Faking Alec

by Anders Grey

  He nodded but he was clearly shaken. I glared at the two other men furiously.

  “What the hell were you doing to him?” I demanded, turning my dagger-sharp stare on Mark.

  I felt Rowan’s hand gripping the back of my shirt, the gesture almost childlike. “Alec, that’s—”

  “We didn’t touch him,” Mark said as he shot me a foul look. “Even though he’s an eavesdropping little shitstain.”

  My eyes widened. That was the first time I’d heard Mark say anything openly derogatory about Rowan. He was his fiancée’s cousin, for fuck’s sake.

  I turned to the other man. He was my height but broader in the chest and radiated an unsettling, uncomfortable vibe.

  “Who are you?” I demanded.

  The man didn’t answer. His gaze slipped behind me to Rowan, who had frozen up from fear. That was enough for me to put the pieces together.

  I clenched my fists. “Kyle?”

  It took everything I had not to punch the guy in the face. After everything he’d done to Rowan, he had the nerve to show up here?

  “I’m allowed to be here,” Kyle said evenly. “I’m a friend of the family. Am I supposed to know who you are?”

  I bristled and straightened up like an animal making a threat display. “I’m Rowan’s boyfriend.”

  Kyle smiled. It was cold and ugly.

  “Oh,” he said. “So, you’re the fake boyfriend.”

  I hesitated and hoped Kyle wouldn’t notice. “I’m not a fake anything. Our relationship is real.”

  Kyle blinked calmly, obviously not believing anything I said. “I’m sure Rowan did a good job of convincing everyone you’re together, but you don’t have to lie to me. I know Rowan. I know he’s not outgoing enough to find a real boyfriend on such short notice.”

  Rowan’s hand tightened on my side. I felt him trembling.

  “Honestly, I’m surprised he came at all,” Kyle went on. “But imagine my surprise when I get an invitation to come to Tiffany’s wedding—and then have it redacted the next day.”

  I stiffened.

  The hotel room.

  Kaitlyn mentioned she intended to invite Kyle. Had she assumed Rowan was going to come alone and sent Kyle the invitation without telling him?

  “You weren’t supposed to be here,” Rowan muttered. I could tell he was trying to be brave, but I heard the slight waver in his voice, and judging by the shitty smirk on Kyle’s face, he did too.

  “I’m allowed to exist in a public space,” Kyle said simply. “It’s not my fault you’re bothered by my presence.” His voice softened, like the deadly lure on a fishhook. “I used to care about you, Rowan. You’re the one who broke us up, not me.”

  Rowan flinched, and my anger flared.

  “Why are you here? Just to antagonize Rowan?” I barked. “You weren’t invited. Get over it.”

  Kyle and Mark both looked surprised at my outburst. When they exchanged a glance at each other from the corners of their eyes, the gears began turning in my mind.

  “You’ve been here this whole time, haven’t you?” I began, taking a step forward. I wasn’t afraid of this asshole—especially not I felt so protective over Rowan.

  Kyle didn’t budge as I got in his face. Mark watched me warily.

  “You’re Mark’s big secret,” I went on as the mental picture reached clarity. “You’re the one whose been lurking in the shadows. Are you two working together to harass Rowan? What the hell’s the matter with you?”

  Kyle’s eyes were cold and hard, almost inhuman.

  “Alec,” Rowan began. “They—”

  Before Rowan could finish, a sharp pain exploded across my face. Kyle had punched me in the nose.

  Mark turned on Kyle and snapped, “What the fuck are you doing?”

  I staggered back, momentarily stunned by the pain. I grunted and brought a hand up to my hand. Blood trickled down my lip.

  “Alec!” Rowan cried.

  Kyle grimaced, a flash of regret on his face. He seemed to have come to his senses. He backed off, but of course, he didn’t apologize.

  “Alec, are you okay?” Rowan asked, his eyes wide and fearful.

  “Fine,” I said, wiping the blood on my arm. It would stain my shirt, but I didn’t care about that right now. The only thing on my mind was dealing with Kyle.

  “We should go and tell my family,” Rowan said, shooting Kyle a glare.

  “Who’s going to believe you?” Kyle asked.

  “What?” I growled.

  After shaking off his fist, Kyle slipped both hands in his pockets.

  “I’m a friend of the family,” Kyle said smoothly. “And exactly who are you, Alec? Mark’s ex? I’m sure that’s going to go over well. The ex-boyfriend of the groom-to-be, who randomly showed up right before the wedding, who nobody except Rowan can vouch for.”

  Dread coiled in the pit of my stomach.

  “I don’t think its farfetched to imagine a bitter, scorned man starting a fight on the eve of his ex’s wedding, especially after a few drinks,” Kyle went on.

  He’s talking about me and Mark, I realized with a sinking feeling.

  “Hell, maybe you only agreed to be Rowan’s date in order to get your revenge on Mark,” Kyle said.

  “That’s a lie! And besides, you’re the one who punched him!” Rowan exclaimed, trembling with fury.

  Kyle shrugged. “I was only trying to break up a fight. When I saw Alec attacking my friend Mark, I intervened. When he turned on me, I hit him once in self-defense.”

  My jaw dropped. Kyle had already woven a cover story. The worst part was that it sounded believable. Would Rowan’s family really take Kyle’s word over mine?

  “You asshole,” Rowan spat.

  Kyle ignored him, still looking at me with those cold, dead eyes. The guy gave me the fucking creeps.

  “You don’t have any proof,” Kyle said simply. “Good luck getting anyone to believe you.”

  As I stood there in disbelief, Kyle slithered past us. He gave Mark a half-hearted wave and left the restroom. Mark shot us a dark look—smug, arrogant, knowing he’d won—before joining him.

  Rowan’s face was defeated when he glanced up at me. The encounter had shaken him.

  And after my very first run-in with Kyle, I was inexplicably shaken, too.

  27

  Rowan

  My knees shook and threatened to give out. Cold, clammy sweat clung to my palms no matter how many times I wiped them on my pants.

  “Fuck,” I said. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

  The more I kept muttering, the more I expected Alec to comfort me. But he didn’t offer anything. He only stared at the wall, apparently just as rattled as I was. Blood continued to trickle down his nose, and he didn’t even bother wiping it away anymore.

  “What are we supposed to do?” I demanded.

  “What can we do?” Alec said, sounding defeated. “Kyle was right. There’s no point in telling them what happened. Your family has no reason to believe me over him. They have a history. I don’t. Besides, Tiffany’s equally pissed at both of us, which doesn’t win me any points if the bride-to-be hates my guts.”

  Despite being unnerved by Kyle, I found myself bristling at Alec’s words. Why was he talking like this? It wasn’t like him.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, trying to be gentle. “Your nose is still bleeding.”

  “I’m fine,” he said mechanically.

  I frowned. When I reached up to wipe the blood away with my thumb, he didn’t push me away, but he didn’t react either. Something about his browbeaten behavior was strange.

  “Alec,” I said. “There’s something else I have to tell you.”

  He met my eyes, but his expression was glazed and distant—like a shell of Alec had taken over his body. I didn’t like it.

  Maybe I was overreacting. I mean, he did just get punched in the face. But this wasn’t the Alec I knew. Alec was brave, calm, and strong. Alec shrugged off hurdles. Alec was my rock.

  Somet
hing else was bothering him. Something he wasn’t telling me.

  “Did something happen?” I asked suddenly.

  “What?”

  “You seem—” I paused, searching for the right word. “Unsettled.”

  Alec blinked, coming back down to earth for a second. “I do?”

  I nodded slowly.

  “I’m fine,” he said after a moment of hesitation.

  I don’t believe you for a second.

  Suspicion cut me. After getting intimidated by Mark and Kyle, my brain was on red alert. All my senses were frayed and edgy, and Alec’s jumpy behavior wasn’t helping. Whatever was going on in his head, I wished he would just tell me.

  “What did you want to say?” he asked. There was some clarity in his eyes, like regular Alec was peeking through.

  Oh, right. That.

  “I think I know what’s going on,” I began. “But I’m not sure if you want to hear it.”

  He furrowed his brow. “What? Tell me.”

  I didn’t know why I was being cagey. Maybe it was because Alec started it, and now I was too nervous to trust him.

  Then I realized how fucking stupid I was being. I mentally cursed myself. Kyle’s sudden appearance had freaked me out badly, just like it did the night at the bar. But I didn’t want him to have this much control over me. I tried to shake off my jitters and steel myself.

  I looked into Alec’s eyes. I knew him. I trusted him. I couldn’t let Kyle’s influence on me poison my feelings for Alec.

  “I… Before you got here, I walked in on Mark and Kyle talking,” I said.

  Alec suddenly perked up, as if shaking off his own mental daze. “What happened?”

  I swallowed thickly. This wasn’t going to be easy to say.

  “Kyle was texting Mark during dinner,” I said. “Did you notice he kept his phone face down the whole time?”

  “I did.”

  “Well, that’s why. He didn’t want anyone to know.”

  Alec frowned, confusion muddying his expression. “But why?” His eyes suddenly snapped wide. “Wait. You don’t think—”

  “That’s exactly what I think,” I growled.

  A beat of silence passed as the idea sunk into Alec’s mind.

  “You think Mark is cheating on Tiffany with Kyle?” he asked quietly.

  I gave a stiff nod. “It explains everything. Why Kyle is here. Why Mark’s been acting so weird. Whenever he wasn’t with Tiffany, he must’ve been with Kyle.”

  Alec brought a hand up to rub his temple. “But why?”

  “I don’t know,” I said in exasperation. “Why do cheaters cheat? Why do abusers abuse?”

  Alec’s expression was grim. He sighed heavily. “You’re right. Maybe there’s no point in thinking about it.” The defeated glaze returned to his eyes. “But what can we even do? Tiffany already doesn’t believe us. I don’t think anyone else will, either. We don’t have any proof, and I’m pretty sure Tiffany’s finally going to kick us out if we accuse Mark one more time without it. Hell, she already told us she doesn’t even want us at the wedding.”

  I groaned in frustration. “I know.”

  “Did you see them do anything?”

  “No,” I admitted. “But it was pretty clear by the way they were talking to each other.”

  Alec stared at the wall distantly.

  When he didn’t say anything, I said, “We should go back to the table.”

  “What’s the point?” Alec mumbled. He shut his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. Some of the blood on his lip smeared but he didn’t seem to care. “Kyle was right. If I go out there now, everyone will ask what happened.”

  “No one’s gonna look that closely,” I said irritably. “Just wipe your face. It’ll be fine.”

  But Alec wasn’t listening. He was lost in whatever thoughts were plaguing him. It annoyed me that something was clearly on his mind, but he wouldn’t talk to me about it.

  “He’s probably out there spreading lies about me right now,” Alec went on like I hadn’t spoken. “Maybe I should just go without causing a scene.”

  I really didn’t like his sudden shift in tone. “What?”

  He turned for the door. “You stay here. I’m going back to the hotel. I’ll meet you there later.”

  “Alec, what the hell?”

  My jaw dropped. Alec didn’t have anything else to say. I stared as he walked past me. My voice wouldn’t work to call out for him, and he left without another word. Anger and frustration bubbled up inside me. I couldn’t believe him. I let out a snarl that echoed on the restroom tiles.

  “God!” I cried. “Fuck this!”

  I kicked the stainless-steel trashcan, which proved to be a mistake since it didn’t budge but sent a jolt of pain through my leg.

  A wave of anger and regret crashed into me. As if everything wasn’t bad enough, now Alec had to freak out and abandon me? What the hell was he thinking?

  Was everything he said a lie? A dark voice asked in the back of my mind. Was he telling the truth when he said he cared for me?

  I stood there, alone and fuming. The weight of all the problems in the world seemed to sink down on my shoulders and I crumpled to my knees with a frustrated sob.

  Maybe I should’ve chased after Alec and demanded answers, begged him not to leave.

  Maybe, maybe, maybe.

  Or maybe it would’ve been better if I never met Alec at all.

  I glanced down at my hand and frowned. A bit of Alec’s blood was still smeared on my fingers. I threw the door to the closest stall open to grab some toilet paper, then froze.

  A young man with blue hair sat with his legs drawn up on the toilet seat. He held his phone in one hand, like he’d been mindlessly scrolling it until I threw the door open. He blinked, looking just as shocked as I felt.

  We stared at each other for a beat of silence.

  “Uh,” I said. “Sorry.”

  “No prob,” he replied airily.

  When he saw the drops of blood on my hand, he pulled some toilet paper from the roll and handed it to me.

  I wiped my hands off in a daze. “Um. I know I just barged in on you and I’m being really rude, but have you been here the entire time?”

  “Yup.”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  “You don’t recognize me, do you?” the blue-haired guy asked. His tone was curious, not accusatory.

  “No,” I said cautiously. “Am I supposed to?”

  The guy grinned. “Nope. It’s easier if you don’t. Name’s Damian.”

  “Rowan,” I offered to be polite.

  Damian blew out a relieved sigh. “Well, I’m kinda glad you found me so I can finally leave the damn bathroom.”

  “Why didn’t you before?”

  Damian made a face. “I wanted to, but I was here since before those two meatheads showed up. Sometimes you just need to hide in the bathroom and look at your phone, y’know?”

  I nodded, understanding the need to a moment alone.

  “But then those guys—Mark and Kyle?” Damian rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I swear I’m not a creep, I just I kind of overheard anything while I was trapped in here.”

  “Wait,” I said. “You heard Mark and Kyle talking? Even before I got here?”

  “Sure did.” Damian raised a brow. “And, uh, I don’t mean to get all up in your business or anything, but I think you’re right about them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They were totally macking on each other.” Damian grimaced. “It was kinda gross, actually. I was afraid they were gonna start fucking on the bathroom floor or something.”

  My eyes widened. “They were kissing?”

  He nodded, holding up his hands. “Again, wasn’t being creepy. The wet, smacking sounds were just hard to ignore.” He paused and mumbled, “Okay, maybe I peeked through the stall a little bit.”

  My mind raced with a thousand thoughts. I was right. Mark had been cheating on Tiffany all along, and with Kyle of all fucking p
eople. It was like a sick joke. The situation seemed almost too ridiculous to be true but hearing the reality from a stranger solidified it. This was real. It was really happening.

  Damian frowned. “But then you showed up and that’s when I started to get freaked out.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah. Right before you got here, the dead-sounding guy—Kyle?—he wanted Mark’s attention, but Mark was arguing that they needed to lay low and that you were already suspicious of him.”

  I thought about Mark’s comment about the nonstop texting. It didn’t surprise me that Kyle pestered him until he finally got what he wanted.

  “When you showed up, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. I got a bad feeling about the whole thing,” Damian said, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve had a lot of bad run-ins with people, so I’m pretty good at being able to tell when some shit’s about to go down.” He lifted his phone, thumbing through it with a furrowed brow. “I’m glad it was useful this time.”

  He turned the phone around to show me the screen. He hit play.

  I gasped.

  Damian had taken a video of Kyle punching Alec. It was right there. Undeniable proof.

  “Damian,” I cried, hope rising in my chest. “This is—”

  “Awesome?” he said, grinning. “Yeah, I know. I caught that whole bit about uhn, you don’t have any proof. Well, suck it, Kyle. Here’s your proof. Asshole.”

  I laughed. “If you weren’t a stranger, I would hug you right now.”

  “I don’t recommend hugging me. I have enough restraining orders against groupies,” Damian said with an amused smirk.

  I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I was too ecstatic to care.

  “Do you have any other videos or photos?” I asked. “Maybe of Mark and Kyle kissing?”

  “Sorry,” Damian said with a sympathetic shrug. “I wish I did. I didn’t know there was gonna be a huge dramatic scene in the bathroom right in front of me, so I didn’t think to film it until it got tense.” He tapped his finger to his head. “Always good to have evidence.”

  “That’s okay. The video is good enough. Can you send it to me?”

  “Sure.”

  After exchanging contact info, I noticed Damian hadn’t filled out his last name. Maybe he didn’t want me to know, which was fine by me. I figured he was a celebrity or something based on the hints I had, but I didn’t want to make things awkward by asking, especially since he was doing me a huge favor.