It's Not an Existential Crisis

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

*****DAN's POV*****

It's been three days since the confrontation with Ari and I'm going insane. Everywhere I look, I'm constantly reminded of them- whether it be a post of his on Twitter or his sweatshirt that Ariella left on the dresser. Why would he do this to me? Pj and I have been really close friends for so long that it doesn't make sense to me. What also doesn't make sense is that Ariella did this to me and never once seemed guilty or regretted her actions. What happened to us? We were so happy that I can't even comprehend why I wasn't enough for her.

I sat on the edge of my bed and looked at my night stand. Someone gave us a duel photo frame where one picture was us kissing a Disneyland and a picture of me on one knee in the fountain. I focused in in the proposal photo of us. How long was she cheating on me? Was she with Pj at that moment. My uncontrollable rage -the rare side of me- began to surface. My jealousy overthrew any control I had left causing me to throw the photo as hard as I could at the pristine white wall. I thought the shattering glass would give me satisfaction but it made things worse. I fell back into my bed staring at the ceiling. My eyes began to sting to a whole new level of hatred and sadness. Is this what it felt like to have your heart truly broken?

Knock knock knock

"Go away," I mumbled and turned in my bed. I was not in the mood to speak to anyone.

Knock knock knock

"I said go away...."

"Please Dan," Phil said through the door.

"We're worried about you," Artie said softly.

"Fine..." I muttered.

The door opened letting a stream of light from the hallway pour into my room.

"Dan, what's going on?" Phil pulled the chair from my piano in front of me while Artie sat at the foot of my bed.

"Please talk to us. Why hasn't Ari been here?" Artie placed her hand on my lower leg.

"She left..." I said, "we got in an argument and she walked out the door."

"What happened?" Artie tried to prod more out of me.

I sat up and held a pillow in front of me. I couldn't look them in the eye, "She cheated on me... With Pj."

"What?!" Phil's voice dropped to a serious tone that I rarely ever see.

"She cheated on you? Ari wouldn't do that- trust me. There must be a misunderstanding. She isn't like that. She would never cheat-"

"Well she did Artie," I snapped, "He left his marks on her and she never denied it once..."

"This doesn't sound right," Phil sat back thinking, "have you talked to Pj about this?"

"No and I'm not going to."

"Well what are you going to do? Just sit here and sulk about it?" Phil asked.

"I don't know-"

"Go confront him. Get some clarification. I will not let you just sit here in your dark room and let Ari slip away from you like this. Dan, we have known each other for so long and I have never seen you this happy before. Now we didn't fly all the way to the US for you to chase after the girl of your dreams and now do nothing about it. You two have been through so much together that this all doesn't make sense. Just get up and go talk to him before you drive yourself back down into that black hole. I don't think I can stand to see my best friend back there again."