Page 7 of His Bittersweet Regret

The hardwood floor…

Marshall had taken the rug that he had picked out, the one that made our apartment seem a bit tacky, since the blue and gold design didn’t quite go with the green chair and tan sofa we had picked up secondhand.

I sat there staring at the bag at my feet, on the naked floor, for what must have been hours. The sun had gone down at some point and bathed the room in the soft glow of a full moon. I stood and moved to the bathroom, only because nature called and I couldn’t ignore it any longer. When I was done, and moved to the sink to wash my hands, there was a vacant spot on the counter where all of his toiletries had been just that morning.

Fresh tears sprang free from my eyes as I moved to our bedroom to see that all of his clothes were missing, along with the sheets he had picked out that had been on the bed when I left. The last sheets I bought were too girly for him, so he’d gone and picked out a more neutral pair. They were missing from the bed they’d been on only hours ago. His scent was lacking from the room too, having dissipated as anything he’d touched had been removed. There was nothing left.

It was only then that I realized the other things that were missing. Our pictures, a timeline of our love and relationship displayed in frames throughout our apartment, were all gone. Marsh had taken our memories with him when he left. That was probably the most devastating blow of all – besides him walking out the door earlier. Not only had he removed himself from my life, but he had stolen my memories too.

I didn’t even make it to the empty, naked bed. I crashed down on the carpeted floor in front of it instead. Of course, he’d left that rug. I had chosen it. I lay there, dying inside, crying for the loss of my love and the life I thought we were starting together. Sure, we’d started our lives together at fifteen, but we were supposed to be starting our family together tonight.

Sobbing gave way to physical pain eventually, as my chest, head, and face ached with the effort. My eyes closed when they became too swollen and irritated to keep open a moment longer, and before long, the sweet oblivion of sleep pulled me into her embrace and held me tight until morning light started pouring into the room and a pounding sound indicated that someone was knocking on the door.

I ignored whoever it was, hoping that they would just go away. Much to my chagrin, I heard a key turn in the lock instead. That could only mean it was one of two people. Either Marsh had come to his senses – which I highly doubted – or my best friend was here for some reason. She never used her key – unless I accidentally forgot mine while out with her.

“Opal?” She called out in a pitying voice, and that was all it took for me to know that word had spread about my relationship’s demise while my heart had been physically breaking open in my chest. I rubbed my hand across the spot where the ache had not dissipated.

“Opal?” Bethany cried out when she saw me on the floor. “Oh my God! Are you okay?” I turned slightly and when she got a look at my face, my best friend started crying too. “Oh, Opal!” She came to me, wrapped her arms around my body, and just held on tight as I continued to grieve.

Eventually, she coaxed me into sitting up and drinking some water. “You have more than just you to think of now,” she reminded me gently. That reminder only made me feel worse. I was going to be a single mom and I was already screwing things up for my baby.

“How did you know?”

“I went to the movies last night with Chad Baker,” she told me. “Ryker and his friends were there. I overheard him complaining that his brothers were all out on the town getting Marsh drunk because he dumped his girlfriend.”

“Great, so between the high school grapevine, and whoever saw the Kennedy brothers out celebrating the end of my relationship last night, everyone will know.”

“It wasn’t bound to stay a secret long.”

“Why did you wait until morning?” I asked.

“What?”

“Why did you wait to come here?”

She sighed and rubbed her hands through my hair soothingly. “I thought about how I would feel, and figured I’d give you the night to just cry about it. No offense, but I wouldn’t have wanted you there, at first, if it happened to me.”

“No, I get it. You were right.”

“He took everything, huh?”

I nodded. “Cleaned any hint of himself out of the apartment while I was gone to the doctor to find out I was for sure pregnant with his baby.”

“Did you tell him?”

I shook my head. “I had a gift bag with things in it and told him I had a surprise to give him.”

“Let me guess, he wanted to give you his news first?”

“Pretty much, and then he just left. He told me it was over. Said he already took all his stuff, and generously paid up the rent for the next six months, and then he left.”

“Just like that?”

“Yup.”

“No explanation?”

“None needed. His brothers finally got to him. Everyone finally got to him. He thinks that if he doesn’t find someone better in six months, that I’ll still be waiting for him.”

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