The Art of Starting Over

Chapter 17 - U-Turn

A thunderous bang jolted me out of my deep sleep and I instinctively raised my arm over my eyes until they adjusted to the bright light. I looked around, momentarily confused as to why I was on the living room sofa sprawled sideways across Jeremy's chest. His arm was wrapped around me, his head leaning over mine. A light blanket was neatly draped over us. We must have fallen asleep during the movie. I didn't remember fetching the blanket though.

My groggy puzzle-piecing was interrupted by another round of aggressive knocking at the front door.

"Open up! I know you're here, Ally!"

Sosa?

I looked around for my phone and remembered it was still in my bag. I swept my eyes across the floor but couldn't see it anywhere. Nor could I see my shoes. I was sure I had left them by the door yesterday. Millie must have cleared everything out of the way before leaving for work.

Oh no... Millie!

Heat rose to my cheeks at the realisation of where the blanket had come from. She must have seen us that morning, limbs entangled on the sofa. I suppressed a loud groan and tried to get up without waking Jeremy. He adjusted himself to a more comfortable position and I removed the blanket. The room was warm and his forehead was glistening with a thin film of sweat.

Sosa bashed one of the fish-shaped knockers heavily against the door again and I ran to answer her before she broke it down, or worse, woke Jeremy.

"Hey! What's up?" I greeted her in a low voice, stepping out and pulling the door carefully behind me to hide The Boss from view.

"I'll tell you what's up!" she answered fiercely, resting her hands on her hips. "Derek just called to tell me that Shaun showed up at his apartment after your date last night, crying his eyes out because you broke up with him."

I squinted back at her, my brain sluggishly processing her outburst.

"Well?" she asked expectantly, fiery eyes glowing with rage.

"Well, what?" I stuttered, perplexed. She raised her eyebrows and turned a furious shade of scarlet. "Sosa, we weren't on the same page and I didn't want to lead him on. I had to end it," I explained truthfully.

"Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you agreed to go to that restaurant with him," she fired back. "Even you can't be that thick not to see where that was headed!"

"What? You were the one who kept begging me to give him a chance!"

"But you didn't give him a chance at all, did you? You broke up with him!"

The air stilled with anticipation. No chirping birds, no barking chihuahua, no neighbours gossiping on the steps. I heard the tiniest creak of a window somewhere further up the alleyway but I ignored it and tried to focus on why Sosa was angry. Was it because I had broken up with Shaun or because I hadn't done it soon enough?

But then the front door gave way behind me and my blood plummeted straight to my toes. I stood paralysed as Sosa's eyes drifted upwards and away from my face. They grew wide and dark and scorching, like the eye of an angry volcano.

"Ally? Is everything okay?" Jeremy's voice said groggily from behind me.

I turned around slowly, praying that my head was playing tricks on me. Hoping against hope that the blue doors were still shut and that Jeremy was still sleeping soundly on Nanna's couch. But he was right there, gloriously filling up the doorway, one hand on the frame, the other scratching the back of his head as he suppressed a yawn.

His eyes were heavy with sleep, scrunched up against the bright sunlight. His face was paler than usual and, not having yet donned his usual condescending expression, he looked younger, softer somehow. The zipper of my purple hoodie was all the way down, exposing his ripped chest. His mass of black hair was an orchestrated mess on top of his head. My breath hitched and suddenly, all my brain cells could focus on was how I had never seen him look so beautiful.

Sosa gasped behind me, the sound breaking me from the spell that was Jeremy with his guard down, and I turned to see her eyeing him suspiciously. She looked at me, and then back at him. I saw her adding up the numbers in her head and I could tell, as her eyes grew big and round again, that the answer was a long way from the truth.

"Good morning, Stephanie," Jeremy said, suddenly standing straight, bright eyes darting between her and myself.

Sosa drew in a long breath from her dragonish nose and turned her gaze angrily on me. She was seconds away from blowing up and I braced myself for the eruption.

"You lying cheat!" she screamed, pointing a blue-polished finger in my face. "This why you broke up with Shaun? So, you can get with him? I told you to stay away from him!"

I felt Jeremy recoil behind me. I opened my mouth and closed it several times, wanting to tell Sosa that she had it all wrong, but my vocabulary seemed to have been diminished to that of a goldfish.

"Stephanie," Jeremy's warning tone echoed in my ears at the same time I felt his hand wrap gently around my arm.

"And you!" she wheeled on Jeremy. "How could you? She's not one of your whores!"

"Watch it, Sosa! There's no need to be ugly," I snapped, finally finding my voice.

But she was looking at us like we were decomposed cockroaches on the bottom of her shoe. "You know what?" she said, her voice quivering with rage. "Do whatever you like. You deserve each other!"

And with that, she turned on her heels and huffed down the steps, leaving me rooted on the doorstep trying to make sense of what had just happened. Flickers of sunlight reflected off the blinds as they turned all around us for the eyes behind them to get a better view. Jeremy tugged on my arm, trying to turn me to face him, but I shrugged him off. I couldn't just let Sosa get away without explaining what had happened, or rather, what hadn't.

"Sosa, wait," I yelled, running down the steps barefoot. "Wait!"

I grabbed the straps of her bag as I caught up with her. 

"You've got it all wrong!" I started, catching my breath. "It's not what it looks like. Jeremy came over yesterday just as I was leaving for my date with Shaun because he wanted to give me... something. Anyway, that's not important. When I came back, he was still here." She raised a disbelieving brow at me. "It's true! He was watching re-runs of Ipokriti with Millie."

Sosa rolled her eyes at me and turned to leave again, but I got hold of her shoulder. "We just talked, Sos! Well, we argued, actually. But that's it! We argued and talked and watched a movie and fell asleep on the couch. Nothing happened, I promise."

Sosa crossed her arms resolutely over her chest. "You said you don't like him," she said, her voice trembling. "You said you find him irritating."

"I don't! I mean, I do!" I fumbled for the right words.

"You lied to me," she went on. "And you made me look like a fool. I was the one who set you up. I should have known better. All you do is push people away. How am I supposed to tell Derek?"

"This has nothing to do with Derek. And I didn't lie! There is nothing going on between me and Jeremy. How many times do I have to tell you? The reason I broke up with Shaun is because he said he loves me and, obviously, I don't!"

She stopped to consider this and for a brief moment, I thought I had finally got through to her. But then her expression became stubborn again.

"I don't believe you," she stated.

"Ask him! Ask Derek! I'm sure Shaun told him what happened," I begged.

"No! I don't believe that there is nothing going on between you and Jeremy. Even if it is true that nothing happened last night, which I doubt after seeing him half-naked in your living room. I mean, why would he wait for you to come back from your date?"

"He wasn't waiting for me—"

"I'm not stupid, Ally!" she interrupted again. "He is after you and you're playing right into his hands! He's going to break your heart!"

I stared at her open-mouthed. I didn't know what else I could say to convince her she was wrong about him. It wasn't like that with me. And it would never be because... because it just wasn't like that.

Sosa's eyes glistened and turned up to the sky as she tried to hold back the tears. When I didn't say anything she turned around and, for the second time, left me feeling helpless and alone as the unmoving alley secretly watched.