Chapter 10: One Night to Forget

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: One Night to Forget

Iris didn’t remember how she managed to walk out of Jason’s apartment. She didn’t remember calling Zoey. She didn’t remember reaching for her phone with trembling fingers or hearing her own broken voice on the other end of the line.

She didn’t even remember saying Jason’s name.

All she remembered was the unbearable ache in her chest and the image she wished she could erase forever.

Jason and Vanessa together. And they’d both been cheating on her...Her boyfriend of three years. And her best friend of ten.

Zoey had arrived less than twenty minutes later with murder blazing in her eyes and a bottle of tequila clutched in one hand. Iris didn’t remember the drive back to her apartment. She didn’t remember unlocking the front door or kicking off her heels.

What she did remember was collapsing the moment they stepped inside. The sobs came so violently they stole the air from her lungs.

Zoey hadn’t said a word.

She had simply wrapped her arms around Iris and held her while she cried until her throat burned raw and her mascara stained both her cheeks and Zoey’s sweatshirt.

Now the apartment had fallen into an uneasy silence, broken only by the sound of Zoey pacing across the living room.

"I’m going to kill them both," Zoey declared for what had to be the fifteenth time.

She stalked back and forth like a caged tiger, her oversized gray joggers swishing with every furious step. Her dark hair was piled into a messy bun that looked as though she’d thrown it together without even looking in a mirror. She had probably abandoned whatever coding project she’d been working on the second Iris called.

"Slowly," she continued, taking another sip straight from the tequila bottle. "Painfully. I’m thinking arsenic in their morning coffee. Or maybe I’ll run them over with my car. Then reverse and do it again just to make sure."

Despite everything, the corner of Iris’s lips twitched. It wasn’t a smile...not even close. But Zoey noticed it immediately.

"There," she pointed triumphantly. "See that? I almost made you smile. That’s progress."

Iris curled herself tighter into the corner of the couch. She was still wearing the red dress.

She had tried taking it off earlier, but every time her fingers reached for the zipper they started shaking so violently that she’d given up.

The dress suddenly felt different now. It no longer looked beautiful on her....It looked humiliating.

She had worn the color because Jason once told her red was his favorite color. Dressed to impress....that was her initial goal. But now, the thought made her stomach twist.

"Three years," Iris whispered hoarsely. "I gave him three years of my life."

Zoey stopped pacing and her expression softened instantly. "He isn’t worth three seconds of your tears iris."

"But I loved him."

"I know baby girl....I know. Only a fool.could be blind to it."

"I really thought..." Iris swallowed hard as fresh tears blurred her vision. "I thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life with him. That’s why I tried to make sure that tonight would be perfect for us."

Zoey closed her eyes briefly before walking over. "I know you did."

"I defended him whenever you said he was changing because he was probably cheating on me."

A bitter laugh escaped Iris.

"You kept telling me he wasn’t the same person anymore. You kept asking why he never came around. Why he always canceled plans. Why he never looked happy with me...I should have thought about it and listened to you."

She covered her face with both hands. "But i kept making excuses."

Zoey sighed deeply before kneeling in front of her.

"Iris... people like Jason are very good at making decent women question themselves. They slowly convince you that everything wrong in the relationship somehow comes back to you."

She reached for Iris’s icy hands. "You weren’t blind because you were stupid." She squeezed gently. "You were blind because you loved him."

Fresh tears spilled down Iris’s cheeks.

"And Vanessa..." Zoey’s voice darkened instantly. "I still cannot believe that woman."

The word woman sounded far too respectful.

"I cannot believe she has been sleeping with him for three whole months while showing up every morning pretending to be your friend."

Zoey shook her head in disgust. "And do you know what the worst part is?"

Iris looked at her through watery eyes.

"She watched you cry over him. She listened while you worried about your relationship. She comforted you when you thought Jason was pulling away. She knew exactly why he had changed because she was the reason."

"Stop..."

"I wish I could honey. But you need to understand who betrayed you."

Zoey’s jaw tightened. "Jason owed you loyalty because he claimed to love you, but Vanessa?" Her eyes filled with disappointment. "She owed you sisterhood."

A painful silence settled between them. More tears slipped from Iris’s eyes and she looked up at Zoey and whispered, "Was any of it real?"

Zoey frowned. "What do you mean?"

"My friendship with Vanessa... we’ve been friends for ten years....ten whole years. But she didn’t think twice to fuck my boyfriend behind my back. If she could do it without a second thought...then, was any of it, all the times we spent together...was it ever real?"

Zoey hesitated. "I don’t know Iris."

"The birthdays, the vacations, the sleepovers, the nights we stayed awake talking until sunrise."

Her voice cracked. "Were those fake too?"

Zoey took a long breath before answering honestly. "I think they were real once."

Iris looked at her.

"But somewhere along the way... she stopped valuing what she had. And maybe longed for what you had."

The simple answer hurt more than a lie ever could.

Zoey brushed damp strands of hair away from Iris’s face. "Listen to me carefully, i know seeing them together destroyed something inside you today."

She waited until Iris met her eyes.

"But you should know that this wasn’t your fault."

"It feels like it was."

"Feelings lie sometimes. You just trusted two people who didn’t deserve it."

"I should have noticed. The signs were there...I should have listened.."

"You shouldn’t have needed to. But regardless of everything...." She squeezed Iris’s hands harder. "Just know that you were enough. The wrong people simply failed to appreciate what they had."

She leaned closer. "And you are going to survive this."

"I don’t want to survive this. I just want to disappear right now." Iris said with tears in her eyes.

For a long moment Zoey stared at her, then suddenly she snapped her fingers. "Fine."

Iris blinked. "What?"

"Let’s disappear."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just for tonight." A mischievous spark appeared in Zoey’s eyes. "We’re burning this miserable day to the ground and we’re starting over again in the morning."

Iris stared at her in confusion. "I can’t."

"Yes, you can."

"Zoey my whole world just fell apart." Iris complained through her tears.

"Ahh huh....and yet the earth keeps spinning."

"Zoey..."

"So what if you caught them cheating? So what if your best friend of ten years stabbed you in the back? So what?"

She stood and planted both hands on her hips. "Are you really going to let two selfish people decide how the rest of your life goes?"

Then she added more gently, "Your life doesn’t end because your boyfriend cheated."

She tilted her head. "He is your ex-boyfriend now... right?"

Iris actually scoffed. "Of course he is. Do you honestly think I’d go back to him after what I saw with my own eyes?"

"Excellent." Zoey clapped once. "Good riddance to the golden boy."

She marched toward Iris’s bedroom and pointed dramatically inside.

"Now you’re going to get off this couch, take the hottest shower known to mankind, wash every trace of that idiot off your skin, and put on something that makes you feel like the goddess you forgot you are."

Iris frowned. "And then what?"

"And then, we’re going to Obsidian."

Iris’s eyes widened.. "The club? Zoey, that place is impossible to get into."

Zoey grinned triumphantly before pulling a sleek black VIP card from her pocket. "Not when your ex-girlfriend’s sister happens to be one of the VIP hosts."

She waved the card between her fingers. "Tonight you’re not thinking about Jason and you’re not thinking about Vanessa"

She tucked the card back into her pocket and smiled softly. "Tonight, you’re only thinking about yourself. And damm them both to hell."

Iris lowered her gaze to her trembling hands and the red dress she was currently wearing. Her ruined makeup, and the shattered pieces of her heart.

Maybe Zoey was right. Maybe she didn’t have to heal tonight, maybe surviving the night was enough.

One night to forget, one night to breathe and one night to pretend that her heart wasn’t lying in pieces.

She slowly lifted her head. "Okay, I’ll go." she whispered.

Zoey smiled. "That’s my girl."

Neither of them knew that the decision Iris had just made would become the turning point of her entire life.