Tween Shorties

Fixing Up the Broken Promise

    She was sitting alone in the streets under the cold breeze of winter wearing a lonely face. Suddenly, a guy approached her and offered her a drink but she didn’t respond. He then sat beside her.

    "Hi!" he started but she was still in silence. 

    "Uhmm...Are you okay?" he asked the girl.

     The girl looked at him with sad eyes. "Who are you?"

    "I'm Lance." he introduced himself and then smiled at her. "Why are you alone in this kind of place" he asked in a curious tone. 

    She answered nothing. After a long silence, tears fell from her green emerald eyes.

     "[ Oh no! ] I—I'm sorry! I knew I should not have said that. Just please calm down." he told her a bit panicking.

    "I can't!" she said in a low voice looking at him. "I can't because I can feel the pain! He left me alone without saying any reason. I hate him so much!! Why does he have to do that?"

    "Why? What happened?"

    "He left for France. He didn't say anything. He just left me. Why?... I don't remember doing something that could upset him. I did everything for him. I always contact him, tell him all what I do when he's not around. But suddenly, he vanished. Gone in the wind. Since last week! Without me knowing! Leaving me alone like a fool."

    She lost her energy that made her bowed her head. She raised her hands to cover up her face.

    "Calm down." he said once again to comfort her.

    He could only watch her crying. He knows what to do but he doesn't know if he has the right to do it that's why he resisted and just sat beside her. That's the only thing he can do that time.. to be the one beside her and to not leave her alone not like what her boyfriend did her.

     "[ I knew it. ] I'm sorry for what he has done to you. I know it hurts, but be strong. Cheer up, okay? He doesn't deserve those tears. So better fix yourself."

    Days passed and they both got closed to one another. After what her ex-boyfriend did to her, she now found the one who can cure her broken heart.

    Until one day, he brought her in a romantic place to confess his feelings for her. He is very nervous and feels a little shy and embarrass.

    "Wow! This place is really nice." she said in astonishment as she roam her eyes around the place full of simple yet elegant decorations. Then, her eyes were focused on the table for two.

    "Celinne..." She swiftly looked back at him as she heard him called out her name.

    "Ah—Yes?" she responded in an anxious voice.

    A short pause came between them as she was caught in his dark brown eyes.

    "l'll only say this once... so listen carefully." He said in trying to be comfortable as possible.

    ( "Why I am feeling tensed?" ) She just slowly nodded while still looking at him.

    "I love you."

     And again, there was a silence.. After quite a while, she manage to absorb what he said and slowly, her eyes widened and her lips parted.

    ("What—is the meaning of this?")

    A small curved formed in his lips as he saw her reaction then he spoke again in a sincere serious voice. "Please let me take care of you." And he held her hands. "I'll make sure you'll always be happy by my side."

    "Lance..." She was still in a shock state. In a flash, she remembered her past..her past that gives her the reason to be frightened in entering relationships. She was confused too because she knew to herself what answer she wanted to give him.

    Realizing the long silence between them, he thought she wasn't ready yet, but still he gave her his brilliant smile. "No need to answer yet. It's okay. I'll wait. No matter how long." He released her hands.

    Bugged by her feelings, she knew that he was disappointed. As she looked straight again in his eyes, she saw a full of hope..of love..

    "Promise me that you'll never leave and betray me!" she suddenly exclaimed.

     He was  a bit surprised with her answer.

    "I do love you too, Lance. So please, promise me!" she said convincing him.

    He wore that charming face again and smiled at her. He held her shoulders gently and pulled her to him and let her stay in his arms.

    "Promise me too.." 

    "I promise."

    From then on, they kept that promise with each other and lived happily not knowing that there will come a time to test themselves.

    It's a Saturday afternoon when she was passing by a coffee shop and suddenly went to a halt. She didn't expect that she will encounter her past again.

    "Celinne!" he said in excitement. He smiled at her and was about to give her a hug but then she spoke up. 

    "Stop and don't try to continue what you're thinking."

    "Celinne..W—why?"

    "You're asking me why?! You should have known what you've done!"

    "But I thought—"

    "Enough!"

    "I can't believe this! I'm the only one you've ever loved the most! You can't forget me that easily!" He smirked. "And what about everything we've done?"

    She frozed when she heard those words. She knew that all of those that came from his mouth were true.     She wanted to cry but she managed not to. She wanted to face him with courage.

    "You're wrong...After you left me without giving an explanation, after you made a fool out of me, after you let myself stucked alone waiting for you without assurance, I found you unforgivable. I can't believe I loved you. YOU! You destroyed my trust for you. But I think I'm still lucky. For I know that after you abandoned me, there was this person who pulled me up and gave me strength to finally leave that place."

    He was in a surprise..

    "Impossible!" He shouted angrily. "How can you—"

    "That's what you know! It's over! Don't think that my life still revolves around you! You're not that man anymore who can still control me. You do not desrve me!!" she cut him and at last she expressed her rage. 

    She turned her back to him and there came her tears rushing down her cheeks.

    He muttered in a low voice. "And who is this new guy?"

    She breathe in and said, "It's none of your business." 

    And she walked away with her heart broken again. She didn't know what  to do. As soon as she reached home, she headed to her room and there cried herself out. Still, the memories of them together were hunting her, telling her how much a waste she did to her life. It was kind of regrettable. She was pitying herself..

    The next day..

    "Hi!" he greeted her and she answered with a fake smile, but still he noticed it..that something wasn't right.

    "You okay?" he asked worriedly.

    "Ah—yes! Of course." she said avoiding his eyes.

    "Really? You can say it to me." he said in a convincing tone.

    Her face saddened, and she looked at him with her sorrowful eyes.

    "I saw him...yesterday." she declared and again, tears ran down her soft beautiful face and he was surprised with the news.

    [ What?! He's back!? ]

    "I'm sorry. It's just that when he is in front of me, all the pain are quickly coming back. I can't help it but-—I just want to end this now. I don't want to be hurt anymore."

    "I'm here. Don't worry." he embraced her. His straight face made him look like having a deep thought on something. [ I need to tell her now. ] He loosened his clasp to her and looked directly at her eyes. "I can help you. But first, I need to tell you something. You just have to listen, alright?" She nodded. "...I'm his cousin."

    A short deafening silence occured.

    ( Cousin?...Does this mean...he knew everything about him? )

    She remembered the first day they met and realized something.

    "You already knew why he left that time? You knew the whole story?"

    He slowly nodded.

    "Why didn't you tell me?" she questioned him unbelievably.

    He was looking at her with a serious face.

    "Because I can't take the pain if I saw you hurting again."

    "But I'm hurt again! Again and Again! Do all of you boys are meant to hurt us girls?"

    "You know that's not my intention!"

    "Not your intention?"

    "Definitely!"

    "Then what? Huh! You'd better said it earlier! Because  no matter what happens, there will come a time that I'll find it out."

    "You said it! There will come a time for you to know!"

    "But when? When the time that I feel no pain anymore?"

    "Yes!!"

    She was brought to speechless after that exchange of their sharp arguments.

    ( What—did he say? ) She cannot believe with what he meant.

    "Right!!.. We're over!"

    She was about to leave.

    "Celinne wait! What you're thinking right now is not what I meant. I did not want to say that—"

    "But you did!"

    She snapped out and he knew she was angry enough to let her true self out, however, he stayed calm.

    "You.." and tears started swelling up in her eyes "..you broke our promise. You betrayed me...from the very beginning!" and her tears finally ran down her cheeks.

    "So you're gonna break it too.. You're leaving me. Am I right?"

    She was once again stopped by him and her mouth was zipped close. A second thought came to her mind and she faced him straightly with confusion.

    ( Lance..you're right. But... )

    Her mind blanked out and so as her vision until she felt herself falling and the last thing she heard was a shout from him calling out her name.

    The next thing happened was she woke up from her bed feeling a headache remembering nothing. She leaned forward and sat down bending her knees up to her chest and resting her head together with her folded arms on top of it. At that moment, she was recalling her memorires until he appeared on her mind. She suddenly felt weak. She stayed there for a long time to think. Then she went down the kitchen and took a drink from a glass of water. She pulled one chair from the dining table and sat down.

    The night after, she was sitting on her study table beside her bed writing some articles when she heard the phone rang. She answered it and uttered a "Hello" but there was no response. After a moment..

    "Please let's have a talk."

    Like a lightning, she quickly recognized that voice from the other side of the line. She still felt depressed. She doesn't  know what to do and instead of answering, she flipped her phone off unintentionally. Panicking, she thought that it's too late for her to call back and tell him it's not her intention to cut that conversation because the first thing that entered her mind was the image that he's mad at her now.

    ( Geez! Why did I did that?! Oh! i***t!!)

    She stood up and made a turn and fell back to her soft bed. She raised her right hand where her phone is located and examined as if waiting for someone to call. Then she placed it above her chest following with the other hand and let out a depressing sigh.

    Few days passed. It was morning then and the sun was out turning every snow into melting ice. She went out to have a walk to feel the fresh and relaxing touch of the wind. Then she heard a voice who called out her name and was stunned. He remembered him more than anyone else even when not looking. Just the voice she thought...the voice her tiny ears were longing to hear.

    "He's here. He's there waiting for me to look back. We both know what had happened. I know I was mad at him that time when he didn't tell me the truth. I now realize the feeling I had before for the one I had loved first was now long gone. He's right. Totally! The pain has healed. I know that he wanted me to be happy that's why he said that. He's just being true. And I was the one who broke our promise. I betrayed him. I left him. But he will not. Because here he was. He's back... He's here fixing up the broken promise."

-- end --