Unbreak My Heart

2. Broken Hearts and Promises

No one ever told me how much it would hurt to be betrayed by the one person who promised to take care of you. Alex wasn't just my boyfriend, he was my best friend before we started dating.

He knew everything about me. Including my deepest fears and not only had he promised not to hurt me, but he promised not to do the same thing that my dad did to my mother.

Besides my mum, Alex was the only person in my life who knew the full story about my father and how his departure affected me. April only knew the half version I gave her, not because I didn't trust her, but because I never wanted to talk about the first man to break my heart.

My pathetic greeting replayed in my head: I am Amara, his ex-girlfriend. Who goes around saying such things?

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt bile rise up to my throat and I bolted. Everyone who saw me must have thought I was running to the bathroom to cry over Alex, but as much as I wanted to curl up and cry, this wasn't the time, nor place.

I reached the toilet in time and threw up all my lunch. My eyes welled with tears, but I willed myself not to cry. Someone gathered my hair and a hand on my back in a soothing circular pattern. My first instinct was to reject the help, but as the contact didn't extract any emotion from me, I knew it wasn't Alex.

Why was I even thinking it would be him to follow me? I scoffed at myself bitterly.

I stood and flushed the remnants of today's food, my pride and shattered heart swirling down the toilet. My feet moved me to the sink and I raised my gaze and came face to face with April. She looked as angry as I wanted to feel.

At that moment I remembered why she was my friend. She would never let me wallow in self pity, regardless of how sad the situation was or in this case that her brother was the cause of my heartbreak.

I was about to rinse my mouth when she opened a cupboard next to the sink and took out mouthwash. I rinsed my mouth with water, then swished mouthwash and repeated the process once more.

"Come with me," April said, pulling me with her to the attic, our go to hiding spot.

"What do you want to drink?" She asked, rummaging through her fridge.

"Got anything strong?" I teased, to which she rolled her eyes in response.

"Is water strong enough?" She asked, throwing a bottle of water my way.

As much as I felt like taking something that would take the pain away, it wouldn't heal my broken heart. I took a big gulp of my water as several thoughts started running through my mind. He no longer called unless I did. And each time I tried to facetime him, he had a perfect excuse and like a fool I bought it.

Was I so blinded by love that I ignored all the signs that he wasn't the same guy? I mean these were things that should have given me warning signs. Alex and I have always had good communication, but for the past few months our communication started to decline and because I didn't want to be a nagging girlfriend I ignored it.

So stupid!

"A, please don't cry. Not over my ass of a brother," April said, pulling me back to the present.

"How could I have been so stupid? I mean, even you could tell that there was a shift in our relationship, but I couldn't see it," I faced her but her gaze was focused on the floor.

"Did...did you know?" I asked her, putting my bottled water on top of the fridge.

"Know what?" She knitted her forehead but her eyebrows rose high as she caught on. "What? Of course not! He may be my brother, but I wouldn't hide such a thing from you." The hardness in her eyes told me she was telling the truth.