“Who?” Even I thought Heather’s attempts at playing dumb were pathetic.
“Are you done pretending you don’t know anything when I know you’ve been helping the girl?”
Heather sighed, annoyed. “Not yet, no,” She grumbled.
“I just want to see her. Now where did you hide her?”
“She’s not here.”
There was a pause and I imagined her raising an eyebrow.? It annoyed me that I didn’t even get a glimpse of her face. Sure, I’d seen her in pictures but I was sure it didn’t do her full justice. So I had to imagine myself raising an eyebrow.
“She ran away.” Juliet realized. She was pretty quick at catching on things.
“She did, just now. Let’s leave her alone. Now that you’re here, just blend into your role. And how the hell did you know I helped her?”
“Just when are you going to stop thinking that I have no brain? It’s you who’s sounding stupid right now by asking that question.”
I wondered where Ethan was. I already missed him.
“Where can I find her?”
Olivia and I shared panicked glances before concentrating on the conversation.
“You will not find her. She’s going home so let her live peacefully. All the time here was full on dramatic for her. Don’t chase after her.”
“I didn’t say I was going to ruin her life!”
Their talk was bordering on playful bantering and I started feeling silly about all my worries.
Just then pounding footsteps sounded and there was panting.
“Where’s Julie?” Ethan’s voice, especially him saying my name made my heart pound harder. He got to my letter faster than I expected.
That meant he missed me as much as I missed him and it hadn’t even been an hour since I last saw him.
Heather cursed under her breath.
“Her name is Julie?” Juliet asked incredulously. “That’s weird. I met a girl who looked exactly like me and her name is Julia. Our names are so similar. I think we’re-”
“She left.” Heather interrupted, answering Ethan.
There was some rustling and faint footsteps.
“I’m going to go find her.” Ethan declared.
Suddenly there was a loud thud. “You’re not going to do any such thing. Right now things are a mess and as usual I have to clean it up. Don’t you go creating more problems for me.” There was a warning in her words. Heather could be scary if she wanted to.
“Tracking her down won’t be a problem for me. You can’t control me. I need to talk to her. Now.” He said stubbornly.
Heather must have realized that she got the short end of the stick because we heard her exhale a breath out in frustration. “Ethan, look. I’m not telling you to not see her ever. I’m just saying that you just got to know something big. You must be in shock. I mean you were in love with that girl and she just turned out to be someone you didn’t even know existed. You both need some time away from each other and once things calm down here, I’ll give you her address.”
Juliet laughed. “This fool fell in love with her? And he thought she was me?” She cackled some more. “You seriously thought I’d ever change enough to fall in love with you? Ah, that explains the kiss. I thought you had a screw loose because I wasn’t around to fix you.”
“Shut up.” Ethan said, his irritation and hate towards Juliet evident in his tone. “And you Heather, you don’t know anything. Of course I wouldn’t actually believe Juliet will ever change for the better. So I had someone investigate things after she was found because I had my doubts and so knew about her secret from the very beginning.”
“What?!” Olivia and I screeched simultaneously. The driver gave us an odd look which we ignored.
“What? How?” Heather voiced our thoughts.
“I did a bit of background check on Olivia and got to know she worked at a café with Julie. I even took her there once just to be sure and her reaction confirmed it all for me.”
He knew. He knew all along yet he never made it obvious. Sure there were moments where I had my doubts but I never thought he would’ve actually known. I wondered if I had been dense and inattentive to the hints.
“So I don’t need time to come to terms with something I already know.” He stated.
“You still can’t go to her.”
“And why the hell not?”
“Because I’m pretty sure? she? needs some time after hearing all this.” I knew she was waving her phone in their faces. “She heard it all.”
“Really? Give it to me. I want to talk to her!” Juliet screeched and I knew that a scuffle was about to break out.
“No, you give it to me. She’s my girlfriend. I need to talk to her.” Ethan must have joined too. Before we could have a clear idea of what was going on, Heather hung up.
I tried calling her back a couple of times but she either didn’t accept the call or rejected it right away.
I sighed dejectedly. We were nearing Mrs. Odin’s shop. I hadn’t talked to her for a few months now. Being here brought back memories from the time when I came here for breakfast with Ethan.
Once we reached, Mrs. Odin’s eyes widened beyond what I considered was humanly possible. She blinked her tired eyes several times. We smiled at her from the road, clutching our bags.
She had our apartment keys and we collected it from her. She had a lot of questions which we promised we would answer when we returned back in the evening for work. She truly was so sweet and told us to take the day off but we weren’t having it. Nick, our co worker there was surprised and happy to see us too.
We hailed another cab and it first dropped off Olivia. I was dreading my return. It felt similar to the feeling we get after returning from a fun, exciting and adventurous trip with friends and not knowing when we’d get to experience it again.
My tiny apartment was dusty and looked like something straight out of a horror movie. It had huge spider webs in the corners and dust coated everything. It would take a lot of time and energy to clean everything. It was dark and cold and it was hard to imagine that this was once a warm and nice home to me. But now the only home that came to mind was a person, Ethan. He was home – warm, nice and loving.
I got to work immediately for lack of anything to do because I was still coming to terms with the change. I also wanted to keep my mind and hands busy so I that wouldn’t think about anything else. Briefly I wondered if Ethan would come to find me.
A few hours later my apartment looked close to what it used to before. It was evening now and I was running a little late for my shift at the coffee shop. When I reached, Olivia was already there cleaning and waiting tables. I got behind the counter and almost forgot what I used to do there.
Owing to it being a week day there was no rush. The shop was empty save for a couple of tables occupied. But Mrs. Odin wasn’t interested in the shop that day. She sat with us and asked where the hell we were all this time. Olivia had no choice but to spill the beans and I just added my tidbits here and there, occasionally sighing as I remember those times.
Mrs. Odin must’ve sensed that I wasn’t in the mood to talk and I could feel that she was about to ask me about it but with a shake of Olivia’s head she dropped it. I knew she would eventually tell her because if not, Mrs. Odin had her way of getting things out of people.
As a celebration of our return, the old lady made us two delicious cups of coffees and her familiar cup of heaven managed to lift up my spirits and I was more lively and happy for the rest of the evening.
Now that I wasn’t staying at the mansion anymore I knew that Olivia and I would’ve to return to college. Just the thought of facing Ashley made my stomach knot. I remembered she was planning on apologizing to me once I returned back and I actually looking forward to that.
The next morning when I walked into campus, nobody gave me strange looks. Apparently my months long absence didn’t affect anyone. I suspected they weren’t even aware of my presence from day one.
Surprisingly it didn’t take long for Ashley to spot me and she all but raced towards me which I admit scared me a little.
She panted from her run. “Y-you’re b-back.”
“Yeah.”
“Where did you go? I thought something bad happened to you!”
“Why does that concern you?” I wasn’t exactly pleasant to her before and she wasn’t to me either so I figured it was best if I continued that way. “If you’ve forgotten we aren’t exactly good to each other to worry about something like that.”
“I need to talk to you.” She grabbed my hand and led me to a quiet corner under a tree. She stopped and turned to face me. “I’m sorry.”
I raised an eyebrow for her to elaborate although I knew all too well what this was about.
“I’m sorry for whatever I put you through. I apologize for degrading you, your family, your part time job. I’m sorry for anything wrong I did to you. I’m sorry for that slap and the humiliation you faced.” I could tell she was being sincere.
“Why are you apologizing out of nowhere?”
“Look, I have a childhood friend and she ran away two years ago and she looks exactly like you so I was suspicious if you were her and were just disguising yourself so I tried to do all sorts of things to rile you up. This friend of mine has a short temper and if you were really her I thought I could get you to admit it. I was stupid. If she ran away, she wouldn’t be anywhere near people who know her. But now she’s returned and now I’m convinced that you two are different people. That’s why I wanted to say sorry.”
I struggled to keep a straight face because she didn’t know that both of them were me and the situation just seemed funny to me. “Well, apology accepted, I guess.” I said indifferently and felt the need to add, “and I’m sorry too for slapping you and insulting you and your boyfriend.”
She waved it off in dismissal. “It’s alright. I deserved it anyway and don’t apologize about Ryder. That guy was too clingy. We broke up. We weren’t exactly dating in the first place.” She shrugged.
I nodded and was about to leave when I remembered something. “Uh Ashley, there’s one more thing. I’m sorry about your beautiful purple dress.” I said, genuinely sad about it. “And you need to stop sleep talking about getting it on with Ryder!” I added as an afterthought.
She looked confused. “What?”
And then I was sprinting away from her before she caught on to what I was referring.
“What?! It was you?!” I heard her shrieking behind me. “I thought it was a mouse or something!”
“I said I’m sorry.” I hollered over my shoulder. I glanced back to see her red with embarrassment about the sleep talking part. I chuckled as I ran to class.