The buzzing sound from my phone woke me. My head was pounding, and I slept in what I wore last night. Not even bothering to take off my shoes.
"What?" I say. I somehow picked up my phone and answered it without even looking at who was calling.
"Where are you?" Emmett said. "I need my car."
"Fuck, I'm sorry."
"you were meant to come back."
"I'm coming back now," I say quickly and get up. It was a little past eleven and we stopped drinking early so, I convinced myself that my BAC levels were good.
"I'm leaving now." I say again when he kept complaining.
"You're leaving now?"
"Yes," I yell into the phone. I grab my clothes and shoes
"Where did you stay?"
"At a friend's house?"
"At a friend's house?" he asks again.
"Yes, why are you repeating everything I say?"
I can hear Emmett talking away from the phone in muffled voices and I swear I heard James' name come up a couple times.
"What the hell is happening?"
"Just come home, please," he says.
"Bye." And with that I hang up my phone.
"Who was that?" Maddie says. She wore her clothes from last night too, but she had a dressing gown on and a warm cup of tea in her hands.
"Thanks for last night, Maddie, but I really need to get the car back to Emmett."
"It's fine," she waves me off, "Have a great day," she says. She gives me a kiss on the cheek before I leave.
"Text me when you're home," she says, as she leans against the frame of her door.
"I will! Thank you!" I shout when I walk down the corridor to the elevator. My feet were killing me in the boots, but they did look super cute. I put my long hair up in a messy ponytail and wiped the bottom of my eyes in the elevator, before stepping out into the cold parking lot and holding my grey jacket closely to me.
When I was close to home, I could see Emmett was waiting on the porch steps.
I got out of his and walked up to him. His eyes looked me up and down and I handed him his keys.
"You can go now," I say.
"I don't need to go anywhere," he admits sheepishly.
"What?" I ask, my eyebrow furrowed.
"He made me do it."
"Who?" I shake my head. "This is ridiculous." I walk past him now without another word and into the house.
I stopped dead in my tracks when the door closed behind me and Zac stood in the middle of the living room staring at me.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"Did you have a fun night?" he asks.
I don't respond. I'm too busy focusing on the hate that I was feeling right now.
"Okay." he looks down at his hands.
"Were you at James' place? Did you sleep with him?"
I look at him completely dumbfounded.
"No," I say through my teeth.
"Did you sleep with anyone?"
"You think that I found out you have a girlfriend that I'm going to give my virginity to some random guy? Do you really think that I'm that type of person?"
"I don't," he shakes his head. It gets quiet between us and I could feel the air around us become tense.
"Alison," he tries to say but his voice breaks.
"Don't," I say, I hold up my hand and a tear drop from my eye.
"I was breaking up with her," he says in an almost whisper.
"Sure." I nod my head sarcastically. "That's why her top was off."
"She took it off herself."
I laugh a sad laugh.
"I was telling her to put it on when you arrived."
I shake my head and rub my forehead.
"Ali, I swear-"
"Don't, Isaac."
"You have to believe me, I-"
"So, what if I believe you?" I shout at him, interrupting what he's saying. "It does not excuse the fact that you had a girlfriend the whole time that you were fooling around with me!"
I could see his face redden and his chest rising and falling quickly.
I let the tears from my eyes spill, shocked that there were even any tears left to cry.
"I know it doesn't."
"No, it fucking doesn't," I say.
I was so mad. So mad that I had to cry because I was so mad. I hated that I was the type of person who cries when they're mad.
"And it never fucking will."
"Please forgive me. All I want is you, Ali. Okay? I didn't think anything would come from this," he gestured his hands between us, "but it has, and I was breaking up with her, she just wouldn't listen, and I was-"
"Stop," I barely whisper but he does. I close my eyes. At this point I knew my chin was all wobbly and my face was blotchy and gross from last night's left-over makeup.
"I will never... forgive you," I say with my eyes closed and when I open them again, he stands there, a whole floor space away. His head hung low and his eyes looked at the floor.
"Don't talk to me. Don't look at me. Don't do anything towards me." I took a raged breath in from crying. "I hate you so much right now," I say, and I let a whole flood of tears burst down my face.
He looks up and me, his mouth open in a gaping hole and his eyes were down turned. He looked as if I had knocked the wind out of him and that made me so glad. He lets out a deep breath. He was nodding his head now and in one swift move he walks towards me. I close my eyes waiting, but all that comes is the sound of the front door opening and closing and I too let out a deep breath, trying to get enough oxygen into my lungs.
I walk into my room changing into some comfy clothes, but a moment later the door opens and closes with my back facing towards it.
"Are you okay?" Emmett asks and a small bit of hope dies in my chest.
"No," I answer honestly. "I feel as if there are bricks on my chest."
"There isn't, just so you know," he jokes, but I'm so mad I don't even want to laugh.
"How could you not tell me?" I ask and I turn around to face him.
"Tell you what?"
"That Zac had a... girlfriend."
He looks at me then looks away.
"I thought we talked about it."
"No," I say and I'm crying for a different reason now.
"How could you not tell me, Emmett?"
He stays quiet.
"It's not like it's fucking hard, 'oh Ali, by the way Zac has a girlfriend', so why the fuck did you not tell me, Emmett? Why didn't you tell me and save me from all this heartbreak?"
"I warned you about him," he says something, finally.
"You could have warned me, Emmett!" I'm shouting now. "I hurt so much Emmett and you could have prevented this," I say through my sobs, but I was crying so hard I was shaking.
"You could have saved me," I say and bring my hands to my eyes. He wraps his arms around me now and I sob into his chest. I was almost wailing like a child and I was glad the others were not in the house to hear it.
"You could have saved me," I say again in his chest.
In all honesty, I don't think he could have. I still think I would have fallen hard for Zac, whether I or anyone else liked it or not. I just wouldn't have fallen for him when he had a girlfriend.
And that's when I realised.
I had fallen in love with Isaac Trent.