That Night
3:00 a.m. February 29th, 2016
Liam knew who I was when when we first started dating. He knew I was damaged goods. He knew it was one slip-up and he was out. He knew that after that night, it was over.He should have known that it would be over for good.
Flashback to 10:00 p.m. February 27th, 2016
Liam knocked at my door, and I hurriedly threw my makeup down, grabbed my purse and ran to the door. When I opened it, I was immediately struck with Liam’s great beauty. His handsome and chiseled features looked down at me as he pulled me in for a warm kiss. I knew he could feel my heart beating when he pulled away, and started to chuckle. “No need to be so anxious”, he said. “This is hardly the first time we’ve kissed”. My face reddened. “No need to be embarrassed either, darling.” I put on my coat and got my key and we walked to his still running car. “So where are we going exactly?, I asked, eager to change the subject. “A new club opening. The boys said it’s bound to be a great party”, he looks down to a text on his phone, “And I quote, a great party with great music, great girls, and great...” His voice trailed off. “Great what?”, I playfully asked, tugging the phone away from him. I looked at the message. It read about the aforementioned items, as well as two that made my stomach turn. “And great booze and some coke if my guy can line it up?”, I read in a slightly menacing, but nevertheless questioning tone. “Yeah, it’s just that tonight is special, babe. A new club, a new album. The producer said that there’s no risk to it. We’ll be fine. You can hang with the other girls.” My arms began to shake involuntarily. The first time I met Liam, I was in a bad place. I was a constantly drunk, coked out nightmare, bouncing from one abusive relationship to the next, and worstly, I was following in the path of my entire family. After I met him, I realized that I could have something better than anyone else in my circle of friends. I could have an actual future. With Liam’s help, I got clean, and we vowed off of drugs and excessive alcohol together, commemorating the agreement with tiny anchor tattoos on our hands. Liam was the first man to ever treat me right. I wanted our relationship to be better than my parents’: torn apart by hard living. That’s why it troubled me that Liam was choosing to completely disregarding my feelings. But Liam could see how distraught I was. As we pulled into the club’s valet line, he turned to me. “I won’t do it if you don’t want me to”, he said, rubbing our anchor tattoos together. I smiled, and threw my arms around his neck, and nestling my head in his sweet smelling hair. He laughed, “I had no idea you felt so strongly, but I see it now. don’t be mad, baby”. “I’m not”, I squeaked as he wiped a tear from my cheek with the hem of his tee shirt exposing his muscular abdomen. “Let’s at least go in though”. I laughed, “Yeah, we better”. we entered the dark club, and Liam immediately found his friends, sticking me with a couple of the girlfriends that the boys in his party had accumulated. The night wore on, and I had lost track of Liam. I looked high and low for him, before following a waitress to a back room. When I spotted him from behind, my heart lept. He seemed so perfect, so much better than me. I ran up behind him, and flipped his shoulder around to face me. Instantly, my heart fell. I could see it in his eyes, in his manic expression. He had broken his promise. Tears started rolling down my cheeks. I ran back into the main room of the club, and then outside, and I didn’t stop running until I got back to my house. That night was the first time in a long time that I had cried myself to sleep.
7:00a.m. February 28th, 2016
I woke up, and all the memories of the night before came flooding back. I got out of bed, shook myself off, and got in the shower. Today was a new day. All throughout my day, I saw missed call after missed call on my phone from Liam. I just couldn’t talk to him, I just wasn’t ready. I felt so betrayed. He had made himself out to be such a good person and then, that? How did he think that was ok? Since when did he do that? I sighed and began to hold in the tears that hadn’t been released since the previous night. To distract myself, I worked late. Somehow, the methodical of neatness of accounting really calmed my nerves. In fact, I worked so late that it was nearly the next morning. It was about three when I thought I’d better go home and change to avoid questions the next day. I locked the door, and ventured out onto the street, It was raining fairly hard, and I had forgotten an umbrella. I lived close to work, and I usually walked. Today was no exception. I was almost home when I saw an eerily familiar face waiting from me. In fact, I was so distracted by this face that I didn’t see an even more familiar looking car. It was someone from my previous life. It was my brother. His lazy drunken stare gave me an absolute chill. “What do you want”, my voice faltered. “I want you to give me what I deserve”, he said. I bit my lip, not having a clue what he was talking about. He tooked a gloved hand out of a worn pocket. That hand held our late father’s prized possession. A Colt 45 gun. I was scared. I didn’t know whether to run or to scream, and as his hand closed around my neck, pinning me to my front door, both of my options were taken away. Seconds later, I heard a car door slam shut and I heard feet bolting across the wet pavement to my house. As soon as hand came into my sight line, I knew that It was Liam. Liam took my intoxicated brother by surprise when he grabbed his shoulder, and pinned him to the ground. “I could do it all myself, or you could call the police, love”, he joked, and I realized how still I had been for the last minute. “Um, yeah”, I said getting out my phone, “and I’m not your love.” The police soon arrived, dragging the brother that I once loved away. I never wanted to see him again.
4:00 a.m. February 29th, 2016
I started to go inside, as the rain started to penetrate my stiff blazer. As I stood up however I saw that Liam was still sitting in my front yard, letting the rain slick his curly hair flat. I walked up to him, meaning to tell him to just leave already, and ask if he had done enough to ruin my life, but he jumped up before I got there. He turned to me, and I lost my train of thought when I saw his muscles rippling under his drenched tee shirt. I regained my mental footing, and put a stern look on my face. He walked towards me, and then stood in front of me silently for what felt like hours. Finally, he spoke. “I love you. And I made a mistake. And I never want to take no for an answer, but after this ordeal with your brother, I know why you wanted us both to be clean. And I want you to forgive me. And I want you to love me again. Because I love you” I shook my head. “I don’t trust you. How can I ever love you now? You know how I am. You know that every year, I would remember that night when everything went to hell! That night that I realized the man who made me think that life was worth living was just as bad as the rest of us. If I went back to you now, every year on this day I would have to think about the day that I went back on my own morals for the first hot guy who apologized. No. I can’t do it”. And for some reason that was completely unclear to me, Liam started laughing. Uncontrollably. Like a child, or a monkey even. “What?”, I asked, my temper obviously rising. Through his laughter, “Well, you say you would remember it every year, but baby, it’s leap day!, for the next three years at least, this day won’t exist!”, he continued to crack up. My face softened. “That’s the stupidest thing you've ever said”, I whispered, as I pressed my lips against his. There in the rain, as the sunset came over the horizon, I kissed my beloved. And I must really love Liam too, to take him back after all that. When I look back from where we are now, to where we are than, I don’t understand my reasoning. I just have must known that he would become a great dad.
