Chapter 11 - Pain Demands To Be Felt
She stood there like she was glued to the floor. Her eyes couldn't believe what just happened in front of her. He had told her that he was returning in the morning. And here he was playing with a blondie. She felt like she was nothing for him, meant nothing to him.
Anthony was shocked to see her at his place. He immediately released his grip around the blondie and ran towards Akira. He tried to hold her arms and explain the situation to her but the moment he touched her hands, she took a step back and shook her head. She didn't want to hear about any explanations, she didn't want to hear anything at all. She felt like she had made a fool of herself.
She held her tears at bay. She took her purse and dashed out. He ran behind her but before he could catch her she was already seated in a taxi. He pounded on the taxi door but she sat inside nonchalantly. The driver asked her a couple of times as where she wanted to go, but she had no destination in her mind. She had no place to go. She had come here to make Anthony's house her home. So after a pause, she asked the driver to go to the airport.
Her phone was buzzing non-stop. She was being flooded with messages from Anthony. But she didn't even care to take a look. She wanted to shout at him, wanted to question him "Why", but she didn't. The pain was building up, with every passing moment it was intensifying, making it unbearable for her.
"Pain demands to be felt". John Green had said it right.
She gasped for air for a while and tried hard to control. But then she caved in. She started crying her eyes out. Never did she think in her wildest dreams that stuff like betrayal and heartbreak would happen to her. With a heavy heart she started to ponder, "Where did I go wrong. Where did I lack?"
They both were students of graphic design at the University of Cincinnati, just that he was one year senior. They met each other at a technology conclave arranged at their University. Then one thing led to another and before she knew, she was head over heels in love with him. She literally doted on him and did everything possible to please him. When she would come to stay at his place she would do his odd chores, clean his house, get the grocery and all the mundane jobs. She did it out of love because in her head she had already visualized themselves getting married and growing old together. So no matter how many times her brother Mike would ask her to get a hold of herself she won't listen.
Now she was honestly regretting. She should have listened to her brother. Maybe she made it too easy. Maybe he took her for granted. All these rampant thoughts were killing her bit by bit. She was so much devoted to him that she didn't even care about the world around her as for her he was her whole world. She was a witty and pretty girl and there were many guys who ran after her in college, but she never even budged an inch. She never entertained anyone else apart from Anthony.
A bit later she realized that she had left all her luggage at Anthony's place and was traveling to the Airport in her pajamas and slippers. She sighed. It was dead in the night and the only thing running in her mind was to get away from this place. She wanted to go home and bury herself in her bed. She wanted to run to her brother and hug him. The foreign land which felt like home to her a couple of hours ago felt like a war front.
She sighed and retracted herself back from the painful memory and looked at her watch.
"13 more hours to go."