Once upon a dream

Him

I wake up from cold sweat that beads my forehead.

I'm back in my apartment.

I moved away from the parents the second I could, but the memories still stayed. The beatings, the bruises.

I have moved on since then, except the emotional pain come back once in a while, but I manage.

My parents weren't the only ones who left emotional scars. The boy I loved for the first time did.

That day when I told Jake I've been through worse, I wasn't talking about my parents.

I was talking about... Him.

I was 15 at the time I was called a slut behind my back by the boy I loved the most. He would say I dressed like a prostitute, he would mock me for my size. I was nothing to him while he was everything to me.

Blake was his name, dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. Why did I always have to fall for the bad guy?

You can understand why I, at the age of 19, am still single. And great, now Jake has shown up again to do his fair share as well. Like he did three years ago.

(The next day after I told Jake the bad news)

I walk down the hallway with my head bowed down low.

I turn the corner of the hallway and see Jake. In his hand he holds another girls hand. Hunter was her name.

I back away as quickly as I can so he won't see me and try to hold back my tears. My already broken heart breaks even more as a picture flashes in my head of there hands intertwined.

(Back to present day)
I take a deep breath and look out the window with a blank stare. I look at my phone and the clock reads 5 pm.

Great, I slept longer then I thought. I need to get started on my homework for my English 102.

I head into my room and freeze as someone knocks on the door.

I head back to the door and see Jakes brown hazel eyes through the peep hole.

I take a deep breath and let him inside.

"What are you doing here? how did you find me? Did you follow me?" I ask with my head crooked to the side and smile.

"No your friend Ella gave me a tip which was your address." He says with a smile. The same smile he wore when he got my number, I wish I never gave it to him as I look at him now sitting pathetically on my black couch.

"Want anything to drink?" "water would just be fine." I bring him a glass of water while my I set some water to boil in my tea pot. I go back into the living room and sit down across from him. "Listen, Azaria." he pauses for a moment and my heart skips a beat. "I came here to apologize, I know I was a jerk back in high school. I should have told you about Hunter." I look over at him with lazy eyes, "listen, I forgave you a long time ago, I just wish you would have told me sooner about Hunter, you wasted so much of my time. You have NO idea what I went through just texting do you?!" Tears are streaming down my face. I show him the scar on my arm from the metal part of the belt that hit me that day my dad found out.

He takes my hand and runs his thumb over the scar. He looks up then with tears in his eyes, "I'm so sorry Azaria, why didn't you tell me?" "Because you were to occupied with Hunter to even realize what was going on."

"I love you." He said it so quietly like the whisper of wind through fine hair. But I heard him. "I couldn't stop thinking about you after I moved to North Carolina, I realized I lost you after you were already gone."

"I waited for you to call me or text me back for two years, two years Jake. Not even a goodnight back was sent from you."

"I know and I'm sorry for that, I thought you hated me."

"Well you thought wrong, I loved you so much, but you were to blind to see that."