The Anatomy of a Broken Heart //Completed//

26. Caleb

The room was so dim, I thought the lights were completely off until my eyes adjusted to the low glow of what looked like yellow Christmas lights that hung throughout the living room. It wasn't at all what I'd been expecting. Actually, I didn't know what I was expecting. Maybe a bunch of dirty hipsters with needles in their arms and a cloud of opium smoke clouding the air. Well, the room did look a little foggy but I suspected it wasn't something as dated as opium. The place was surprisingly lively. There was music I'd never heard before, much like what was playing through Santana's speakers, and there were a ton of people there. Most of which I'd never seen before.

We walked through the crowd, not speaking to anyone, until we reached the drinks table. Immediately, Santana popped off the cap of a beer bottle and took a swig before turning to me and offering me one. I took it gratefully and gulped half of it down. I looked around the room again, taking in all the weird, trying to keep my head above it to not drown. There was a black and white film projected onto the largest wall-which probably explained the dim lighting- playing with no sound and some people were watching it quietly sitting on beanbag chairs or on the carpeted floors while the rest talked among themselves. Santana hadn't looked remotely impressed when we came in, but I had to admit it was kind of cool in a retro way.

Then, I noticed two people were walking our way. It was Marlow and her guard dog Jonah. When she smiled at me, I felt my face flush with embarrassment once again at thinking they'd give me dirty looks. Well, at least she didn't give me a dirty look.

"What do you want?" Jonah, chubby and dressed in black from head to toe, crossed his arms when he stopped in front of me.

My head mechanically snapped to where Santana was so she could do the explaining, but she wasn't next to me anymore. "I...uh. I'm here with..."

"It's okay. He's with me." She came up from behind them, with Zealand at her side. The others looked at her skeptically, like she'd lost her mind. Finally Jonah shrugged and pushed through our little group to get a drink, hauling Marlow away with him. Zealand only stared at Santana, as if trying to catch her eye. I was afraid he knew something was up because he only scoffed and shook his head, following his friends.

"He's not buying it." I looked at Santana, worried.

"Not really, but that's okay. Zealand knows me better than any of them, but he also knows when not to ask questions. Even if he suspects, he'll never say anything." Her confidence eased some of my nerves and I relaxed a little. Even if he suspected, who could he possibly tell that it would reach anyone Farrah knows?

We stood there awkwardly for a little bit before she left me by myself again. "I'll be back in a minute. I need to talk to someone," she said and left without a glance back and I was left to fend for myself. Once again I could feel the anxiety slowly creep up through my stomach, lodging itself firmly in my throat. Some people threw curious glances my way but thankfully no one approached me. Some of them were too busy looking at the walls which I had just noticed hung frames at even intervals all around. They were illuminated by the same fairy lights that fell from the ceiling. I walked over to the closest one and was surprised to see Santana freely smiling back at me. Her head was thrown back and her eyes were scrunched up from laughter. The camera was so close, I could see a sprinkling of freckles dusting her cheeks and nose. It was weird to see her so unaware. Even the rare moments she'd smiled or laughed in front of me had been restrained. Pained almost.

I walked around the room, following the photographs. They must have been of the same set because even I could make out a theme among the images. They were all of Santana's friends. But where in some I could spot Marlow's big blue eyes but not Jonah's angry mug, in others I could see neither. One thing I could see that all the pictures had were her. Santana was the connecting theme of all these photographs and it was kind of fascinating. Zealand obviously had a thing for her and I wondered if she was aware. She had to be.

Surprisingly, she wasn't the focal point in all of them. Sometimes she was in the background as a blurry mess but I could still tell it was her, and sometimes she was the only one in focus. When I reached the last one, I felt a little disappointment at reaching the end. There's something about looking at pictures of people you know...especially such well taken pictures. She was standing where I stood now, looking the other way at Jasper who seemed to have no idea she was there.

"Pathetic, isn't it?"

I turned around to see Santana rolling her eyes at the photo. "No. It's really cool, actually. All of these are amazing."

"Yeah, Zealand's crazy talented. I thought I'd seen the whole set but some of these are new." Her eyes traveled around the room and lingered on the one of her laughing. Through the dim, I tried to make out her expression but it was unreadable.

"You're in every one of these pictures," I pointed out.

"Well I'm not totally for want of talent. I'm great at making others look great in pictures."

She joked, but I could tell she hadn't understood my implications. Or she was choosing to ignore them. I turned back to the picture of her and Jasper. "When was this?"

"Just after I met him. I was waiting for him to look up. I didn't want to be pushy." She smiled slightly and looked at me. "Come on, pretty boy. I'm bored of looking at myself. Let's go find something to burn."

She took my hand and made a show of walking straight through the growing crowd so everyone could see. And sure enough, everyone's eyes latched onto us as if we were the ones burning.

Let me know what you think! Sorry about taking forever to update!