Beginnings and Endings [complete]

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Five

March 1.

When someone asks you whether you're still happily dating your boyfriend, followed by telling you that they have something to tell you about him, you can pretty much tell what the possibilities might be.

He's cheating on you.

He found someone else.

He wants a break up and finding the right time.

I mean, all of it has something to do with another girl. That's why I ended my bath earlier than my usual ten minutes to get the guy to call me. His name was Brian, not only schooling with Xavier but in the same church as us as well. He actually wanted to call me later at around ten, after asking me those kind of questions. It was 4 now, and my heart was pounding furiously against my chest. I don't remember the last time I fell this scared of anything.

I could practically hear my heart thumping against my ribcage fiercely, and the ache intensifying. What was going on? The last time I felt this frightened, this anxious was...well, never.

Finally, after what seemed like an age, Brian called. The day at school had already been long, I had studying to do for the term test on Monday, and an essay to complete. Not only did I need to get to it, but I needed to get to it with a clear head. If my suspicions were right, there was no way I'd get around to finishing everything up today.

"Hello?" I said immediately into the phone, pressing my call button much harder than necessary.

"Hello, is this Adrianne?" Brian's voice was pretty deep for a 16-year old, and I could only just imagine who he was.

"Yeah, this is me," I murmured, my nerves building even more. "You wanted to tell me something about Xavier?" All the thoughts of losing him, hated memories of bad breakups, especially with Dom, and all other insecurities rose to my head, making it harder for me to say his name.

"Yeah, umm, has he told you anything weird lately? Like acting funny or out of the ordinary or anything?" he asked, not wasting any time. Clearly, we both wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

I opened my mouth to reply that we were just fine, my trust almost taking control of my tongue, but I took the time to think about it. He called at midnight every night, but not lately. When I came home there were always at least two messages on my phone waiting for him. Of course I'd asked, but he said he was too busy to go out to get his credit. When you love and trust someone that much, you believe excuses, even excuses as simple as this.

"Yes," I said finally, trying to control the wetness behind my eyes. "Why?"

"Oh crap," Brian breathed, and my heart broke at the sound of it, waiting for the truth he was about to give me. "Adrianne, I don't know how to break this to you, but Xavier, he...he's been cheating on you."

I stayed silent, biting my lip so hard it bled just trying to withstand the heartbreak yet again. It's only been two months. We just celebrated our second-month anniversary yesterday. It was like yesterday he was so joyful about having completed our first month together after counting down the days, and even christened it with a Ferragamo fragrance.

"There was this 13 year old girl, he wanted to try with her but she knew about you so she said no, but two days ago he went back to say he broke up with you, so she took him," Brian continued, blissfully oblivious to what I was going through. I wanted to scream at him to just shut the fuck up, scream that it wasn't true, but I knew I'd only be doing it to convince myself.

Suddenly, all of what Nat said made sense. How he got mad at her at the simplest things, how he ignored her for two long weeks, how he didn't really care about her feelings. He was scarily like Dom, but I hadn't wanted to believe it. Even when we got together, he sacrificed too much for me for me just to be another girl.