Her Light - His Darkness✔

Chapter 21

We walk in silence until we come across a quiet corner with benches surrounded by fairy lights; "okay, shoot." we sit down facing each other. Chris reaches for my hand, rubbing circles at the back of my hand with his thumb absentmindedly.

"We met in our first year of high school, Sarah was already popular by the time we became friends. I was shocked that someone like her wanted to be friends with me, so I went along with it. I wasn't nerdy or anything and I was by no means disliked." A small smirk makes its way onto his face. "I only saw her as a friend or so I thought, I dated other girls on and off but none of them captured my attention quiet like Sarah." Christian smiles sadly and I feel a tinge of jealousy.

"The way she smiled rendered me speechless, her laughter brought me to my knees begging for more," Chris laughs bitterly. "I chased after her for years, worshiping the ground she walked on only to watch her fall into the arms of another guy, breaking my heart time and time again. Pathetic right?" He releases a humorless chuckle and I shake my head in response, squeezing his hand.

"Anyway, senior year came, and we got into a huge fight, both of us finally admitting our true feelings for each other and we started dating. I was happy, and I ignored the warnings from my closest friends, I ignored the warnings from her closest friends. Mikey tried warning me, but I was in love. I ignored all the warnings and all the red flags; I mean Sarah was my first everything."

"After our graduation we went to a party, not even five minutes after arriving Sarah disappeared. I waited for thirty minutes and still she wasn't back. I asked around going all over the place to look for her, eventually I found her," Christian pauses looking to the sky, shaking his head he continues, "I opened every bedroom door thinking this is the one she'll be in and every time it was empty. Relief would flood through me with a new wave of determination."

"All the rooms were empty inside the house, the only door I didn't open was the bathroom. I could hear her crying out," Chris releases my hand, leaning his elbows on his knees and placing his head in his hands. I want to tell him to stop, I can see he's struggling to talk about this.

"Chris it's okay, you don't have-"

"-But I want to." Chris smiles and I admire him for his ability to smile right now.

"I thought I was going to fight to get that door open but when I twisted the knob it opened easily, Sarah didn't even have the decency to lock the door. She was bent over the toilet, her white dress was rolled up to her stomach, her panties around her ankles and my friend Frank behind her, at that moment my phone rang alerting them of my presence."

"I ignored them instead I answered my phone it was my mom crying, begging for me to come to the hospital, my mom told me over the phone something bad happened to Mikey. I turned my back on them and rushed to the hospital."

"That is fucking horrible!" I exclaim, anger coursing through me. Christian chuckles and it stuns me.

"You wanna know something else?" I nod.

"When I caught them, I felt no pain, no anger all I felt was relieved, relieved to be free of her. Sarah was emotionally and mentally draining. I always feel sad for the time I wasted chasing after her, but everything worked out how it was supposed to, I guess."

"She acted as if things ending on good terms," I point out.

"The day we moved from Silver-lake I told her I forgive her, she wanted to get back together, and I lied said I'll think about it, but I never did. I changed my number, deleted all my social media accounts and then I dealt with the loss of my brother in my own messed up way."

Christian has been through so much in a short period of time, yet here he is smiling as if he's been protected from all the pain this world has to offer. The ability to talk about Mikey and Sarah so openly after all the pain he has suffered is inspiring. I admire him for it.