20 TPN STORIES IN 20 DAYS CHALLENGE

Day 15 - The Shattered Heart of an Artist

[Submitted by @RividaRoses]

Nat was a confident person, charming on the edges and with a touch of coquetry. All this with a little bit of cowardice and doubts... He doubted on the subject of love, because he was in love with Anna, she who was his whole world, she who listened to him when he envied his whole family with his talent at the piano, he had learned for her, to amaze her and to make her smile, also to cheer her up when she was sad, these pieces he had learned were above all for her and he was happiest in the world to know that she didn't miss a single performance. He never exposed his feelings for the girl but as soon as he had the opportunity he was kind and friendly with her, he was someone on whom Anna could rely without any problem, he was her crutch, her support, her confidant... And conversely Anna returned his kindness, everything was fine in the best of worlds, and then everything changed when they were invited to listen to the door of this Krone... Since that night, their attention was no longer on each other but on an escape.

Nat was a little sad about the situation as he felt Anna slipping away but he relativized by telling himself that he will have an infinite number of opportunities to confess to her how he feels now that he knows he is not going to die at a much too young age, but the stress had built up and some nights he saw the scene of the future he was going to avoid: Him alone facing the portal looking death in the eyes knowing full well that he had no escape... and in that vile nightmare, his alter-ego also had a thought for Anna whom he visualized suffering the same fate. It was always at this moment that he woke up in shock... His first reflex was to look around and each time Anna was there, asleep with a peaceful and comforting look, and his tense face became normal and he was relaxed. He would go to get a glass of water and each time Anna would join him there because she knew what had happened. Nat was not used to having nightmares and if he got up from them, it was something very scary. And she would comfort him and from time to time they would end up sleeping together to support each other.

Time had passed since then... They were now escaped and could enjoy life and despite some scares and adventures, they had finally found a place to live for as long as they needed. Ray and Emma often went on missions together, and except for Don and Gilda, he and Anna were the two oldest... Nat thought about it often and after a while he had finally found and gathered the courage to propose to Anna. He had settled as usual at the piano before starting, but Anna was surprised by something, the tune he was playing told through its notes the epic of two lovers from their first meeting until the end of their days and Nat between two chords looked at Anna with a knowing smile, the girl was disconcerted and wondered if Nat was really serious...

Oh no... I'm going to hurt him so much...

It was the only thought that echoed in a loop in Anna's mind, but in spite of that, she forced herself to smile at the beautiful performance of her friend... She didn't realize that this smile was feeding Nat's hopes and that because of that, he would fall from even higher and that would hurt him much more than she dared to imagine...

Nat had then left his seat and headed towards the dormitories, greeting his family who were applauding him for his performance, he had left while taking his bow in a theatrical way, something that defined him very well... Theatrical and jovial, but straight and honest, that was Nat. Anna had joined him about ten minutes later, the time to clear her mind and find the courage to go and tell him the bad news.

But she had a defeated look on her face when she entered the room, Nat had obviously seen it and he knew... He didn't want to believe it... but he knew.

Ann: Nat... I thank you for the attention, it was beautiful and you didn't make any mistakes, to tell you the truth, if my heart didn't belong to someone else you would have made it but... you guessed it, the one I love is Ray. You are a wonderful friend Nat, no doubt about it and I wish it could last for the rest of our lives, but that will probably be the most I'm sorry... sorry to break your heart...

He had grabbed her hands and was smiling shyly.

Nat: Let's stay friends then, that's fine with me.

For the first time, Nat had just lied. He was emotionally destroyed, the one he believed to be his half had just announced his refusal, his whole body was pained... But he had strangely remained impassive in appearance.

And since that day, Nat built himself a role, a character. A version of him extremely confident and narcissistic, he exposed his qualities much more than before because he wanted to attract attention, he wanted to show everyone that negativity doesn't affected him as much as them, it was almost arrogant but he handled it in a very subtle way to find the fine line between confidence and arrogance. But on the inside, he hated that side of him. No... he hated himself for being like that, but he didn't give himself that choice, he never recovered from the huge slap that he received this day and it took a dozen of years to move on, he stayed close to Anna, but things were completely awkward between them, the confidence and the sincerity between them was gone since that day and despite the fact that they stayed friends... Things never have been the same between them.