Alex sighed and waited. After a couple of minutes, the door opened a crack; Lauren peeked through at Alex.
“Are you going to mind your own business?”
“I’m just trying to look out for you.”
“Really?” Lauren said, swinging the door open. “It looks like you’re trying to run my life. Is that how things work now? You’re miserable, so you have to make sure I am too?”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Now things have gone to shit with your man, you think everyone ought to feel bad. How many times have Matt and I had arguments over the years you’ve been dating? The guy is fine as a friend, but he’s a fuckwit as a boyfriend. But I have never ever given you shit about him. We are friends, and for some unknown reason, you say you love him. Whatever. Then the one time I get a guy that I really like, you tell me I should stay away from him because you don’t like him. Can you understand how I would get pissed off?”
“Don’t you think my warning you means I think it’s really serious then? I would never do anything to hurt you, but look at yourself, babe. You look terrible. I can tell something is wrong with you.”
“I feel fine,” Lauren said, looking peaked, a sheen of sweat on her forehead.
“Loz…please just talk to me.” Alex placed her hands on Lauren’s shoulders. “Are you afraid of something?”
Lauren’s eyes flicked down to the ground, something she did when she was uncertain, but the moment was gone again in a second. “Afraid? Of course not!” Lauren was vehement, shaking her head and struggling loose from Alex’s grip. “Look you’ve made your point, ok?”
“It’s not just me who has asked you to be careful, Loz. Dante told me to warn you as well.”
“What was that?” Lauren snapped, whipping her head around. “Dante told you? Dante told you! And what exactly did he say?”
“That Ryan is dangerous. He warned me to tell you to stay away from him.”
“Oh, of course he did,” Lauren said, smiling in a way Alex had never seen before. “Well, it all makes sense now. Come up with this idea together, did you? I guess Matt was right. You get Matt jealous by spending time with the guy I wanted, and Dante gets me to break up with Ryan so we can go back to the way he kept me dangling? I don’t think so.”
“He didn’t keep you dangling. This has got nothing to do with him and you. He told me he doesn’t like you, he never has.”
Lauren stopped, suddenly lost for words. Alex saw her shocked expression and thought that maybe she had got through to her finally. Lauren slowly slung her purse over her shoulder, never keeping her eyes off the ground.
“But…he likes you. He would gladly part those skinny legs of yours, right?” Lauren said, menace in her tone. “I think I figured out why Matt only lasts a minute with you. It’s the same reason I see the way he looks at me. One of these days I just might show him what a real woman can do.”
With that Lauren turned on her heel and marched out, leaving a breathless Alex standing in the living room, wondering what the hell just happened and where her best friend had gone. That sure as hell wasn’t her.
Alex paced around the house for what felt like ages. God, what was she supposed to do? Every fibre of her being was telling her she had to do something. Her friend was crying out for help even if she didn’t know it. She came up with a half-baked plan, but the best one she could. She found her phone and called Matt.
“Yeah?” Matt asked when he picked up.
“Hi. Look I really need your help.”
”Can it wait? I’m expecting a phone call in a second.”
“No it can’t. It’s Lauren.”
“What about her?”
Alex told Matt everything she knew, managing to keep the fact Dante had to carry her home out of it. There was no sound on the other end of the phone until she finished the story.
“So let me see if I understand this. You claim you haven’t liked this guy since day one, but the only reason you want us to do anything about Lauren is because of Dante? Why don’t you just call him? It doesn’t seem like you need me at all.”
“Matt, stop! Enough! I don’t want to hear that, least of all now. I didn’t call him did I? I called you. I’m not asking you, I’m begging you. Please…just help me,” she finished desperately.
There was another long pause, before Matt finally gave a soft committal. “All right. What do you need?”
Alex sighed heavily. “How soon can you pick me up?”
*
By the time Lauren had gotten out of the cab, she had finally managed to stop crying. She paid the driver, thanking him for…she wasn’t sure what. Just being kind, maybe, letting her sob in the back seat without question. Then she braced herself and walked through the doors and up the stairs to Ryan’s apartment. God, what’s wrong with me? How could I talk that way to my best friend? She hadn’t meant any of it. She’d been accused before of having a foul mouth and rotten attitude,
