Five years later.
"Fuck out of my room."
"It tastes good, you should try it."
"You know I hate pineapple toppings on pizzas."
Mabel dumps the box of pizza on my bed. "Have you ever wondered why pizzas come in rectangular boxes, shaped in a circle, and eaten in triangles?"
"I guess we'll never know."
With a sigh, Mabel folds her arms across her chests. "Could you at least act like you're happy to be home for thanksgiving?"
I point towards the door. "Leave. I have work to do and I won't get it done if you're going to stand there all day and talk about pizzas."
"Work?" She scoffs. "The only work you do is sit behind your laptop and stalk your boyfriend on Instagram."
"He's not my boyfriend! MOM," I call out. "Mabel's bullying me!"
"Real mature."
Zack, Simone's brother, walks into the room and hugs her from behind. "Hey babe."
Even now that Mabel's much older, being in junior year in University, her relationship with Zack is still a very touchy subject. And she understands that because she hardly ever talks about him when I'm around.
Zack is more mature enough now to know he shouldn't mess with my sister. And I gave him a death threat if that should ever happen. So yeah, they're with half of my blessings.
"Keep those hands where I can see them, Zack."
He spreads his arms out. "Yes ma'am."
"Did Simone come with you?" I ask.
"No. But she'll be here in ten minutes." Zack beckons Mabel out of the room. "Let's go help your Mom set the table and maybe have some privacy." He rolls his eyes at me as they both exit the room.
Finally in my own privacy, I turn back to my laptop and open my Instagram app. Mabel was not wrong after all. Stalking him had become a habit ever since we broke up last year.
Over the years, we've been able to keep in touch despite not being able to see each other everyday. Noah and I live in the same neighborhood, so we hung out every holiday which was also a bonus.
He chose to follow his heart and took the basketball scholarship instead of following his parents demands to attend Oregon State University. Then he made his first debut game two years ago. Dude rose to fame as a professional basketball player. As a shooting guard, Noah worked for National Basketball Association and played his entire 3 season professional career in the league with the Los Angeles Lakers.
His last game I witnessed was last year before I broke it off. He scored the winning game and the crowd went wild.
Despite being famous, he still had time for me. He always had time for me. I can't count the number of times paparazzis and nosey reporters caught us on camera in public, publishing it on magazines with the headlines always looking something like this:
Young basketball player, Noah Gallagher, spotted with suspected girlfriend at the mall.
I didn't mind the publicity actually. Even when fourteen year olds die hard fans kept sending a lot of hate mails.
Then everything went down the drain when I graduated and moved out of the state for a work transfer. I had too much responsibilities and problems to take care of that I forgot to text sometimes.
He still hung in there for me despite my reduced attention. I felt it could no longer work out. So I made one of the hardest decisions in my life.
I miss him, even if he still checks up on me once in awhile. It's been the hardest year without him, but I can't admit that to Noah. The thing is, sometimes we fall in love, and we fall so hard that we feel them everywhere we go. It's like, I see the sun and feel his warmth upon my skin or feel him somewhere deep in my soul whilst drinking a good coffee and my goodness— it's absolutely terrifying.
And I sit and question God with my broken heart in my hands asking him where we went wrong with our love. Sometimes, certain angels come into our lives disguised as the people we see— to teach us the meaning of love. We're given a chance to become closer to God— to cry to him amidst the darkness and ask him for the love we have lost.
I believe our prayers never go unheard; a day will come when someone who is meant to be will come at the right time and at the right place. And this person will love you just as you did many moments back; because you'll be the prayer they too, once made to God.
I scroll through his Instagram page and I still remain the only profile he's following, with 152 million other followers. His last post is just thirty minutes ago. It's a selfie of him with nerdy glasses and his hair is dyed pale blonde. There's no caption but it already has 9 million likes and 84 thousand comments. I think about dropping a comment too but there's a very slim chance he'll notice it among these other comments:
He a fucking king.
True.
You are the crush of my life. I hope I have a chance to meet you one dayI love you.
Ew.
Omg my husband. I love you so much marry me.
Cringe.
I WANT YOU TO HAVE MY CHILDREN.
Desperate.
"ALLIE! YOUR BOYFRIEND IS ON TV." Comes Mabel's voice from downstairs as I shove my laptop away and bolt down the stairs.
"Turn up the volume." Everyone stops what they're doing and focuses their attention on the TV. Even Mom leaves her grilled turkey unattended to and joins us in the living room.
It's the Alice Montez talk show. A popular show where the host invites celebrities of her choice for an interview. It's usually funny and laughable as the lady herself is a comedian.
She's there on the TV, sitting on that leather chair, her smile stretched out on the entire screen. I always thought her smile was creepy. "Hello! Welcome to the Alice Montez show!" The audience roars in approval and she winks at the camera. "Hi, I'm Alice Montez and it's time for me to do this speech I'd scribbled down about an hour before the show started." The audience laughs.
"Kidding. No speeches. Instead, we have someone with us that everyone's been dying to meet. Please welcome on stage, Mr. Noah Gallagher!"
The audience screams and some women(and men) whistle as Noah comes on stage, in a gorgeous blue suit, his newly dyed blonde hair gelled back.
"My, my. You look dashing as always." She claps her hands together. "If you don't mind me asking, do you have a brother?" Again, the audience laughs. "Are you a brother?"
He casts her one of his grins. That smile.
"Aren't you supposed to be married, Mrs Montez?"
Alice looks shocked. "Me? Married?" Then she stares back at the audience with the same shock. "Did someone not invite me to my own wedding?"
This woman.
"Joke. Adam if you're home and you're watching this, I just want you to know I still love you. Moving on. Noah, you've become quite the hot topic among the sports league over the last three years, how's it been like?"
"Not what I imagined. All my life, I always hid away from the spotlight. Now I can't even have a normal lunch at a restaurant without someone getting me on camera mid bite my donut. And you know the worst part?"
"What?"
"They never get the right angles."
"Hear that, people? If you're going to get our boy on camera, do it right." Alice adjusts on the seat. "This next question is going to be a bit personal. It's for the ladies out there wondering if you're still single. Is there someone special you want us to know about?"
Noah's face shows no emotion as his eyes quickly flickers to the camera like he knows I'm watching. Actually, my whole family is watching.
"There is... someone," He says, looking unsure of his reply.
"Do you want to tell us about it?"
His jaw muscles tenses. "I don't know how to explain it." He goes deep in thought for seconds, then suddenly, a small smile lights up his face. "That's when you know you really like that person... when you can't help but smile every time you talk about them. When you always mention them to your friends, and when every little detail in the world reminds you of them. That's when you know you've fallen in deep. That's when you know you've found someone special. I've found someone special, Alice."
Alice smiles along with him, liking what she's hearing. "That's so sweet of you. Do you guys have any plans?"
"I'm going to marry her."
I think my heart just flew out of my body.
I turn to all pairs of eyes staring at me, waiting for an explanation. "I swear, I have no idea what he's talking about. Maybe it's some other girl we don't know about." My chest hurt at the thought of that.
"That can't be true..." Mabel begins but I cut her off.
"I broke it off already. Face it. He's moved on." I don't know why I'm suddenly angry, but I jump on my feet in a fit of rage and storm back to my room.
My laptop's still opened where I left it and it takes everything in me not to crash it into the wall. It's still hard to face the reality that he's moved on. We stuck together for almost five years and he's just going to marry after only a year of not being together. I thought he missed me too. I thought we could make something work now that I'm back home for the holiday.
It wasn't supposed to turn out this way.
I pick up my phone, my finger hovers over Lacey's number. She'd talked my ear off on FaceTime about coming along to her Italian trip along with the rest of her University friends and Colleagues, and I told her I needed to think about it.
It didn't seem like I was ready to go on another vacation with new set of strangers. But with the way things are now, I need an escape from reality. An escape from him. I need a break. I need to leave as soon as possible.
Lacey wastes no time in picking up the call when I dial her number, and then I say the exact words I did five years ago to Simone where we stood at the airport with so much determination. "Lacey, let's go to Italy."