Living In The Past

Chapter Twenty-Two

 Previously on Living in the Past:

        More kids ran up the park trying to chase each other. An old couple walked together. Yasmine looked at them in awe. Even after so many years, they were still together. Another couple caught her eye. They were young and visibly kissing under a faraway tree. Embarrassed by their make-out session, she looked somewhere else before she noticed something odd.

 “What the hell?!”

Chapter Twenty-Two:

Please tell me my eyes are wrong, Yasmine prayed. Please.

           She squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again. The park scenery was the same—birds chirping, people walking by. Nothing had changed—including the couple making out by the trees. Something seemed ... off about the couple. Like she'd seen them before.

          Slowly getting up, she sneakingly walked up to a tree next to the couple. She hid behind the tree, only her head creeping out to watch the couple. She was definitely sure she'd seen the same blond hair somewhere. She inched her head further, trying to catch a better glimpse.

          Yasmine gasped.

             Her hands shook as she saw who it was.

           James.

        No, I'm wrong, she told herself. My eyes are playing tricks on me. It must be the brain cancer. I must be hallucinating. Just to check, she inched over the tree again. There he was again—well, the back of his head. It was him.

           Yasmine fell to the grassy ground. Sobs threatened to escape. She pressed her hands to her lips, trying to silence herself. It wasn't good enough. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She banged her head on the tree. How could she be such of an idiot? Trusting the school player?

             You idiot. You frickin' idiot! Idiot. Idiot. Idiot, she repeated in her mind. Why was she crying over him though? If she expected this to happen, why did she let him in?

          She leaned over the tree and peeked again. Then, another question popped into her head. Who was the girl? Driven by curiosity, she tilted her head as far as it could to see who it was. Her eyes widened when she saw the girl.

              Lily.

         Not another Lily. The Lily who was supposed to be getting married to Aaron. This was even a bigger shocker. How could she do that to Aaron?

          Anger boiled inside of Yasmine. First, Lily told her to back away from Aaron and yet here she was, kissing another guy. The nerve of that bitch, she thought bitterly, and the fact that she's related to me.

             She didn't know what she was more frustrated about. Lily cheating with James, or the fact that she could backstab and hurt Aaron like that.

           Now, she was absolutely not going down easily.

           As if her brain was working again, she wiped away her tears and fished for her phone. She wasn't going to let it end like this. No way in hell. Yasmine wasn't going to be like other girls—crying and doing nothing. She got to her phone's camera and leaned over the tree again. Yasmine waited for a precise moment, where both James and Lily's faces were visible, before she snapped a picture.

          After that, she walked home—skipping the bus. She wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. When she reached the apartment building, she was just about to press the elevator when she thought about Hailey. How would she react if she saw Yasmine with her mascara all smudged, and puffy eyes from crying?