Bitter sweet affair

Chapter 77 - Past

Jasmine had confined herself inside her little bedroom; not letting anyone in, especially her mom. It was hard for her to accept that her mom had lied to her about her dad. All these years she'd believed her dad was in the army. She felt betrayed.

"Jasmine, honey. Please open up," Amelia pleaded, knocking gently on Jasmine's door.
"You hurt my feelings, Mommy, go away" Jasmine cried.
Amelia felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Annie's.
"I'll talk to her, you should get to bed. You need complete rest"
"But..
"I'll take care of her, I promise"
Amelia reluctantly left for her room. She tossed and turned before drifting to sleep.

The next morning she met Jasmine at the dining table and moved to hug her but she moved away tugging at Annie's dress.
"Aunt, can you drive me to school? I'm done with breakfast"
"Jasmine. Can you please look at me? I'm sorry, mommy's sorry, mommy's made a huge mistake by not telling you the truth. Honey,"

"Aunt, c'mon let's go. I'm gonna be late"
"Okay, go wait in the car," Annie said as Jasmine rushed out of the house.
"Amelia, just give her time. In the meantime, I made you breakfast,"
Amelia just nodded, holding back her tears.

She stared out the window as Annie drove off.
She went to her room without eating, she'd lost her appetite. The doorbell rang and she wondered who it could be. She grabbed her crutches and walked to the door. She opened it to find someone she hadn't expected; Mason.
"Mason? What are you doing here?" She questioned.
"Can I at least come in?"
"Yeah, sure," she said making way for him.

"I heard about your accident, I visited you but you were still unconscious. I went today and heard you had been discharged but your sister called me over"
"She did? Why?" She asked shocked. Why did Annie call him over, knowing fully well about their breakup and her heartache?

"She told me all about Andre coming over and Jasmine ignoring you and that there's a possibility you won't eat or leave your bedroom while she's gone"
"I see she told you everything"
"Yeah. Let's have breakfast together and go for a walk" he said with a smile. She knew it was fake, he was still hurt. She was about to decline when he spoke.
"Nope. You can't decline"
She had no other choice but to cave in. They had breakfast together and he asked her to get ready.

She got changed into a pair of jeans and a baggy top. She grabbed her crutches.
"Leave those behind. I'm sure they're a huge inconvenience. Just hold onto me"
She nodded and dropped the crutches. She had her arms around his neck and his hand balanced on her waist to give support.

Her heart skipped a beat at their closeness.
"Are you okay?" He asked noticing her sudden change of emotion. She had tears in her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm okay" she sniffed and wiped her tears.
With his assistance, they walked slowly down the streets. They'd walked for ten minutes and decided to take a rest, they sat on a bench.

"You must be thirsty, I'll go get us water from the stall nearby" and with that, he left.
She had over a million thoughts racing through her head.
Why is he being so nice to me after I hurt him?
It must be hard for him to do this for me, right?

He returned with two bottles of water.
"Here you go," he said handing her the water and taking a sit next to her.
She clenched the bottle and stared at him.
"Mason, I'm sorry about everything I put you through and I'm thankful for all that you're doing right now despite how I hurt you" she blurted out. There was silence, Mason stared back at her.

"It's fine. It's all in the past" he managed a smile.
Past? He was right, I'm nothing but a lingering past. Hurt, would be an understatement. She thought.
"I wanna go home," she said.
"Okay"
The walk back home was silent, no one said a word. He left after she got inside.

She curled up in her bed and thought about nothing in particular while tears rolled down her cheeks. Her life was falling apart and it was unbearable.