parallel lines | ✓

21

ONE YEAR LATER

THE UNIVERSE HAS its playful ways of tormenting people's hearts. Just when you get used to the fortunes you own, it unleashes the beast that knows your worst fears and rips every single comfort away from your life, slowly and painfully.

For me that beast was breaking up with Wallace.

Earlier this month, Wallace and I discussed plans to celebrate our upcoming one year anniversary. That day of course never arrived because in the following week, my mother negotiated with me that we leave my father and his drunkard habits behind and soar to the city I knew to pronounce before learning my own name; a city I knew better than my birthplace.

The news arrived so abruptly after their fight, that I didn't even get to announce my farewell to my classmates. I of course intended to pay a visit to them on the day I received my leaving certificate, but before that, I knew Wallace needed to know about my departure.

The timing was however horrible. Just as my parents threw a tantrum at each other, slurring unflattering words, Wallace and I were in the middle of a text argument. I spoke about my disinterest on the person he was becoming; a person engaged with other girls even if it's purely platonic. One of the many reasons I fell in love with him in the first place was how he valued the idea of having no opposite sex friends while in a relationship, and now he was turning into someone he would have despised.

He wasn't one to go down without a fight, so he brought up his reasons. Wallace argued if I wasn't giving attention to my ex boyfriend who I recently begun speaking to, he would have never seek attention from other females. Which by the way, was a good point. Neptune and I begun texting last month after interacting at an annual school event and though Wallace advised me to stop several times, I opposed and begun reattaching myself to the familiar figure. Perhaps even falling for Neptune in the process.

So when I interrupted our argument with the news of my departure, Wallace assumed I was pulling on an act at first, a way to get him to apologize. It didn't make sense to him that I would leave without talking to him about it for weeks. After all, I was known as the planner of my school. An hour of convincing later, he finally saw my distress and tried to understand my situation, but after the fight we just had, I wasn't ready to open up to him about my circumstance. I couldn't help but wonder if I would have done the same, had it been Marven instead of Wallace, but that really wasn't my concern at the moment.

I left my town of memories and arrived at the city of angels on the third day after my big announcement at school. Some of my friends teared up, some of them gave me their best wishes, some of them promised to keep in touch but all of them moved on with their lives. As selfish as it may sound, I was glad when my mom made the offer to leave because truly, nothing was keeping me there. Wallace was making new friends and so was Ramona, Neptune no longer reciprocates my feelings, Marven does not show any enthusiasm to me as he used to and as a result, I was performing poorly in my classes. There was nothing in that town that made me happy anymore.

A week past after my departure, my heart shattered at Wallace's update. He blabbered to everyone we knew that he was now going to pursue Ramona, and even personally texted me, delivering the heartbreaking news. I begun wondering if he have had feelings for her during our relationship, and if every time the three of us hung out, his focus was really on her. Out of anger, I spit meaningless words that in retrospect, contained a bit of the truth, "I really wish I had chosen Marven over you."