Five Years Later ......... And We Meet Again

4

Gerald came back to reality, and after he swallowed a few of water and a couple Adderalls, his thoughts came back together.

So for the past 18 hours, he was on Tess' room. Tess had feebly tried to fight him, and he naturally had her in her place. She cried her eyes out, he cried his in. They slept in each others' comfort. Oh, how he missed her scent. He was seated in front of her dressing mirror, and rather than be filled with beauty products, it was filled with several psychedelic drugs, legal and illegal.

What had he done, he thought guiltily. He looked up and saw Tess sat cross-legged on the bed. Her eyes were swollen beyond proportions, and his eyes were still perfect, compared to hers. Before last night he didn't know anyone could cry as hard as Tess did last night.

By now, she had changed into one of literally hundreds of her hoodies. A white Supreme this time. Gerald turned around from the mirror to face her. Nothing could possibly have broken the tension in the room at that moment.

Gerald tried to catch Tess' eyes, but just as she did to countless others on an unknown number of occasions, she expertly avoided his eyes. He sat still trying to catch her eyes and after 15 minutes of unsuccessful attempts, he gave up. He put his face in his hands. What's this shit with this girl.

She literally curled in my arms at night and then she wakes up playing some hard to get games. That's meant to be for the others, not him.

He rose, and as though she read his mind, which he suspected she did, she caught his eyes, and spoke.

'Why did you come back. In fact, why did leave in the first place.' She paused, studying his movements. He could feel her eyes' ferocity on his skin. He felt very awkward and weird.

That was because it usually the opposite that usually happened. He would be scolding her for something she did while she would guiltily stare around the room, her eyes catching his gaze here and there. Now here they were. Worse still, he couldn't bring himself to reply her. He had done far too much to even think of one.

What love can't do.

'You know, I never thought you were a coward. You asked me to marry you and I don't have my shit together and I say no. Next thing I hear, you are out of the country, No address, no phone number, you delete all social media. I mean what the hell Gerald. Your parents were of no help. Same as mine. And you know what, leaving this country for five years is cowardice. Nothing else.' She said, and she paused for a breather. You could hear her breath from outside the door. She sipped on her drink, and looked Gerald in the eyes again.

'There was and there still isn't no way in heaven that I would say yes to a proposal from you spontaneously. No way. You know it. It has nothing to do with love. Dude. We did this for like, what, our entire lives. This was what we did to all our friends week in, week out. So what I freaking said no. We were friends. Don't catch feelings. Even if you do, supress them. Over the years, a lot of people thought of us as couple. I myself thought of you as a boyfriend. It was just unspoken, but it was there, and you knew it. Tell me your friends didn't tease you about.

Gerald looked up and saw her face. She looked like a wounded tiger seeking revenge. Nothing like the crying mess that came here last night. Her eyes were ablaze with anger and fury. It was as though she cried all her emotions out and shook out all her fears during her spasms. It was near miraculous. Deep in him, he was scared of Tess. He knew she didn't take her revenge slightly. Well there she was. A frightening, angry, emotionless, girl. And she cut him out of his thoughts again.

"And worse still, you come back with a girl and a kid. The nerve. The audacity. Initially, I blamed. Hell, i did until yesterday. But you know what, fuck you. I don't care anymore. And after everything, you come and sit on my room like everything was fine. Like we were still in high school. You know what, just leave. Go." She almost screamed the last word.

Tess was shocked at her own confidence. She definitely didn't think she could pull it off without her breaking down. This was all planned during her drive and her sobs.

When she came back yesterday, she couldn't muster enough strength to chase him out, so she tried as much as possible to not give herself up to him. During her crying session, she decided to clear her head and think for herself. She realised that she wasn't really supposed to be crying because of him, rather she was supposed to cry because of how much she had hurt herself because if his cowardice.

If he wasn't so much of a coward, things might have been different. His loss.

She particularly loved the look of horror and shock on his face when she talked about the lady and the kid. Power moves baby.

Gerald was instantly depressed after everything that Tess had said, but he felt he at least owed her an explanation. So when he made for the door, rather than step out, he simply locked the door and leaned against it. He knew it was angering her, but he decided it was for the best.

'You see Tess, as you said, I am a coward. And yes my friends did tease me about you. But you know what they, teased me about, I was teased because I couldn't officially date you. I have always been in your shadow, Tess. You might not have known, but it was always you leading the way, and I had always followed your lead in everything, which is exactly why I couldn't be with anyone that wasn't you. Because you were never with anyone that wasn't me. You held me close, and yet you pushed me further away than anything. All the boys  who hanged with me, they were with me because they wanted to get close to you. There was nothing  else for us to do it talk about. It was always you. Nothing else.'

'It was simple. I loved you, and there was simply nothing I wouldn't do for you. So I stayed by you for all those years, suppressing my love for you just to be close to you. I was very careful, so that love never became hate or obsession or something along those lines.'

'That was the reason I left. I didn't want to see you or anything  that had anything to do with you, because if I did, all my emotions would just go dark. My trips gave me new views. New perspectives and now I am a much more mature person. So if you want to scold me for anything you say I did, go ahead. I just don't  want you to destroy the little strings of friendship that we have left.'

Gerald finished with an unreadable expression on his face, he knew it. He felt a sort of fulfillment in him. He had taken something that had been bothering him his entire life of his mind today. He never wanted to tell her, but she left him no choice.

'And finally the lady and the kid aren't mine. The lady had an abusive husband, and I got her out of her marriage. That's all. I can't just bring a girl and a kid back home after 5 years. It won't work, and you know it,' He said as he slammed the door.