Betrayed

Chapter 2 The revenge plan

Alex

One of the things I hate the most in the world is getting up early, especially when I had such a bad night, yesterday I got home super late because I stayed up with my friends joking around and drinking some alcohol at the party. After explaining my plan, they suggested I drink some alcohol to have a good time for a while, I reluctantly listened to them and played along. We all stayed up late drinking and joking around while they tried to cheer me up a little more.

I let out a sigh as I slowly moved away from the bed, sitting right in the corner, and taking a little time to think I considered falling back against the bed and going back to sleep, but my brain reminded me of all the things I had to do today and to accomplish each one of them I had to get out of bed right now.

Being an adult was not easy... When I tried to stand up, I felt like a drill was hitting my head, I shouldn't have drank so much last night, this was one of the reasons why alcohol was not one of my favorite drinks.

I walked out of my room shuffling my feet heavily, I stopped right in front of my living room, looking around my cozy little apartment, at short 20 years old I already owned an apartment of my own, I had two jobs and that made me feel proud of myself. I come from a low-income family, and in a way, I feel responsible for my family for that reason I have two jobs to help them financially, I also save money to someday be able to afford my college career, which is very expensive.

My biggest dream is to be an artist and musician but to achieve it I must study that career at the university, but the fees are not very economical to say, even so, I had the hope that someday I would meet that goal and so I would be closer and closer to my dream.

For now, I was very comfortable with the aspects of my life, I loved my two jobs, one of them was as a lead singer in the band HA-JK, a band that I started at the end of high school, one day out of nowhere I came up with the idea, I told my friends about it and the crazy ones followed my lead, who would have thought that now almost 3 years later we would be producing money with that teenage band, my second job was not so interesting, I simply worked in a bar in the city as a bartender.

Right now, I was getting ready to go out to work with the band, we had a few gigs today and as always I was supposed to help the guys carry the instruments. I shook my head a little, bringing me out of my thoughts, and forcing me back to reality. Already having my feet on the ground again, I directed my steps towards the kitchen, so I could prepare myself something to eat, I opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of cold milk, leaving it on the counter, then I turned to the shelves where I kept part of the food, when I opened it I took my favorite cereal box and that's my favorite breakfast is a cereal with milk, maybe it is not something very "independent adult" on my part, but in my defense, it possessed everything I loved in a meal: It is easy to make and delicious.

After I finished breakfast I headed to the bathroom, took a quick and refreshing shower, and then got dressed in my usual black clothes, which was like the "uniform" that my friends and I wore when the band had to perform somewhere, plus I felt that color suited me very well. Once I was dressed, I looked in the mirror, put on some lotion, combed my hair back, and finally, I was ready.

I took my keys and my phone, to go to the door of my small apartment, when I left the threshold I turned and locked the door, I walked down the long hallway, then down the stairs, and headed to the street where my friends were waiting for me in Hank's black minivan, as soon as they spotted me Hank honked the horn.

"Hurry up granny!" exclaimed Hank with his usual morning kindness.

I moved my legs a little faster and a few seconds later I was inside the minivan, once inside Hank started driving up the street. A few minutes later we were already at the first live music restaurant where we were going to play, we put the instruments down faster than usual because we were running a little late and that was how our day began.

The day flew by, faster than I would have liked, out of nowhere it was already 6:30 pm and we were gathering everything to head to one of the most famous live music restaurants, The Iridium. When we arrived the first thing, I did was inspect the place with my eyes, I checked it from top to bottom, and being sure that Shannon and Joshua had not arrived yet, I proceeded to head to the stage.

The guys arranged all the instruments on the stage, being ready to perform, I was very nervous, I turned my wrist to look at my watch and I could see that it was only 5 minutes to 7:00 pm, in a matter of minutes or even seconds Shannon and Joshua would be here.

Part of me wasn't ready to face Shannon, but if I didn't do it now, then it would never happen, so I steeled myself so I could get the show on the road. I motioned to my friends, to which they responded with a nod, grabbed my wireless microphone and moved to the back of the stage where no one could see me, dimmed the lights a bit, and then waited for the signal Jeray was supposed to give me to let me know Shannon had arrived.

After about 5 minutes I heard Jeray's drums giving me the intro of the song, so without hesitation, I started singing: "Pulled into your driveway again, We kissed, but it felt different, I should've seen it coming then..."

"Swore that you only had a crush, you told me that you would cut him off, I should've seen it coming then... " I sang remembering several lies she had told me.

"My friends all warned me I should run for the hills, But I defended you still, 'Cause I knew rumors could kill, oh..." I sang full of emotion, I clung a little tighter to the microphone preparing myself for what was coming.

"Oh, your secret's safe with me, and him, and all of our friends you told Oh, you don't even know I know, don't worry, cause I'm keepin' my mouth closed..." I sang to them then started walking and go out to the stage quickly, with my eyes I looked for Shannon, I found her just two tables away from the stage Perfect!

"Yeah, your secret's safe with me and him, and everyone else who knows Darlin', how could you be so cold? Don't worry, ‘cause I'm keepin' my mouth closed" I sang looking directly at Shannon's place.

I was moving my body to the rhythm of the music and letting my voice out with all the emotion I could, the audience started to notice it and they started to look at Shannon and Joshua while whispering, the very dumb ones could only look at each other while holding hands, but then maybe Shannon started to feel my gaze and everyone else's, because out of nowhere she turned and looked me straight in the eyes, an exclamation of amazement came from her lips, I just kept looking her in the eyes while singing at the top of my lungs.

"Yeah, your secret’s safe with me..." I sang, pointing my head at Joshua, Shannon seemed to understand everything, just with that simple phrase she understood that I already knew about her affair with Joshua.

"I hope you had your fun, Good for you foolin' everyone, you had me tricked for sixteen months Oh, your smoke and mirrors had me hypnotized, right in front of my eyes Well, I heard the truth last night..." I sang, remembering everything I had seen the night before, my heart ached a little, but I ignored it and kept singing.

People started to look at Shannon with more intensity because they started to understand that I was dedicating this song to her, I could almost hear the whispers from the audience... "no way, that girl cheated on the singer with the guy she's sitting next to her at the table!" "How shameless!" "If I were her, I'd be dying of embarrassment!"

I was more than sure that she was listening to every one of those whispers, because she looked at the people around her and then she looked at me with indignation, I gave her a challenging look and then she turned red as a tomato because of how furious she was, she grabbed her things got up from the chair and headed for the door with Joshua at her heels, but I wouldn't let her go so easily.

I ran off the stage and stood in front of the door blocking her way, we were face to face and none of that stopped me from singing: "Oh, your secret's safe with me" I moved closer to her and pointed my finger at myself "And him," I pointed my finger at Joshua "and all of our friends you told" I moved my finger making circles as if I was including everyone around us "Oh, you don't even know I know Don't worry, 'cause I'm keepin' my mouth closed… " I sang, placing my index finger on my lips as a sign that I was keeping silent "Yeah, your secret's safe with me And him, and everyone else who knows Darlin', how could you be so cold? Don't worry, 'cause I'm keepin' my mouth closed..."

"Alex, stop it, you're embarrassing me!" exclaimed Shannon angrily, as she tried to push me out the door, but I didn't move an inch.

"Cut it out bro, don't do this to Shannon" Joshua jumped into the conversation, I just gave him a withering look, I wouldn't stop, they deserved this, they had cheated on me and played with my feelings, but now I was the bad guy for just embarrassing them in front of people they didn't even know.

"When Woe is Me stops working, I bet your songs won't sound the same the truth you can't deny changed everything Oh, you can't hide behind what's clear as day..." I sang making a pity grimace with it, but then I smiled sarcastically.

I repeated the chorus once, feeling each lyric in my mouth, letting myself be guided by the music coming out of my friends' instruments, it felt liberating to face Shannon this way, somehow I felt freer and lighter.

"Yeah, your secret's safe with me and him, and all of our friends you told, yeah, your secret's safe with me and him, and all of our friends you told..." I sang to end the show "Yeah, your secret's safe with me."

My chest was rising up and down, catching the air I had lost singing at the top of my lungs, I ran my hand across my forehead pushing my hair away from my face, taking a deep breath steadying my breathing, and gaining a little courage to do what came next.

"And that was Secret by Joshua Bassett ladies and gentlemen" I spoke to the audience, giving a small bowl, not caring that I was right in front of Shannon, all the people in the place started clapping loudly, and we guys thanked them smiling.

Shannon gave me a look of a few friends, reminding me that I was still there, so I looked her straight in the eyes and said:

"We're done" I declared firmly "I don't want to date a cheater like you, who doesn't know what she wants, besides I'm repulsed by selfish people who only think of themselves."

"You're an i***t Alex Thomas!" she exclaimed more than furious, she was almost fuming out of her head "you're not going to get anyone like me in this world!"

"That's the idea honey, I don't want to be with someone like you, even if I was the last human being on earth, I wouldn't even consider it," I said sarcastically giving up in her face.

After saying that I moved to the side and gave her room to walk out the door, when I did that she didn't hesitate for a second, walking away from my sight and the judging eyes of the others, behind her went that i***t Joshua, but before he walked through the door I grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him against the wall, he let out a little shriek in shock, I was much taller and bigger than him, so he had something to be afraid of.

"And you never talk to me again in your life! Did you hear me, traitor?" I whispered against his ear with my voice full of rage, the poor guy was almost tempering, he just looked down and nodded his head, he was a complete coward, I let him go, and out of nowhere they disappeared and I didn't see a trace of them.

When I turned to look at my friends on the stage, people started to applaud us again, apparently, they liked the show we gave them, my friends smiled at me trying to influence me, they knew that ending a relationship of almost 4 years was not easy.

We thanked the people for their support and then we headed backstage, my friends gave me words of comfort and promised to support me in whatever I needed, after that we headed to Hank's house, we ate pizza with beer and played video games, just what I needed to forget about Shannon.