FAKE

nineteen

I smooth the bottom of my maroon blouse down as I walk into the restaurant. Rydel had yet again begged to see me, and I finally gave in.

A hostess met me with a plastic smile.

"Hi, how can I help you today?" She asks.

"I'm with the Ratliffs," I explain, "They should have mentioned it was a party of three."

She looks down at the tablet balanced in her arms to double check, the nods.

"Of course, if you'll follow me." She turns and strides to the back of the place, morning to a booth in the corner.

Rydel and Ellington are sitting and quietly talking. She is dressed appropriately in a royal purple cocktail dress, and he in a smart button-up shirt.

Their arms are linked and I can tell she's shifted her weight to lean on him. I can't help noticing how he looks at her like she is the center of the universe.

When they see me, Rydel stands and immediately pulls me into a suffocating hug.

"Oh my God, where have you been? We've looked everywhere for you! I've been worried sick!" She exclaims. Ellington rises and shakes his head as Rydel steps back.

"We've been worried sick," He corrects her and gives me a welcoming smile before giving me a gentler hug.

We take our seats and a waiter who introduces himself as Tyler stops by to take orders.

I surprise myself by asking for a glass of wine after Rydel and Ellington. I've never been a big fan of alcohol in the first place.

Variety is the spice of life?

After Tyler leaves, Rydel redirects her attention to me.

"You didn't answer my question. Where have you been?"

"Places." I shrug.

"Okay, like what kind of places?"

"Weird places. Good places places. Crappy places." I don't know how to answer, so I just do my best to answer without really revealing anything.

"Where?" She asks.

"Everywhere"

"Where?" She repeats, tapping her fingers on the wooden table.

"The country."

"Okay, where in the country?"

"You know, the states."

"Which ones?"

"The ones in America."

She frowns. I can tell she's bothered by my determination to be indirect.

"Alright.. are you at least okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm alright. I just needed to disappear for a while, you know? Just not worry about everything for a little bit."

Tyler stops by to serve our drinks, and once he leaves again I cautiously take a sip of the deep red wine.

Ellington swirls his wine in his glass and sighs.

"Courtney, it's been two years. I can understand if you ran away a year ago, but now? Are you sure everything's okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm doing okay, really. For the past two years all everyone's done is check up on me. I got sick of it." I shrug casually and take another sip from my glass.

I guess part of that was true. Especially for the first six months after he left, someone was contacting me everyday asking if I needed anything.

No one ever really talked to me. They just asked how I was, and I'd normally  give a short answer, and that was that.

It made me feel like a burden on the backs of people already busy and dealing with their own plate of grief.

Over dinner, we discuss everything that's happened while I was MIA. They'd been busy planning their wedding and finally closed the deal on a house they'd been struggling to buy for months.  Life had just slowly intertwined itself around them. Their future was so tangible that I could see it sitting on the ring on her finger. 

***

I end up having a few glasses of wine at dinner. 

While I can reassure myself I'm not tipsy, I'm certainly a bit tired from the heavy meal and alcohol. 

Nevertheless, I make it home just fine. I toss my keys on the kitchen counter and drag my feet to my bedroom. I feel more tired than I was at the restaurant. 

I slowly pull off my heels, then fall back on my bed, not bothering to get changed. God, I'm tired. My limbs suddenly feel heavy, and all I really want is to just sleep. 

I exert the last of my energy on pulling a blanket over myself, and before I know it, I've fallen asleep.

***

I wake up suddenly with a jolt. 

I can't see anything. 

It's pitch black in here for some reason. 

I try to sit up and hit my head on something solid. I reach upwards curiously and feel around the barrier. From what I can tell, it seems like a roof.

Just then, I notice the sound of a car motor humming and the occasional dip in a road shaking the car.

How the hell did I end up in the trunk of a car?

Oddly enough, I'm not flipping out, I'm just... really confused.

I reach out and touch a wall beside me. There's a seam at the bottom of it. I dig my nails into the seam to try to open the door up, but it doesn't budge and I can't find a handle. 

Panic crashes in when it occurs to me that I am trapped. 

In a frenzied urgency, I start moving as much as possible around the trunk looking for a handle, or light, or something. 

But there's nothing in here.

Just me. 

Just me and whoever's driving the car. 

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someone please tell me they noticed the parallel to chapter one in here