He's a Cheater ✔️

3 - DRAFT TWO

3
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The morning was harsh on my hungover body, each glimmer of sunlight sending a jolt of pain through my body. Everything was sore, and I didn't like it.

Much of last night was still a haze, and apart from Mary's lips on mine, I couldn't remember most of my actions after I came home. Deciding coffee to be the only cure for my aching muscles, I dressed quickly, and after writing a quick note for Mary, I left the apartment.

I stopped at the intersection just outside of our apartment complex, my foot hovering over the gas pedal. A left turn would lead me to the nearest Starbucks and a comforting cup of coffee. A right turn would lead me to the cemetery.

I turned my steering wheel right.

After a few more minutes of driving and inner turmoil, I made it to the familiar grayed cemetery, each moment leading me closer like a knife twisting in my gut.

My feet led me to the gravestone I knew far too well, the words etched across it as haunting as the first time I had seen them.

Lily Wate
a loving mother, wife, and sister
may her light never dim

"Mom?" I called out, my voice shaky and uncertain. I looked at the other graves, adorned with frail flowers, hating myself for not bringing her anything. I had tried to move past her death, and because of that, her memory faded from my mind. To forget the pain of losing her, I had to forget her.

"Mom," I continued, "I don't know what do. I've been making so many mistakes and hurting everyone close to me. I just feel so alone since you... left. It feels like there's a gaping hole in my heart and I can't fill it with anything. I'm just putting everyone around me in pain. Especially Mary."

I was met with silence - I don't know what else I had expected - and I turned away from her headstone. Heat built up from behind my eyes, threatening to spill over as tears. I focused on the faded grass, refusing to let the emotion escape me.

I could imagine her answering me, with her incorruptible morality, telling me that talking with Mary would be the only way out of the mess I had created. But my strength wasn't enough for that, and I found comfort in my cowardice.

I drove home in an uncomfortable silence, every sound foreign and piercing. It continued until I reached my apartment door, but was then replaced by Mary's heartbreaking sobbing.

My stomach dropped to my feet as the door swung open, revealing Mary, encircled in Caroline's comforting arms. Their eyes both found my figure, Caroline's enraged and Mary's broken.

The guilt tore through my body, splintering my heart. I tried to find my voice, but all that surfaced was unintelligible rasps.

"Mary..." I began, but was completely cut off by Caroline's sharp glare. She got up from the sofa they were both seated on, and despite Mary's weak protests, made her way to me.

"How could you?" Caroline asked, her words dipped in poison. They burned through my veins like acid, leaving me raw and vulnerable.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled slowly, my eyes trailing from Caroline's fury to Mary watching the entire scene unfold from the couch. I saw the glimmer of my phone lying on the coffee table, and nausea overwhelmed my thoughts as I realized Emma must've texted me.

I had forgotten it on my nightstand. Caroline saw where my gaze had landed, scoffing, unimpressed. She grabbed the sleek metal from the table, throwing it in the general direction of my head.

"Take it and just fucking leave," Caroline told me, her temper leveled and her eyes burning with fury. I left the apartment in a daze, my fingers curling around the metal that had been my downfall.

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(smallerer author's note)
thanks for reading!
i hope everyone doesn't completely hate this update :)
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