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Chapter 45- Marianne

Alex's Pov

Kristen and I shared a couple texts every now and then and saw each other whenever we could, eventhough it was a lot less than before as she was now with someone else. But it was going quite great for two people with such complicated history. I couldn't say our friendship was left completely untouched by the tests of time and circumstances but the damages at the end were a lot less than what I'd estimated. "Atleast we're still talking" I'd often tell myself as consolation because truthfully, it wasn't how it used to be.

I was happy I did what I did. Setting things right with her, being the one to take the initiative to do it. It was hard. But I was proud of myself. Especially because it was hard. I felt like the biggest hypocrite when I suggested we forget about everything that happened with us, while I still had no idea what to do with myself after it all came to an end. And that was last year. But it was the right thing.

I briefly thought about dating again sometime after our "breakup". Nothing serious, Ofcourse. I wasn't ready for that. But something, anything that would help me detach from Kristen even just a little bit and bring me peace. However, I gave up on the idea after Kristen started dating Aaron. I could feel every cell in my body revolting when I saw them together for the first time. There's no other way to describe it.  I hated that she looked happy with him and I hated that I wasn't happy that she was happy. It was selfish but it triggered all these feelings I had for her. Feelings I'd stuffed down in an attempt to move on. Seeing them together brought them out and I couldn't imagine being with someone else other than her, even casually. But time passed. And it did not heal all wounds as they say, but I finally start feeling sorry for myself and agreed when Matt decided to set me up with a girl out of pity.

Matt had met Marianne long ago through one of their mutual friends. When he found out that she was single and me miserable, he immediately
tried to get us together. I went on a few dates with her. She was interesting. Beautiful. She had just gotten out of a long term relationship and so was I, from whatever it is that I was in. She told me on our first date to not to get my expectations high as she wasn't looking for anything serious which made me immediately like her as I was in the same place. I didn't have feelings for her but I had a sense of relatability with her. Not reliability but a sense of pity, the same sort I felt for myself. She made me feel less alone about how I felt, I liked that. And the main thing was, I didn't have to worry about either of us getting potentially hurt as neither of us were taking this too seriously. We were perfect for each other in a fucked up way.

Our relationship was purely physical with no feelings of attachment or emotions. It was meaningless sex, night after night. The kind of sex I thought I'd have with Kristen when I suggested the idea to her, because I was a horny idiot and couldn't see into the future. Now here I was in a "no strings attached" relationship with Marianne to get over my "no strings attached" relationship with Kristen. The whole thing was a mess but atleast it helped me get used to the fact that I did not belong to the person I wanted.

I did not tell Kristen anything about my new relationship. I didn't think she'd care but I didn't know how to tell her either. Besides, I felt like it wasn't the best idea. We'd agreed to do our best to repair our friendship. I didn't want to do anything that would ruin it. If I did bring it up, it would inevitably remind us of our past. So, I stayed quiet about it. Well, that was until she saw me with Marianne.

Kristen's Pov

Aaron and I were just walking down the street one morning close to his neighborhood when Aaron stopped all of a sudden to greet someone I didn't think I'd randomly bump into this morning.

"Hey, Alex!" Aaron gave him a tight shake hand.

"Hi," Alex replied in a confused and startled manner, being suddenly greeted by Aaron.

"Didn't think we'd bump into you!" Aaron said.

"Oh. Yeah."
Alex's calm replies compared to Aaron's cheerfulness were hilarious. They were at two extremes personality wise.

"What are you doing out here?" Aaron asked.

"Uh, nothing just, on a walk." Alex said and then acknowledged me with a smile.

"Judy, come here!" A tall blonde woman suddenly stole our attention as she yelled right behind Alex, being pulled towards our direction by a large Afghan hound.

"You are a very bad girl!" She yelled again at her dog as she join next to Alex.

Oh no.

She looked up at us politely smiling, though confused.

"Sorry, this is Marianne." He introduced her.

She was stunning. Tall, straight blonde hair styled in a pony tail, wearing fitted gym clothes that show cased her perfectly toned midriff. She was the type of girl that could make anyone think twice about themselves.

"This is... these are my friends." Alex said, correcting himself to include Aaron.

"Oh, hi!" She shook our hands.

"Are you a friend of his?" Aaron asked Marianne.

"Kind of like his... girlfriend? We haven't labeled us yet."

"And sorry, you guys have probably never met me. We got together fairly recently." She added.

There I was, standing with my very good looking, successful, loving boyfriend, feeling completely destroyed on the inside because Alex had a new girl. It was awful, I knew. But I couldn't help the way I felt. Why did I still care? Jealousy is a different thing but this made me sick to my stomach. I felt... replaced. Though I was the one to jump into a relationship right after ending things with Alex.

"Oh wow! You guys look great together!" Aaron complimented.

"Thank you! And I assume you're dating too?"

"Yeah, yeah. We are." Aaron put his arms around me and smiled.

"Judy is very cute by the way." Aaron got down as he started petting her dog.

"She really is. And you seem like a dog person. Got any pets?" She asked him.

Alex and I stood there in silence as the two of them played with Judy and had a whole conversation about dogs. It was so hard to just stand there infront of him and his new girlfriend, pretending to be okay with all of it. I loved Aaron but these were the times I wished he'd shut up.

"You guys went quiet." Marianne said to Alex and I, noticing our silence.

"Oh no, we just didn't want to interrupt the dog lovers." I joked. Alex nodded with little to no interest. Glad to know the awkwardness felt was mutual.

"As much as I'd love to stand here and talk about Judy all day, I've got to make it to my clinic before 9." Aaron said, finally getting up from the ground.

"But hey, Alex and Kristen are good friends. Maybe we could all go on a double date someday?" Aaron suggested.

I almost screamed out no.

"Oh, yes! Alex, what do you think?" Marianne asked, grabbing his arm.

"Yeah, sure." Alex nodded. He sure did not want to.

"Okay, it's set then. We'll see about it when we're all free sometime." Aaron smiled.

I faked a smile as they continued on their walk and walked past us, while all I wanted was to bang my head against the wall. There's no way I could survive that double date. It was bad enough to see him with her for a few minutes. How would I last an hour or two around them?