Until Dahlia Blooms

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Translations:

[Sri Lankan - Thathi: Dad, Amma: Mom.]
[French - Mémé: Grandma, Chérie: Darling, Belle-Mère: Mother-in-law.]

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One would have thought that once you've graduated, you should already have a plan of what you're going to do in your future. As for me, the plan was already set out by my father since the day I was born; become a surgeon.

Being a neurosurgeon himself, Thathi didn't exactly want his children to become anything other than a medical professional or someone respectable--like an engineer. The typical South Asian parent. My brother, being the perfect son, progressed on to become a cardiologist, leaving Thathi's focus on me and that was nerve-wracking, to say the least.

Daniel was walking on the path paved for him. Meanwhile, what was I doing?

Well, I was just going with the flow. I knew that no matter how much I tried to speak up, Thathi would never understand me. So I let myself drift away with the hope of never disappointing him.

But it all changed when my life took a wild turn.

Two weeks after graduating from high school, it was my nineteenth birthday party. People were everywhere, I didn't even know I had that many friends. Although, now that I think about it, most of them probably only came for the free food. Obviously.

Anyway, everyone was having the time of their lives. Everyone, except me, that was. I was alone, wondering where my best friend, Tasha, and my boyfriend, Devon, had disappeared to.

I was pretty sure they were with me before I went to the kitchen to get myself some water. But glancing around the crowded living room, they were nowhere to be seen.

Either they were abducted by some Area 51 alien or they were so bored out of their wits that they decided to sneak out and go home. I mean, sure, they're my closest people, but, trust me, I would have left the party too if it was this boring.

Pondering where they were, I trudged up to my room to find it empty. Noticing my curtains being draped open, I walked over to the window to close it up.

That's when I saw them.

My two most trusted peers. My boyfriend of two years and my best friend of more than four years; having a steamy make-out session in his car.

And at that moment, my mind went blank. It literally went blank like the time I found out my math paper was double-sided when there were only five minutes left for the exam to be over.

I immediately closed the curtains and pressed my back against the window, trying to calm down--breathing in and slowly breathing out. It was funny how my lungs felt empty since I usually only felt that during gym class or when I was climbing the stairs. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be breathless finding out my boyfriend was cheating on me. Then again, I would never have thought he would cheat on me anyway.

Once my anger had subsided and I was like forty percent sure I was in control, I stomped out. Frankly, if I was in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, the steam billowing out from my ears would have been visible. Yes, I was that mad.

It was my birthday, for God's sake! I mean, okay, I should have known something was going on between them. Heck, there were dozens of hints. It was like a scavenger hunt for hints the past few months, except you didn't really have to hunt for the hints. They were right there, waving 'Hello' at your face and holding a big red flag.