The Perfect Spiral

“Are your legs meant to feel like jelly after a workout? Because Jesus! I can’t even walk down the stairs properly.”

Andy whined while gripping onto the railings going down the stairs before leaving out the doors of the college gym.

She was never into the whole gym and exercise thing despite living in LA where there is nothing but that everywhere you look.

“Are you the same girl who can have sex for hours on end? Yet you’re struggling to do basic squats, sit-ups, and the tiniest amount of running!” I said back while raising an eyebrow teasingly.

Andy is one of my best friends in college, although she is older than me by two years I get along just peachy with her. She’s like a sister to me now! She’s studying to be a nurse while I’m in mechanical engineering.

I know, I know, engineering is an unusual course for a girl, but it was something I was born to do.

I grew up with three older brothers, Kyle, Cole, and Max, I was always playing with them instead of playing with my older sister Sam. I was a tom-boy growing up and still am to this day.

They put me through hell growing up but I became a feisty girl and nobody has messed with me twice, so I kind of owe it to them, but they will never know that.

Andy is my roommate in college, we don’t live on campus like we did the first year when we first met! I’m in UCLA a long way from where I grew up. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York City then moved because my parents divorced.

My mom remarried a guy called Eric Reed who is successful in his own right. I consider him more of a father than my own.

When my mom remarried, we all moved in with Eric into his house on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. That’s when we moved schools and began making new friends.

I only trusted one girl in that school! My best friend Hannah Williams, only because she wasn’t after my brother or any of his friends.

Oh, I’m Alex by the way. Alex Thompson, I’m the youngest of my brothers and sister, but also the smartest! See, I have this thing called a photographic memory which means I remember basically everything I read.

It comes in handy but has also landed me in trouble... especially in school, and that’s why I skipped two years. Well, I should’ve skipped more but my mom wanted me to have a “normal enough childhood.”

“Hello? Woman you need to stop zoning out! Did you hear anything I said?” Andy asked impatiently.

I’ve been up late most nights completing my assignments and reports, so the lack of sleep was starting to show.

My skin was rough, the black bags under my eyes, my left eye would start to twitch and my hair had been a mess before I showered today to tame it.

“Sorry! What did you say? I’m just so tired this week, been up all night trying to get my assignments in on time because you know how I love to leave everything until the last minute...” yawning at the end.

Andy and I like to communicate through sarcasm, it’s one of my favorite things about her. She’s quick and will put you right back inside your little box if you challenge her.

“Geez Al maybe you should just go home to bed and see Andrew in the morning? It’s not like he’s going anywhere...” She was clearly teasing me.

Andrew is my boyfriend. He’s studying medicine here at the same college but lives with his two best friends. We’ve been going out for about two years now, and I absolutely adore him.

He’s my dream guy! Tall, dark, and handsome! Not to mention ripped!! He’s from San Francisco and I honestly don’t know why he asked me out in the first place.

I mean, he literally had all the girls falling at his feet, even when I’m out with him they still do it.

You know the type, the ones who wear nonexistent dresses with the boobs jumping out asking the guys to “come have a squeeze.”

Their makeup overdone, batting their eyelashes, and grinding on anything with a dick... you get the picture!

“Nah! I’ll be fine, I want to surprise him because I haven’t seen him at all this week thanks to my workload... sometimes I question why I’m studying engineering?” I laugh at myself.

I’ll just stay a while and cook him some food and eat with him then head home to bed. My bed has been calling out for me since the middle of the week when I was up early mornings doing my work and hadn’t been to bed.

“You sure doll? I’ll be up anyway when you get in watching the new Scandal season, been dying to watch it all week! I should’ve studied law...

I would’ve been a badass lawyer! God I love Olivia Pope, she’s such a Queen!” she proudly states. She has a serious addiction to that show.

“Haha! Yeah.... suuuurrrre... Anywho, I’ll chat to you later! I’ll text you when I’m leaving his and when I’m coming back to the room so I won’t scare you like last time!”

I gave her a teasing look while smirking to try to hold my laughter in.

Two weeks ago, my phone ran out of battery and she was texting me to see where I was, and when I came into our apartment she attacked me with a cucumber...

Don’t ask why she had a cucumber at the ready, but she did! I had a bump on my head for a while but it went down after a few days.

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah whatever” she replied while holding up her middle finger.

“That’s not lady-like, now is it?”

I smirked at her while she replied, “Who said I was a lady Al? See ya later!” winking as she walked in the opposite direction to where I was headed to.

Laughing and shaking my head at her comment, I made my way to Andrew’s apartment. Walking down the dimly lit pathway, I see that there are a few people still walking around campus.

Some laughing and sitting on benches, while others are heavily making out with each other. Don’t get me wrong, making out is fun but not to the extent where people are chewing each other’s faces off, like come on!

I rolled my eyes and kept walking towards the apartment, kicking a pebble along the way distracting myself.

“Alex!” someone screamed in front of me, I snapped my head up to see who it was, meeting his dark brown eyes.

“Wes? Hey, what’s up?” I smiled up at him.

Wes is one of my brother’s best friends in high school, he always looked out for me in high school so nobody was bitchy to me and he’s doing the same in college, under strict orders from my brother!

They were all too protective of me and it used to annoy me, they still are and it still annoys me. They treat me like a China doll.

“Hey, Alex! Nothing much? Why are you out roaming around college this late?” he panted and stopped running while smiling down at me.

He is very tall and is very much loved by the girls on campus because of his athletic build. He plays soccer for the college but is currently injured at the moment so in his words “I can party every night now.”

He has one of the nicest sets of teeth I have ever seen in my life, he was wearing black basketball shorts and a top with no sleeves to match with dark blue down each side of him.

The beads of sweat sitting on his skin trickle down as he rests his hands on his hips to catch his breath.

“Oh, I was making my way over to Andrew’s apartment, I haven’t seen him all week so I’d like to see him seeing as I’ve done all my assignments for the next few weeks so I can not stress over thanksgiving!

Why are you out so late?” I answered him, he tensed up when I mentioned Andrew’s name. None of my brothers like Andrew, therefore none of their friends like Andrew.

But I don’t think my brothers will like anybody I date, so it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to.

I never dated in high school because

A) none of the boys were brave enough to talk to me because of my brothers and

B) I wasn’t your usual high school girl, I was kind of nerdy but I wasn’t at the same time, I was the girl who blended into the background, read books under a tree, and whatnot.

Wes looked at me dead in the eyes and sighed while running the back of his hand along his forehead to catch the sweat forming.

“You’re still going out with him?... All I’m going to say is that you can do so much better Al! He treats you so badly and -”

“I know you all don’t like Wes but I like him and that’s all I really care about,” I said in a nonchalant tone. He sighed once more while nodding his head.

“Anyway, I’m going to get going because I’m hungry and was just at the gym, so I’ll talk to you later?” I asked, breaking eye contact and stepping to the left of him so I could continue on.

But he held onto my upper arm. Making me look up at him again.

“You know I’m only looking out for you Al, right?” he stated, I nodded while looking ahead of me and kept walking.

“Oh, Alex! There’s a party tomorrow night if you and Andy want to come? I’ll text you both the details and you better come!... Oh! and wear a short little dress, you know how I love your legs in a dress” he said winking at me.

I rolled my eyes and I felt the heat crawling up my neck trying to reach my cheeks. Controlling it, I smirked at my response to him.

“Only if you wear one too Wes, you know how I love your lovely long tanned legs in those short dresses!...

Oh! and PS. Don’t forget the heels, it’ll make your butt look extra perky” I said, winking back at him while he grinned at me laughing and shaking his head, and I left him there to keep walking towards Andrews.

If my brothers heard the two of us we would both be scolded! He has a natural gift for making people feel better and that’s what he did!

I used to have a crush on Wes because he was so protective, we have always had this flirty thing but nothing ever happened or will ever happen. He’s the only one out of my brother Kyle’s friends that I like.

All the girls at my old high school used to just become friends with me to get to him because we were so close, I mean we used to sleep in the same bed together when I couldn’t sleep down in Savannah.

Get your heads out of the gutter, nothing ever happened, but he did give great cuddles! He’s always been protecting me and I’ve become so used to it!

I walked into the apartment block and greeted the doorman who is always polite to me, and headed straight to the elevator to press the button.

I usually take the stairs for some exercise but I couldn’t psych myself out for the stairs after the gym session. The elevator dinged indicating that it reached my floor and the door parted.

I pressed the 6th floor and waited while the awkward elevator music played.

Looking at my reflection in the doors, deciding to fix myself up a little, plumping my naturally wavy hair up and shifting up my jeans so they hug my figure better.

Shuffling around in my bag for the keys he gave me, the doors opened telling me I’d reached the floor and walked near the end of the hall.

I slide the keys in and opened the door. I shut it behind me and placed my bag down on the floor at the door and walked to the kitchen to see if he was there.

“Drew?” I called but he didn’t answer. “Dreeewww?” I sang and began walking to his room, where I heard “Oh yes! yes! yes! Don’t stop!”

I laughed a little while I listened! Last time I caught him watching porn we had really amazing sex. Like amazing.

“Fuck!” I heard him groan, and I couldn’t contain my laughter. Then I heard it. The realization of the fact that he wasn’t watching porn.

“Shiiiit Andrew! Right.... there!.... Mmmmm right there baby!” I felt the blood drain from my body as I stood there frozen, trembling, and doubted if I heard it right.

My hand rested on the handle of the material separating me from him. Them.

No! No! No! This is not happening right now! Without realizing what I was doing I swung the door open and saw it with my own eyes.

A girl was on top of him fully naked, boobs out and bouncing on him like she was on a pogo stick. “What the fuck?!?!?!” I suddenly said with the realization it had just flown out of my mouth.

They both snapped their heads around in my direction and the panic on Andrew’s face signified to me that he was indeed actually cheating on me.

He pushed her off him but it was too late, I saw everything, and I mean everything.

“Shit! Baby, it’s not what it looks like! Babe, just let me explain!” as the time ticked away the shock was beginning to wear off, now it was pure rage and my blood was boiling inside.

He was struggling to get off the bed and wrapped himself up in the sheets trying to make his way over to me. Staring at the girl who was on top of my boyfriend while she scrambled to find something to cover her body with.

Andrew was fumbling around a few times to try to find his boxers that he threw somewhere in the heat of the moment, he had the nerve to come over to me and try to hold my hand

“Babe I’m-,” smack, I had slapped him perfectly on the cheek. His whole head had snapped to the left, while I was still boiling up inside.

The sting was slowly creeping onto my hand and it began to throb. My hand was beginning to heat up from the blood being pumped around it from the sudden contact of his cheek.

“Baby, just let me exp-” oomph! His head snapped backward and my right hand was beginning to throb again but instead of in my palm it was on my knuckles. I just punched him.

Shit that hurts! Shaking my hand out to stop it from throbbing. I had realized I just punched Drew... I’m the one who always says “Violence is not the answer…” and yet here I am the biggest hypocrite of all.

I punched him right on the nose, hard enough that it’s actually bleeding and his hand is wrapped on it.

My only thought was to remind myself to thank my brothers for teaching me how to throw a proper punch, although countless times I told them I would never punch someone unless it’s self-defense.

“Don’t touch me you piece of cheating shit!” he winced at my words, and it shocked me too, I’m really not thinking before saying right now, it’s all just coming out of my mouth on its own.

I turned around to storm out the door, when I whirled around to see him trailing behind me cupping his nose with his tail between his legs like a puppy who was scolded for peeing in the new carpet.

“Don’t EVER talk to me again! I hope you’re happy! I thought I loved you! All you men are the same! Cheating pieces of shit!”

I laughed bitterly while tears began to form. I clutched onto the doorknob and twisted it open grabbing my bag from the floor ready to run.

“Alex, Please baby let’s talk about it, I love you so much! More than anything!” he muffled through his hand that he was holding over his nose.

“If you loved me that much you wouldn’t have some blonde bimbo bouncing on you Drew! There’s nothing more to talk about! You’re just sorry because you got caught!

WE’RE OVER! I’M DUMPING YOU!”

My rage was about to erupt even more if I didn’t leave soon. I will be throwing more than my fists if I don’t leave soon, and not just at him.

“Alex please baby I’m sorry it won’t happen again, I promise” he was basically crying to me trying to grab my hand again to pull me to him to comfort me.

Clearly, I can say I wasn’t having any of his bullshit. He was spewing lies upon lies.

“No Andrew! Once a cheater always a cheater, isn’t that the saying? We’re done! I gave you everything, and this is what you’ve done in return.

ENJOY MY SLOPPY SECONDS SLUT!” I called out to the girl still cowering away in his room. I took one last look at him, trying everything in my power not to cry in front of him.

I slammed the door and rushed into the elevator. Once it opened, my waterworks put Niagara falls to shame, plus I’m an ugly crier when I get going, so I was just highly attractive right now.

I took out my phone and dialed Andy through my blurred vision, waiting for her to pick up, she must be making dinner and not on her phone.

Sniffling in the elevator to stop myself from completely breaking down I end the call. So I called my other protector while pacing the elevator floor, catching a few glimpses of myself in the door reflection.

Ugh! You shouldn’t be crying over him, Alex!

“Hey Alex, what’s up?”

“Wes?” I sniffled through the phone. Hearing his voice set me off.