The Hurt Business

Meeting My Girlfriend's Boyfriend

Isaac POV

15 years Ago

Spring, my favorite time of the year. Such a powerful metaphor of life is nature. After months of seemingly being dead, plants and animals alike, show life. Plants blossom, bees start clocking in for longer hours and bears emerge from their long naps.

I was always intrigued by the beauty of this season for as long as I can remember. Perhaps it reminds me of the times we would finally go out with my parents after long months of being closed in doors due to the unforgiving New South City cold.

I was born and raised in a stable upper middle class family by two very loving parents. My mom, very lovely woman, has been a teacher since she was 23 and my ol'man has been an entrepreneur since he was 15, selling little creatively reused trash in front of a supermarket. Now, my dad owns the supermarket he used to sell in front of and since he bought it, it has spread across the country and has seen unprecedented success.

Business became so good with him on the wheel, that he bought into hardware and clothing industries to increase his sources of income. During my free time, and by free time I mean every two hours IMMEDIATELY after school, I would work in any one of his businesses to learn about the workplace which I would one day inherit. I tried to hate the business, I really did, but there was something about convincing people that they wanted to buy a completely impractical appliance that appealed to me. Hence, I attend St.Vincent Business school right here in the St. Vincent university in New South City.

My mom had always been my closest friend until I became a teenage mutant joy assassin with my mood swings and my goth phase and please do not mention the year I became so desperate to lose my virginity before I was 18 that I ended up scaring away any potentially willing partner. Even though we weren't as close as we used to be, I could always count on her to be in my corner. She was the one who had dropped me off here in my first year because my father was on a business trip. She was also the one who shamelessly set me up with the queen of my heart, Isabel Santiago.

I remember that day clearly, my mom holding a box full of my lighter stuff headed to the dorms. Upon seeing how transfixed I was with the girl walking infront of us, she decided to ask the nice lady to walk me to my dorm because her leg was acting up. To say I was embarrassed is an understatement. Our chemistry was undeniable from the moment we met and have been going strong since.

Isabel was a goddess amongst mere mortals. Even the way she breathed was regal. She had an upright posture with her chin held high. Her smile always seemed controlled, no matter how much fun she was having. Her beautiful soul-seeing eyes were the stuff dreams are made up of. Ahh! And her lips. Her round, and full lips would render even the most eloquent of poets speechless. She was the only thing that I looked forward to at the start of any day and the person I dreaded being separated from whenever the day ended. Her image was so tattooed on my brain, that I was currently sitting on the school bench, notepad in hand, drawing a sketch of her for her birthday.

I wanted to surprise her earlier this year because she had told me that I had started to be predictable. Drawing and sketching are my distractions from whenever I feel like I am being overwhelmed.

Satisfied with what I had done, I impatiently jumped off the bench and marched over to her room. I was already creating senarios in my head of her seeing the portrait, getting excited that her totally unpredictable beast of a lover could draw her from memory alone. Then, she would weep softly for the heart felt romantic gesture before finally, being unable to stop herself from hungrily yet lovingly kissing me.

I smiled to myself and impossibly increased my strides with these thoughts.

When her dorm finally got into view, a feeling of satisfaction filled my soul. I knew that her classes on Wednesdays ended no earlier than 4pm so I was pretty confident she was not going to be home. I also knew that when she finally gave me a key to her room after months of asking, she had asked me never to go in unannounced due to her fear of me seeing her room unclean. However, announcing my arrival would defeat the whole point of the surprise. Besides, no amount of trash within that house would kill the love I had for Isabel.