Her Verdict (Part 3)

A Story by x0void

What if you were just "the other girl" in his story? and to leave means to make him happy? Would you fight destiny? or would you just let him be free?

I could hear Daniel calling out my name again and again. But my mind was all swallowed up by the thought of Cole cheating on me. My phone dropped on the bed beside me.

“I didn’t mean for you to get hurt Xyriel. I never want you to get hurt. And believe me, I want to punch myself right now for hurting you. Please give me another chance, Xyriel. I promise you, I would never hurt you again.”

The scene kept on replaying on my mind and I kept on trying to make myself believe that Daniel was wrong and Cole would never cheat on me. But another part of me asks, “Why would Daniel even joke about that? Why would he make up something like that?” and I couldn’t stop but notice the authenticity in his voice.

No. Cole would never do that to me. He promised me. These are the kind of situations when Cole would need me to place full trust on him. I promised that I would listen to him first before others. I would not make the same mistake I did in the past.

Tomorrow, I’ll ask Cole, and then I’ll know.

By 7 am in the morning, Cole’s usual waking up time, I dialed his number. He picked up on the fifth ring. Maybe he was still asleep.

“Hey,” it was me who spoke first.

“Hi,” his voice sounded edgy.

“Uhm, I need to talk to you about something, can you meet me at Central Park today? 10 am?”

He didn’t answer.

“Cole? Are you still there?” I started feeling nervous. Something feels wrong. Stop it Xyriel. Stop being such a jealous b*****d. Maybe he’s just tired from partying all night.

“Yeah-- I mean yeah, I’ll meet you 10 at Central Park.”

“’Kay. Bye.”

He hung up.

Thousands of voices were screaming in my mind, telling me Cole’s cheating on me. But I chose to listen to one voice, Cole’s. “I promise you, I would never hurt you again.”

Cole was at the bench beside an elm tree, with its leaves turning to the shades of yellow and orange, when I arrived. The wind was blowing the leaves off their trees. He had his head bowed down so I couldn’t see his face clearly. He had on a gray T-shirt, black jacket and jeans. He didn’t notice me arrive until I was already a meter away from him.

“Hi,” I greeted, trying to sound as normal as possible. “You’re early. Have you been waiting long?”

He raised his head to look at me. “No.” His face looked worn out. When I studied his face nearer, I noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He must’ve not slept at all last night.

“I’m really sorry I called you out suddenly, I needed to ask you something,” I said. His eyes looked straight into mine. Those same eyes which made me fall in love with him made my insides melt right now. But there was something different, something present in his eyes that I’ve weren’t there before. I couldn’t exactly point it out; sadness, dread, or"guilt.

“Daniel called me yesterday night,” I began, my voice started to quiver. “He told me about something he saw. Remember the promise we made? That we should listen to each other first before listening to what others say? I’m fulfilling my promise right now. I’ll listen to you first before listening to what Daniel said.”

I waited for him to start asking questions about what I was talking about. I waited for him to say that he doesn’t know what I was talking about. But he didn’t do either, and it made me more nervous. My palms were sweating and I could already hear the loud hammering of my heart. I didn’t want to ask him anymore. I wanted to tell him to forget this ever happened and then I’ll just pretend that I’d never received Daniel’s call. But I couldn’t, I didn’t. I needed to know.

I breathed in deeply. “He said that-- Daniel saw you,” I struggled to find the words. “Please tell me if- if you,” tears clouded my vision. Get a grip Xyriel! Just ask the damn question! I raised my head and faced him, trying to get my voice steady, “Did you and Kyle kiss last night?”

No. I didn’t Xyriel. I promised you I would never hurt you, remember? Maybe Daniel saw Kyla kissing with a different person. He must’ve thought it was me.

But that wasn’t the answer I got.

“Yes.”

Yes. I felt my whole body shake. No. No please no. But I still didn’t want to believe that he cheated on me. Maybe this is all just a silly misunderstanding.

I struggled to find my voice, “You mean, she kissed you right? She made the first move. And you couldn’t do anything about it,” my voice quivered.

“No,” he said without hesitation, it seemed like he was already expecting my questions. “I kissed her. I made the first move,” he answered, his voice so straightforward and honest, that I didn’t have any choice but to believe what he said-which made me mad.

My auditory senses just failed completely at that moment. Why? What about your promise to me? You said you’d never hurt me? You said you’d love me forever? I wanted to shout all of these questions at him, but I couldn’t. My throat felt dry and I couldn’t find my voice. At first, all I felt was overwhelming sadness. Tears flooded down my cheeks. My heart felt like it was stabbed by a knife a hundred times. I was gasping for air with all my might. My knees felt like it was going to give up any moment then.

But after all the crying, which made my eyes sore, a new feeling arose. Anger. I wiped my tears and clenched my fists. I can’t believe Cole did this to me. I gritted my teeth. Hot tears started welling up again, but I gathered up all my remaining strength to stop myself from sobbing again. I slowly raised my head and looked at Cole in the eyes. Right then, all I could see in front of me was the guy who broke my heart. Anger prevented me from feeling any consideration to what Cole did. All I knew was that Cole broke his promise and hurt me, bad. Completely by the spur of the moment, I slapped his left cheek with all my might. But I didn’t regret it.

He didn’t react to what I did. He just stood there taking in all the pain. He didn’t stop looking into my eyes. When I felt a tear escape my eye, I immediately turned around and walked away. When I was almost ten yards away from him, I turn around to see him once again, to verify everything that had happened.

When I saw him, he had his head held up, his eyes closed and his brows creased. Then, under the blinding sunlight I saw a drop of tear glisten as it fell across his cheek.

“He did that to you?!?” Lauren shouted, almost damaging my eardrums. I called her right after I found my ability to talk again.

I kept silent.

“That-that- okay for your sake, I won’t be using any profanities for now,” she seethed. “Ugh, how dare he hurt you. I swear, by tomorrow, he’ll be a haunted by a certain ghost named Lauren Vandale,” she sighed. “Enough with this, you need company Xyriel, I’ll tell my mom I’ll be sleeping over there for tonight. Is that alright?”

“Yeah,” I sniffled. My voice sounded tight. I needed all the supply of love I can get right then, since one major source just got cut off.

My eyes felt raw when I woke up. It stung like crazy. Last night, I poured every hard-feeling I had for Cole to Lauren. And she just sat there, listening to every rant I made. I am so blessed to have a friend like her.

Lauren, who was beside me, woke up when I sat up.

“Oh, dear no,” she said when she took a look at me. “I knew this was going to happen.” She stood up and started rummaging through her backpack. “Clean yourself, I’ll fix you.”

“Excuse me?” I said, trying to sound offended.

“I’ll hide that swelling. I knew this was bound to happen so I bought my make-up kit with me,” she said matter-of-factly.

I smiled"after a long-long time, “Thanks Lauren, I just love you so much.”

She laughed, “Awwww. I love myself, too.”

I threw a pillow at her as I laughed.

Lauren did a great job on “fixing me”. She transformed me from someone who cried for a day, to someone who cried for hours. Lauren and I readied for school. I planned to hide from my mother, to save myself from a long explanation, but unfortunately, she caught me.

“Xyriel, is Cole gonna be walking with you to school today? He still isn’t here,” she asked me as she was frying an egg in the kitchen.

His name felt like a bee stung straight to my heart.

Oh, please continue on frying that egg, please don’t look up. But she did.

“Oh dear. What in the world happened to you?” she dropped her spatula on the pan.

“Watched Titanic again,” Lauren tried to cover for me.

“Really? For what? Five times?” she said, unconvinced.

“Mom, just drop it. It’s nothing,” I murmured.

“No, it’s not just “nothing”, Xyriel. I’m your mom, I need to know what happened,” she said, her voice was firm.

I didn’t want to tell her. Not just yet.

Lauren walked up to her and said in a low voice- trying to hide a conversation though I could clearly hear it. “Mrs. Hannah, apparently your daughter, Xyriel Fran, is currently experiencing some teenage crisis right now, and she’s not yet ready to tell you about this, yet.”

“It’s about Cole isn’t it?” she sounded angry.

“She’ll be the one to tell you when she’s ready,” Lauren responded. She walked towards me and dragged me out of my house. I just love my best friend. She understands me even without words.

Neither of us talked on the way to school. Lauren knew I wasn’t in the mood for talking.

Just last Friday, I was walking these same steps with him. Everything seemed so perfect. I guess my life’s not-so perfect now then.

I normally don’t hate school. But now, I just despise it. I hate the idea of walking up there and seeing Cole.

But, I didn’t have any choice. Thankfully, swelling on my eyes lessened by the time of the first period. I walked towards my seat with Lauren. Unconsciously, I looked towards Cole and Kyla’s table- but I didn’t see him. I only saw her, and she was also looking at me. She seemed pleading to me, she must’ve felt guilty since she stole my boyfriend. Xyriel! Remember that Cole was the one who made the first move. He admitted it. I managed to prevent myself from scowling at her.

Then where was Cole? Maybe he cowered out, got scared to face me. Just when I was about to sit down, he talked to me.

“Xyriel, can I talk to you?” Cole said. I felt everyone’s stare at us. They must’ve noticed that we weren’t the usual perfect-couple today.

I didn’t answer. I felt heartbroken and then furious when I saw him. It’s like this big ball of emotions trapped inside of me just exploded when I saw him.

“Look, she doesn’t want to talk to you right now, okay?” Lauren spoke up for me, again.

“But we need to talk, we need to settle everything that happened,” he sounded anxious.

I sat down as if I didn’t see him.

Lauren sighed. “She’ll talk to you five days from now, on Saturday. I’ll take her mom out for shopping that day so you two can talk alone in the porch of their house, okay?”

I shot her a glare.

“What?” she questioned. “Xyriel, you will need to talk to him someday. You can’t run away from this. By Saturday, you can then decide whether to break up or not.”

To finally hear those two words- break up- made my heart sink. I can’t believe how fast everything is happening.

I decided not to argue because I knew she was right.

Mr. Harisson arrived for Chemistry. He sat down with Daniel now, at the rightmost seat in the middle row.

Away from both of us.