Moving On

Chapter 10

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Walking down the crowded street I couldn’t help but anticipate meeting up with Isabella, Maria was busy at work so Isabella had offered to meet up with me. I really needed somebody to talk to about Darren and I couldn’t go to Lynne or my mum because I didn’t want them worrying about anything or thinking that the wedding would be called off because my mum and Lynne were the type of people who jumped to conclusions.

I pushed the door open and entered the Starbucks, my eyes roamed over the booths until they rested on an excited looking Isabella. I smiled at her before making my way quickly to her,

“Hey! I’m so glad you came.”

“What did I say before, any trouble and we’d come running.” She giggled once at her words and then settled back into the booth,

“I already ordered hot chocolate for you, extra cream and shavings too.” I beamed at my friend, she knew me too well,

“So, is It Jay I need to beat up?” she took a casual sip from her mug of hot chocolate and put it back down waiting for my answer. My eyes dropped to the wooden table in between us, my brain scrambled a way of putting my doubts and suspicions about Darren,

“I think- I think, Darren’s cheating on me.” Saying it out loud made me cringe and tears prick at the corner of my eyes, I risked a glance at Isabella but her expression gave nothing away, just calmness, so I took that as sign to continue,

“He’s been acting weird for the last few days, shifty. Yesterday he came home drunk! Like really drunk, and he was slurring all this crazy stuff about ‘not deserving me!’” I looked up to see Isabella’s eyes looking at me in sympathy,

“Did you talk to him about it?” she asked gently, she was probably expecting me to break down in tears any minute and that didn’t sound like a bad idea. But I was in the middle of Starbucks,

“Yeah, he told me he wasn’t. I felt really bad for accusing him but now I’m just confused, ii don’t know what to think.” she reached her hand over the table and gave it a gentle squeeze,

“You weren’t accusing him, you were just asking!” I dropped my gaze to my untouched drink and she continued talking,

“Look, I’m no relationship guru and this probably sounds cheap, corny and overused but go with what your heart is telling you.” I thought over at what she was saying and it did make sense. If I decided to stay with him that meant I’d spend most my days in paranoia. But leaving him would finish me for sure; I mean, how much heartbreak could one girl take?

“Carmen?” I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at Isabella,

“I don’t think he’s cheating, he could never do that to you! This is Darren we’re talking about! He just might be hiding something?” I mulled over the idea, I liked it much better than the cheating idea but if he was hiding something, what was it? And was it big? All these questions, too many questions.

“How’s Isabella?” Darren asked me as we watched T.V together,

“She‘s fine.” I answered coolly,

“What did you girls talk about?” this is where my acting came in, if I didn’t want him to be suspicious I had to act normally,

“Oh you know! The usual, school, life, gossip.” I tried keeping my voice level but there was a shaky tone to it at the end,

“Gossip? You hate gossip…” Darren’s probing eyes snapped to mine searching my eyes for the truth but I kept calm and continued,

“You know how Isabella is; she can talk about gossip for hours, days even!” I chuckled at the end for extra measure and that seemed to buy him,

“Mmmh, as long as you had fun.” He flashed me a small smile before turning back to the T.V. Letting out a hidden breath, I let myself relax slightly.

I was wiping down the last table of the night; I had finally finished my shift at the café I worked at, it had been just busy enough so that I wasn’t able to think about all the Darren drama but in the midst of all that I had been able to wonder where Jay was. Not that I missed his presence but we hadn’t heard from him in a week and that only meant he was planning something.

“I’m home!” I called out in the dark apartment, taking my shoes off, I made my way in. I sighed as I realised Darren wasn’t here, I just hoped he wasn’t getting drunk like last time, I sighed once again as I realised I still hadn’t figured out  why he’d came in absolutely drunk. Speak of the devil. My eyes travelled towards the door as I heard Darren walking in, his eyes met mine as soon as he walked in; taking a tentative sniff of the air my heart sank as I smell the alcohol coming off him. I ignored him and went to bed, I really couldn’t deal with his drunk behaviour.

“Fine! I’ll see you in 10 minutes.” Darren’s whispered voice shook me out of my sleep, I concentrated on making Darren think I was asleep, I knew it was wrong but I was going to follow him and find out what he was hiding. This was it, I waited 5 minutes till I followed him, my heart was beating out of my chest at the thought of what I was going to find out.

I followed his scent to a small cafe near our home, a café that we always used to go to. A pang of sadness hit me but I shook it off and made my way in, I’d doused myself heavily in perfume to make sure he wouldn’t smell me out hoping with all my might that it worked I crept to a booth near the front that gave me an easy view of him. He walked over to the green booth and sat next to a beautiful girl. I couldn’t help but marvel over her long, golden hair, her sparkly blue eyes made my brown eyes look like a puddle of mud. Laughing silently in my head I couldn’t blame Darren for choosing this girl over me, she was beautiful, she looked like the perfect girlfriend. Using my heightened senses I listened to their conversation,

“Thanks for meeting up with me.” Darren said to the golden haired beauty, she didn’t reply so he took that as a sign to continue,

“I’m sorry Clair.” So the girl was called Clair? I looked at Clair’s disbelieving face as Darren continued,

“I really am, if I could take back what I did to you all those years ago I would but I met someone else and I’m really happy now.” My heart clenched as I realised that Darren really wasn’t cheating on me but why was he apologizing to this girl? I took a closer look at her and managed to see a flicker of emotion in her eyes. An emotion that only a few held, an emotion that I had felt before. Heartbreak. I gasped quietly as I realised what Darren had done to this girl, this girl was his mate and he had rejected her.