K. Robinson - Twisted Ties

I remembered the hatred I’d seen in her eyes before, and I wondered just what she was capable of. I hoped that she packed her things and left not just my house but Morgantown as well. If she stuck around, I would have to make sure that Emma was around either Andy or me at all times. I didn’t want Emma to get hurt because of me. If she didn’t want anything to do with me, I would still make sure that she was safe. She just wouldn’t know that I was there. I knew my plans seemed like I was going to become a stalker, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted to keep Emma safe.

Ally started beating on my door as she sobbed and apologized, but I didn’t care. She could beat on that door until she died as far as I was concerned. There was no way I was coming out of this room until she was gone.

Ally finally gave up after almost an hour. I could hear her sobbing in her room as she threw things around. I hoped that she was packing her shit. If she refused to leave, I would sneak out of my damn window if I had to.

Maybe if I called Andy, he could get her out of here.

“You’ll regret this, Jesse! I’ll make sure of it!” she screamed outside of my door, making me jump.

She hit my door one last time before I heard the front door slam shut, and then the house went silent. I refused to get up and check to see if she was really gone. There was no way that I would fall for any more of her tricks.

My eyes started to grow heavy after about an hour of waiting. Unable to fight sleep any longer, I closed them and drifted off. My last thought was of Emma’s expression when she slammed the door in my face. I had to get her back.

I opened my eyes to see that the sun was starting to rise. I sat up slowly, trying to remember why I was so pissed off. The night before came rushing back to me, and I jumped out of bed. I had to get to Emma and talk to her. I had to explain everything that had happened. I didn’t know if she would believe me when I told her about Ally, but I had to try.

I grabbed my keys and ran out of my house. I knew it was still early, but I hoped that Emma was awake. I doubted that she was though. She’d never been much of a morning person when we were together. I stopped to think as I sat down in my car. I glanced at the dash. It was barely past seven. Maybe I should give her some time to wake up, so she doesn’t bite my head off. I didn’t want to piss her off before I even got started.

I seriously doubted if Ally would go straight to Emma anyway. Ally probably knew that I would go to Emma as soon as I could. Besides, for all I knew, Ally might have left Morgantown already. She had to know that Andy would come after her once I told him what she had done to me.

I made a split-second decision and headed toward Andy’s apartment. He wasn’t much of a morning person either, but I didn’t care if I pissed him off. It wasn’t like I hadn’t dragged his ass out of bed at ass o’clock before to go surfing.

There wasn’t much traffic this early in the morning on a Saturday. Morgantown was a college town, and most of the students were either sleeping in or sleeping off their hangover from Friday night.

I made it to Andy’s within ten minutes, and I hurried inside. I had to beat on the door for a few minutes, but he finally answered.

“Do you have any idea what time it is? Some of us like to sleep, you know.”

“You can sleep later. We need to talk,” I said as I pushed through the door and walked to his couch to sit down.

“I think we did enough of that last night. I really don’t need anything else dumped on my lap at the moment,” Andy grumbled as he closed the door.

“Have you talked to Ally since I was here last night?”

“No, but Emma stopped over right after you left. Do you have any idea how hard it was to pretend like nothing had changed? She kept asking me what was wrong with me.”

“Why did she come over so late?” I couldn’t hide the jealousy from my voice. I hated the fact that Emma had gone to Andy when she needed someone to talk to. I hated that he was the one she leaned on now instead of me.

“She mainly wanted to talk about what an ass you are. I started to tell her the truth, but then I thought that you might want to be the one who told her what was going on.”

“Thanks for letting me do it. What else did she want to talk about?”

“She wants to leave West Virginia.”

“What?” I nearly shouted.

She couldn’t leave yet. I needed to explain to her what had happened. I had a chance to get her back, and it was probably my only chance. I wouldn’t let her leave until I explained everything.

“Relax. She’s not leaving until the semester is over. You have more than enough time to tell her everything.”

“Don’t scare me like that. Look, I’m going to head over to her dorm in a few, but I wanted to talk to you first. Something happened last night with Ally.”

He held up his hand to stop me from continuing. “I swear to God, if you tell me you slept with her, I’m going to kill you.”

“Definitely not. I surprised Ally when I came home last night. I saw her without her shirt.”

“Dude, really? Why do you need to tell me something like that? She’s my sister.”

“Let me finish. I saw her without her shirt. She’s not pregnant.”

Andy froze at my words. “Wait—what? I’ve seen her, Jesse. She is definitely showing. Emma saw her, too. Emma said that Ally made sure to show off her stomach as she said that she was having your kid.”

“Ally had some kind of band thing she was using to make it look like she was pregnant. I saw it on the sink.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I wish I were. I got into it pretty bad with her last night. She tried to lie and say that you and Emma were getting married soon. She wasn’t happy when I told her that I’d already talked to you, and I knew that you weren’t with Emma. She lied about everything, Andy. She wasn’t raped, and she sure as hell isn’t pregnant. It was all part of a plan to keep me away from Emma.”

“Are you sure, Jesse? This is my sister we’re talking about here.”

“I know it is. That’s why I came to you. I kicked her out of my house last night, and I’m hoping that she’ll just leave town. If she doesn’t, I think you’d be the best one to deal with her. I can barely stand to look at her at this point. She’s convinced that it’s all Emma’s fault that I don’t want to be with her. I seriously think that she’s lost her damn mind. Who the fuck lies about being raped?”

“Ally has always been a little strange. You never saw it because you didn’t live with her. I never thought that she’d do something like this though.”

“Neither did I. I don’t even know what to think about all of this. She destroyed my relationship with Emma before, and Ally did everything in her power to keep me away from Emma this time.”

“Ally has been in love with you for most of her life. That’s a long time to love someone and end up being rejected—twice.”

“That doesn’t give her an excuse to go batshit crazy.”

“No, it doesn’t. I’ll go out and look for her today, but don’t expect much. If Ally wants to disappear, she’ll disappear. She’s always been that way.”

“Let’s hope she leaves. I don’t want her anywhere near Emma.”

“I don’t know if Ally will stick around or not. She has always been a wild card.”

“Until we’re sure that she’s gone, I want one of us around Emma at all times.”

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting here?”

“She lied about everything, Andy. Until I know that she’s going to leave, I’m not willing to take a chance.”

“All right, all right. We’ll drive Emma nuts by babysitting her.”

“I don’t care if we annoy her. At least we’ll know that she’s safe. I’m going to go and talk to her now. Hopefully, she’ll give me enough time to catch the door before she slams it in my face.”

Andy laughed. “She’s feisty when she’s mad, and you definitely pissed her off. Good luck. You’re going to need it.”

“Thanks.” I waved as I walked out of his apartment.

Then, I headed back down the stairs. I barely paid attention to where I was going as I walked to my car. All I could think about was Emma’s face yesterday. I’d hurt her so bad and I wasn’t sure if she’d ever forgive me.

As I drove to her dorm, I kept going over what I would say to Emma when I saw her. I’d screwed up royally last night, and I hoped that it wouldn’t ruin my chances of getting her back. Surely, if she had come all this way to find me, she would listen to what I had to say. I couldn’t lose her now that I had the chance to win her back.

I still couldn’t wrap my head around everything that Ally had done. No matter how I looked at the situation, I had no idea how she’d thought her plan would work. What would she have done when it was time to have her baby? She had to know that she would get caught eventually.

I remembered the little girl I’d met so long ago. She’d looked so sweet and innocent as she’d watched Andy and me playing together outside of her house. It had taken weeks after they’d moved into the trailer park for her to finally talk to me. Their mom had moved them to the park after their dad died in a car crash. As I had gotten older, I’d come to realize that their mom wasn’t much of a parent. She’d spent most of her time drinking, leaving Ally and Andy to take care of their house.

I knew her mom’s lack of parenting had to have affected Ally in some way, but this was ridiculous. Andy had grown up in the exact same situation, and he hadn’t ended up batshit crazy. Sure, Andy had done the typical teenager stuff, like fighting and drinking a lot, but that hadn’t been nearly as bad as what Ally had done.