After my lunch break at the café with Bianca, we returned back to work. I completed the rest of my shift and got ready to go home.
Tomorrow was the beginning of the weekend, so I would only come to work at 8 'o clock for my nightshift.
I just can't wait for this wedding. I'm so excited and happy for Bianca. This will be the second wedding that I've been to and the first where I was actually a bridesmaid, the maid of honour to be exact.
In the beginning, when I first met Jason. I didn't trust him, I was wary of him. I felt like he was hiding something and pretending to be something and someone he wasn't.
But my opinion and thoughts about him changed after a month of knowing him. He told me about how he was just trying to get an education and a job to support his family. How his Dad turned to alcohol when his little sister died from leukemia and how his mother just stopped paying him any attention after that. She'd just stopped noticing him. He wanted to make his little sister proud... his whole family proud.
I cried with him the day he told me this. After a couple of months, he told me he had developed feelings for Bianca. I thought he was joking but it turned out he was serious. Bianca also admitted to having feelings for him to me but none of the had them balls to tell the another.
I just gave them both a little push, okay I won't lie I more like shoved them, and convinced them to just tell each other how they felt after a couple of years. I had gotten tired of hearing all of Bianca's complaints about how Jason was always being surrounded by other girls.
In all those years I've known Jason, I had never met any of his friends and neither has Bianca. We've always wondered if he had other friends or if he was just a loner.
But I never thought Jason knew Dmitri.
'So what is he doing here?' I asked myself.
I didn't understand what he was doing in my apartment with Dmitri.
'Maybe he was looking for me'
Nah, I doubt that. They seemed to be talking about something and they seem close. I know Dmitri is here to check up on his brother. I gave him my spare keys after he'd demanded me to give them to him so he could check on his brother whenever he wanted without having to ask me for the keys.
So why was Jason here with him?
I decided to make my presence known by clearing my throat. Since they seemed to have not heard me when I came through the door.
Dmitri jumps a little and Jason just stands there and stares at me with wide eyes.
"This is who's taking care of Alex?" Jason asks Dmitri shocked.
"Yeah, what? You know her?" Dmitri asks staring at the both of us in confusion.
"You know him?" I ask Jason pointing at Dmitri baffled.
"Elaine, meet Jason. Alex and I's friend." Dmitri says and places his arm over my shoulder.
"What?! But you don't have friends Jason. What is he talking about!" I yell
"What?!" Dmitri yells this time, almost sounding hurt.
"Ugh, can we y'all stop yelling and take a seat!" Jason yells this time.
"But you're also yelling" I mumble which causes Jason to glare at me.
We all go to the living room and Jason and Dmitri sit on the same couch while I seat on the other one alone.
"Please don't tell me you've been cheating on my best friend and y'all are lovers" I blurt out.
"What? Ew. No!"
"Hell no!" They both yell at the same time.
"Listen to me Elaine-" Jason starts but I cut him off by raising my index finger and taking out my phone.
"What are you doing?" He asks
"I'm calling Bianca, I'm sure she'd wanna hear what you have to say too. I'm guessing this is also the reason why you've been acting weird?" He nods at my question
"Then she deserves to be here"
"No, dont-"
"Hi, Bee!"
"What's up? You know we can't answer calls while at work. This better be important."
"You need to get to my apartment fast"
"What? Why? Did you almost burn down the kitchen again El. I told you not to bake. You know you can't." I blush after she says that. Its true I can't bake. I tried baking once and almost burnt my whole kitchen down.
"No, this is not about that. Jason is here and is about to tell me why he'd been acting weird. I thought you might wanna be here to hear it too."
"You serious?! Alright I'll be there in thirty minutes."
"Okay..."
"El?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for calling me about it. I love you"
"No problem. Love you too, Bee."
I cut the call after that and look up to see them both staring at me.
"She said she'll be here in thirty minutes." I inform them.
"So what do we do now?" Dmitri asks
"We wait." I say
"Woah, hold up. Who is Bianca?"
"She's my fiancée" Jason responds
"You're getting married! And I freaking know nothing about it!" Dmitri yells
Jason let's out a sigh and massages his temples.
"I was gonna tell you today, and ask you to be one of my groomsmen."
"Still, I never even knew you had a girlfriend!"
"It isn't that much of a big deal." I say
"Shut up, Elaine!" Dmitri yells.
"Sorry." I mumble, my hands held up in surrender.
I get tired of hearing them bicker so I just decide to listen to music on my phone through my air pods.
•••••
"Finally, you're here." I say to Bianca when I open the door.
"Where is he?" She asks referring to Jason.
"In the living room with Dmitri, let's go."
"Oh my gosh, please don't tell me that this Bianca, is the woman you're marrying?" Dmitri says when he see's Bee and that earns him a slap at the back of his head from Jason.
"Nice to see you too, Dmitri." Bianca says sarcastically.
"Hey, be nice to one another." I say
Bianca and I take our seats on the other couch and wait for either one of them to start explaining.
"Why are you here, Jason?" Bee asks
"Um... You see, the thing is-"
"He was here to see Alex." Dmitri cuts him off.
"How do you even know Alex and Dmitri?" I asked confused.
"They're my friends" Jason mumbles.
"You have friends!" Bianca and I yell at the same time. We burst into laughter and Jason just sighs out of frustration.
"Yeah, laugh all you want."
"How long have you guys been friends?" Bianca asks
"I've been friends with Alex since we were in kindergarten. I later became friends with Dmitri."
"So you knew that Dmitri would be bringing Alex here and that I would have to take care of him?" I ask.
"What? No. I didn't know he would ask you to take care of him let alone bring him here in your apartment."
"Is that why you'd been acting weird, Jason. Are you even an IT specialist"
"I do work with computers, but just not at a computer company... Alex is kind of my 'boss' in a way and business has been taking most of my time. I've been trying to help Dmitri get everything under control while Alex is still recovering."
"What is this "business"?" I ask using air quotation marks when I say business.
Jason and Dmitri look at each other and then turn to us.
"Alex owns a company, so while he's 'on leave', we're taking care of things for him." Jason explains
"So its his other business competitors\rivals that want him gone?" I ask
"Yes... I guess you can say that." Dmitri says.
"Wow" is all I can say. Bianca just sits there staring off into space, I'm sure this wasn't the explanation she was expecting too.
"Are you sure this is all?" Bianca asks
"What do you mean?" Jason asks, almost sounding nervous.
"There's nothing else to all this. Like y'all aren't wanted criminals on the run, are you?" She asks, hesitantly
Dmitri scoffs and Jason let's out a low chuckle.
"No we're not. Don't worry." Jason says.
"How can I not worry Jason?!" Bianca yells in frustration
"Did your sister really die from leukemia or was that just another lie?" I ask
"Wait, you had a sister?!" Dmitri now asks Jason
"My sister never died from leukemia, she was never even real. I'm an only child." Jason says and glares at Dmitri.
"So that was a lie too." Bianca says and runs her hand through her hair.
"Let me guess, your dad becoming an alcoholic and your mother never noticing you was a lie too?" She continued
"Yes"
"Dude, what the hell? What other lie did you come up with?"
Dmitri asks Jason while Bianca just stares at him as if she doesn't know him anymore.
"So all that, everything we know about you is just lies?" I ask on the verge of tears.
"Not everything" he whispers with his head down.
"And this is the man I planned on marrying" Bianca says bitterly.
"And we will still get married, babe. My love for you was not and is still not a lie. My feelings for you were nothing but strong and true. I love you, Bee. I'm still the man you fell in love with. Trust me" he whispers the last part as he reaches over and grabs her hand.
Bianca and I look at each other, we both have the same worried and scared look on our faces.
She's worried that her soon to be husband could be a dodgy character and if this was truly the man she fell in love with. She's scared that he might also be lying about his feelings and she could trust him again.
I'm scared that I might've unknowingly gotten myself involved in something illegal by taking care of Alexander and hiding him in my apartment. And I'm worried that, one day all this will blow up in my face and hurt me.
"I need some air" Bianca says and harshly removes her hand from Jason's and walks out my apartment.
The door slamming shut is all that can be heard afterwards.
I slowly stand up and also make my way to the door.
"Where are you going?!" Jason yells for me but I just ignore him and walk out the door.
I take the stairs up to the roof. As soon as I get there I see Bianca sitting on one of the chairs we'd placed on the roof, the moment I moved in. We always sit on these chairs every new year to get a great view of the fireworks.
She doesn't see me because her eyes are closed but I know she can hear me approach. I sit on the chair next to her and turn to look at her. Tears are streaming down her face, her nose turning a little pink as well as her cheeks. I just reach for her hand to hold and give it a gentle squeeze.
"I envy you right now." She says
"What?"
"You don't have any boy drama in your life. You're just stress free from all that and here I am crying because everything I knew about the man I loved is a lie."
"Hey, my life is not stress free! You don't know how this also hurts me because Jason is my friend, he's like a brother to me. A brother I never had and have always wanted but knowing that all I know about him too could be a lie just freaking hurts so bad." I say, tears also falling down my face now.
"I'm not stress free because I probably got myself involved in something illegal by hiding this man in my apartment and taking care of him. I'm stressed because I've just put myself in danger for a man I don't even know." I continue
"I just don't know who he is anymore. I don't know if I can look at him the same after learning this... I basically know nothing about him at this point." Bianca chokes out, her words coming out different.
"I'm sorry Bee."
"You have nothing to be sorry about. I should be thanking you in fact. If it hadn't been for you calling me to come over. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have known all this, I'd be still left in the dark and would continue to believe all his lies."
"I love you Bee" I say
"Love you too El" she says and we both hug each other.
"I could really use that chocolate ice cream right now." She mumbles into my hair.
"Yeah me too. If Mr Potter finds us here, we're dead" I say
Henry aka Mr Potter is the landlord, owner of this apartment building. We call him Mr Potter because he kind of looks like the older version of Harry Potter, if you'd consider the older version bald with a big belly and glasses like Harry then yeah, and he's name also kinda rhymes with Harry. He doesn't like people stepping on this roof.
He told us a story about how a drunk man walked on this roof and fell over the edge, how his whole brain was splattered on the ground but he still managed to have his beer bottle in his hand even after he fell. We didn't believe him, it sounded like a lie.
He's already caught us once here on the rooftop and warned us about it. But we still came back. The view we see here is what always brings us back.
"Yeah, we should probably go. Even though I'm enjoying the view." She says starring at the sun set.
"Okay, okay. Five more minutes."