A week after prom, I still had a glow resting on my cheeks. The things Brad and I did that night was nothing short of amazing. He was attentive, dominant—pretty much everything I ever wanted in a first time. And ever since that night, we haven’t been able to keep our hands off each other. It’s been absolutely perfect.
Making my way to the post, I open the box and find a thick letter resting inside. My heart rose to my throat, a smile spread across my face. There’s no way it’s here already! I snatched it from the box and took off running toward the house, almost running straight through the door in the process.
“It’s here!” I screamed, running through the house.
The letter I’d been waiting on for weeks finally showed up. About halfway through my senior year in school I applied to a school in New York. I really found I have a knack for public relations, so that’s what I opted for as a career choice. I was beyond excited to receive the letter. I was about to give up any hope from hearing from this school. Having graduated a month ago, I was relieved when I went to the mailbox and saw it sitting there.
“Hey Mom, it’s here!”
If this letter said what I think it was going to, my life would be absolutely perfect.
I looked through the kitchen, in all the bedrooms. I even went outside to see if I could find my mother. But she was nowhere to be found. I furrowed my brows in confusion. Her car was sitting in the driveway, so she had to be here somewhere. I went to check in my room and found her sitting on the bed, tears falling down her cheeks. I had no idea what was going on, but today was going to be a good day. I wasn’t going to let whatever she had going on ruin my good mood.
“Mom, didn’t you hear me yelling?”
She dried her eyes with a Kleenex before looking at me. “Yeah, honey, I did.”
I looked from her to the box sitting next to her, then back to her. I was convinced whatever was in that box had something to do with her tears. I walked over to take the lid off the box, but she stopped me. Shaking her head, she cleared her throat and told me to tell her what I was so excited about. I showed her the letter in my hand, my eyes lit with happiness. When she saw the name on the front of it, her mouth hung open in shock.
“No. Did you really?” she asked happily.
“I don’t know. I haven’t opened it yet. That’s why I was trying to find you.” I exhaled, sitting down on the bed next to her.
She tossed the Kleenex into the trash can, turning to me in the process. “Well, let’s open it.”
I was momentarily distracted by the box on my bed. I pointed to it, looking her in the eyes. “What’s that?”
She waved me off, taking the envelope out of my hands. Hearing the sound of her opening it, my breath caught in my lungs. This was it. I was finally going to find out if I got into the school of my dreams. When she started reading the letter, she jumped up and started squealing. I shook my head and giggled.
“Mom, I don’t know why you are squealing and jumping, but you can if you want to,” I said.
“Oh, baby! You got in! You got in!” she yelled, turning in a circle holding the letter to her chest.
Tears started falling from our eyes. I jumped up and grabbed the letter from her, reading it. Sure enough, it read that I would be starting in the fall semester. I looked up into my mother’s tear-stained, smiling face. I grabbed her to me and held on for dear life. If it hadn’t been for this woman, I don’t know where I would be right now. When my own father didn’t want me, she did. Even though raising me was hard as hell, she managed it. I loved her so much.
When our squealing died down, I ran to my door. I had to tell Brad the good news. I hadn’t seen him in almost four days. To be honest, I wanted to see him more than show him my acceptance letter. This had been the longest that he and I had ever been apart. I heard my mother calling out my name, but I wouldn’t let her stop me from seeing him. He deserved to know. He was going to be a part of my future, after all.
Getting into my car, I raced to his house. As I pulled up to the stoop, my excitement was so high that I didn’t notice the big van in the driveway. Running to the front door, I rang the doorbell. I was shifting from side to side when the door opened. When I saw Brad, I leapt into his arms. I rained his face with kisses and hugged him close to me. But something didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel his arms around me, nor his lips, sweeping kisses across my face.
I lowered myself to the floor, staring up at him. Could four days really change a person? The person I saw in front of me looked like a hollow shell of the man that was so full of life a week ago. His face was a blank mask, there were dark circles under his eyes, and his lips were in a stern line. This was not my Brad.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
There was a noise behind him, so I glanced in that direction to see his mother standing next to the sofa. Her face was the same as Brad’s, if not worse. She looked like someone had killed her cat or something. I was about to say something before she cut me off.
“You need to leave, Claire,” she snubbed out.
My mouth hung open in shock. She has never talked to me like this before—ever. If anything, she treated me just like a daughter. I was flabbergasted by the anger lacing her words.
“Mrs. Titan, did I do something wrong?” I asked, clearly confused by the look of hatred I saw on her face now.
“Oh, like I need to answer that, you fucking whore,” she seethed, glaring at me.
Wow. Whiplash. What the fuck was going on?
I opened my mouth to say something, but Brad cut me off. “Claire, you need to leave.”
I looked back up at him in shock. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but whatever it was, it was really bad. “Um … Can you please explain to me what’s going on?”
From the look on his face, my heart broke. When I said that nothing could possibly ruin my day, I had been so extremely wrong. I took in his whole appearance, noting the wrinkly clothes, unshaved jaw, and the clear lack of sleep he hadn’t been getting. I went to hug him, but he pushed me away. Tears began forming in my eyes at his dismissal. He didn’t even want to touch me. Hell, he couldn’t even look at me for more than a few seconds at a time.
“You know a hell of a lot more than I do at this point,” he stated, as his eyes finally settled on mine, blazing with a rage I had never seen before.
“What the fuck is going on?” I said low in my throat, tucking the now forgotten envelope into my pocket.
He walked away from me to grab a picture off the hall table. Returning to me, he thrust the picture in my hand. The first time he put his hands on me since I got here was to push me out the door. Hearing the door slam at my back, I turned around. The shock of his cold treatment was settling into my bones. I had no idea how we went from being in love to him treating me like I was a piece of shit on his shoe.
Looking down at the picture, I fought the bile that rose in my throat. It was a picture of Henry and me—having sex. What the fuck? I had only ever been with one man, and he just slammed the door in my face, figuratively speaking. I put a hand over my mouth as tears started to fall. I noticed a movement at the corner of my eyes. Glancing over, I saw Mrs. Titan putting her things into the moving van. The same one I totally missed in my haste to get to Brad.
When she exited the van, her sinister smile did not go unnoticed. It looked as if she knew something that I didn’t. I started walking toward her, until Brad came from the garage and saw me coming closer. He stopped in front of his mother, glaring at me. His don’t-fuck-with-me glare stopped me in my tracks. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. But I did know that I never did anything with Brad’s father. That much I was certain of.
I saw red.
“Do you really think I would do something like this? Huh? That I could hurt you by doing this lie?” I yelled, balling up the picture and throwing it at him.
When he didn’t answer me, it infuriated me even further. “Fucking answer me!”
He closed the distance between us—fast. Getting in my face, his nostrils were flared from his anger. His eyes looked pure black. He looked crazed, that at any moment he was about to break. “The fucking proof was in your motherfucking hands, Claire!”
I stood toe to toe with him, my cheeks burning bright red from my anger. “It’s a fucking lie, Brad! I would never do something like this to you. Why the fuck would I?”
“Money … Cock … I don’t know, take your motherfucking pick. But what I do know is …” He stopped ranting to walk back to where he was, picking the picture up off the ground. Unfolding it, he stalked back over to me. “Pictures. Do. Not. Lie, you scheming bitch.”
The tears fell faster down my face. Brad had never spoken to me like this before. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what was happening. It was like I was thrown into an alternate universe where the whole world—my whole world—was trying to fall apart, and Brad had gone from being the most amazing person ever to this devil that stood in front of me. Paint him red and give him a pitchfork and that’s what he would be.
“Brad, I promise … I did not sleep with your father. He’s like a dad to me, for Christ’s sake.” I wiped my eyes before reaching for him. He back away, which broke my heart even more.
“Don’t. Fucking. Touch. Me,” his gravelly voice barked out as he took a step back. “I do not want to see you again. Ever! Now get the fuck out of here.”
When I didn’t make a move to go, he leaned toward me, whispering in my ear. “You’re nothing to me. Now get the fuck out of here.”
Dropping the picture, I turned and ran away from him. The one person who I thought was my entire life turned out to be nothing more than a fantasy, a fairy tale. I should have known that everything was going too good to be true. Something always comes along and fucks everything up. Not only have I let my heart get broken by him once, but twice. I thought he had changed when we got back together–that nothing would be able to tear us apart.
I was so wrong.