Blessing in Disguise

Chapter 18: Nick the snitch

“You’re always being like this. You never listen! You don’t care!”

“But... But I am listening. Darcy, please..."

The woman didn’t want to listen to James. She picked up her bloggings, shoving them all in a duffle bag. When James walked to her, touching her arm to prevent her from leaving, she suddenly raised her hand and slapped him hard on the face. The long nails scratched the skin under his eye, leaving a scar there.

“Don’t touch me.” She screamed. With the duffle back hanging from her shoulder, Darcy walked out of the apartment.

***

Inside the silent apartment, the sound of his own heartbeat sounded particularly loud. It was as though the fluttering heart inside his ribcage was unable to calm down. As if it wanted to be heard loud and clear.

Thud, thud, thud...

James was leaning with his back against the door, behind which he could still hear Nyx. Her laughter... her silvery voice... it only poured oil to the fire, making his heartbeat uncontrollable. This feeling... it felt so foreign and familiar at the same time. It couldn’t be described with words. James just knew that he hadn’t felt like this before in his life.

Even after Nyx got inside her apartment, James couldn’t calm down. His body slipped down on the floor, bringing his knees to his chest. It was too much... too much... His face burned as he recalled Nyx’s face when she looked at him with her head titled. The strong reaction he had just because of being called “love” by her and being looked at by those amber eyes scared him.

First, he was bothered by Nyx avoiding him. Then by the fact that she and Nick hung out together. Now this...Nyx’s behaviour was too strange, and James couldn’t explain it, but he knew himself well. He would be a complete idiot if he still didn’t realize that he liked this blue-haired crackhead.

This worried him because if James knew only one thing about himself, it would be that he developed feelings for others way too easily, way too quickly. This had been a problem ever since he was young. Ever since middle school. Back then it wasn’t much of a big deal. He could always get over his crush if the relationship didn’t work. Liking someone and having his feelings not returned was something that James had gotten used to. It was nothing. It became a big deal when the girls he liked used his feelings against him.

He got hurt quite a lot like this. Even so, James couldn’t control his heart. He was a soft-hearted person and liked to see only the good in people. But this resulted into him overlooking the bad traits of these said people that took advantage of him. There were a couple of good relationships, but for one reason or the other, they didn’t last.
One of them was with his ex-wife Darcy.

He met Darcy when he was in university. The young woman was funny, beautiful and smiled a lot. James liked her smile a lot. Maybe it was because their relationship started a bit suddenly, feeling a bit rushed, but it didn’t last longer than a year. They broke up when Darcy finished her studies and started to work as an intern. James was two years younger than her and he still had to worry about his studies. They simply walked different paths after that.

A year later, James woke up in the hospital. The doctor by his bed, ignored his mother’s tears as he told him that he had amnesia. Just like that, four years of his memories were erased from his head. Like he never lived them.

James remembered looking at the door of the hospital room, waiting. Waiting for someone. Even when Neil told him what had happened during those four years he lost, he listened diligently, expecting something new to be introduced to him, but neither Neil nor his mother said anything.