Two personalities from different worlds. Can the troubled pasts that brought them to the same place bring them LOVE? Can love endure their troubled pasts?
******
Meet AYA. A 23-year-old cashier in W Supermarket. After getting dumped by...
"Please, Marc, don't leave me. Not here, not now!"
She was screaming his name as her feet raced with his screeching tires. His roaring engine overpowered Aya's sobbing as he drove down the dirt road. The dirty air stung her eyes and clogged her lungs. Her soul stepped out of her body- she saw herself on her knees, crying like a lunatic.
She squeezed her eyes shut, picturing his wide smile on their drive hours before. She hugged herself, remembering his warmth. Her dream had become a nightmare. Marc's face had hardened, his hands had fisted, his headlights had vanished, and he'd left her alone on that dark road. Even after she told him she was two months pregnant with his child.
What will I do now? Aya's stomach soured, chest constricted. The sky that'd sparkled minutes before turned pitch-black.
She was pregnant and alone at eighteen. She'd be an undergraduate, jobless, homeless, and single mom with nothing. How would she feed her child? She wilted, hobbled, legs shaking as she dragged her feet. She didn't realize the road where he left her was at the city's far end. No lamp post nor a single car passed. Her hard breathing and sobbing clashed with the stillness of the few trees around her.
That night Marc, her childhood friend and boyfriend of two years, gave Aya a death sentence.
***
Their last day together started with butterflies and kisses to celebrate Marc's birthday. Her heart was beating loud and hard, unsure how Marc would accept her "gift."
Rubbing her shoulders, Marc said, "I don't need a gift. Having you here beside me watching the night sky is enough."
"But I want you to know how much you mean to me, Marc." I want to be the best for you. "I have done nothing for you at all." I want to make you happy all the time.
"I love what you do for me." He kissed her eyelids. "I want to kiss you now. You make me crazy!"
She feathered her fingertip over his eyebrow, down his nose, along the angle of his jaw. "Just crazy? Because everything about you makes me fall more in love."
Marc's eyes hooded. "I should test that love tonight."
She tugged the collar of his shirt. "I'm yours."
He groaned, running a hand over her thigh. "I want you so bad." He paused but didn't remove his palm. "Is it safe?"
Aya sensed it was time. It was her chance to tell him. Her heart wanted to pop out of her chest. But she saw herself being lifted into the air by a happy Marc upon hearing her news. You and I both will be the best parents, Marc!
"You don't need to worry. It doesn't matter anymore. We don't have to worry about anything."
"What do you mean?" Marc's brow furrowed.
"I'm pregnant." Aya grinned.
She didn't doubt his love for her. Instead, her face warmed as she remembered their first time two months ago. He'd convinced her that giving herself to him sealed their love for one another. He'd promised to take care of her no matter what happened. But how Marc reacted, Aya didn't see coming.
"Are you crazy, Aya?" A vein in his neck bulged. "What did you say?"
"It's crazy, right? I'm pregnant. You're going to be a dad!"
"Do you understand what you are saying?"
"I've never been this happy." Her eyes lit up. "You, me, and the baby. We are going to be a family!" She rubbed her hand over her stomach.
"Family? Do you hear yourself right now?" His chest rose and plummeted.
This can't be happening. Aya's brows furrowed as her shoulders sagged. "But... you said you loved me."
"I might have said I love you... but not like this, not with a baby!"
"What do you mean not like this? When I gave myself to you, you promised to take care of me, whatever happens."
"I've been taking care of you, Aya! For eight years, I've been taking care of you! And I asked you for only one thing! You're fucking careless!"
"Marc, I love you. You love me. What could be the problem?"
"For fuck's sake, Aya! You loving me is the problem!" His eyebrows rose. "You should have known better!"
"Why are you like this? You told me to trust you. I believed you!"
"I was stupid to trust you! I was fucking stupid to think you know how to take care of yourself!"
I trusted you.
She trembled. "Stop saying that, Marc!" Your words are hurting me. "Please, let us talk and work through this together."
She tried to grab Marc's hand, but he moved out of her reach. Instead, he paced in front of her. Tears blurred Aya's vision as Marc glared at her, lips tight.
"I didn't sign up for this, Aya. I can't be a father. I'm just nineteen, and I have goals and dreams. I'm sorry, but let's end us here, now." Marc's words pierced every fiber of her being.
"Marc, you don't mean that, right? Listen to me, please!" Nauseated, she followed him toward his car. Her steps were lifeless, and her body was numbed. Her mind was drowning. Her heart suffocates.
But Marc stormed away from her. Like a lion wreaking havoc, he left her.
Two words: I'm pregnant. The friendship they'd had since childhood changed. In an instant, they became strangers. Her blurred memory of him riding his black sedan that night was the last. She was left on that dark road, arms and legs frozen, unable to move from the ground.
How cruel the irony of love was. Cupid's arrow once struck her heart with love was replaced, burning arrows piercing her from head to toe.
He didn't just give her a death sentence; he killed her. He killed her young heart and her ambitions, goals, and dreams.
***
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Wendizzy, for all your encouraging words and inspiring and motivating me to make this prologue possible. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart!
