Broken Hearts

Chapter Three

“What do you want?” I ask again, my eyes seething with rage. Suddenly, I started to have a headache. Bryce immediately panicked and called 911.

After being put on anesthesia and operated on for an hour and a half, Arabella was waiting for me. As soon as I was placed in my room and managed to open my eyes after the anesthesia wore off, she hugged me, careful not to hurt me more than I’ve already been. “Arabella?” I croaked. “What happened to me?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

“Shhhhhh,” she whispered. “No talking, all right? We can talk after.” Soon enough, Arabella’s watch beeped, notifying her that she had to work. “I have to go to work, all? Will you be here OK without me?”

“I’ll be fine,” I replied, not wanting her to be late for work. As soon as she left, someone came in. It was Bryce.

“Hadassah, are you all right?” Without saying a word, I just wanted him to hold me, but I knew he couldn't.

“I feel horrible,” But then I remembered what he did. “What are you doing here?” I asked, looking at him dead in the eye.

“You're my girlfriend. I had to see you.”

“You used me, Bryce. I didn't deserve that.”

“But you do deserve an explanation.”

“I already got it when told me that you used me for a bet. That's all I needed to hear.”

Heartbroken, he stood up. “Let me know when you come to your senses.” As he left, I started crying.

__

2 months later. . .

I was in my room after walking around the house. My dad was barely home. No one visited me, which was fine, I wanted to be alone. Too much drama, I thought. As I was on my phone, I noticed an unread text message from Bryce.

It said, 'I miss you. And since you deserve an explanation, here it is. After you left school, I went back inside to the cafeteria where the guys were. They saw that I liked you and told me that I was whipped and that if you liked me back and I was able to get you to lose your virginity, that I would be elected the teams' football captain. I asked you out, yes, I kissed you, yes. I don't know about you, but to me, that kiss was magical. After I went home, I decided to text the team and tell them that the bet was off, but I noticed that someone had a video of me jerking off in the locker room and they threatened to send it to the entire school if I didn't go through with the bet. And yes, I know how important it was for you to wait until marriage to have s*x, but you were pretty into it if my mind serves me right. Besides, I still want to be with you.'

After I read it, I decided to watch some TV to take my mind off of the pain. He probably does this to a lot of girls, I thought as I was watching Gilmore Girls. While I was watching the show, another text came in. As I read it, I got chills. It read, 'Hadassah, yes I know that you're still mad at me, but I just want to say that I'm sorry about how things ended with us, and I want to show you how much I’ve changed.'

Not thinking, I decided to text him back. 'You ruined my life; you don't deserve a second chance. Why should I believe you?' Suddenly, there was a knock at my door, and I found him standing there. “Hadassah, I wouldn't be standing here if I didn't believe in us and I do,” he whispered.

“Yeah right, you just want to use me again,” I sneered. He came closer to me, making me feel nervous. “What are you doing?” I stuttered.

“Trying to make you understand that I do want you and I will do everything in my power to get you to believe that,” he whispered in my ear. Having me against the wall, he grabbed my hands and pulled my arms over my head. As he kissed my neck, I moaned, wanting him once more. “You like that?” He asked.

“Yes,” I breathed. At that moment, just the way he made me feel was surreal. “Bryce?” I asked.

“Yes, my princess?” Suddenly, I wasn't feeling it anymore.

By now, we were sitting on the couch. “We should stop.” He looked at me, our foreheads touching, our lips inches away from brushing. “Bryce, I still want to wait until marriage to have sex.” I sighed as he studied my eyes. “What we did was bad, and I still want to get to know you as a person. Not as an object of your s****l greed.”

“All right,” he answered. “I want to marry you, so yes I am willing to wait.”

Hearing what he said, my eyes started watering. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I'm sure,” he answered as he cupped my face in his hand, drying up my tears.

__

2 years later. . .

I decided to let Arabella move in since the rent has gone up where she lives. I also needed someone to live with since Dad was living with his new girlfriend. Bryce hasn't contacted me like he's been avoiding me, ever since we graduated. I was at my house looking out at the full moon from the roof. He just said that to get into my pants and never contact me again, I thought. But I was sure about one thing like Bella Swan was about Edward, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

“What are you thinking about?” Arabella asked, scaring me.

I looked at her. “What? I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention.”

“I can tell.” She came over to where I was and sat down. “Thinking about him again?”

I sighed sadly as tears started forming in my eyes. “Is it that obvious? It's not like I can shut off my feelings for him.”

“Why can't you?”

"Do you remember Ethan?” She nodded. “Ever since I met Ethan, I just started to have feelings for him, to make me forget about Bryce, but after Ethan married, I just go back to Bryce. I don't even know if I’ll feel the same for another guy.” My lips trembling, I started crying. “He used me for s*x and then contacts me saying that he's sorry how he left things with us. What guy does that?”

“Every guy in existence.”

“You're lucky.”

“Why?” She laughed.

“Well, because you're not desperate like I am.”

“Oh, Asha.” She came closer and wrapped her arms around me as I cried. “You have to learn to love yourself before loving someone else.”

“You don't think I know that?” I breathed deeply to calm down. “I’m sorry.”

“It's OK.”

“It’s just that when I see everyone with their partners, I wonder why is everyone moving forward but me.”

“Your time will come.”

“You're right,” I sniffed. She got up and, helping me up, I lost my balance. As I fell, I felt something. Why was I floating? Something was holding me, but what? What? I thought. What was that?

Arabella came down to help me up. “What was that?”

“No idea,” I said as we walked into the house. I decided to text Bryce 'hi' but, to be honest, I instantly regret it. He doesn't love me, he f*****g left me after he used me, I thought. What was I thinking? After that, I decided to go to sleep.

__

The next morning. . .

I felt the rays of sunshine gleam into my room while I slept. Feeling the beauty of the sun on my skin, like it was kissing away my every worry, it made me think about how much i've missed while I’ve been worrying about Bryce. So, since it was spring break, Arabella and I decided to pack up our suitcases and go to Aspen, Colorado, more specifically, Maroon Lake. The water tends to calm me down when I am in a crisis. Beauty surroundings this place like a caterpillar when it enters its cocoon, I thought.

Wearing a spring bohemian simple white dress, I sat down on the grass, contemplating the landscape. Fortunately, I had my iPad in my purse, so I decided to draft a few poems. I wrote a few before but I wanted to write something deeper, something with meaning, so I did. I didn't stop until Arabella said, “It's getting late.” I was so consumed by my writing; I didn't even bother to see that it was getting dark.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“It's past seven, almost eight.”

“That's how long I’ve been writing?”

“You were pretty inspired,” she replied as she helped me up.

“It's a good thing we decided to get away.” Finally, we were in the car. As Arabella turned on the ignition, I noticed a scar on her wrist. “Where did you get that?” I asked, concerned. Seeing as though I saw it, she just covered it up, not saying anything. “Arabella?”

“I don't want to talk about it, all right?!” She exasperated. She sped to the hotel and, as we went to our room, she sighed, trying to hold herself together. “My ex-husband used to come home drunk and beat me.”

“You were married? How come I didn't hear about it?” The elevator doors had opened, and we went to our room.

“I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.” Taking off her clothes, she sighed, “I'm going to take a shower. Then I'm going to bed. No questions.” Tears had tainted her face like paint on a canvas. As I sat there, I thought about my life and where it was headed. All I think about, even dream about, is him. Just as I was going to start crying, the shower had turned off and Arabella, my sweet Arabella, had gotten out. But when she went out the door to go to the front desk to complain about the freezing water in the shower, a mysterious man grabbed his gun and shot her in the abdomen.