April 13, 2010 (40)
2:45 p.m.
Evalynne’s Apartment

Addison and I finished putting the last of the groceries away just as the digital clock on the microwave switched to two-forty-five. And the moment we did, there was a loud pounding on the door of our apartment. Startled, I jumped and my breath caught in my throat. Addison looked just as taken aback.
I glanced at her with wide eyes and she looked back at me, her eyes just as big as mine. We stood there for a moment in a panicked silence, but the pounding just grew more frantic. “Open up the door, Evalynne!” Michael shouted from the hall.
“Wonderful,” I uttered under my breath when I heard his enraged voice.
“What does he want?” Addison asked me, looking terrified.
“I don’t know,” I replied. Nervously, I walked towards the door and opened it up. “Hey, Michael,” I greeted him, my fear audible in my voice.
Rather than replying, he pushed past me, walking right into my apartment. I shut the door behind him and turned to face him. But the moment I did, his strong hands were pushing my shoulders back until I was completely pressed up against the door. My head smacked against the wood of the door and I heard Addison gasp from the kitchen.
“What the hell are you doing?” I demanded, trying to squirm my way out of his grasp. He was much stronger than me though. Angrily, I whipped my head up to look at him. That was when I noticed that he had a black eye. “Oh no,” I murmured to myself.
“What did I tell you about giving away information about me to other people?” he demanded. “I don’t care if he’s your husband or not! Unless you want both him and Cole dead, you’d better learn to keep your mouth shut!”
I stood there with my mouth agape, but no words came out. When I glanced over at Addison, she looked completely shocked. “Your husband?” she whispered, her voice breathy. “I thought your husband was dead,”
“Oh, she didn’t tell you?” Michael remarked, narrowing his eyes at me as a haughty grin spread across his lips. “He’s alive. He’s actually pretending to be his twin. You know, Ashton, the one who’s really dead.”
“What?” she asked, looking right at me. Her green eyes were filled with hurt and guilt instantly washed over me. “How could you have kept this from me, Evalynne?”
“No, you don’t understand!” I cried. “I just found this out today!”
“Well you told me about it,” Michael said snidely. I knew he only said to hurt Addison even more, which really pissed me off.
“So you told Michael, but you didn’t tell me?” she demanded. Now she was growing angry. “Well thanks a lot! It’s great to know that I can’t even trust my own roommate!”
“Addison, please don’t be like this,” I pleaded. “I’m sorry,”
She was silent for a moment as she processed my apology. Then finally, she looked back up at me. “Did you two get back together?”
I bit my lip, not wanting to have to break it to her. But I knew I couldn’t just lie to her face. “Kind of,” I confessed.
“Wow, that’s pretty low,” Michael remarked. “Going behind your own roommate’s back like that…I never knew you were such a backstabber, Evalynne.”
“Yeah, either did I,” Addison added lividly. With that, she stormed off towards her room, slamming her bedroom door shut behind her.
Once she was gone, I looked back up at Michael, hating him more than ever now. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I shouted at him. “Why would you do that?”
“You told Ash about who I really am, which caused him to come over to my apartment and punch me in the face.” he informed me as if this was explanation enough. “I’m not sure what you see in him. He seems like a real p**** to me.” I clenched my teeth together to keep from snapping right back at him. I knew that wouldn’t be smart though so I just kept my mouth shut.
“So what did you do to him?” I asked worriedly.
“Don’t worry, I took care of him.” he stated evenly. My heart began to race as soon as he said this.
“What did you do?” I cried. “You better not have hurt him!”
“Whoa, calm down,” he said, laughing a bit at how wound up I was getting. The fact that he was laughing about that really made me want to hit him. “I didn’t hurt him. I simply filled him in on what he missed while he was gone.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to scan my brain for anything he might have said to Ash that would make him mad at me. “What did you tell him?”
A wicked smile spread across his lips and his dark eyes were filled with derisiveness. “I let him know just how unfaithful his loving wife has been to him. I told him all about how she slept with another man while he was away and didn’t even bother to tell him about it herself.”
“What?” I demanded. My heart was pounding heavily in my chest as I processed this. Michael had told Ash about Cole and I. This was beyond awful. This was like, tragic. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how angry Ash must’ve been when he found this out. He probably hated me now. He probably never wanted to see my face again.
“I was just doing him a favor, since you obviously weren’t going to tell him anytime soon.” he retorted. “But maybe now you’ll take my threats a little more seriously. If you tell anyone else about me, I promise you that I will kill both Ash and Cole. This is the last chance you’re getting, Evalynne. The only reason I didn’t kill Ash when he came to my door today was because he told me that you accidentally told him about me because you thought he already knew. You seem to have a bit of a problem with doing that, huh?”
I stood there in silence, much too infuriated to summon up a reply. Michael was truly taking my life and turning into a living hell. He was taking everything good I had left and making it into something terrible. I didn’t know what to do anymore. Michael had completely taken over my life. All I really wanted at that moment was to go to sleep and never wake up.
“Well I should probably start heading home, but just remember what I said. You tell anyone about me or Valerie and Ash and Cole both die. Got it?” he asked. I nodded back at him, still wordless. “Good. And don’t forget what I told you about Valerie either. You need to get some more information out of her. I want to know what she’s planning on doing after this pregnancy. I want to know if she thinks she’s just going to leave me once the baby is born. So can you do that for me?”
“Yeah,” I choked out, my mouth feeling dry and velvety.
“Good,” he repeated, grinning back at me. “You know, I wouldn’t have to be so…assertive if you’d just realize what a great team you and I would make. You have a certain sort of edge about you, Evalynne. I can see why all these guys have been falling for you. You’re different than a lot of other girls I’ve dated. You have something special about you. To be honest, I think you’d be perfect for me.”
I was completely and utterly disgusted with what Michael was saying to me simply because he was the one saying it. I really didn’t want to hear how he was into me for whatever sick, twisted reasons he had. I just wanted him to leave me the hell alone once and for all. It was pretty obvious that he wasn’t going to do that though.
I stood there, still backed up against the door, as his face moved closer and closer to mine. No way, I thought to myself. There was no way he was going to do this to me again. I turned my head away from him, silently praying that he wouldn’t try and kiss me like he did before. Luckily for me, he didn’t.
Instead, he began to twirl a strand of my hair around his index finger in a flirtatious manner. I stood there, my breathing short and choppy as his lips moved closer and closer to me. I was cringing now because of how close he was, and I could feel his warm, minty breath on my neck as he moved even closer. He let my hair drop back down onto my shoulder and lightly touched the back of his hand to my cheek. Before I knew it, I felt his smooth lips brush against my neck. They ran up the side of my face, stopping right before they reached my own lips.
That was when he finally pulled away.
“You know, you should really consider dumping Ash and Cole all together,” he stated. “I’d be so much better for you.”
“Trust me, you wouldn’t,” I remarked. “I love Ash, and Cole too. If I was to be with anyone, it would be one of them. It most definitely would never be you, I can promise you that. Now why don’t you do me a huge favor and get the hell out of my apartment?”
I turned and opened the front door so that he could leave, but he didn’t do that right away. First, he just stood there, staring back at me. Then finally, he spoke. “Well Ash is obviously going to leave you for what you did with Cole, and we both know very well that Cole’s just a cocky player who’s pretending to be in love with you so he can get more action from you. It seems that you’re two dream guys really aren’t all that great after all. Just face it already, you’d be better of with me.”
I felt my teeth clench together tightly as anger surged through me. I knew he was just trying to get in my head. He was just using his persuasive skills to try and get me to believe that he actually was the best guy for me. I knew better though. And I wasn’t about to fall for any of his tricks.
“Get out.” I commanded, my tone flat.
“Very well then,” he remarked. He walked past me and left the apartment, and I made sure to slam the door behind him. At that moment, Michael was scaring me even more than when he’d tried to kill me. Because he just kept talking about him being better for me than Ash and Cole. And for about a half of a second, I was beginning to believe him. That was what scared me the most.