ALANA'S MISTAKE ✔

Chapter 25

Alana sat opposite Riley in a small, dark club nestled under the city streets, with red velvet lamps glowing and a large, wooden bar with three barmen wearing white shirts and black bow ties.

'This place is so classy,' said Riley.

'You do know that classy people never actually use the word classy?' replied Alana.

'We can't all be as perfect as you,' she replied, taking a sip from her strawberry daiquiri. 'Besides, you can't take the moral high ground with me anymore ... Not after your little dalliance, which, by the way, I still can't believe you actually went through with.'

Alana sighed and felt strangely lonely, sat there holding onto a martini in a fancy glass with an olive on a stick bobbing on the top. Tonight was supposed to cheer her up, but here was Riley bringing everything up again.

'Well,' snapped Alana. 'I did go through with it. Now can we forget it?'

Riley's eyes widened with surprise.

'Hey girl, it's not my fault remember?'

'Of course it's not your fault ... I never ...'

'You know, I always thought you wouldn't ever sleep with another man apart from Noah.'

Alana almost groaned.

'Neither did I, Riley.'

'But you must have done. Come on! Elias Smith? You must have known what you were doing. But then I guess it would have to take a guy like that to pull you away from your family...'

Alana did not like her tone of voice.

'What do you mean by that?'

Riley lowered her eyes, toying with her cocktail glass. She was dressed in black again tonight, with bright flashes of colour in her eyeshadow and nails.

'I just mean, every since you had a kid, you've not had time for much else.'

Alana wrapped her fingers around the stem of her glass.

'Are you really going to bring this up again now? I thought we had come through all that. I was pregnant, then I had a tiny baby, then a toddler and now a child!'

'Yeah but, my other friend Sally had twins and she still goes out every Saturday night no matter what.'

Alana had to hold herself back from raising her voice.

'I'm not Sally. I'm not any other girl, or any other mother for that matter. I don't go around comparing you to other single girls, do I?'

'I'm not single,' she snapped. 'I've got Duke.'

Alana rolled her eyes.

'You think you're so much better than me, don't you? With your perfect little family, your art degree and all your sensible long term decisions.'

'Riley ... I can't even ... What the hell are you talking about?'

In that moment they both noticed the presence of four guys approaching them from the bar. Alana's heart stood stock still. Her first instinct was to flee the scene entirely. But they had already seen them, all she could do was sit there, watching them approach - the four members of Silence, including Elias.

'Hi,' he said, nonchalant. 'Can we join you?'

Alana was about to say no when Riley's voice came out a resounding:

'Yes you can join us!'

Her cheeks were flushed and she looked like a child on their first trip to Disneyland.

'Great,' nodded one of the band members, before he introduced himself as Steve.

They piled into their booth and Steve sat beside Riley, he was the tallest one, with longish sandy hair that fell behind his ears, a mild face and light brown eyes. Then Orion, who sat next to him, a black guy with a beautifully sculpted face and dancing eyes, then finally Miles, the smallest, with white-blonde hair and an incredibly soft voice who came along after Elias had sat himself right next to Alana.

As they began to chat, Riley wildly leading the conversation, Alana felt like she might break down entirely. Her heart fluttered and pounded, she began to sweat and she felt trapped, so trapped in that corner with no way to get out. She looked at Riley but knew that she would be no help whatsoever. Alana's fear turned to anger. Does she not believe what I said about Elias? If she did then why would she let him sit here with us? And if she didn't, why can't my best friend take what I say as the truth?

Both options were terrible. But her mind was quickly diverted when she felt a hand touch her leg under the table. She immediately pushed it away with her own hand but he turned to her with a mischievous smile on his face, then whispered in her ear.

'You don't like that?'

She shook her head. Then he laid back and spoke clearly.

'Don't worry, we don't hold the stage thing against you. We found someone else actually, a professional artist.'

Riley was too busy talking animatedly to the others to hear what Elias had said.

'Good,' said Alana. 'That's great.'

Her throat tightened and she swore she might faint. She picked up her handbag from the table and began to nudge her way out.

'I'm sorry, I have to go.'

She had to give a good push with her thigh to get Elias to budge at all but as she started to stand Miles stood up and finally they began to move.

'Riley,' she said, looking down at them all. 'Is it ok if we go now?'

It was late and they had a rule that whenever they were out, they left together. But tonight it looked like that rule was being thrown out the window. Riley smiled and laughed like a schoolgirl. Alana let out a long sigh. Let her have them, if she wants. With that she turned to leave, Orion and Miles mumbling vague goodbyes as she went, the feel of Elias' gaze on her back.