King of My Heart

4. "Why? We're all 18+"

(2138 words)

*THAT NIGHT*

Me and Ethan were in bed, with me pressed against his body, my head laying on his chest and his arms wrapped around my waist. Silence surrounded us in our dark room, the only audible sounds being our breathing. We were both silent, seemingly trying to sleep but actually we were engrossed in thoughts that brought us distress and insomnia.

I was constantly wracking my brain, trying to remember where I had seen that guy who had broken into our home that day, but it resulted in no advantage, only increased my anxiety.

How I managed to fall asleep in such tautness, I have no idea.

"I'm freeing you from my love." Aaron said, quite dramatically, for the nth time. He was fighting with me again for no reason and he always said that sentence; I was fed up of it by that time. This time this sentence didn't make my heart ache, it only irked me. Whenever he said that, it meant we were breaking up. I was so tired of it. I was tired of him. I was mentally exhausted by his derogatory behaviour and constant gaslighting.

"Never talk to me again." Was his next text. I couldn't help rolling my eyes. It was the exact same script he always used.

"I've had enough of you, Aaron. I'm tired of this. We're over for good this time. Bye." I texted him frustratedly before tossing my phone into my drawer, not wanting to have a look at it again for at least a while.

I was fed up of him. I loved him, I really did, but I couldn't just stick around if he kept acting insane and unreasonable all the time. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted of being verbally abused by him. Of having him treat me like an object. Of having him manipulate me.

'This has to be the last time. The last straw. I can't allow him to keep walking all over me as he pleases.' I thought as I took my phone out to text Ariana for a meet up in a coffee shop.

After a long conversation with my cousin, I was sure I wanted to leave him and convinced that he definitely wasn't the guy for me. I didn't deserve to be treated the way he treated me. And he didn't deserve to be loved the way I loved him.

And hence it began.

Me ignoring him for the first time ever. Every time before this, it was him who chose to ignore me either after a fight or even randomly when things were fine. Now it was me. And it was definitely a shock for him. He was obviously waiting rather impatiently for me text him, begging him to talk to me, telling him that I missed him and loved him like I always did. But when that didn't happen, he flooded my inbox with texts. Texts that I left on read. Texts that were filled with mixed emotions. From "I miss you, talk to me" to "who do you think you are to ignore me?" That guy seriously thought he was the president or something. When actually he was a school drop out that always boasted about doing something big one day without even trying to take any steps for success. He loved to waste his time by hanging out with his terrible influence cousins and friends who indulged in questionable activities and drugs. How they disgusted me. Mostly because of how they all treated women. I despised myself for ignoring all those crystal clear red flags.

It wasn't easy to get him off my mind. It wasn't at all easy to get rid of the love I had for him immediately. I was tempted at times to text him because from day one all I had felt for him were feelings of genuine love. But thanks to Ariana, I was able to control myself. Every time I would grab the phone to text him, she would remind me of all the bad and hurtful things he had done to me, and that would help me drop my phone and ditch the idea.