Opposites, Lovers

Chapter 25: The Letter

Chapter 25

I sneaked out of the toilets, half-running half-walking towards my locker, trying to avoid Bryan at all costs.

"Hey!" Meghan chirped.

"Hey Meg!"

"How are you?" she wondered in her usual high-pitched voice.

"Great, thanks," I tried to reply as naturally as I could.

"Guess what?" she exclaimed.

I casually took my books out of my locker before balancing them on my arm. I turned my attention back to my friend, as I raised my eyebrows, knowing Meghan, it could be anything. From a new dress to a huge announcement, like her parent's wedding or something.

"What?" I carefully answered.

"The guy, from the cafe."

"You know, the waiter that was really cute!" She elaborated when she saw my puzzled look.

"Yeah, the one who gave you his number!"

"Exactly. Well, we sort of started seeing each other..."

"You what?" I exclaimed for the second time of the day.

"Well, we're not together or anything but we have this kind of date tonight, nothing serious, just a 'get-to-know-each-other' kind of thing," she continued.

"Meg, that's amazing!" I excitedly grinned, as I knew she believed in prince charming, her obviously being the princess.

"I know, he is so nice. Plus, he goes to this school!" she mysteriously said, waiting for my reaction.

"Do I know him?" I suddenly became more interested.

"Maybe!" she winked at me before leaving me in front of my class.

I sighed, knowing that she would keep his identity secret until she would be ready to tell me.

I sat down at my desk before seeing Tara walking in the classroom. It had been a few days since I had not caught up with her and I was happy to see her again.

"Hey!" I greeted her.

"Hey, it's been a few days, where have you been."

"I was at school, I just wasn't there this morning."

"Why? Did anything happen?" she expectantly looked at me.

"No, I just learnt bad news. My parents are divorcing," I told her. Surprisingly, it was easier to tell her than to tell the other girls, that had not inquired about why I wasn't there this morning. Saying it out loud made it even more realistic and I struggled not to break into tears.

She didn't say anything but gave an empathetic smile as she sat at her desk. I slightly nodded but decided that from now on, I wouldn't tell anybody. I didn't want anybody's pity. I did not need their pity, nor their compassion.

Bryan quietly sat down next to me and rapidly glanced at me before focusing on the teacher. I caught him observing me numerous times, but as we made eye-contact, he would quickly look away.

While the teacher was setting up the projector, Bryan turned his head to face me and asked me if i was avoiding him.

I suspiciously looked around the classroom to see if someone was observing us before whispering back to him that I wasn't.

"Are you sure?" he insisted.

I opened my mouth to affirm it to him but the projector stopped being blurry and a limpid message was written on a blank page.

"I see you haven't learnt your lesson. Be careful, you should know better, you should know what I am capable of. I hope your father is not too sad from your mother divorcing him, I would check up on him if I was you. Something could happen to him, he's a fragile man. "

My legs started to become jelly as my hands furiously shook, what was the limits of this person, 'it' seemed to have unlimited resources and power.

I remember asking the teacher if I could go to the bathroom but I was already rushing down the hallway, not waiting for her to answer.

I attained the toilets in time to throw up everything I had eaten since a day, which was barely anything. My vision was blurry and I had to grip the sink, not to collapse on the tile floor. As another shot of digested food went up my throat, a hand gently grabbed my hair as another slowly rubbed circles down my back.

After my breathing became normal again, I turned around to see who was my helper and was shocked to see Bryan.

"Hey, it's okay, I am going to drive you home, okay?" he asked as tears rolled down my cheeks.

"Okay," I simply replied, managing to give him a small smile.

When we arrived at my house, I had this weird feeling, like I had a knot in my stomach.

I walked up the few stairs of the house before knocking on the door of my father's office. No reply.

I impatiently waited during a few minutes as horrible scenarios went through my head before entering the door. The place looked as messy as usual, nothing had changed except my father had disappeared.

He wouldn't have known that I would come back from school early but I knew him better than anyone else, I knew he would leave a note on the front door to notice anyone who passed by.

I frantically checked all the room downstairs, repetitively calling him.

"Dad!' my voice was serene with just a hint of anxiousness.

I rushed up the stairs, inspecting everywhere, I was starting to panic as I checked under my bed.

"Dad..." My voice was weak and broken, I desperately called him again, hoping he would answer even if he was not here.

Under my bed? That wasn't even panicking, that was frantic.

I sat down on my bed, and started to actively think. My father was not in the house, he never carried a cell-phone with him as he thought he didn't need one. As I had said before, I knew him better than anyone, if I thought about it, I could discover where he was hiding. Maybe he was just out to buy something or take a walk, but he never did and my strange feeling was growing.

I went back to his office, hopelessly looking for any clues.

As I was looking through his pile of books, a few pages were on the floor in the corner of the room, which caught my attention. I carefully picked them up, as if they were the key to a mystery I had been looking for during centuries.

I took a deep breath before reading the page that was annotated with the number one.

'A young, innocent girl was hurt by a mother.

A grumpy old man was hurt by a wife.

The wife had ruined their lives, broke it into pieces, came back to make sure their hearts were completely shattered into millions of pieces before going back to her life, full of freedom and desires.

The girl was sad, the man was depressed and the wife was radiating with joyfulness.

The old man could hardly deal with the pain of losing his wife that he was still madly in love with, but was unable to deal with the voracious and destroying pain of losing his child, the one who was standing by his side since the beginning.

Even if the mother had hurt the daughter many times, the man knew the unconditional love she had towards the woman who had conceived her and cherished her.

The mother would steal her second child, sharing her life full of joy, leaving the grumpy old man behind, who would die of pain or loneliness.'

Suddenly, a phone rang.

Hey guys, what do you think of the letter? What do you think of this chapter?

Thank you for your reads, comments and votes, it means so much to me! 

Cheers, Elena (paper_quill_and_ink) Xxxx