Evans Anderson
I never wanted to break the news to her this way, but I had to. It was going to be the last night that I get to be in Melbourne and I wanted to spend it well with her or so I thought because she looks madly furious right now. If I were in her position I'd be mad too.
I came back to Melbourne seeking solitude, the peace, the quiet from all the chaos going on in my life back in New York and no better place to seek such peace than in Melbourne. I was born and raised here in Melbourne, my dad died when I was twelve and my mom moved me and my younger brother from Melbourne all the way to New York. It's been ten years since we left Melbourne and I missed this place a great deal. I definitely wasn't happy with the change of moving to New York but it's the sacrifices we pay for moving on with our lives.
My life changed overnight when My mom got married to a billionaire a year after moving to New York. Mason William, my mom's husband and my step-father, he had a great personality or so I thought, he had a great sense of humor, he was amazing in every way except for one thing. I hated the fact that my mom just got married so quickly, it felt like she moved to New York primarily just to get married. Mason always tried to help and support my modeling career but I never felt inclined to agree to it. I wanted to build my career by myself. After all he wasn't my father and I can tell you for sure that It was no easy feat doing it alone all by myself, but I scaled through and became one of the top ten models all over the world.
Their ten years of marriage was about to crumble when an anonymous tip was released online. It was a tip that threatened to ruin their marriage, not only their marriage but also my career that I had worked so hard to achieve. When we were outside of our home we portrayed the perfect family but we were far from being perfect and this tip was about to ruin the perfect cover we've kept up for five years. In the modeling industry a single misstep or negative rumor can have devastating consequences. Sponsors are notoriously risk-averse and may swiftly abandon you if your reputation takes a hit. Unfortunately for me the anonymous tip was a bombshell that shattered my career, a poisonous dart that struck the heart of my modeling career. As soon as the news broke, sponsors, fearing the negative publicity, started dropping me like hot potatoes and began to distance themselves.
Melbourne became my last resort. I came back to where our house used to be, but a motel had been built there, but my dad's gravestone was still standing. Today was the third night I spent in Melbourne and this was the last night I wanted to spend Melbourne not until I met Coral. She's given me enough reason to stay back and just live here, that's if my manager doesn't Kills me first.
"What do you mean you're going back to New York?" She asked, standing up from the bed and looking at me in utter confusion.
"That's where I live, Coral," I replied calmly.
"You live in New York?" She asked again, searching my face to check if I was probably lying.
"Yes, I do live in New York" I replied with a smirk on my face.
"Stop Lollygagging" she said, stomping her feet on the floor, with her face looking like a petty cute little baby.
"I'm not lollygagging or whatever you call that" I said back at her trying to make her see that I was fooling around.
"And you didn't care to tell me before now?" She asked, her face painted in mixed emotions and her voice laced in anger as she paced the room.
"There wasn't room for me to tell you that I was leaving, you had just lost your aunt and I didn't want to be an extra burden, I just wanted us to have fun and just live a little before I traveled" I said, hoping she would calm down and stop pacing the room, but she continued still.
I stood up from the bed, held her hands, drew her closer to me and stopped her from pacing the room any further. Her head was facing down in disappointment, I lifted up her chin, her gaze meeting mine and then I flashed her a smile.
"What are you so scared about?" I asked her, looking deeply into her blue eyes.
A deafening silence was all I got till she spoke out.
"That I'll be all alone and I'd have to go through the last year of high school watching my best friend and ex-boyfriend falling in love and I'll be all alone, that me and my mom will never relate comfortably with each other, that I would continue hurting now that my aunt was no more, I'm scared that'll I lose the one and only chance of living forever with a soulmate that I just met" She said sadly, tears clouding her eyes that threatened to fall.
"Scared that every area of my life requires a missing puzzle to complete it and I can't seem to get a grasp on any of the missing puzzles." She said, her voice filled with sadness and anxiety.
"Life keeps tossing away every missing puzzle," she added, a tear falling from her eyes, rolling down her cheek.
I wiped the tears from her cheek and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"Cherry, life will definitely require a missing puzzle and then it feels like life keeps tossing the missing puzzles away then we create our own missing puzzle and complete it ourselves. You don't have to let the universe decide it for you" I said, wiping away the tears that continuously dropped after the first from her eyes.
I held her close, offering words of comfort.
"Everything will be okay," I assured her, patting her back gently. Her tears fell freely, wetting my shirt.
"You're stronger than you think, Coral," I whispered, trying to bolster her spirits.
"Will it be alright tho?" She asked, still sobbing.
I heaved a loud sigh. That was a tricky question for me, knowing quite well the difficulties I was going to face if I go back to New York. The judgemental stares and the constant scrutiny. I thought to myself "would it truly be alright?" I knew I'd face a lot of gossip and rumors and I was ready for that, I wasn't prepared for all the emotional toll that would come along with it. So would it really be alright? I found myself telling her…..
"At the end coral, it's going to be alright" I assured her, despite my uncertainty, despite life's uncertainty.
"Okay," she said, her arms wrapped tightly around my torso as she sought refuge in my embrace . Her head rested on my chest, her small stature that should be around 5'7 making her seem even more vulnerable.
"Can we go out of here and just do all those things you wanted us to do initially? I'll like to do all those things I did with aunty Lydia" She muffled under my embrace.
I broke off the hug and held up her chin and flashed her a smile.
"Cherry, definitely!" I said, kissing her forehead.
It'll be really hard to let go of Coral, once I'm leaving Melbourne. I checked my wristwatch and it was 2:30 am already. Time was really flying so fast. I didn't want this night to end. If I traveled back to New York I wouldn't have the time to come back to Melbourne again so I had to ravish every second, minute, hour, I had with her.
I held her hand as we both stepped out of the room, we walked to the ocean and stared at it once last time.
"Do you think we would ever be together?" She asked, her gaze fixated on the bellowing ocean.
I turned to look at her, putting every details of her into my memory. I turned her chin to look at me.
"I wouldn't want you thinking about that now, let's just think about the now and make the most of it" I said, smiling at her.
Deep down I really wish I didn't have to leave Melbourne. Pretty sure my family must have being buzzing my line, the only way my manager could reach me was because he was the only one that had this private number.
"I like you so much Coral miller," I paused, looking into her eyes.
"This feels like a fairytale, and if it's a fairytale, then let it be our own fairytale"
"And if our paths align, I'd adore you and love you like it's the end of the world"
"And if our paths do not align, then I'm sure our stars up there aligns and our paths are just lazy to align with the stars" i said, as we both chuckled lightly.
"Thank you for giving me for being alive coral Miller, thank you for giving me a reason to smile again coral Miller, you're one of the best thing to ever happen to me" I said, grinning as tears clouded my eyes.
"Let's forget about the future and just live in the now!" I said, pulling her into a hug.