Still not into you - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,41

pacing around the room.

I want him to sit down, but I’m afraid to reach out to him. Afraid that he’ll push me away and never talk to me again.

“I wasn’t,” I say. “I was really upset about us. I wanted to let out some steam. So, we all drank a little too much and I got really drunk.”

“Yeah, everyone drank too much, but it was only you and Dylan who got married and slept together. Why? Why did you do that?”

Hudson’s eyes search my face. I see longing and desperation in them. I want to make it all go away, but I can’t.

“You know what else, you were never going to tell me about this, were you, Alice?” he asks. “If I didn’t see this stupid postcard, you and Dylan were just never going to tell me. You were just going to go on and pretend like nothing had happened.”

“No…we weren’t,” I lie.

“Yes, you were!” he yells in my face. The hair on the back of my arms stands up.

“What about Juliet? Does she know?”

I don’t reply. I simply look away from him.

“Oh, shit! Juliet knows, doesn’t she? She knows?” Hudson says and goes back to pacing. “So, what do you all do? Do you all joke and laugh about this behind my back when I’m not here? Is that what you do?”

“No, no,” I say. Before I can get a hold of myself, I run up to him and throw my arms around his shoulders. “No, I’m so, so sorry, Hudson. You have to believe me.”

“Get the fuck off me!” He pushes me away. Hard. I lose my balance and fall to the floor. “I can’t believe you, Alice,” Hudson says, shaking his head. “I poured my heart out to you. I apologized for just flirting with Kathryn and you just went out there and married our roommate. My best friend. What the fuck, Alice? Who the hell are you?”

I don’t know. I don’t know who I am. All I know is that I’m not the person that I once was and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be her again.

“Are you okay, Alice? What are you doing on the floor?” Dylan walks into the living room.

“You!” Hudson yells. I don’t see him run past me, but suddenly he and Dylan are intertwined and withering around on the floor.

“Hudson, stop. Please,” I yell, but it’s to no avail. He punches Dylan in the face. He tries to punch him again, but Dylan blocks the second punch and instead, knees him in the groin.

“Hudson, Dylan, please stop!” I yell at the top of my lungs, but no one is listening to me. They’re back at it again. Pushing. Tussling. Fighting. At one moment, Dylan’s on top. At the next, Hudson is. Then Dylan again. Back to Hudson. Finally, I manage to grab someone’s shoulders. I pull as hard as I can, but he hardly budges.

BAM!

Everything turns to black. I can’t see anything. My whole face is tingling and throbbing. When I grab my nose to try to numb the pain, I feel something hot and sticky. I pull my hand away and see that I’m covered in blood. My nose is bleeding. I can’t see out of one eye.

“Hudson, what the fuck are you doing?” I hear someone say somewhere very far away. I recognize the voice. It belongs to Dylan, but he’s speaking in slow motion.

“Are…you….okay?” Dylan asks me. I see him above me. He’s still talking incredibly slowly. I try to say yes, but nothing comes out. My blood over my body is freaking me out. My heart starts to beat faster. My breaths get shallower. My hands and legs go numb. Everything turns blurry.

“Alice? Alice?” I hear someone’s voice somewhere above me. It’s a female voice. I try to open my eyes, but I only manage to get one open. The light from the lamp causes me great pain and I shut it quickly. The other one doesn’t open at all.

“Oh my God, Alice.” I hear the girl say again. “What the fuck is wrong with you two?”

“It was an accident. He didn’t mean to elbow her,” a guy says.

“I don’t care. You shouldn’t have been fighting in the first place,” she says. Juliet. It’s Juliet, I decide.

“He started it,” the guy says. Suddenly, everything starts to come back to me.

Hudson finding the postcard. Telling him about the accidental wedding. Dylan walking in. Hudson and Dylan fighting. Trying to stop them. Getting elbowed in the face. My