A disastrous book

Chapter 22: Love triangle

Alex's POV

I look the stranger up and down way too many times that I'm surprised my neck didn't snap.

"Alex..." Riley shakily whispers as I turn to her.

"Yes?" The sound of my own voice is accompanied with another deep one, laced with an accent. We snap our heads to look at each other, his eyes narrow and study me as if he's just noticing my presence.

"Oh God..." I faintly hear Riley in the background, but the sudden ringing in my ears is blurring every other sound around me.

The mysterious stranger walks over to her and takes a hold of her hand.

"I came here as soon as you called." His smooth, buttery voice lingered in the air as his intense eyes stared into hers, while Mr X stood there and threw venomous daggers his way.

What in the shit is going on?!

"Wait, you know him?" He directed his question to Riley who is still as pale as a ghost.

"Of course she does." Alex answered for her, raising his brow at Mr X. "We go way back, don't we love?" He raised her hand to his mouth and planted a soft kiss, and I swear I could hear her breath hitch.

Is she blushing?!

"Who are you?" I rudely burst whatever bubble they were in.

Releasing an annoyed sigh, he turns to me.

"Alex, and who are you?"

"Alex." I deadpan as he gives me a confused look.

"Alex, what's going on?" A new voice sounded behind me as Riley 2.0 entered the room.

"Riley?" This "Alex" guy asks as he looks between her and Riley, his confusion growing.

"Yeah, who are you?" Riley 2.0 asked, uninterested.

"I need to sit down." Mr X spoke in the background as he pulled out his chair and sank in it, massaging his temples.

"I got a call from you and came as soon as I can..." his head kept moving between her and Riley all throughout the sentence. "I'm sorry, why is there two of you?"

"Alex, can I have a word?" Riley finally spoke as she grabbed my hand and took me away from the scene, leaving three very confused people behind.

"Riley, what the FUCK is going on?!" I yell as soon as we're out in the hallway.

"Okay, okay, just hear me out-"

"Who is that "Alex"? How does he know you? Why does he look EXACTLY like me??"

"Just let me explain!" She snaps and I reluctantly clamp my mouth shut and nod for her to continue.

"So, remember how you gave me three days to prove to you that I wasn't lying?" She rhetorically asks.

"Riley..." I tread carefully, "what did you do?"

She visibly swallows, as if mentally preparing her next words.

"Well... I did just that."

A brief silence overtook us while I tried to wrap her words around my head.

"I told you that Riley and Mr X were both the characters from the story, but you didn't believe me. So I kinda added a new character in hopes that they would also come to life to prove to you that I wasn't lying..."

Still in the middle of processing her words, I blankly stare at her and if this was a cartoon, a giant loading sign would be plastered all over my forehead.