your best american girl ✓

13 | miss americana & the heartbreak prince

"Lulu, open up. Please. It's really important," I call, pounding on the door to her apartment with a clenched fist. It took me approximately 30 minutes to walk here. Located on the outskirts of town, her place is near Cape Bedford's only wasteland. The building itself looks like it's going to fall apart any second. The walls are covered in a layer of grime, the elevator doesn't work, and all of the doors make an awful creaking noise when they open. Bits of chipped off paints are scattered on the cracked tiled floors. I know she's home, I saw her car parked in the garage.

I'm so lucky that they wrote her address down on the statements because I couldn't find anything about her online.

Frustrated, I claw at my scalp, leaning my shoulder against the window sill.

"Lulu. Open the door. Please, I'm begging you. We need to talk," I repeat, frantically turning the door knob.

Still, nothing.

"开门 [open the door]," I say, desperately resuming the erratic, ineffective knocking.

No response. Instead, there's shuffling on the other side, followed by a loud thudding noise.

With a long-winded sigh, I take a step back. "Lulu, I know what happened."

Minutes pass by, and I wait outside, hoping she'd come out. The ruckus has transformed into complete silence on the other end. Did she find an escape somehow?

I'm about to give up when she cracks open the door so the silver chained lock is extended to its fullest length. Hesitantly, she sticks her head out the crack, dark circles rounded under her eyes. Once she registers it's me outside her apartment, she frowns.

"Yes? Why are you here?" Her tone is calm but shaky.

I don't reply. Reaching over, I rip the silver chain off the door, using my foot to keep it open. With all my might, I push the wood so I'm given a full room of the apartment. She looks at me in horror but does little to stop me from letting myself through the threshold. Inside, there's a small leak dripping down the corner of her kitchen, but other than that, her living quarters are pretty damn clean. Unlike the complex, the walls are well kept and there's a puffy purple rug in the middle of her living room.

Wasting no time at all, I push past her, storming down the hallway. There's only 1 bedroom, but there's a mattress on the floor near the bathroom that hasn't been made, suggesting someone was sleeping there recently, and she must've not been expecting them.

Lulu rushes to follow me, throwing herself between me and the empty room. She extends an arm out, blocking me from fully entering. "Princess, you can't go—"

"Halle, I know you're in here!" I call out, anxiously looking around the rooms. She's not hidden in plain sight. There isn't enough furniture for that.

Lulu's eyes widen, and her jaw becomes unhinged. "No! You have been mistaken. There's no one else living here."

"Really?" I challenge, plucking a strand of blonde and pink hair off the pillow sitting idly on the makeshift bed. Halle's hair. "Because I know for a fact this is not yours."

Without another word, I head into the bedroom, despite her protests. This apartment isn't that big, so there are only so many places she can hide. Suddenly, a loud banging noise sounds from one of the white vented cabinets. It looks big enough to fit 3 people in it.

Found her.

Gingerly, I twist the knob open. Stuffed between a bunch of tribal printed blankets is a girl I recognize from a polaroid, except her previously ash brown hair has been cut into a pixie style and dyed a lavender color. That's not the only thing that's changed about her. Now, she has a spiky eyebrow piercing. Such a striking resemblance to her biological mother, so much so, that I'm ashamed I didn't notice it before. Same beauty mark on her cheekbone, glassy skin, and heart-shaped lips.