How can I fly away from him when he is the one that clipped my wings?
Girl meets boy.
Boy and girl become childhood friends.
Girl and boy fall in love.
Boy cheats on girl in last year of college and breaks her heart.
It's the same tragic story that'...
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One Year Ago
As much as I wanted to go straight to our apartment, I choose to grant her the last thing she asked me for before walking out of the pool house. It's the least I could do after what I did.
The campus at Granite Bay University is big enough that walking from David's house to the other side and then back this way should give her the time she needs.
My eyes water again when I think about what she's doing there right now.
This isn't where our relationship was supposed to end. We were going to finish college, start our careers, and then I was going to give her the wedding she's dreamed about since we were kids. A few years later, we'd own our place and then start on babies.
There were so many big dreams we had. We were so sure that our future together was unyielding. According to Charlie and our mothers, our relationship was written in the stars. There was a time when I believed that. Where I wanted it more than anything before.
So, what the hell happened? How the fuck did I get here? Walking through a quiet campus alone and bleeding after getting my ass kicked while my girl is at our apartment packing her things to leave me?
If I had known this is where I'd end up when I met Rianna sophomore year, would I have walked away instead of forging a friendship?
Sixteen years of memories rush at me, nearly knocking me on my feet, and I drop to my knees in the middle of the campus courtyard.
"I'm Charlie. Who are you?"
My nose crunches up. "That's a boy's name."
Charlie's eyes get real big and shiny and her lips shake. "That's mean."
I don't like it when she cries. It makes my tummy upset and my heart feel funny. "I'm sorry. Please don't cry. I-I-I promise not to hurt you ever again."
Her lips still shake, but she sniffles and wipes her face on her shoulder. "You better don't or I won't be your friend anymore."
I kept that promise too, until I became friends with Rianna.
Memories keep coming, slamming against my heart and tearing away chunks of it.
The day a drunk driver crashed in their yard where Charlie's five-year-old little sister, Joely, was playing and killed her, my butterfly begged me to tell her it wasn't real. I promised her I'd never lie to her.
The day she told me she loved me in a boyfriend type of way when we were thirteen and I told her I loved her too. I promised her I always would.
The day we lost our virginity to each other at sixteen and she asked me if we'd always be each other's one and only. I promised her we would be.
The day we talked about our dreams and our future and she made me promise we'd always be together. I gave her that promise.
All the promises I made to her taunt me, revealing how much I've failed in keeping them. Every promise I made to her I've broken.
