28. Alana #2
I look over at Joey and Dimitri. “Make sure no one else gets inside.” But no sooner do I say that when there are four women standing in my doorway. “...They’re allowed in.”
Penny is dressed in a formal business suit made of silk and money, so she’s very out of place next to the others.
Amanda has a hoodie and leggings on, looking as casual as a pop star can.
Her bodyguard and my friend Katya is wearing a black leather jacket, with the ‘don’t fuck with me’ energy, and Lena is in pajama pants and a ten-thousand-dollar sweater.
I guess they changed after the intervention, honestly, I have no concept of time right now.
The boys mill around then and ultimately decide to wait out in the hallway. Lena curls on the couch next to me, putting her head in my lap. Penny takes the other side while Amanda hangs by the door.
“You can come in. I’ve got wine and cake and all sorts of stuff, help yourself.” I wave vaguely to the kitchen.
With the men gone, Midge comes out of her hiding spot. She enters the living room, meows once, walks over, rubs her head on my leg and hops on her cat tower to watch the birds. Amanda’s eyes grow wide and she whispers, “I got the colors right.”
“Sorry.” Penny whispers and rests her head on my shoulder.
She should be, and I should be livid towards her.
She robbed me of my friends and love with controlling manipulation.
But in her world, that’s how she shows love.
Honestly, it would be more hurtful if she’d stepped back and let Amanda and Grae back into my life. I knock my head against hers.
“You should be.”
“The timing is shitty and I swear I’m not trying to buy your forgiveness,” she says.
“But we talked about this three years ago when we discovered the hythanatia flower as a possible energy source. We’re going public in six months, and we want you to be the CEO.
” She squeezes my hand. “I don’t need an answer right now. ”
Could I run another company? Do I even have the mental bandwidth? My brain says turn it down, but my gut is screaming something else.
“I’m going to a puppy party, wanna come?” I look at Amanda.
Her lower lip quivers. “Really? Do you want me there?”
“It was never that I didn’t want to be near you. I just thought it was best for Grae if I stayed away. You did a much better job than I did.”
Amanda grabs a pillow and pulls it to her chest. “He was never as happy with me as he was with you.”
Katya starts fanning herself, tears well up as she announces, “You’re Kiki.”
I furrow my eyebrows. The words can’t possibly make sense. “What? No.”
Amanda’s jaw drops open. “Yes, you are.”
The realization hits me. She’s been singing to me for years—every heartbreak, every triumph. She was trying to keep me in her life the only way she could. The sob wells and bursts out of my chest. “But those are your best songs.”
Seconds later, we are all crying. We’re all a mess until the tears slow and we sit with the truth, and Amanda puts her head on my shoulder.
It’s a small action, but it hits like falling into a fluffy clean bed after a long day.
Comfortable and familiar. The exhaustion of the last few hours hits me, and I'm about to close my eyes when there’s a commotion outside.
The rest of the girls are here—but male voices arrive too. It’s Izzy, Waverly and Jenny, followed by the boys, Joey, Donny, Dimitri and Uri. My apartment has too many people in it and I don’t think I like it. Fuck. I’ll need to go to plan B. Ugh and that place is so much harder to keep clean.
Joey steps forward. “I'm checking to see if you want a vice night.”
“Nah,” I hitch my shoulders. “A puppy party… and maybe a rage room followed by getting shitfaced.”
My little blue-haired chaos gremlin claps her hands and yells, “Rocket launcher?”
“No.” I frown, “Izzy can’t fire one because I don't want it to shake her baby. It doesn’t seem fair to have fun without her.”
“Lame.” Jenny crosses her arms and pouts.
Even Lena seems disappointed as she explains. “Alana took me to a quarry near Vegas last year, and she said she took all the gas out of the tank, but when the rocket hit the car, there was a big explosion and a bunch of little ones too.” She starts making little flashing explosions with her hands.
“Did you take everyone BUT me?” Jenny gives me death glare. “Horseshit, and I’m the one getting access to the damn puppies.” I must take Jenny to launch some rockets, the sooner the better. Got it.
The puppies, shit. Grae would love a puppy party too. I nudge Amanda.
“Text Grae. Tell him about the puppies if he wants to come after we leave. I’m not ready to talk to him, but I don’t want him to spiral. I’ll call him when I’m ready.”
“I also don’t really get why you’re so upset.
” Donny says, seeming genuinely confused.
“Did you lose a few years with the love of your life? Sure, but it’s not exactly like either of your lives are shitholes.
I say you get twelve hours to mope and cry and whine but then get over it.
You two found each other and that’s what matters. ”
It’s a bad day when Donny is the fucking voice of reason.