Thunderstorm {Under Editing}

Chapter 11

"Did they say-"

"They said it's too early to tell."

"I'm sure it will be fine, Jennifer."

"That's not what I'm concerned about."

Jennifer woke up again. Another memory. She was still trying to figure out what happened when she and Ben got engaged, and how it connected to Ben's silence over the last few days.

She walked into the living room. Ben, like before, was on the couch. He turned around when he saw her coming in.

"Good morning."

Jennifer could tell he was still thinking about before.

"It's not 3:00 am again, is it?" Jennifer asked.

"No, it's 10."

"Are you watching-"

"The same 15 year olds playing video games? Unfortunately. It's the semifinals!" Ben said the last sentence with false enthusiasm.

Jennifer sat down on the couch.

"I already know what you're going to ask me." Ben said. "And no, I'm not ready to talk about it."

Jennifer sighed. "You do know that you're going to have to tell me at some point, right?"

"You don't want to remember it, Jennifer, trust me."

"Why not?"

"It was painful. It's still painful, even just remembering it."

"It was painful for me?"

"Very. It was painful for both of us. The main reason why it was painful for me was because I had to see you in pain. I would never want you to remember it."

"I'm going to find out at some point, Ben, either from my dreams or from you. I'd rather hear it from you."

"Then prepare to be disappointed."

There was a long silence. Suddenly, the music player turned on.

"I hate it when it does that." Ben said.

"This song is from the 2000s."

"Yeah, it's the 'retro' station."

The song stopped and changed to a slower song.

"Do you remember this song?" Ben asked.

Jennifer nodded. "Wasn't it our song?"

"Only you really referred to it as 'our song'. You were going to have be played at our wedding."

"When were we planning on getting married?"

"2 months after the asteroid."

They both stood up, and after a few seconds, they began to dance. Being closer with Ben came naturally to her, but something always held her back.

"How did this song even become 'our song'? It's about a guy who broke up with a girl, isn't it?" Jennifer asked.

"Yes, but he's saying he regrets it now and he doesn't want to hurt her anymore."

"Why should that matter? He hurt her, she's obviously not going to forgive him now! Especially not after he makes an entire song about her!"

Ben laughed. "You were always so contradictory of the song. The reason why this was considered 'our song' was because we had a similar situation."

"What do you mean?"

"I mentioned before that after we had dated for three years, we broke up."

"I was wondering about that. Why?"

"There were a lot of reasons. And before you start jumping to conclusions, this was before we got engaged."

"What happened?" Jennifer asked again.

"It's a long story. It was all just a misunderstanding."

"We broke up over a misunderstanding?"

"It's complicated."

"It doesn't seem complicated."

"There was other stuff too. You.... weren't ready for a serious relationship at the time."

Jennifer knew he was lying; no one goes out with someone for three years just to break up with them because they "weren't ready for a serious relationship". Especially not with someone like.... him. She didn't remember much about the past, but the attraction she had for him never went away.

They continued dancing in silence, and a couple minutes later, the song ended. They slowly broke apart from each other.

"What happened when we got engaged?" Jennifer asked again.

"You're never going to give up, are you?"

"When have I ever done that?"