Diamond Rings & You

Chapter 13

BACK TO PRESENT DAY

ELENA'S POV:

I turned to see Mattia as he said the girls' name. Cindy. I knew I'd seen her before, and so had he.

"Did you invite her here?" I asked him. Mattia looked at me, then back at her. He opened his mouth but no words came out.

"Mattia!" I said loudly, but still no answer. Then, without saying anything, he reached forward and grabbed Cindy's wrist.

"What are you-"

But Mattia had already pulled her away from where we were stood, and was leading her down to the beach.

"Woah" said Jackson, as we watched them walk away. I turned to him and he raised his hands in surrender.

"I literally had no idea she'd do that, I just asked her to be my date" he spluttered. Before I could say anything else, I heard Mattia shouting at the top of his lungs. I turned to look at them both to see Cindy angrily walking towards me.

MATTIA'S POV:

"Don't fucking do this!" I called, running after her. I grabbed her arm and spun her around to face me. There were black tear streaks on her cheeks which had formed when I told her I didn't want anything to do with her.

"Why shouldn't I?" she shrieked, shaking my hand off her arm.

"Cause it was a mistake! It was never supposed to happen and I'm engaged!"

"Of course" she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"I'm being serious Cindy, you promised not to tell anyone" I said, trying to ignore the fact that people were starting to come out of the tent. They were stood around Elena, who was becoming frustrated.

"I'm so much better for you than she is!"

"No you're not, you're toxic"

"And you're not? Cheating on your fiancé isn't toxic behaviour, Mattia?" she raised her voice slightly, but not loud enough for Elena to hear.

"Can you just shut the fuck up?"

But she shook her head and folded her arms over her chest. I looked over at Elena, and Alvaro was wrapping his jacket around her. I fucked up. I put my head in my hands and tried to figure out what I was meant to do now.

"She deserves to know what you did" said Cindy, walking over to them. My eyes widened and my head snapped up. But she wasn't in front of me anymore. She was walking over to them. I ran after her but it was no use, she was already close enough. Jackson was stood behind Elena with his arms folded, the boys were also stood there. Our parents were stood near the entrance to the tent, all looking understandably confused. I braced myself for what was about to come.

"So I have a confession to make" announced Cindy, diverting everyone's attention onto her.

"Cindy don't!" I yelled as I caught up to her. Everyone turned to look at me but I gave them a helpless stare as I begged Cindy to keep her mouth shut.

"Don't what?" said Elena, taking a small step forward. She looked at Cindy then at me, then back at Cindy, growing all the more anxious.

Cindy took a deep breath and looked down.

"Mattia and I slept together whilst Elena was in England"

Everyone gasped in shock and started murmuring to each other. Everyone apart from the boys, our parents, and of course Elena.

"Well he didn't waste any time" chuckled Jackson, but he was quickly shutdown when Roshaun punched his shoulder, causing him to wince in pain.

Elena had her eyes fixated on Cindy, completely silent.

"Is this fucking true?" asked Alejandro, looking at me. I hung my head in shame and looked at the ground. I heard him getting closer and put my head up to see him without a furious expression.

"Answer the fucking question!" he raged, shoving me in the chest. I stumbled backwards and regained my balance.

"Yes" I mumbled, looking down at the floor. Alejandro pushed me backwards again, but I didn't fight back, I couldn't.

"You're a fucking idiot Mattia! You can't do anything fucking right!" he screamed at me, before Robert came over to pull him away, muttering something about how I wasn't worth it.

ELENA'S POV:

I wasn't going to let him see me cry. I kept taking slow breaths as the boys fought, and let Alejandro say his part. The worst was yet to come.

Of course what'd I'd just heard had affected me. But I wasn't going to let either of them see it, and get the reaction they wanted. Once Robert had pulled Alejandro back inside the tent, I could easily feel everyone's eyes on me. Especially his. My left hand curled up into a fist, and that's when I felt the ring.

"Elena I.." he started, but his voice trailed off as he tried to find the words to explain what he'd just done. His mouth opened again.

"I want us to-"

"There is no us. There never was" I interrupted. Causing him to look at me with tears in his eyes. But I didn't care anymore. Avoiding his eyes, I took a step forward and faced the people who were all waiting for some kind of answer.

"I'd like to apologise to you all for tonight. Obviously, this wasn't planned, and I'm afraid I wasted your time tonight. To think, I was really engaged" I forced a laugh to accompany the fake smile on my face. They all looked at me sympathetically, and I calmly walked over to Camila. She had pools of tears in her eyes, and I tried to hold mine back. Luckily, they didn't escape my eyes this time.

"I think you should have this" I whispered, taking the ring off my finger, and placing it in her palm. It wasn't in my blood to be rude towards Camila, since she'd always treated me like one of her own. Despite her own son being the disappointment he was.

She took the ring and held it tightly.

"I'm so sorry mija" she whispered back, but I gave her a weak smile and squeezed her hand. There was nothing she could do. There was nothing anyone could do. The engagement was over.

We were over.

I turned and entered the tent, leaving the crowd of people who had probably just witnessed one of the most humiliating things to ever happen to me.