic. I am happy for you." She claps. "Oh yeah, I love the hair by the way.”

She giggles a bit then she runs her fingers across my hair that barely has any length left to it. It just kind of flops a bit over my ears now, there isn’t much. I miss my long hair, but I was being a good friend when I cut it. At least its growing back. I lean into Ally's touch a bit; maybe only because of how familiar it feels. Yeah, that has to be it.

“Well, it was nice catching up. Now I just want to spend some more time with Lizzy if that it cool with you?” She smiles.

She drops her hand and starts to get up; I grab her by the wrist and pull her back to me. She falls into my lap and I feel her body stiffen. I stammer trying to remember what I was going to say but I can’t, so I just end up laughing. I mean, this kind of stuff must only be happening to me right? This is just too melodramatic of a life to be real. Sometimes I swear my life is just a bad episode of reality television show. Then Ally starts to laugh too, which relaxes us both.

“Oh,” I say as she gets up. “Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens are having a joint gig during the first weekend of November, will you come? You can bring whatever friends you want with you, just say yes.”

She nods, “Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

"I will text you the details later." I give her a big smile, happy that she said she will be there.

I watch her as she walks over to Lizzy and pulls her towards her bedroom. She probably wants to show off new clothes and chat, hopefully not about me. Kellin looks over at me and shrugs following them into the room. I laugh, I know he would stay but he knows that I like Naomi this is his way of giving us time alone. As if being late this morning didn’t do enough of that, I roll my eyes. Besides, I know Lizzy will give him hell for this; I could tell she wants me to be with Ally. As if setting me up with his sister will make everything that happened between us go away. I sigh; does she want it to all go away? Maybe she just wants us to be happy, but what makes her so sure that Ally and I can make each other happy? What if we can't? What if we just mess everything up? I couldn't handle that.

Naomi walks over to me with a pouty look on her face.

“This is not ending up how I pictured it. I wanted the three of us to be all giggly and bonding by now. We are meant to be the perfect trio. Besties forever and all that other adorable friendship stuff. Instead she is locked away in her room with her sister and brother in law. I feel so left out.” She sighs and places her head on my shoulder. “Maybe things will work out better next time we come over Victor.”

I cringe a bit at the use of my real name. I doubt that Naomi, I think to myself.

“Naomi please stop calling me Victor.” I say.

She giggles, “fine, Vic. Are you happy now?”

“Yes, I am. Thank you.” I pinch her lightly on her left arm.

“Well maybe we can steal her away when we get to Dave and Buster’s. We will sneak off with her to the snack bar, Ally can’t resist food.” She raises her eyebrows at me, a smile curling her lips upward.

“We should have just come another weekend. I told you that she is going to spend most of her time with Lizzy. With all that stuff that has gone on with them and junk.” I lean back against the couch.

She picks her head up off of my shoulder, “maybe we can come back next month. Just the two of us, then we can bond for real.”

Her eyes light up just at the thought, my stomach churns. I am not so sure how that would work out.

“How does Reggie feel about you spending all of this time with me?” I ask, my curiosity getting the best of me and I really wanted to change the subject.

I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.

“He doesn’t ask,” she pouts and puts some distance between us. “My sugar lips, seems to be so preoccupied with other things.”

I roll my eyes and make a gagging sound to the millionth pet name that I have heard Naomi call Reggie.

“Yeah, like Sonia.” I mumbled.

“What was that?” She gives me a sad smile and her big puppy dog eyes gaze at me.

I bite my tongue and swallow the hurtful words whole.

“I said, like the gym. He always seems to be working out.” I half lie; the dude is always at the freaking gym.

“Yeah, but he says the gym is his therapy. He needs it to make him feel good.” She shrugs and sighs.

Then Ally’s door opens and Lizzy comes into the living room.

“Get ready,” she says eyeing Naomi, “we are leaving for Dave and Buster’s in two minutes.”

As she heads to the closet to get her coat Naomi leans in to whisper in my ear, “Let’s show them how it feels to be left out. We will run for an elevator and lock them out of it.”

She giggles and I nod my head, ready to go along with her plan. I mean we did travel here to get some Ally time too, how come we get stuck on the outside? I smile at her as we head over to grab our coats from the closet. Lizzy ‘accidentally’ steps on Naomi’s toe on her way to give Ally her coat. Naomi pouts and I shrug, did Ally tell Lizzy what I said? If so, why is she taking it out on Naomi and not me? I turn and I see Ally giving me a sad look before smiling and acting like everything is fine. I feel bad, maybe I should tell her the truth about how messed up I am. Maybe I should just confess to having feelings for one too many people right now. I lay my head against the closet door's frame and let out a deep sigh. Why am I such an idiot when it comes to girls? I blame it on being a vulnerable writer who uses his life to create his art; thus my life needs to be interesting. I really took it too far this time.

We all piled out into the hallway and Naomi gives me the signal. I know I shouldn’t be, but, I go on with the plan anyway. I laugh as Naomi and I run into an elevator leaving Ally and the others behind. We get into it before them and start pressing the close door button, laughing the whole time. The doors slide closed in Ally’s face and I realize that we are in this elevator alone. We get caught up in one of those laughing fits, when suddenly she grabs the collar of my shirt and kisses me. I pull away quickly just to press the stop button on the elevator button panel. I grab Naomi and press her against the elevator wall kissing her back. I am sure Reggie never kisses her like this, the moment I remember him, I pull away feeling guilty. I press the stop button again and the elevator starts to move once more. I bite my lip and sigh. We sure aren’t laughing anymore.