Confessions by Janice Collins

no reason for her to keep her mouth shut about being stared at so shamelessly by a person she had never even met before.
     
    “Is there a problem?”  Tina came into view as she took her place by her friend’s side. 
     
    She was trying to come off as a friendly person.  Aria wasn’t going to fall into the trap.  She wasn’t going to come off as the crazy, jealous current girlfriend of someone else’s ex and end up losing her friends.  She could feel the alcohol already starting to affect her.  Aria looked at Tina and forced a fake smile onto her face. 
     
    “ We don’t,” Aria said before turning back to her friend and saying, “But maybe he has a problem with me.  Or do you just really like my T-shirt?”
     
    The guy cleared his throat and looked at Tina as if Aria were behaving completely out of line when he had been the one staring at her for no reason.  He wasn’t just staring at her but looked to be studying her every move. 
     
    Aria scoffed and said, “You know what?  Whatever. If this is how you want to act, I’m not even going to deal with it.  So childish.”  Aria stalked off and went back to find John and Billy, but saw they were no longer in the same spot. 
     
    Instead, they had gathered around the entrance of the balcony along with Kay and had witnessed the entire exchange.  Billy stood there, expressionless, looking at Aria.  She had no idea what that meant so she just pushed past them and walked out of the apartment. 
     
    This was a nightmare.  She honestly thought she would be able to play it cool and had high hopes for the night running smoothly.  If anything she thought she might find herself comforting Billy while calming herself down internally with reassurances that his feelings and behavior were completely understandable.  Instead, she had polished off two drinks in less than two minutes and had caused a scene.  This is exactly what she wants , Aria thought with disgust.  She had to hand it to Tina, she hadn’t really done much yet had managed for this to be the turnout of the night.  The more she thought of it, the angrier she got.  After some time, Kay came out to join her in the hallway.
     
    “Billy thought you might not want to see him right now,” she said quietly as she leaned against the wall. 
     
    Aria looked over at her in total confusion.  “Why the hell would he think that?”
     
    Kay shrugged and responded, “He muttered something about this whole ordeal being his fault.  I don’t know, he didn’t really clarify.  He just went off with John to the room and they locked themselves in there.” 
     
    Aria grumbled and sunk down to a crouch, burying her head in her hands.  This really was a nightmare.  She had no way of knowing why Billy thought she didn’t want to see him right now and she didn’t think it was the best idea to go back inside and ask.  Instead, she decided to stay out in the hallway for a while and cool down. 
     
    “You don’t have to stay out here with me.”
     
    Kay shrugged, “I know.  But I’d rather stay her with you anyway.”
     
    “You know what?  This is stupid.  There is no reason I should have to stay out here like this.  Let’s go in a get a drink.”  Kay helped her up and the two of them went back into the apartment.  They went back into the kitchen and fixed their drinks before stepping into the living room.  Aria scanned the room and noticed Tina was nowhere to be found, but she did see her friend who was looking at her again.  This time, however, he turned away when he met Aria’s gaze. She could have sworn she saw him smirk before taking a sip of his drink. 
     
    Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed John talking to somebody who wasn’t Billy.  That’s when Aria started to feel uneasy.  She set her drink down on a table and swallowed the lump in her throat.  She had a nasty feeling sinking into her.  She looked around and saw neither Billy nor Tina anywhere.  She