Broken Until Him

Chapter 31 ~ Choice

'Life is based on a series of choices, but we only make a few of them. You think you have a total control over your life when in reality, you only get to choose what you are going to wear today.

And you can try as hard as you can to set free and take the control but there will always be something to prevent you from living your life the way you want to. The weather, your little cousin's bike accident, your boss's vacation, your sister's death.

I like to think that at first, we had all the possibilities in the world. But then, life happens. We choose for people and they choose for us, influencing our behavior, indicating what the next step is.

They reduce the possibilities for us, and we are left with a dilemma. Two possibilities.

Sometimes, the choice is not up to you. Sometimes, someone has to make it for you, knowing well enough how this will affect you. You may play the selfish card when you accuse him of choosing badly. But remember it affected him too, in a way you'll never know.'

Aaron spent the last hour telling me how he met my sister, how they talked over the phone every day until he came back a couple of months later for two weeks during summer break. I interrupted him almost every two minutes to ask questions. There are so many things I don't understand, but the main question filling my mind is why didn't she tell me about him?

We shared everything, we had no secrets for each other. At least that's what I thought until Aaron told me he dated Hashley for seven months. Seven fricking months and she never mentioned his name.

The more Aaron tells me about their relationship, the more I feel like I'm finally getting to know him. He is no longer this pretentious prick insulting people and I can tell this was just a facade. Whenever he mentions her name, I can hear how much he loved, loves her, and it makes my heart ache for him.

"I came to Miami as much as I could but we never got enough time together. We had a long distance relationship, which is something I would have totally refused a year ago. But I couldn't let go of Hashley so this was our only option. And surprisingly, everything went really well for a while. But I guess she got tired of me at some point," he explains, taking his head between his hands.

"What do you mean?" I ask him in a whisper, too scared of what I might hear.

"I always thought this kind of relationship only last for a couple of months and then one gets tired of the lack of physical contact and in the worst case scenario, one ends up cheating and the other suffers. I hate it but I was right, only it took seven months to get to this point," he lets out a sigh, and rubs his eyes.

"Did you cheat on my sister?" I ask with clenched teeth.

"No, she did," he states and stares right in front of him.

"What?!"

"I was supposed to take a flight to Miami for our seventh month anniversary. I remember her saying that people celebrating their anniversary before one year of relationship were ridiculous. So I made it a point to celebrate our anniversary each and every months. She called me a week before we were supposed to meet and told me she couldn't do this anymore. I begged her to wait until we see each other so we could talk about it. I loved her so much, Jade, I couldn't let her go this way. But then she ripped my heart out of my body. She told me she had cheated on me for the past month and that she wanted to be with him," he tells me and I can see how difficult it for him to share this with me.

"No, Hashley wouldn't-" I begin but he cuts me off.

"She did, Jade. She made me so fucking angry I couldn't control it. I know I'm going to sound cringy but I've loved and trusted her like no one else. And she threw it all away for some douchebag. I hate myself because although she made me go through hell and back, I can't stop loving her and it kills me," his voice breaks at the end and my heart ache for him.