The morning after
1741 Words
Selene POV
The sunlight was the first thing that hit me.
Sharp, bright and completely unbothered by the fact my head felt like it was being banged.
I groaned and turned my face deeper into the pillow, but the light just kept coming through the curtains like it had a personal vendetta against me.
I forced my eyes open and froze.
This wasn't my apartment.
The room was too big. Dark furniture, gray walls, a ceiling I didn't recognize.
My stomach tightened immediately.
Where was I?
I pushed myself upright slowly—
“Ouch…" Pain shot straight through my skull. "Easy, Selene. Easy.”
Cold air slammed against my skin, and the moment I looked down?
My entire body went still.
I was completely naked.
“What the—” The words died in my throat as last night came rushing back in broken, messy flashes.
The club.
The vodka.
The stranger with silver in his beard.
His lips on mine and me… God help me… moaning into his ears like I had completely lost my mind.
“Holy Mary…” I pressed both hands over my face. “My goodness…”
I actually did it.
I slept with a total stranger that could've been my dad's age if he was still around.
How could I be that stupid? That reckless?
Then came the memory underneath all of it.
Mick.
Isabella.
The video.
It slammed back into my chest all over again, sharp as the first time, and suddenly I understood exactly how I ended up here.
A shaky breath left me.
I slowly lowered my hands from my face and that was when the duvet beside me shifted.
I turned my head.
And there he was.
Sleeping like he hadn't slept properly in weeks. One arm resting across the bed, completely unaware of the quiet panic happening three inches away from him.
The daylight made him look different from last night. The silver streaks in his beard were more visible now. His face was calm, relaxed, and…
I looked away quickly.
Okay.
I should leave before he wakes up.
I lifted the duvet off myself carefully and slid out of the bed one inch at a time, careful not to make a sound.
My dress was on the floor near the foot of the bed.
My bra was somewhere by the chair.
I cringed so hard internally I felt it in my bones.
There was absolutely no dignity left in this situation.
I grabbed everything off the floor as fast as I quietly could — bra, underwear, dress — and pulled it all on while keeping my back to the bed. My body still felt sore in ways I was not ready to think about right now.
I found my heels near the chair and my handbag on the small table by the door.
I checked inside quickly.
Phone. Wallet. Keys.
Great. At least I hadn't gotten robbed on top of everything else.
I reached for the door handle and paused.
Against my better judgment, I looked back at the stranger one more time.
He was still completely out. No sign of waking up anytime soon.
I didn't even know his name or anything about him.
“It was just one night, Selene.” I thought to myself. “A drunken, stupid, never-happening-again one night.”
I turned back to the door and slipped out quietly.
---
The drive to Isabella's apartment took eleven minutes.
I knew because I counted every single one of them, gripping the steering wheel the whole way like it was the only thing holding me together.
By the time I got to her door my hands were shaking so badly I almost missed the keypad twice.
“Come on…”
BEEP…
The third try worked.
I pushed the door so hard it slammed against the wall with the sound of a thunderstorm.
“You bitch.”
Isabella looked up from the dining table, a coffee mug halfway to her lips.
“Selene—”
“No.” I tossed my bag on the couch and walked straight toward her. “You don't get to say my name right now.”
I pulled up the video on my phone and shoved the screen in her face.
“Tell me this isn't you.”
She didn't answer.
“Tell me!” My voice cracked through the apartment. “Tell me this is some sick joke or some edited garbage or something!”
Still nothing.
She stared at the screen for a long moment, then slowly looked away.
“Say something, Isabella!”
She reached for her coffee.
Now, that ignited the flame burning inside me.
I grabbed her by the collar of her nightshirt and yanked her up from the chair. “What is wrong with you?” I screamed.
“Lower your voice,” she muttered with no remorse in her tone.
I stared at her. “You're seriously telling me to lower my voice right now?”
She tightened her jaw.
“I was planning our anniversary while you were in bed with my man!”
“Selene—”
“Do you know how stupid I felt?” Tears were already falling from my eyes and I couldn't stop them. “Do you have any idea—”
She pulled herself free from my grip and stepped back.
The guilt was all over her face now.
Good.
“How long?” I asked, my voice dropping low now.
She looked away.
“How long, Isabella?”
"…A while."
I laughed. That broken, hollow kind of laugh that doesn't come from anything funny.
“A while,” I repeated.
She said nothing.
“Oh my God.” I pressed my hand to my forehead. “Oh my God…”
“It wasn't supposed to happen,” she said quietly.
“Stop saying that!” I snapped. “People don't just accidentally fall into bed together!”
“I know—”
“Then explain it to me!” I shouted. “Because all I can see right now is my best friend sleeping with my boyfriend!”
The apartment went completely quiet.
Isabella ran a hand through her hair, frustrated, before looking at me.
“You think you were the only one he talked to?”
I frowned. “What does that even mean?”
“Every time you two fought,” she said carefully, “he came to me.”
My expression hardened. “No.”
“He did, Selene.”
“So what does that make you…?” I laughed bitterly. “His emotional support side chick?”
‘You don't know what you're talking about.”
“Then help me understand!” I was shouting again and I couldn't help it. “Because right now that's exactly what it looks like!”
Silence swallowed the room again.
“At first I told him to fix things with you,”she said after a moment, her voice quieter now.
I folded my arms, watching my own best friend explain how she betrayed. If someone had told me Isabella could do this to me, I would never have believed them.
“He'd come over after your fights,” she continued. ‘Or call in the middle of the night, venting, and I—”
“Stop.”
“Selene—”
“I said stop.”
Because I could already picture it and I hated that I could.
Isabella laughed suddenly, but there was nothing funny about it. “You want to know the crazy part?” She pressed her finger under her eyes. “I kept waiting for him to stop coming.”
I stared at her.
“But he never did.”
I clenched my fist tight, fighting the urge to square a punch to her face.
“I knew him before you,” she said quietly. “We had the same mutual friends before you two ever started dating. Our paths crossed a few times and I—” She paused for a while. “I liked him first, Selene. But I buried my feelings because it was you he wanted. Not me.”
A tear rolled down my cheek.
“And why am I only hearing this now?”
“What would have changed?” she snapped. “He still would've picked...”
SMACK!
The slap landed across her cheek before I could stop myself.
Her head snapped sideways.
My heart pounded faster as tears blurred my vision. “Was that enough reason to sleep with him?” I whispered.
Slowly, she turned back toward me whilst gripping her cheek but said nothing.
“I loved you like family,” I said, my voice trembling now. “I would've chosen you over any man, Bella. Any man. But you couldn't give me that same loyalty. Not even close.”
I grabbed my bag off the couch.
"Selene…"
I stopped at the door and looked back at her one last time.
“If you had any real love for me,” I said quietly, “you would've told me about your feelings before I had to find out through a s*x video.”
I walked out and slammed the door shut behind me.
----
I could barely make sense of anything as I curled up on my bathroom floor that night.
I used to see movies where betrayals like this happened but I never imagined I would be a victim one day.
Mick came knocking at my door some minutes back but I wasn't ready to hear another blow from him. The pain I was feeling was enough to last a whole century.
Suddenly my phone buzzed.
A text this time from Mick.
*Isabella told me everything. I know there's nothing I can say that would fix everything. I'm sorry, Selene. I really am.*
I read it once.
Then again.
I sat on the cold bathroom floor and cried harder than I ever did. The ugly, silent kind of crying where your whole body shakes but no sound dares to come out.
When it was finally over, I wiped my face, picked up my phone and blocked his number.
Then Isabella's and every single person connected to either of them.
I sat there for a while before walking to my closet and pulled out a suitcase.
There was nothing left for me in Miami.
I bet it was time to leave.
- Writer
