flowers from 1970 (republish)

Chapter 13: time can do so much

It was 7:58 PM, and the phone was ringing.

George had awoken from his nap (that had gone on a bit longer than he initially planned) and ran to pick up. "Dream!" He exclaimed, a little too enthusiastic than he normally would greet. He had almost knocked the phone over because he had tugged on the cord a little too much.

There was a small scuffling before Dream responded, "Hello, George." He sat down, "I'm sorry I didn't call yesterday, or if you got worried. Sapnap just went through this horrible breakup with his girlfriend of two years, and I was over at his place trying to soothe his troubles."

George had never known what it was like to have his heart broken, mostly because he's never had someone to break it. He fidgeted with the phone cord and pulled the small table with the phone closer to him, "How is he holding up?" He asked, "I know romantic pain can have quite lasting effects."

Dream sniggered a little, which confused George as to what he found funny, "'Quite lasting effects'" Dream mimicked in a horrible impression of a British accent, "I like that. Anyway he's not in the best place right now but he's a tough guy, he'll get out of it soon. The girl was a big jerk anyway."

George had seen his old roommate Alex go through a breakup once before. He had been a rightful mess and hadn't eaten or slept well for weeks. He saw the cost of love if it didn't work out, it could change even the strongest and happiest of people. Of course George didn't get why it affected him so badly, or why it was something ever worth crying over.

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Alex had pulled the beanie of his head and collapsed on the gray, tattered sofa. He threw the beanie across the room and dug his hands forcefully into his hair. "She made me a promise, you know. She made so many promises and I was the one who was weary of them but you know what? I promised anyway." He turned to look at George, who's eyes were like lasers on his crumbling friend, "She made me promise and she goes ahead and becomes the one to break them. Why make promises you can't keep? It's bull."

George was a bit scared to approach him in such a fragile state, but he picked up his cat Luca of the sofa and onto the floor, and sat down next to Alex. "I-" He tried to begin, "I'm sorry, but I don't understand how you can be so angry at her for that but still love her at the same time. I'd expect you to be more cautious of feeling anything for her again."

"You don't understand, George," Alex snif led and made to wipe his nose with his jacket, but George quickly leaned over to grab a tissue from the box in the center of the table in front of them, "Thank you." He said as he took the tissue from George, "Being mad at someone you love is

almost always never enough for you to stop loving them. You can't spend so much of your time building a home for someone in your heart just to evict them all in ten seconds."

George nodded but still couldn't bring himself to understand, "If I were you, I'd have just tried to forget about her."

"That doesn't happen right away." Alex explained, "It takes time. Trust me George, one day you'll realize just how much of a villain time can be."

"What do you mean?"

"You can only go so long without having been hurt by love. When you're older and you experience it all for the first time, you get hurt more. You're not used to it, you don't know what to do, and you don't know who to blame. Everyone is going to tell you that time heals all wounds but in your head you're just thinking, 'all time does is throw salt on them', you feel all these things more because

you've never been hurt before, and you'll come to get angry at the person who did it to you because they're the first to have done so." Alex tried his best to let out while tears still fell down his face. George felt horrible. He was supposed to be the supportive friend, and Alex was the one helping him as if he was the one who just got heartbroken.