When We Met

Forty Six

|Martin|

"You can open your eyes now." She says and I do open them to find her smiling shyly at me. And as my gaze lands on her body, I realize that she is wearing my T-shirt.

I don't think I've smiled like this before. It took me months to make her wear my T-shirt, and now that she's finally worn it, I've decided that it's the best sight in the whole damn world. And I make a mental note of bombarding her closet with my clothes.

Her wavy brown hair is caressing the front of her body and her arms are crossed in front of her chest. And like always, she's biting her lip; a sign that she is nervous about something.

I get out of the water and walk towards her. She looks up at me as I gently tuck her hair behind her ear and caress her cheek with my thumb. As expected, her skin is warm for a rather cold weather. I shake my head at her and uncross her arms, intertwining my fingers with hers. She loves it when I do that. 

"Dina?"

Suddenly, her hair color changes from dark brown to golden brown and instead of a gorgeous smile, I come face to face with Cheryl's pained expression.

*******

|Donovan|

The smile fades away immediately and hurt spreads over my body like a hot, magnetic fire. Dylan realizes his minor slip of the tongue and it's as if the dam breaks over his head.

He scrambles out of the lake and I instantly take a step back, raising my palm to stop him.

All this while, my mom's words float over my head like a cursed halo and I will myself to shake my mind out of it.

A boyfriend who will break your heart inevitably.

Is this why Dylan didn't want to bring me here? Is he going behind my back and cheating on me with a girl called Dina?

Dina....

It doesn't ring any bells to me. I'm hearing this name for the first time in my entire life and it is killing me. It is churning my blood into a colorless, mass-less substance and the pain is excruciating. I can't even wrap my head around the possibility of Dylan Martin breaking my heart. We love each other, don't we?

I do. 

But does he?

As if reading all my thoughts, Dylan's eyes grow up to the size of tennis balls and he scrambles towards me, not respecting the space I'm clearly demanding right now.

"Cheryl, no. Listen to me. Let me explain my-"

I push him. I push him as hard as I can and don't even try to wipe away my tears. He did this to me. He just made my fears come alive.

Just listen to him once. Maybe you are misunderstanding the situation...

My conscience speaks for good. I try to listen.

Think about it, Cheryl Donovan. Why are you reacting the way you are? Why are you so hell-bent on assuming that your boyfriend cheated on you? Why are you not letting him give his side of the story? Why the hell are you being like your mother?

Because of my mother and her words that have pricked my skin like ginormous shards of glass.

All this while, Dylan is going crazy with his emotions. There are tears streaming down his face, his eyes are rimmed red, he is trying to grab hold of me but I'm too quick at dodging him away...

Seriously, what are you doing? Why are you seeing the worst in this situation?

Because people have cheated on me before.