A New Pair of Wings

Part 2

  Carson walks up to woman and gives her a little "Hi!"

  The friendly woman turns to look at him. She smiles a soft smile and responds, "Hey!"

  "Are you looking for a place to sit?" he asks her kindly.

  "Yeah, but it seems that this restaurant is filled to the brim." She answers as she worriedly looks around at all the filled tables.

  "Hang on a minute. Let me ask my friend if you can come sit with us," Carson offers.

  "Oh no, no," the woman hurriedly replies, waving her hand as a 'no' gesture.

  "Come on. I'll be more than happy to offer you a place. And I'm sure my friend wouldn't mind." Carson insists politely.

  The woman smiles and gives a shrug of defeat. "Fine."

  With a smile spread wide across  his face, Carson marches back to the table, where Belle is still sobbing with her face in her hands.

  "Hey, Belle," Carson nudges her, "Is it alright if that lady sits here? After all, we have an extra chair right here."

  Belle keeps silent.

  "Belle?"

  Silently and reluctantly, she nods her head. Immediately, Carson walks back to the woman and tells her, "She says it's fine."

  The woman smiles at him and walks to the table. Belle is still sitting there with her head laying on top of her folded arms. A small tear of mascara seems to be dribbling down her arms, but neither Carson nor the woman seems to notice.

  "So, I think we should have a proper introduction," announced Carson, "I'm Carson. Nice to meet you." He smiles at the ever-so-beautiful woman and shakes her hand.

  "Hailey." The woman smiles happily at Carson.

  "And this is my friend, Belle," Carson mentions, turning to Belle, where she still lay, quietly sobbing.

  "Hi," Belle mumbles, unable to raise her head and look at them both.

  Carson ignores it and turns back to Hailey. "So," he starts a conversation, "How are you so far?"

  As the two of them continue chatting away, Belle's ears seem to shut out their conversation. Tears keep flowing out of her eyes nonstop. Her lips are trembling as she tries to keep it together. At last, she couldn't bear it anymore.

  With her head hanging down (for fear that the two of them would notice that she had been crying), she stands up and announces, "I...have to be somewhere right now." She can barely contain the quiver in her voice. "You two enjoy the rest of the night together."

  As soon as she walks out of their sight, she starts running, tears flowing uncontrollably from her eyes. All she wants is to run away from everything and just return home.

  She bursts open the door of her house and runs upstairs to her bedroom. She opens her bedroom door and jumps on to her bed, facedown on her pillow. She begins to sob much louder than before, more than she had at the restaurant.

  Why... she keeps thinking to herself. Her tears flow out like on river on to the pillow, dampening the cover sheet. But it was nothing compared to her emotions, bleeding with pain. Loving the same guy for ten years. I thought it wouldn't hurt as much by now.

  She rolls her head a little to the side, her eyes catching sight of a small photo frame sitting on top of her side table.

  There's a photograph taken of her and Carson during prom, when Carson had asked her out 'as a friend'. She remembers how she panicked that night about what dress she was going to wear.

  She thinks back to before the dinner that evening, when she had a dressing dilemma trying to pick out the perfect outfit.  Something attractive and cute. Something Carson would like, She recalls herself saying while she was rummaging through her cupboard.

  Belle rubs her face back on to the pillow. As if I'll need to dress to impress anymore, she half-consoles herself, only to upset herself even more.

  A minute passes. Belle starts to feel her tummy grumbling. She gets up from her bed and walks into her closet. She grabs a white shirt and a pair of blue pants and changes into them. Oh well, might as well have a snack, she tells herself.

  She ties her hair up in a bun and puts on some slippers. She walks down from her bedroom to her kitchen and proceeds to make herself a snack. Grabbing some banana and crackers, she carefully cuts them into even pieces and slices, putting them together into a bowl to form a delicious snack.

  Just before she grabs some chocolate sauce from her cupboard, her phone, which she had placed on the kitchen table, rings. She walks over to check the caller ID.

  Carson.