Slipping Through the Cracks of Our Hearts

heart-to-heart

"What are you doing in my room?", Owen asks me. 

"I'm sorry, I thought this was the washroom." "It's okay, the washroom is down the hall and on the left there." He sounds sad when he talks to me.

I go to leave but I stop myself. 

"Actually Owen, can we talk?"

There's a knock.

"Dinner's ready Owen- Oh I'm so sorry, did I interrupt something?" It's Owen's mom. Shit it looks like we're trying to hookup or something. "No mom, nothing's going on! We'll be there in a sec.", Owen tells his mom. She just smiles and closes the door.

"Does she think we're dating Owen?" "Well she doesn't think we're dating but she doesn't know we don't talk anymore." "Oh my god Owen why would you do that?", I ask. "I don't know but we have to go eat now.", he tells me while getting up. "Can we still talk after?", I ask him. "You think you deserve an explanation?" "I just need to talk to you, that's all I'm asking." "Okay, meet me in the backyard after dinner." 

I nod as I head out to the dining room. 

Dinner was fantastic. There were plenty of food options and all cooked at a high level of perfection. I really appreciated this. "Thank you everyone for having me here and congratulations again Dan and Mel!", we all cheers and talk for a little bit after. Dan then goes on to explain how proud he is of their other son Jamie. 

"I want to thank Jamie for being such an amazing hard worker and an excellent candidate for our company, I'm proud of you son." "Thank you mom and dad, I couldn't have done this without you and your constant support.", Jamie says.

I smile while hearing their little speeches but that smile slowly starts to fade as I see Owen angrily storm off into the yard. 

"This was lovely, thank you all but I have to go now." I get up and follow Owen to the backyard. The yard is huge. I can't see Owen anywhere, as there's a huge garden with beautiful trees and plants everywhere. I walk through the garden and finally find Owen. He's sitting in a treehouse. 

"This is a cool spot", I tell him. He doesn't reply.

"Owen what's wrong?", I ask him while looking at him with a sad expression. 

"My parents don't really care about me. It's always been about Jamie. Oh, Jamie won the academic excellence award, Jamie works for mom and dad's company, Jamie is successful, Jamie this, Jamie that and never about me. They don't care about my football career or my love for music. They don't care about me period, and all because I'm not perfect like my brother. I've gone my whole life living in jealousy and envy. I turned away from my family and became more rebellious. There wasn't a point in trying anymore. Why would you continue to strive for excellence when you were never even seen as good enough by your parents? And especially dad. Holy fuck that man is hard on me. And yeah mom is a kind person and all but she never realizes how she hurts me too."

I just look at him and start crying. 

"I'm so sorry you've been going through this your whole life Owen, you don't deserve it." "Maybe you're wrong though, maybe I do deserve it. I never felt loved by my family, and this has caused me to be the cold-hearted player that I am, or that I was. I wasn't able to love anyone because I didn't know what love felt like to begin with. That is until I met you, but I couldn't even fucking keep you.

"Oh Owen, I love you!", I blurt out. He looks at me, speechless. 

"I fell in love with you almost instantly. I've never felt this way before either.", I say. "Why did you leave me for Blake then? Why did you have to fucking hurt me like that?", he responds. "You don't get it Owen. I never loved Blake." "What?"

"Blake and I used to date when we were young. And we dated for a while, fourteen to seventeen. I thought I loved him but I realized I just loved pretending I was in a happy relationship because I didn't want to be alone. But I was never happy with him. He's manipulative and abusive. He ruined my life Owen. You have to understand that leaving you was not my choice." "What do you mean?", he asks me. 

I begin to cry.

"No Islah please don't cry, I hate seeing you like this." He holds my face and wipes my tear away with his thumb. "Oh sorry I kinda took your makeup off." I cover my eye. "What are you doing Islah? Move your hand." I move my hand and reveal my bruised eye to Owen. "What the hell? Oh my god did Blake do this to you?! I'm gonna fucking kill him! Are you okay?"

"No I'm not okay Owen." I start crying again and he embraces me in a comforting hug. I then look up at him and he asks if he can kiss me. Without saying anything, I go in for the kiss. It was full of passion and love, as if you took two aligning puzzle pieces and put them together. After the kiss I smile and lay in his arms for a while.

"Don't worry Islah, I'm gonna get you out of this situation. Let's turn him in.", he tells me. 

"It's not that easy Owen." "Why not, it's obvious that he's hurt you." 

"There's something else I need to tell you."