Project Barbie

1

February 14th, Valentine's Day.... That date will forever be engraved in my mind as the day I first felt my heart shatter into a million pieces. I couldn't forget the way my legs couldn't withstand my weight and kept trembling violently. The chocolate gift basket I had purchased minutes earlier fell out of my hands and crashed against the hardwood floor, the small chocolate pieces scattered across.

I was standing in our bedroom door frame, appalled. The blood on my face had completely disappeared, and I was as pale as death. There was this sensation in my stomach, I still can't explain it. I felt sick, I felt like throwing up due to the emotional pain. I clenched my stomach tightly.

There he was, the man I had loved for years. He was in our bed with his favorite college student;  a petite girl, her raven black hair braided. She was on top, smiling as she pleased the only person I truly cared about. Michael was rolling his eyes back, squeezing her ass tightly. They neither heard nor saw me come in, they were too busy doing their own thing.

It felt like I was watching this scene for an hour, that is until Michael's eyes wandered off. We locked eyes for a moment, and I will never forget the sheer panic on his face when he realized I was witnessing it all. He immediately shoved the small girl off of him, she shrieked a bit because of the shock and landed on her side, covering herself with the white sheets when she realized she was being watched.

"Chloè?!"

Tears immediately filled my eyes as I slammed the door behind him, running away from him as fast as I could. I could hear him desperately calling my name behind me, his footsteps were loud and nearby, but he missed me completely. Confrontation was not an option for me at that point, I had to leave as soon as possible.

"Chloe! Wait! Please!"

I got into my white car the moment he opened the front door to our house. I was already exiting the driveway, and for a split second, our eyes locked again, except this time it was a defeated look. We both knew it was the end, there was no turning back, and there were no possible excuses this time. I guess you can say both our hearts were broken, he had lost the only woman who ever cared about him due to his lustful desires. His own actions caused this.

When I finally reached my friend's house on the other side of town, I burst into tears. I laid my head down on my steering wheel, sobbing loudly. All I could ask myself was 'why'? Why did he throw away ten years for a single moment with this twenty-year-old college student? Why did he do it on the same bed we made love in? Why did he decide to risk everything, his job, his girlfriend, his life.... just for her?

There was a point where I couldn't keep crying even if I had wanted to, it was as if I had no tears left. I was physically and emotionally exhausted, but my heart kept racing at the same rate.

I was hesitant to ring my best friend Emma's door at first. She had told me from the minute I laid eyes on Michael, my now ex, that she didn't like him. Emma spent ten years straight staring at him with nasty looks every time he said something, she kept insinuating that Michael was dishonest and would eventually hurt me.

I got into a huge argument with her at one point. I remember yelling at her to keep out of my personal life, and that Michael had never done anything to me. Her defense was that she had a special 'sense' and 'gift' and could tell immediately when someone was dishonest and sketchy and that it had never failed her before.

We had a fallout for a while, but we ended up getting our friendship back together. She never really commented much on our relationship after that, but I could still tell that Michael rubbed her the wrong way.