Chapter 2
1763 Words
“You seriously did it?!” Cherry exclaimed, her hands flying to her mouth. “Oh my goodness.”
“Oh my gosh, I can't believe you really showed him the papers.” Charlotte said, her tone coming out more with excitement than sympathy.
Of course, I'd expect that from her.
Caley reached for my hand from across the restaurant table, squeezing it with nothing but care and concern.
“And how do you feel? It must hurt a lot, right?” She asked the question I'd expected from her.
The four of us were best friends.
Had been since we were in kindergarten.
Charlotte was the only wealthy one among us at that time, and so she was always there to help with our financial needs. Especially Caley and I (as we were the least financially stable ones)
She was a great friend when it came to money issues.
Oh but she could be annoying sometimes.
All the times, when it came to Cherry.
The four of us were practically like sisters and considered one other that way.
Caley was the one who offer great advice to the group. But of course, we were the types who rarely gave heed to the smart ones.
That was a mistake I made when I'd (as always) ignored her advice.
Six years ago, at the age of nineteen, Charlotte had called to let me know Henry had moved to her neighborhood.
The extent of my obsession towards him, I didn't live in New York, but in Louisiana.
But when she'd called, I'd pleaded with her to let me live with her just so I could see him every single day.
She had accepted as she lived in a huge duplex with Caley (who needed a place to stay desperately and pleaded with Charlotte to take her in which she accepted without hesitation) as a roommate.
She accepted, and so I crazily drove all the way from Louisiana to New York just to live with her and get to see my (everyone's) prince charming.
Cherry also lived around the area and so the three of us would drool at how handsome he was whenever his car drove past us.
Yeah, it's three of us as Caley wasn't one for celebrity crushes.
Okay, let me make some corrections.
So when I'd said every female in the world was attracted to Henry, I'd forgotten to exclude her.
She wasn't in for celebrity crush and all.
Which was why she always found us crazy when we'd wake up early so we could come out and take pictures of his car passing.
She'd shake her head because after all the early waking, we'd only get to see him pass for about two seconds where he wouldn't even acknowledge our presence.
If it was some kind of novel, she'd have been the one to end up getting married to him, then fall on love later.
But no, he chose me.
One of his admires.
Why?
It all happened on a particular fateful day when the four of us were heading out, and we noticed his car coming from a distance.
As always, we'd picked up our phones and began taking pictures with many others.
Just for his car to come to a surprising halt.
Something that had never happened before.
We'd squealed like teenagers (well, except Caley), especially when the car door suddenly opened and he walked out of it.
Like what?!
Our celebrity crush that we'd been capturing from afar for five years had just suddenly stopped his car, and not only did he do that, but he came out of it and was staring at us all.
Worse of all, not only was he doing that, but was heading towards us.
We'd screamed our lives out, thinking he was just going to walk past us and we'd get a whiff of his scent.
To break our brains, he stopped right in front of us.
At that moment, many more people were filming.
Some actually mustering the courage to ask for his autograph (which he obviously ignored).
Just like the others, I'd planned to ask for his autograph, thinking I'd get lucky.
Oh, but I got very lucky.
He, all of a sudden, pulled me by the waist in public.
Public!!!
My crush of who knows how long, pulled me by the waist in public!!!
The squeals had erupted into a volcano as many more began taking videos.
I thought I was going to collapse.
It felt like my long last dream had come to reality.
That day, I saw myself as the happiest person on earth, thinking the moment couldn't get any better.
But it had.
He'd leaned closer, our cheeks brushing as he whispered into my ear, asking if I was willing to marry him.
I thought I was going to melt at that moment. It was certainly the best day of my life.
Before I knew it, I was a bride the next week, walking down the aisle to Henry Smith in Louisiana.
If only I'd known who was I walking down to meet.
Caley had advised me to not get married and that it was only stupid to marry someone I knew nothing about.
We'd fought about it as I'd tried to convince her that I knew a lot about him (from social media).
How stupid was I to not have heeded to her advice.
But then that was why I loved her.
Even when I entered the pit, she was still there for me through all the difficulties.
She was the one who was convincing me to confront him about the divorce and after five months of procrastination (due to fear), I finally gave him the papers.
It wasn't like he could actually do anything to me, but I feared the rich.
I mean, he was a billionaire, he could just send ten men to get rid of me for ruining his image and to ensure that it doesn't get anywhere close to the public.
And they would.
That was what I feared.
“He said to wait another year so he can do some things to try ensure it doesn't affect his career and fame and all.” I explained.
That is, if I understood it myself.
But Charlotte didn't seem to care about understanding. Only the main point.
“Oh my, I can't believe you're actually going through with this.” She still had that not-so-hidden happiness in her tone.
I didn't blame her.
Every female was jealous that I'd ended up with him, and even though she knew how the marriage ended up being, I was sure she still always dreamt of being in my shoes.
“A year? Are you going to do it?” Cherry asked, hands no longer on her mouth as she shifted her chair towards mine to pat my back.
“Yeah, I also don't want to ruin his career.” I was sure they'd think I was stupid, but he spent eighteen years building his fame and who he was.
I didn't want to be the one to take it all down the drain.
“But—” Charlotte started, stopping when Caley placed a hand on her shoulder.
“I think you should do what you think is right, alright?” Caley gave me a small smile before releasing my hand.
There was an uncomfortable silence so I took a sip of my half empty glass of beer, then noticed.
“You aren't drinking?” I asked Cherry, whose glass laid untouched.
“Why? You pregnant or what?” Charlotte laughed at her own joke while the rest of us just rolled our eyes.
“Well, since we're done talking about Marie's divorce summary, I guess I can let you guys know that in thirty three weeks from now,”
Our eyes widened even before she'd completed it, “Stanley and I would be parents.”
Silence of surprised followed her words for a moment as we all processed her words.
Yeah, Cherry had her Stanley and yeah, she was dating him even when she was gawking over Henry, but that's just how every female was.
Married and single liked the guy.
But one thing I was certain about her was that, unlike me, if Henry had gone to meet her asking her to marry him, she'd have refused because of Stanley Kel, her husband.
They'd gotten married four months after I did.
At first we'd all assumed she'd be the first to get married in our group since they'd dated for four years, but well, I was the one.
Sometimes, I couldn't help the jealousy that would hit whenever she spoke about how perfect her marriage was.
But today, nothing like jealousy rested in me.
Especially when her eyes pooled to confirm it was true.
That seemed like permission for us.
Not caring that we were in a restaurant, the three of us jumped to our feet, squealing like children.
“Oh my gosh,” Charlotte pulled her up, throwing her into a tight hug, “you're really pregnant.”
Caley released her from the hug to throw her into an even tighter one. “I can't believe it, someone from our group will be giving birth.”
I stared at her belly, my insides bubbling with excitement. “Woah, there'll soon be a child running around and playing with unimportant things.”
We all giggled as we took our seats again.
Cherry's smile had grown wider as her black shoulder length hair kept swaying over her shoulder.
There was no doubting how pretty she was, with a small figure that one could already guess to be the confident type.
Brown eyes popped out the smooth round shape of her face, that was just as small as every part of her five feet five body.
Being three months older than Charlotte, she stood at twenty four, and they both fought like real twins would.
Caley was the eldest being twenty six, which we all assumed to be the reason she was the smartest of us all.
I stayed safely at the age in between, and not to brag, but I was always known to be the prettiest in our group.
Charlotte used to say it was the reason Henry had chosen me among all the others.
Because of my looks.
Even if that was why (which I doubted was true), we were finally going to separate in a year from now.
Now to try forget about him and focus on my pregnant friend.
- Writer
