(Arata)
He broke up with me over a text.
What kind of moron does that?
Yes, my engagement party to my fiancé was left in shambles.
My boyfriend of three years, Andy Lawson proposed to me last week. Heir to the Lawson group, Andy was equally charming and handsome.
The perfect poster boy for magazines with blue eyes and mousse brown hair.
Of course, like any love-crazed girl, I was over the bloody stars when he went all fancy with the proposal.
Taking me for a romantic lunch, hiring an airplane to write "Will you marry me?" in the sky.
Going down on one knee with a smile brighter than the sun, he held out an elegant ruby ring.
I felt like floating on the very clouds that plane passed through.
I squealed in excitement and, with happy tears, jumped into his well-built arms.
Screaming 'yes' a thousand times over.
This was two months ago, and today, we were celebrating the joyous occasion by throwing a party for our loved ones and making it official to the world.
All preparations were in place as my best friend Stella adjusted my silk off-the-shoulder gown. The colour of mossy forest. Mom and Grandma had prepared this piece specifically for me.
She praised me with her signature sassy smile while holding my shoulders.
"You look stunning."
"I feel so excited." Rubbing my hands together I stared at the large ruby ring on my finger. My heart jolted in excitement with the love I felt for my man.
My phone chimed, diverting my attention and I picked it up from the table. Andy's name flashed on the screen making my tummy flutter.
A smile was quick to jot down my lips and take residence there.
Quickly swiping, I opened to read his text.
[I am sorry, Arata…I can't do this…. Engagement is off. Don't call me, I won't be available from now on. I wish you the best of luck for the future; I hope you find a good man. Don't come looking for me.]
My first reaction was.
'….what?'
My hands and lips quivered as the piece of metal and glass slipped from my hands and clattered to the floor.
No, no!
This has got to be some sick joke. Today wasn't the 1st of April, right?
Who breaks an engagement over a text?
Tears slipped out of my eyes, blurring my vision.
A stabbing ache jarred at my heart. This man had made love to me, taken my V-card, kissed me a million times and now dared to end everything over a message.
How pathetic.
"Arata? What's wrong?" Stella's deeply concerned voice seemed to come from somewhere afar. Her reassuring hands held me as I grabbed my phone from the floor and dialled his number with shaking hands.
[Sorry, this number is not accessible to you.]
An automated voice taunted me through the phone speaker.
"Nooo, no!" I shouted, wishing to hurl the phone towards the opposite wall.
He dared block me without an explanation.
Stella was frantic now, seeing my crazed condition.
"Talk to me, Arata. Please!!!" She pleaded as my knees gave way and I dropped to the floor like a heap of sand.
Seeing me lost for words, she picked up my phone and read the text Andy had sent.
"That bastard. How dare he? I am going to break his legs," Stella seethed out while helping me off the floor and hugging me.
She had the spirit of Aunt Huria. Like mother like daughter.
I openly cried in her arms.
The door opened and my parents stepped inside with proud smiles on their faces. They melted away as soon as their eyes found my teary face and I rushed to them.
"Arata Chan?" My father was the first one to hug me, nestling me in his big comforting arms. I was Baba's girl.
"What's wrong my sweetie?" Mom softly but concernedly asked. Her hands softly combed my hair.
"It's Andy, he sent a stupid text." Stella picked up my cell phone and showed the text to my parents.
Mom gasped while I softly cried in Baba's chest. He stayed quiet, but I could sense how rigid his body was.
"I am going to talk to him. It could be a mistake. Maybe someone stole his phone, or one of his friends sent this as a joke." My mother, Skyla Zyair, was a hopeless optimist, unlike my father who was a realist.
Irrespective of that, both cared deeply for me.
"I am going to punch the living daylights out of him, joke or not," Baba seethed out.
"He blocked…my number…" I said between sobs, more silence followed.
"We are going to confront him. How dare he do something so heinous." Stella grunted.
Baba took out his phone and tried Andy, but had the same result. He had blocked him too.
The ridges on his forehead and flat-lined lips told me he was barely holding himself back.
An uneasy feeling had begun to form in the pit of my stomach.
"I will call Mrs. Lawson and get to the bottom of this. It's unacceptable," Mom said, trying to keep her voice from shaking while scrolling through her phone.
Stella was doing the same on hers when she cried out in exasperation.
"Oh! God, that scum of the sewer shit." Her blown-out eyes wavered towards me.
Did I tell you guys, my best friend swore like a sailor?
"What happened?" I knew that look from Stella. Her eyes went back to the phone and she tried to close whatever she had seen, horror evident in her orbs.
I moved away from Baba, and towards my friend, and she instantly pleaded.
"You don't have to see this, Arata. Believe me."
My heart took a double dive into my chest. More tears singed the back of my eyes but I extended my hand towards my best friend. Whatever it was, I had to get through it.
"Show me."
With an apologetic look first directed at me and then my parents, she extended the phone towards me with shaking hands. Tears danced in her eyes too.
"Andy is marrying someone else. One of my secret connections just received the video and forwarded it to me. He is in the city hall… "
The rest of her words droned out as blood roared into my ears. My mother loudly gasped behind me while my father grunted in annoyance and frustration.
But all my focus was on the video in which the man of my dreams was now kissing another woman clad in a white wedding gown.
The gown which should have been mine.
The man that should have been mine.
What a twisted sick joke universe played with me.