Down The Highway

Chapter Fifty-One

"Travis, why are we here? Answer me!" Instead of just answering me as I asked him to do, he ignored my presence and walked as if I wasn't there with him. After walking for a minute, he finally slowly stopped in front of a gravestone. He motioned next to it, making me analyze that he was wanting me to come closer to it. So I did. The closer I got, the clearer the picture can be seen.

I sighed before reading the words indicated which were saying:

Travis Robby Scott March 12, 1998 – September 16, 2019

I looked up at him with an "o" formed on my mouth. He looked at me normally like how he usually does. But my mind was cringed, not getting a single clue about what was happening. "What's this, Travis?" I asked and purposely mentioned his name to tell him that I don't believe what I am seeing.

"Don't call me Travis now that you know the truth," he placed both his hands on his pocket and looked at me seriously while I frowned not even knowing that I did.

"What truth are you talking about?" I asked again full of sympathy and confusedness in my voice at the same time.

"I am not Travis" to consider his face, I thought he was lying.

"What do you mean? I don't understand!" he started to walk away from me slowly. But because he was being slow, I managed to grab his arm and look into his eyes, "I need an explanation that will tell me the truth. Please let me know it," he sighed while still heading his eyes to mine.

Before saying a word, he looked at the gravestone first where I looked at before then he finally started. "Jade, like what I told you a million times already, I am not Travis. I am Shawn. The real Travis is dead and all these times, I was pretending to be him,"

The situation got more complicated when I heard him with those words so I frowned again. How can he say he is only pretending to be Travis when he looks exactly like him? He continued, "Travis died two years ago today." I gulped and looked back at the gravestone. Starting to be a little convinced by his words now. But not all my questions are answered yet.

"I was his biggest bully. The one who forced him to send those letters to you consisting of Xanny. It was just supposed to be a prank to you and him but I didn't think that you and he would both take it too seriously. But then when I came to Kazakhstan, I realized that he is my long-lost younger brother so I had no choice but to be nice to him. At first, everything I did to him was fake, just to get my mom and dad's attention and show them that I am being nice to him. But maybe the connection runs through our blood that I couldn't resist him. In the end, I ended up loving him not in a fake way but as a real bother"

He looked back at the gravestone again and tears began to drip down from his emerald eyes which were telling all the stories that come from his broken heart. "We discovered he was hiding a secret from us, that he had lung cancer. After we noticed that, it only took two months before he died. And he always talked about you as much as I tried to apologize to him for what I caused him to do to you which I know were all wrong," the more words that come out of his mouth, the more I get nervous.

We are talking about him. Travis. In public. There are not many people around us yet.

"Before he died, he told me how much he feels sorry for all the things he has done to you but I feel sorrier for him for being the punk one to make him hurt you. He asked me one condition the day before he died. It was to take care of you when he is gone and to make you feel the love he hid from you for so many years. Jade, he wanted me to make you feel how sorry he was."

I know that this should not be happening to me. But tears are now endlessly falling from my eyes like a waterfall. I don't know if I should be shocked, startled, or should I just ignore what he is saying.

"When he died, I thought that the best way to fulfill his conditions and requests is to pretend to be him. And then I went through several surgeries to get this type of face you are seeing right now. The face he had and the one you fall for. Now believe me or not, I am not Travis and I would never be him,"

He became calm in every statement but I was feeling the opposite way because each second, my heart feels like it wants to break the wall in my chest and escape. Now, this is how it feels like to have pain in your chest and how to be hurt. I have been hurt before but not in this way.

I have been hurt by Travis once and now, knowing all the truth about him, I am being more hurt. "I am so sorry for lying to you." His eyes were full of drama so were mine. He looked at the gravestone behind me and started saying, "I'm sorry too, Travis. I failed. I wasn't able to make her happy like what you always wanted," knowing how much pain he feels or if ever Travis does, it makes me sick.

I want to just simply remove my heart or take it off me so it won't hurt like this. Not this bad.

"So, you mean, everything..." no more words came out of my mouth next but without even continuing, he nodded. Sadness became tears and my tears became sobs and sobs became pain.

Out of all the seven billion people in the world, why does my life need to be as weird as this one?

I am not in a movie or a novel right? But why are there too many plot twists? Too many tragic vibes? Too many sobs? And so much drama? Why is it this hassle to live and love?

Oh, now I know why.

Because everything is a lie. I believed in lies and I chose to.

But it was the biggest mistake I did in my life.

This world is full of lies and you can't fall nor believe them. Because they are lies not supposed to be believed. But I believed and fell for them which is wrong. Now, here I am. Blaming fairy tales and movies for making me think that happy ever after in a relationship could happen.

It can. Happy ever after is possible. But that is one in a million and I am not one in a million.