You Only Live Once [Completed]

Chapter 9

I meet Levi at Vanilla Beans, sitting gently on the edge of the bench. I have no idea what I'm going to say or how I'm going to start it off.

"How are you?" He asks, sliding a French vanilla towards me.

Apparently, he was trying to break the awkward silence.

"Not good." 

"Why not, love?"

I glare at him. "Why don't you tell me, Levi? You cheated on me with Natalie."

After I said Natalie there was a long string of profanities. He didn't have the guts to say anything; to reassure me.

"Is everything we did just some joke to you? If it was, I wasn't quite following." I practically shout. "I knew we'd be complicated but I really hate you right now."

Levi's jaw drops. "I didn't cheat on you, Hayden."

"A little too late for lies." I snap. "Natalie told me everything. I thought I meant something to you, obviously not."

People in the coffee shop are turning to look at us, a raging couple. 

"Well she must've gotten it wrong." He suggests.

"Shut up!" I'm full out screaming now. "She may have been drunk but she was still aware! At least she had the guts to tell me. You're my boyfriend, you're supposed to tell me everything!"

It's like I've finally woken up from the dream, I'm dating a horrible perosn. I grab my French vanilla, open the lid and dump it over his head. I storm out of the coffee shop, in tears.

As soon as I'm outside, I slump against the wall. I slide to the ground, wrapping my arms around my legs, hugging myself. Trying to piece myself back together. The tears are flowing and I barely notice when the night gets darker. After what seems like hours, the door opens and a tall figure walks out. 

"Hayden?" It calls. "Is that you?"

I don't answer, I just burry my head in my lap.

"Hayden," Levi's soft voice says. "What happened back in there?"

"Go away." My voice is muffled. 

He pulls me to my feet, and traps me against the wall. 

"Were you trying to embarrass us in public?"

I sniffle. "Well you'd be damn angry if I cheated on you with your best friend. You didn't even have the guts to say 'hey, I cheated on you with Natalie. I'm sorry.' no, you just left me hanging."

"I'm sorry," His voice is strained. "I couldn't contain myself, that's why I didn't want to come in the first place."

"You're so full of it!"

He cuts me off with a very passionate kiss. I just stand there, under his grip while he kisses me. After a minute or two I'm kissing him with hunger, with pain.  

"I swear I'm going to change." He murmurs. "I swear."

Like I believe that rat.

*  *  *

The phone rings when I wake up the next morning, Natalie on the other end.

"I'm so not impressed with you, Natalie." I say. "But not as disappointed in you as I am with Levi. You at least had the guts to tell me."

"I'm really sorry, I vow to never drink again." 

I smile to myself. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to forgive either of you though."

"Fine, don't but I want you to know I'm always here for you." 

"Thank you, Nat." I say. "Levi and I had a huge fight last night, in public. The coffee shop was so crowded getting ready for the open mic night and then there was me. I was screaming at him, I was so loud."

"Did you break up with him yet, or are you not going to?" She asks.

"I'm most definitely breaking up with him, he should know it's coming. I told him that I hate him. He swore to me that he'd change, but everyone knows that will never happen." I say.

"Well good luck, Hayden."

The rest of the day Megan and I brainstorm the most efficient way to break up with Levi. She came up with me giving him a sign that says 'Welcome to Dumpsville, population...you.' while my great idea was to just say that we're over. Sometimes I wonder what I'd do if I didn't have her as an older sister. She's been through heart break more than once, she'll be my inspiration to recover.

I don't know why I'm surprised that he cheated on me, I knew it was bound to happen at some point.  I guess I was too blinded by love that I didn't have that intuition I always thought I did. I don't know why Levi thinks that everything's just going to go back to normal, that I will somehow forgive him. My mind is twisting and I don't know right from wrong. Is it so wrong that I still love him after everything that's happened? I just don't know what to do, if I call it off will we just get back together? Right now I don't ever want to be with him, but down the road will I be with him again?