Love Is...

11. Disheartening

Chapter - 11

LOVE IS... DISHEARTENING

"Life would be so much easier if we only fell in love with people who would love us back."

Day - 4

On the third day of the assignment, I couldn't give any definition of love to Ashton. And I was yet to thank Stephanie for that. She had called me while crying over Shane again. Their date had ended on a very bad note. I didn't know the details as she was too busy crying her heart out to tell me anything.

"Are you okay?" I asked her after about half an hour of waking up the next morning. Her eyes were swelled due to continuous crying and she had slept very late as well. I had tried to console her, but I didn't know what the matter was, so I just told her, "Don't cry, Steph. At least tell me what the matter is." But she didn't. She just hugged me and kept on crying.

She looked up from her untouched cereal and mumbled, "I'm fine."

"And I believe you," I told her sarcastically, but with a stern voice.

She sighed heavily when she knew that she had to tell the truth to me. "He... he is..." she trailed off.

I didn't have to ask to whom she was referring to as 'he'. I just kept quiet and waited for her to continue. Her bottom lip quivered like she was about to cry again. "C'mon, girl. Tell me what the problem is." I encouraged her by taking her hands in mine. I was worried about her, very worried. It was true that I had seen her cry for Shane earlier, but never had she looked so devastated. Something was very wrong this time.

"He is thinking of getting..." she trailed off again as her eyes filled up with tears again.

I wiped the tears from her cheek and told her with all the concern I felt towards her, "Take it out of your system. Stop hurting yourself."

She took in a deep breath and finally told me, "He is getting married."

My mouth formed an 'o' at the newly gained, shocking news and I just stared at her with my wide eyes. "With?" I asked, unable to contain this question within myself.

"I don't know. He said that he's going to stop our fling and see some other girls as he wants to settle down in life in the near future," she answered and from the expressions on her face, it was obvious that with each word she spoke, her heart was breaking a lot more.

I could only imagine how disheartening this would have been for her. He had been with her for about three years. Didn't he feel even slightly bad about doing this to her? He was her friend, for God's sake! Didn't it ever cross his mind that Steph could be in love with him? That, maybe, just maybe, he could marry Steph...

I didn't know what to say after that. I wanted to tell her that she was better without him. I wanted to tell her to be happy and give me a party for being free from the shackles of a useless and burdensome relationship.

But no words escaped my lips. I stayed still as I watched her sob and all I could see was the Liana of a few weeks ago; the Liana, who didn't shed even a single tear after being betrayed and after coming back to her senses after one fateful and forgetful night.

I wanted to go to Shane and hit him hard, punch his stupid face for making Steph cry. All men were the same. Nolan did the same with me and here was, my friend, suffering from the same pain. But my mind couldn't deny that Shane was far better than Nolan. He was giving a heads up to her about the possibilities of his seeing other women, while my ex had shoved it in my face at the time of facing consequences.

I hugged Steph to show her that I was there for her always, just like she was for me. Eventually, she stopped crying. That was the power of a hug.

Amidst all the soothing words that I whispered in her ears, the one that sparked her mood was "All men are a*sholes."