Liar

Twenty-four

It's Sunday morning, I haven't slept much. About three or four hours. I have my phone in my hands, Louis name big on the screen. I'm sitting on my bed for an hour already, thinking wether to call him or not.

"Louis, I didn't see you at the party!" I needed to talk to Louis after I spent a whole day in bed, crying.

"I didn't see you either! Well, I'm driving to New York in any moment and I thought I'd come over before I leave. Would that be okay?"

"Absolutely. I need to talk to you anyway, about the party."

"Okay, I'm already on my way, darling." He hangs up. A knock at the door brings me back to the here and now after staring at the messages I sent Niall.

I am a pathetic mess.

"Hey, April, I thought you'd need a bit to eat." Sheila comes through the door with a soup on a tablet.

"Thank you," I whisper. I eat the soup slowly, enjoying every spoon that enters my mouth. That soup tastes so good.

"April, Louis is here. Shall he come upstairs?" Geoff shouts.

"Yes!" I yell, feeling joy that Louis came over so quickly.

"Hey, girl," he greets me.

"Louis!" I leap up from the bed and embrace him.

"Why did you need to talk?"

"Lou, at the party, well, Niall and I finished what we've started on Tuesday." I mumble, ashamed.

"Oh," he responds coolly.

"Yesterday I woke up next to a stranger Niall let in right after he left the cabin, right after we've had sex. He's cruel. I hate him."

"You love him, April. I know you do. I see it in your hurt face."

"Louis why is Niall that way? Why can't he be different?"

"Because he is weird."

"I bared myself for him. He was inside me!" I am back to the sobbing mess. He takes me in his arms, holding me close, letting me cry into his chest.

"He's an ass, April. If I were you, I would go back to Jake and forget about Niall. He's no good for you, he never was."

"I know," I whisper, still soaking his shirt.

I lay my phone back on my bed, deciding not to call him. I would be too ashamed and he would keep telling me the truth I know already.

Niall is not capable of love.

He just isn't.

I put on a bit mascara. I'm wearing black tight jeans and a gray sweater. I look like crap. Maybe it's because I'm loving a boy who fucked me and let a stranger sleep with me in one bed afterwards, but maybe it's just because I'm ugly.

*I'm late, but I'm there asap x* I write Mona. She called me yesterday if we could meet up at a café today and maybe get some ice cream.

*I'm late too, so no worries x*

I hurry down the stairs and grab my purse. After I left the house I walk down the long driveway. Finally, after about ten minutes of only walking, I arrive at the bus station.

*was it nice to see me again? x* A blocked I.D. appears on my phone. Of course he would contact me after the party.

*no* I want to reply, but I can't reply to an unknown number. I’m such an idiot.

I'm somehow not frightened by his message at all, I knew it would come. I kind of got used to the rapist stalking me.

The bus arrives and I climb in, driving to the center of the town. I take in every detail. Every tree, every flower that grows next to the asphalt, every car that drives past the bus and every house that Attleboro has. The bus stills at the station in the center and I get out. I spot Mona sitting in the café we were supposed to meet up, chatting with a quite handsome guy. His hair is black and I can see traces of a beard from the distance. His piercing gray eyes are noticeable from this distance as well, and the way he smiles at Mona. Jeez, this guy is handsome.

"Hi," I greet both of them as I arrive at the café.

"Oh, hi, April!" Mona stands and embraces me. "This is Ezra Fitzgerald, a close friend of mine. We grew up as neighbors in Vegas and now he moved to New York. He decided to come here for the next week to visit me, as we haven't seen each other for two years now," she murmurs, but I just can't keep my eyes off him. Somehow it seems like everyone's living in New York but me. How unfair can the world treat me?

Ezra, eh?

"Hello, Ezra. I'm April Paxton," I introduce myself to him. I guess he's around twenty, twenty-three, maybe. He seems so familiar, especially his hair. "Have we met before?" I decide to just ask him. Maybe we have met in New York.

"No, I don't think so. Why?

"Oh, nothing, you just seem so familiar," I answer truthfully.

"Mona told me you were born and raised in New York City? Impressing," Ezra says and I flush. Nobody called my past in New York 'impressing'.

"I will go to Columbia after high school. I'm so excited about moving back there." I take in every detail in his face, just like I did when I went here by bus. "You are sure that we have not met before? In New York maybe, I don't know, I just really feel like I know you."

"I can't remember seeing such a stunning person in my life. I think I would remember if we would have met," he mutters and I blush again.

"Well, thanks!" Mona punches Ezra's arm, but turns her attention toward me afterwards. "April, have you cried or something? Your eyes are completely bloodshot and you seem so hurt."

"Uhm, it's nothing. Niall's just being an ass," I mumble and change the subject again. "Ezra, you've been living in New York for how long?"

"Uh, five years. I moved there when I was eighteen, right after high school and attended a music school. I wanted to become a Broadway star but gave that dream up because I got a scholarship at Columbia. I'm majoring in Music Production."

"That's great! I have a scholarship, too! I'm majoring in Medicine."

"Impressing." I think Ezra likes this word. I like it, too. Well, I like it more that he calls stuff about me and my life like that. As he lifts his hand to take a sip from his soda I notice a tattoo on his arm. It's a tiger. A big tiger tattooed on his arm.

"Thanks," I don't know what else to reply.

"So, April, why did you move away from a wonderful city like New York? And why to Attleboro?"

"I moved away because my mother died and my dad couldn't bear living in the city anymore 'cause it's full of memories and, yeah, well, I have no idea why to Attleboro, though."

"Oh, I am so sorry!" Ezra's eyes widen, his mouth open.

I like the name Ezra.

Ezra Fitzgerald.

"Well, guys, excuse me, but I gotta go." Ezra leaves us alone and I tell Mona about the night at the party.