The Pearl Necklace // mileven au.

1. happy ever afters

(mentions of abuse)

Freshman year
1985 (Friday) 11:51 am.

El was walking through the halls of her tacky high school heading towards her locker. Her next class was science, but she had her lunch period right after that and didn't feel like making an extra trip. So she grabbed her notebook and light pink lunch bag.

Her day was going fairly well, well, better than they usually go. This was mostly because Mike said he had something to tell her that morning, so she waited outside her science classroom waiting for the tardy boy.

El and Mike had been dating for a year already, they did everything together. They met in middle school and were very close best friends, until one day when he wanted that to be more. El of course said yes to the question because she as well had developed feelings for him. How could she not? She always happened to catch herself smiling at him with everything that he said and did. She thought he was perfect, with his lightly freckled skin and deep chocolate eyes. His head was full of fluffy and loose curls. El loved his curls. Something so simple had an effect that drew her in so much.

One day, he had gotten her a beautiful dainty pearl necklace that he gifted her with the promise of always loving her. She never took it off for anything. It was too sacred of a thing to not be wearing, to not have close to you.

They hung out almost every day after school, always by each other's side. She was always there for him, and he was always there for her or, so she thought.

If she was being completely honest, she and Mike hit a bump in their relationship. I mean, she of course still loved him to pieces, but there was always a tense spot when they talked about their parents. She didn't know if it was something of her doing, something she could have possibly said wrong, but he never brought anything of the subject up. And to be honest, El didn'want to bring it up neither. She felt almost embarrassed that it had to be mentioned. But there was one thing she was sure of, she didn't need to see it to believe it. Something was bothering Mike.

Her eyes met his as he turned the corner. He seemed ... off.

His eyes seemed puffy and red, he was playing with his hands by his side,(which she knew he only ever did when he was nervous), and his lips were pressed so hard together that his lips vanished.

BBRRRING-BBRRRING-BBRRRING-BBRRRING
Just great. She was now tardy to class, but she was fine with it. It seemed like Mike needed her company anyways well, that's at least what she believed...

"Hey, Mike! What's wron-I can't do this anymore," he said, cutting her off. "What are you talking about?" El asked generally confused by his statement. "I'm-i'm breaking up with you." he quickly said, looking away to his left.

Those words hit her like a wrecking ball.

Breaking up...with her?

What had she screwed up this time to make her boyfriend who made her smile every day, even have those words come out of his mouth? What did she do? What did she do? That question circled around and around in her head which felt like forever before she snapped out of it.

"Why?! Wh-what did I do??? Please just tell me what I did wrong, I'm sorry. I-." she stammered while tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes.

"El... please don't cry, it's just that too much stuff is going on right now in my life and-and I need a break okay?" he stated. " I promise it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me," he muttered, moving his head back facing her. And that was when all their memories slid down the drain.