The Devil in You

This is not a love story.

Ana pressed her fingertips to the grip of the pen, her brows furrowed. Her hair slipped over her eyes and she was forced to look up into those of her lawyer.

Pity was all she saw there.

“Just sign here,” he pressed his fingertip and pointed to where her name was printed “and here”, he moved his finger to the box ticked 'irreconcilable differences' where her name was also printed.

She signed, and handed the pen to him. “Looks like I'm Ana Volkov again, hey?”

Her lawyer's mouth stretched to a thin line. “I'm sorry, Ms Wa....Volkov.”

Ana smiled, standing up and picking up her handbag from next to the chair. “It'll take some getting used to.”

~

“Do you have any idea how many times I've told you? Divorce is great.” Ana watched as her best friend Alicia poured her another glass of wine, a bit too enthusiastically.

Alicia had been her best friend for ten years now, and for ten years, they had dinner together on every Wednesday of every week, never missed.

“I fear you are the only person I've ever met who has managed to describe divorce as 'great', Ali.”

Alicia stirred her plate of spaghetti, forking a mouthful and shoving it in her mouth as if she hadn't eaten in years. “Ivnawhasasex YEARS!”

“Maybe in English, dear.”

Alicia gulped, taking a sip of wine and twirling her fork around more spaggetti. “I haven't had so much sex in years, Ana, years.”

Alicia had divorced her ex-husband and now Ana's ex-brother in law, Mikey, after he was caught cheating on her with what Alicia described as a 'Teenage Whore from Mount Doom'. They had been divorced a whole year now, and Alicia had not had any firm relationships since – Ana swore she had not seen any man drooling at her feet more than once, and Alicia was loving it.

“I just can't believe that bastard decided to divorce you without even thinking, like as if you weren't together for six years.”

“Ali...” Ana hushed, rubbing her hand over her face, frustrated. “Don't be so mean.”

Alicia rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, because you're still in love with him, right? Well, you know first hand, you don't get any satisfaction loving a Way brother.”

Ana took a sip of her wine, looking around the restaurant for something, anything, to try and steer the topic away from the god damn Way brothers.

“Do we always have to eat Italian?” she grumbled.

“Yes, we do, we're in fucking Jersey, Ana, for Christ's sake.”

“I need to get away from fucking Jersey.” Ana sighed. She was done with her food, she wanted to eat something exotic, be someone exotic.

“Then do it, get away, get away from school, go on a holiday! I'm sure the school would let you take a couple of weeks off, considering you haven't taken a day off since you had food poisoning last April.” Alicia took another gulp of wine “In fact, I'd go with you if I wasn't going on tour.”

Ana looked thoughtfully at her creamy mushroom penne. Maybe she did need to go away, maybe she did need to get out of New Jersey and clear her head. “I guess...”

“Yes!” Alicia shrieked, raising her fists in the air, causing a few customers around them to turn around in surprise. “Yes...” she whispered more quietly.

Ana giggled, smoothing her skirt and raking a finger through her hair “Maybe I'll go to Vegas, get in touch with my wild side.”

Alicia wiggled her fork at her “No, not far enough, besides, they might be playing there.”

“Oh...”

She watched Alicia pull out her iPad from her bag and open the browser. “Va-caaa-tion...spots.” she mouthed as she typed the words into Google.

“Okay, so, first location that comes up, you shall be flying off to this weekend...”

“This weekend? I can't very well just jump on a plane and piss off to-”

“Yes you can.”

Alicia closed her eyes and twirled her finger around; Ana watched as the page changed a few times, and then her finger stopped. She opened her eyes.

“Fiji.”

“Fiji?”

“You are going to Fiji.”

Ana felt her heart start to beat furiously. Fear. Fear everywhere. But then she looked into her best friends determined eyes, those eyes that were determined to get her through this, that knew the pain that she felt.

A Way will not get her down.

“I am going to Fiji.”