One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
“I don’t believe you,” Massie sneered at Alicia, staring straight at her with a look that could pierce the girl’s soul like a sword or knife.
Anyone who was currently sitting in the apartment-style dorm could tell you that it felt like a court room at the moment. The girl on trial was Alicia, the judge was Massie, and the witness was her boyfriend Derrick – though some of you may remember him by the name of Derrington. The two of them were sitting side-by-side on the cozy, living room couch with the girls’ two other best friends, Jacqueline and Melrose. Derrick’s friend Zachary, who Alicia had a brief fling with this semester, was leaning up against the windowsill on the other side of the room and clearly felt uncomfortable. Then there was Alicia, who was sitting in the living room chair directly across from her persecutors and so-called “best friends.”
“But Massie, I’m telling you the truth. Why would I lie about this?” Alicia defended herself.
“Because you’re jealous. You want what I’ve worked my ass off to get and to keep and you’re jealous that you don’t have a relationship like the one I have with him. You want him to yourself,” Massie continued to accuse. Only Alicia knew that was she was saying was completely and utterly false; she wasn’t jealous and she most certainly did not want him for herself.
“You just don’t want to believe that your own boyfriend would try to feel me up and hit on me,” she attacked back in self-defense.
“Leesh, we don’t believe you because there’s no proof. And Derrick already told us that nothing happened…which, to be quite honest, makes sense. He loves her, he wouldn’t do something like that to her…” Melrose stepped in.
Alicia boggled her mind for anything else she could say to make her friends believe what she was saying, but it was no use. Even Zachary, who she knew Derrick himself had told about it, was keeping his mouth shut and not even glancing her way, but was instead staring at the floor.
“Massie, come on, we’re best friends…you know I wouldn’t purposefully lie about something that would hurt you or put our friendship on the line…” she stuttered, feeling her throat tightening with each word she said.
“I don’t know anything when it comes to you anymore, Leesh. You’ve been changing ever since you got back to campus from summer break, and now I don’t even recognize who you are anymore. But I do know what tricks and games you used to play throughout middle school and high school, and this seems like one of those.”
A few seconds later, the brunette alpha stood up and took a few steps towards her beta. “I want nothing to do with you anymore. I don’t want to see you, I don’t want to speak to you, and I certainly don’t want live with you. And you know more than anyone else here that I can and will make your life a living hell if you stick around.”
Alicia cringed and could feel a piece of her heart breaking inside, but she couldn’t let it show. Rather, she stood up and turned to leave the apartment. She took one last look at the people who she thought were supposed to be her friends and who she thought would have believed her, but quickly tore her stare away and left before they could see any tears shed from her eyes.
As quickly as she could in her Ralph Lauren wedges, Alicia made her way to the parking lot and hopped into the driver’s seat of her BMW. She pulled out of the spot and sped off to the place where she knew she’d feel better and could think straight: the mall.
As she made her way through the mall, stopping at her favourite stores along the way, she kept sorting through the thoughts that were continuously running through her mind and wouldn’t leave her alone.
Why wouldn’t they believe me?
I thought they were my friends…
What am I going to do?
Where am I going to go? I can’t stay at FIT anymore…
Wait, so where will I live then?
The questions that bothered her the most were the third and last: what would she do and where would she live. Her first instinct and thought was to go home, but she had told her parents when she enrolled at FIT that she would prove to them that she could live on her own and take care of herself without having to rely much on them. She could go for a quick visit, but that wouldn’t solve her problems.
She could stay at the school and just move into a different dorm with other students, but she knew that Massie could spread a rumor like wildfire and ruin Alicia’s reputation and chance at getting her social life back. She had money left in her trust fund, but not a whole lot. But the little she had left would have to work, because the only option she could think of was to withdraw from the school and rent an apartment somewhere in the city. She didn’t know where and she didn’t know where to even begin looking for apartments, so she did the one thing that going to school taught her best: opened the safari app on her phone and typed “apartments for rent in NYC” into Google.
There was no doubt in her mind that she was nervous, anxious, and scared about what could and would happen next, but she knew that somehow or another she could figure things out.
Hola Mis Amores,
I’m back! I don’t know how active I’ll be or how long I’ll be back, as I will still continue to be busy with school, work, and other time-consuming activities throughout the year. But I’m happy to be back again. I missed writing, I missed Alicia, and I missed having a place where I could be as creative as I want to be.
Wondering what’s in store for Alicia? The drama in this post was unbearable, I know. But what’s the fun in spilling the whole story right now? My lips are sealed until the next post.
Alicia Rivera's Ah-mazing Blog 