LOVE AND GAMES

Levitating by Dua Lipa and DaBaby was playing and it was one of my best songs, so I stood up to join the wild crowd dancing. I actually came here with my boyfriend, but it has been a little over an hour and I have not seen him yet. I tried calling him, but it was not going through. "Tayla, I think you should come with me." My best friend Andrea said, her voice was shaky. Something had her worried. "Can it wait? This is my song." I said to her, pulling her to the dance floor so she could join me in dancing. "No, I don't think it can." She pressed. "Fine." I huffed and trailed behind her as she led me away from the dance floor. “Stubborn redhead." I muttered under my breath. "Heard that." She screamed so I could hear her over the loud music. "This better be good because you're making me miss out on great music." I shouted, hoping I was loud enough for her to hear me. Andrea did not respond, she just kept walking. She looked so serious with this 'woman on a mission look'. "Hurry." Andrea said, motioning for me to keep following her. The party was now in full swing and a lot of people were either completely wasted or very tipsy. You know how it goes, people doing the wildest and dumbest things which they will most likely regret the next day. Navigating through the crowd was a little hard. But eventually, Andrea stopped when we got to the door of one of the rooms upstairs. "What are we doing here?" I asked, slightly confused. "I apologize in advance for whatever you are about to see, but I think this is something you should know. I am your best friend and it is my duty to always look out for you and do what I know is best." Andrea said nervously. "You are being very dramatic, and that is scary." I said, hoping that whatever this was about, Andrea was simply overreacting. "Please promise me you will not do anything stupid." Andrea said, her big brown doe eyes pleading with me. "What do you-?" I was not able to finish my question because Andrea opened the door to the room. As soon as I looked in, I understood why she was so worried. Drey and Sylvia were on the bed making out and, judging by the lack of clothes, they were about moving forward to the next thing. "You promised." I yelled, trying my best to keep my face blank. Drey was my boyfriend or at least that's what I thought. "Oh please stop being so pathetic," Sylvia said, attaching herself to his right side like a leech. "Did you really think he would stick with someone like you? You're a total loser with 90's glasses on, no fashion sense, no popularity and just look at your body." She added, rubbing Drey's chest sensually. I could not believe this was happening. Andrea had warned me but I did not listen. "Say something." I said, looking at Drey. He looked away, his face showed guilt or was it annoyance from being interrupted? I couldn't tell. I stood there baffled, hoping desperately that this was all a bad dream. Hoping that Drey would give a reasonable excuse or at least apologize, but of course, that did not happen. Drey simply sat there not looking me in the eyes. He had now switched to an emotionless face, the same one he had when we first met. "Do yourself a favour and stop embarrassing yourself." Sylvia said, pointing at the door. I turned around and that is when I realized there was no music coming from downstairs anymore. Almost everyone at the party stood around the door trying to see what was going on. Some people were even making videos of what was going on. This was definitely going to make it to the headlines of school gossip, Drey was one of the 'populars'. "Drey." I whispered, not sure if I was audible enough. "Just go." He snapped. I looked up and irritation was written all over his face. I felt my heart breaking into pieces, but I could not cry here, not in front of him, not in front of the entire senior year. So, I used the last piece of dignity I had left and found my way out of the room. "Tayla wait." I heard Andrea shout. "I want to be alone." I said loud enough for her to hear. "Tayla please." She said and from the sound of her voice, it was obvious she was running after me. "Stop!! Just leave me alone." I yelled just as I got to the main entrance. Immediately Andrea stopped, she wore a sad look on her face. I knew that look so well...pity. I did not need anybody's pity, especially not hers. She told me right from the beginning to be very careful with Drey, but I did not listen. This was no one's fault except mine. I looked away from her, and walked to my car. All I wanted right now, was to be at home in bed, wrapped in my warm blanket. I could hear murmurs and snickers from other students as I drove off. I really hated high school drama but here I was, at the centre of it. After driving for about five minutes, I parked my car and took a few deep breaths. I needed to be calm when I got home, my mum would freak out if she sees me this way. It took a couple of deep breaths to remind myself that it would all be fine in the end. After a while, I felt better, so I started the car. I looked at my keychain and all the hurt returned. The keychain had been a gift from Drey for our three-month anniversary. "Screw you." I screamed, removing my keys from the keychain and throwing it out the window. I felt so bad, it was like someone was choking the living day lights out of my chest. I should not be in pain. I was not the one being unfaithful. But nothing makes sense when it comes to love.