The Anniversary

ZACH

Hi. I come in peace!
No, I wasn't kidnapped.
Yes, I'm sorry I didn't update earlier.
No, I can't explain the reason (long story).
Yes, you can continue reading now.
P.S : I bring you a very long chapter as a peace offering.
^_^

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Nope. Not gonna do it.

I continued sending invitations for the house warming party to a few of my colleagues and friends online.

I could just have a little peep. No harm no foul. To be honest, it's been a long while. I could see wh..
No! Stop it!

I let out a colorful string of curses and scratched my stubble in frustration. This is ridiculous. I need to reign in my stalker tendencies. I finally huffed out a breath and decided to just give in to the temptation.

I opened my Facebook account and the cursor blinking in the search bar was mocking me. My fingertips hovered over the keyboard in hesitation.

Damn it.
Bloody hell.
Damn it all to bloody hell!
What was I doing?

I typed the name anyway and my eyes were immediately drawn to the profile picture of that person, smiling at the camera. It took me a moment to notice there was also another person in the picture and my fingers clicked on to enlarge it, like they had a life of their own.

They say curiosity killed the cat. Well, in my case, curiosity made the cat want to bash it's head to a stone-wall and then drown itself in milk.
I didn't quite know what to feel at this point and kept staring at the picture. It brought back memories. Made me nostalgic.

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Two years ago..

I woke up to an empty bed. The sheets were cold.

Where is heather?

That one question was enough to alert my groggy senses and I got up from the bed to check the bathroom....Empty.

She probably was watching t.v or something.

As I made my way to the living room, my sense of panic increased. Something was wrong.
She wasn't there in the living room either. I was confused and still a little disoriented from my sleep as I turned around to see if I could find any kind of note that she may have left for me.

she probably left a message on my phone. Yeah, that has to be it. Why did she leave so early anyway?

As I was looking for my phone, I noticed something missing from the table. Missing from the cake to be exact. The tiny astronaut. Everything else was in the exact same place we left last night.

Shit! Last night I almost ruined it. It would've been heartless of me if I had broken up with her on our anniversary. Stupid memory of mine..I had totally forgotten yesterday. I was such an asshole!

That missing piece on the cake brought my attention back to the table and this time I found a white envelope with my name scrawled over it.

I reached for it with my heart thudding heavily in my chest and opened it to find my own words branding the paper in ink.

"I am leaving.

Forever.

Don't hate me.

-H. "

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Now..

I didn't quite know what to feel at this point and kept staring at the picture. It brought back memories. Made me nostalgic.

Heather.

She was standing there, beautiful as ever, with that heart-stopping smile of hers and a twinkle in her eyes that I couldn't help but notice. And then I looked at the man beside her, holding a red cup in one hand and his other hand draped around her shoulders. Heather's shoulders.

Huh.
This is new.

I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes as I studied his profile.
He was much taller than her, almost swallowing up her small frame, tucked under his arm. He was looking down at her lovingly while she posed for the camera. I snorted. Typical.

I could tell that the photo was taken at a party by the background in the picture. The fact that he was holding a red cup, probably with some cheap beer, was a dead giveaway too.

That curious drowned cat poked it's head out of the milk and urged me to check out her other pictures. The man with the red cup was present in almost every other photo recently.
At parties. With friends. In the park. Near the lake.
And in every picture, he looked happy or made stupid googly eyes at her.

I hope he's not a douche. And he better be treating her like the angel she is... My protective streak reared it's ugly head and just like that, I felt guilty all over again. I guess I had no right over her now.
But when I looked at her in those pictures, really looked at her, she looked happy. There was that same twinkle in her eyes whenever she was with him. They looked like a happy-hallmark-worthy-couple.

These past two years, I constantly battled with guilt. She had refused to even talk to me after that night. She broke up with me over a text message leaving me full of guilt. Guilt of choosing the coward's way out and not doing fair by her. Guilt of not even having a chance to see her after that fateful night.

I missed her. True.
I loved her. Also true.

But there was something missing.
I didn't know what it was back then. I looked back at their picture and found that missing element.
Passion.
Love for your soulmate so deep that it hurt.
She deserves him. Deserves to be loved like that. Deserves to move on.

To be honest, I don't even know why I wanted to check on her after so long. Maybe it's the guilt. I guess I needed some kind of closure. And now as I look at the happy couple, I find that closure, relieving me of an invisible weight from my shoulders.

She deserves it.

So do I .

I deserve to find that passion too. I deserve to be loved like that too. Some day I too will find that person, the ONE.

I smiled.

And just like that, I was back to sending invitations, but with a sense of relief, a new outlook of life and most importantly, HOPE...

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There goes the final chapter!
Thankyou guys for all your massive support! It was honestly unexpected and very humbling.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading the story of Zach and Heather. :D

I know I know there's no happy ending and walking off into the sunset...BUT I wanted it to be more realistic and wanted to end their story on a positive note. According to me, that in itself is a happy ending!

So....Keep HOPING! SPREAD THE LOVE! <3

VOTE! COMMENT! MAKE ME SMILE? ^_^