Unfamiliar

Unfamiliar

A Novel by

Erica Cope & Komal Kant

Unfamiliar

Copyright © 2014 Erica Cope and Komal Kant

First Edition

Cover Design by Eden Crane Design

Photography by Tera Lankard

Cover Models: Chase Petersen and Karlie Monroe

Unfamiliar lyrics © 2013 Get Busy Living

All rights reserved. This book may not be used or reproduced, scanned or distributed in any form without permission from the author except where permitted by law. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your respect and cooperation are greatly appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN-13: 978-1496128331

ISBN-10: 1496128338

Chase

Something was gnawing on the edge of my mind.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on exactly what was bugging me, but it was there just out of reach.

Something didn’t feel right. Something hadn’t felt right in a long time and I wished I could figure out what it was.

Trying to shake the feeling away, I headed upstairs to my girlfriend’s apartment. We had a concert to get to and I had to focus since I was the one performing.

Heather and I had been together for three years now and despite our problems, I was committed to her. She was the one familiar thing in my life that I wanted to hold onto.

Stopping outside her door, I knocked on it twice and waited. That gnawing feeling started up again the longer I waited. Seriously, why was she taking so long? Was everything okay?

Several long minutes passed before Heather finally answered—her thick, dark hair was messy and she wasn’t even dressed yet. All she had on was an oversized t-shirt.

“Baby, you’re early!” Heather looked flustered as she stared out at me. “You said six.”

I shrugged, suddenly feeling awkward. “Yeah, I thought we could spend some time together before we leave.”

Things hadn’t been great between us lately and I didn’t want Heather to think that I didn’t want to be around her. Especially when she was going out of her way to be supportive and go to the concert with me. I knew music wasn’t really her thing.

“Oh, uh, okay.” She seemed nervous.

Alarm bells rang in my head--not loud alarm bells, just faint ones that were telling me that something was a little off about the way she was acting. Heather was never nervous. She was always confident and sassy, and never let anything bother her. She was definitely acting weird.

“Everything okay, baby?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” She seemed irritated now, so I guess she was back to normal. “You should’ve called.”

“I’m sorry, it slipped my mind.” I gave her a small smile. “Can I come inside now?”

She glanced over her shoulder before turning back to me and nodding. The nervousness was back again and I couldn’t understand why.

“Uh, sure.”

As I followed her inside, I knew immediately that something was wrong. The alarm bells grew louder.

The cushions from the couch had been knocked down and there were articles of clothing strewn across the floor. Heather wasn’t a messy person—this mess wasn’t like her.

“What happened here?” I asked, an uneasiness building up in my chest.

That gnawing in my mind intensified with the alarm bells until my head began to hurt. It felt like the disturbance in my head was trying to tell me something.

“Nothing happened.”

But I knew she was lying. Her eyes were darting all over the apartment, like she was searching for something. And then suddenly she froze. Her fists clenched and her normally tan skin turned pale.

Following her gaze, my eyes fell on something lying on the floor at the foot of the couch.

It was a shoe. A guy’s shoe. And that guy wasn’t me.

For a second it felt like all the air had been knocked out of me. Without even exchanging words with Heather, I already knew what this meant.

Why she wasn’t dressed. Why her apartment was a mess. Why some guy’s shoe was lying on the floor like it belonged there. Everything suddenly clicked in a fucked up way.

“Whose is that?” Anger was slowly working its way inside of me as images began to flash through my mind of what this implied.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lie number two.

“Don’t play dumb with me! Who does that shoe belong to? Who’s here?”

“No one’s here.”

Heather’s responses weren’t really helping with the anger that was threatening to explode from within me. She’d been lying to me about a lot of things and had been acting weird for months now. Really, I shouldn’t be so surprised. Why the hell was I surprised? It all made sense now.

All the times she couldn’t answer her phone or call me back. All the times she pulled away from me when I tried to show her affection. All the yelling and the complaining and the fighting. Everything was hitting me at once like a succession of punches to the gut.

“You’re cheating on me.”

She didn’t say anything; only stared back at me as though she was too scared to think of anything to say. She didn’t even have the decency to look guilty.

“TELL ME! ARE YOU CHEATING ON ME?”

Heather flinched as though I’d stung her, and tossed her hair over her shoulder, looking pissed off. “Don’t yell at me. You don’t scare me. And, yes, I’ve met someone.”

“You can’t
meet
someone. We’re together!”

I wanted to shake her and tell her she was psycho, but I felt so numb that even the anger had frozen inside of me.

“Stop trying to control me. I can do whatever I want.”

“You’re my girlfriend! We’ve been together for three years.”

Heather gave me a look as though there was a bad smell hanging around me. “I’m not your girlfriend anymore. I’ve met someone better who actually has plans for his life.”

“Where is he?” I was only half-listening as she spoke. “I’m gonna beat the shit out of him. Tell him to come out and face me.”

Heather took a step forward and shoved me back hard. “Don’t even try and pull some macho bullshit here. I’ll call the police and tell them you assaulted me.”

“You bitch,” I spat out. “How could you do this to us?”

“No, you did this to us.” Heather pushed me back again. “Get out of here, Chase. I don’t want to see you again.”

Somehow I found the strength not to throw something at Heather or to go further into the apartment and drag that asshole out and beat the crap out of him until he learned not to mess around with another guy’s girl.

When I didn’t move, Heather pushed me again until I hit the wall. “GET OUT, CHASE!”

And that was what finally thawed me. I turned around and opened the door with an unsteady hand and stumbled down the stairs.

I wanted to get away from the familiar girl who’d suddenly become a stranger. I wanted to get away from her lies and betrayal. I wanted to get away from the heartbreak that was consuming me.

Except I couldn’t get away. My heart was shattering, and it was over a girl who didn’t even love me.

Hailey

My room was mostly packed up. The only things not in boxes were the belongings I wouldn't be taking with me and clothes to change into for tomorrow. Everything else was neatly labeled and stacked according to size and weight so it would be easy to load up into Braxton’s truck in the morning. Most people had their families help them move into the dorms, but all I had was my boyfriend of four years. It was fine though. In fact it was better this way. I never could rely on anyone else.

I heard my dad stomping around in the bedroom next to me. I supposed I should probably tell him good-bye, but I hadn't forgiven him yet and he knew it. I didn't expect him to leave the bedroom he’d once shared with my mother until I was officially out of here. I hoped that he at least had that much common courtesy left in him.

Braxton was supposed to be here in about an hour so I put my planner back in my purse on the practically bare desk next to the flyer advertising the Music Gala that we were attending tonight. He’d wanted to do something special for me since this was my last weekend living in Southlake, Kansas so I’d gotten to pick our weekly date-night activity.

Tomorrow I would be moving into Webster Hall at Oakdale University about an hour away from here. I would have preferred to stay closer to home, but Oakdale was the only nearby college that offered me a full-ride scholarship. The only condition being, I had to live on campus for the first two years. It wasn't the most ideal situation, but I wasn't exactly in a position to be picky since it was my fault that I hadn't chosen to spend my high school years working hard to save up for college.

Of course, that wasn't exactly my fault either since I’d been under the impression that the college fund I knew my grandmother had started for me would still be there when I was ready for it. I guess I hadn't really counted on my dad feeling entitled to what was rightfully mine. And since my dad had squandered away my college fund, I really needed that scholarship. In the grand scheme of things an hour wasn't too bad. Braxton had said he would even apply at Oakdale next year, but for now, he needed to stay close to his family.

I picked out a simple navy blue dress that I knew Braxton liked and paired it with some classic nude closed-toe pumps with a low heel. The dress was sleeveless and though it was warm enough outside to pull off wearing it, I knew I'd be cold in the auditorium so I grabbed a white cardigan as well. I pulled the sides of my brown hair back away from my face with some bobby pins and took a long, hard look at the girl gazing back at me in the mirror. Once I was convinced that not a hair was out of place, I made sure my purse was ready. Phone, lip balm, planner, extra pen, keys, and wallet. Everything seemed to be in order.

I opened my bedroom door just a crack and listened carefully. The house was finally quiet so I tip-toed down the hall so I didn't wake up my father. I didn't want to have to deal with him tonight. Just one more day and I would be out of here for good. I ripped out the page from my notebook with the number for the addictions hotline. I had been trying to get him to get help for years to no avail. But despite how angry I was at him right now, I had to try at least one more time. I left the number on the table underneath his keys. He'd see it in the morning.

I stepped out on to the porch to wait for Braxton to walk over. He had texted me earlier to tell me his mother was having a bad day but that she was finally asleep. I didn't want to disturb her so I’d decided to just wait for him here.

Her bad days were becoming more frequent. I knew that it had to be hard on Braxton, and his dad and brother. Brad was a few years older than Braxton and was studying pre-med at KU. When their mom had become sick, he’d decided to take a year off and come back home to help out his father. Mr. Douglas wasn't handling it very well. Not that I could really blame him. It had been rough on all of us. It was hard to watch the people you loved wither away, becoming weaker by the day from the very thing that was supposed to heal them. She had started a new round of chemo a week ago and I felt like it had made her worse. She hadn't eaten or drank anything for days and any time we managed to encourage her to do so, she would end up throwing it all up until there was nothing left but bile and blood. It was awful.

The night air was as warm as I expected so I draped my cardigan over my arms and sat down on the porch swing. I heard the sound of the door from the next house over opening and the screen door slamming shut. I closed my eyes and counted to ten in my head and when I opened them back up, he was there at the bottom of the stairs. The boy next door had been my boyfriend for the last four years but had been my best friend for much longer than that. Our pasts were so entwined that I couldn't tell you which memories were my own and which were his.

“Sorry I'm late,” he said as he pulled me into his arms and kissed me on the top of my head in our usual greeting. “Mom got sick again and Dad needed my help.”

“Is she okay?”

“She's sleeping now but I think it's going to be a long night.”

“Do we need to stay?”

“No, it's okay. Brad is with her now. It's your last night home for a while, we need to do something nice. Just the two of us.”

“Okay.”

“Though I can't believe you are forcing me to sit through a piano concert,” he said.

“You said I could choose,” I reminded him.

“I know. I'm just teasing you. It'll be fine.” He squeezed my hand as we walked to his truck.

We rode in comfortable silence into the city just enjoying each other's familiar company. When he didn't have to shift gears, he held my hand.