BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The music was so loud it made the room shake. And there was enough booze to make even a seasoned alcoholic begin to doubt their life choices. It was a setup for an epic party. For people to let loose and just go with the flow. All of them on their worst behaviour. But instead of a room full of gyrating bodies, practically glued to one another. There was only one person, not just in the room, but in the entire apartment.

Eric Fisher on a Saturday night when he should have been out and about, enjoying his life was at home. Drinking his sorrows away, using loud music to try and quiet his thoughts. It was a sad state to be in. A thirty year old man, alone in his home dancing on his own, a half empty beer bottle cradled close to his chest.

Cranking up the volume, Eric began singing at the top of his lungs. His voice completely at odds with the song that was currently playing, but he did not care. The music was so loud that on any other day he would have worried that his neighbours would call the police. But at that moment a possible night in jail did not bother him at all. Even if they did call the authorities. Eric was just the right amount of tipsy to not care. 

He was celebrating.

There was nothing but pure joy in him. There was no sadness in him whatsoever. So what if he had been silently wiping away tears as he moved around his living room. So what if it felt like every breath he took was being forced out of him? Those were just trivial things.

His heart was just heavy because the music was too loud, and he was only shedding a few tears here and there because he was happy.

Happy, that was what he was.

But no matter how hard Eric tried to convince himself of that, the pain in his chest would not go away. For you see, exactly two years to the day. The woman that Eric had thought he would spend the rest of his life with, had held his heart in her hands, and had squished it before throwing it to the ground. Then she had stepped on it for good measure. "You have no drive, no ambition. I do not see myself going anywhere with the likes of you. So it is best that we just end this," She had told him. Her words had been bad enough, but the fact that the break-up had been in a public setting, with Eric down on one knee. His ring, the ring that he had spent hours choosing for her, in his hands had made it even worse. She could have just said no and walked away, leaving him feeling ashamed but still able to gather a bit of dignity. 

But instead she had chosen to eviscerate him in front of an audience. A group of people who had started filming the moment he had knelt to propose. He had been the talk of the town for weeks afterwards. Everywhere he had gone it had felt as though everyone was judging him.

The scandal that had replaced his own heartbreak at the public dumping, had come weeks later. Weeks in which Eric had had to endure whispers and countless questions. 'What happened? Are you sure you guys cannot fix things?' Vultures circling, looking for juicy gossip, not caring that Eric's world had been falling apart.

 Eventually, the questions had stopped. People moving on, the majority forgetting all about it. But he had been unable to move on. Unable to believe that Melissa was done with him. It had only been after he had found out about her cheating on him, that he had realized that he'd dodged a bullet 

But those final words that she'd said to him still haunted him. 

"You have no ambition..." She'd said, and two years later the words still stung. 

Downing the last of his beer, and sinking to the floor, Eric wondered if she had been right. After all, he had quit a lucrative career as a computer engineer to become a math teacher, Giving up what had been a career that had been growing in leaps and bounds 'for a pencil, and some chalk'- again, those had been Melissa's words. 

His career change had been the cause of many an argument for them. Especially since Melissa herself had been focusing on doing her masters in applied Mathematics. Later on, after the failed proposal when Eric had gone to talk to her, hoping to fix things. He had found that she had not just been doing her masters, but that she had been doing the professor too. Another blow to his already broken heart. Made even worse when he had realized that everyone in their friend group had known. Not only had he found himself out of a relationship, he had also found himself without a single friend.

Back then, the only person in his corner had been his older sister, Beth, and two years later, she was still the only friend that he had. Melissa had scarred him very deeply.

Two years was a long time. He should have been over it, but he was not.

Eric still wondered if he had imagined things. 

Had the woman that he had been dating for three years really turned out to be someone so cold-blooded? So heartless? It was difficult to believe because in his memories, she was not that person at all. He still remembered the shy blue-eyed girl who had sat next to him the very first day of class. Eric had not forgotten the girl who used to stay up all night studying with him.The two of them dreaming up ways in which they were going to change the world. But somewhere along the way, she had changed, they both had. Melissa had begun seeing her academic progress as being reason enough for her to treat people like dirt, while Eric had lost interesting full-time engineering altogether. 

Choosing instead to pursue teaching, something that he had long wanted to do, because his father had been a teacher, and he had wanted the sense of fulfilment that he'd used to see in his old man's eyes. So he had left the engineering world, and had gone into teaching. Eric got it now. The reason that his father had loved his job so much. He had been a teacher for three years, and he loved it. It might have cost him Melissa and people he'd thought were his friends, but he would not change it for the world. But just because Eric would not change anything that had led him to the life he was leading as a well respected teacher. It did not mean that he did not miss Melissa. He missed her, very much so. He was ashamed of the fact that if she were to come back crying for him telling him that she had changed, he would give her a second chance. 

That is just the alcohol speaking, you will never go back to that witch!' The more logical part of him whispered, but the alcohol drowned it out. Something that always seemed to happen when he got really drunk.

Two years and Eric still had not moved on. His heart still hurt whenever he thought of her. He had no idea if the feeling would ever go away, and part of him wished that it would not. That he would always remember how dangerous loving somebody as much as he had dared to love Melissa could be. The proof of that was clear to see. It was Saturday night, and he was home alone. He was drinking and there was music. It should have been a happy occasion, but instead all that Eric did was drink, and drink. Trying and failing to numb the pain that thoughts of his ex still managed to cause him. At some point during the night, Eric dragged himself to the couch and collapsed onto it. Passing out almost instantly. Come Sunday morning, he was up bright and early, but not because he wanted it to be so. Instead he was awakened by a loud pounding on his door. Each thud feeling as though someone had taken a jackhammer to his head. Slowly getting up off the couch, every single joint in his body protesting the motion. Eric hobbled his way over to his front door. His head down as he pulled the door open. He attempted to not stare directly at the light from the outside. The light was really not helping matters. Especially when the people on the other side of the door saw him.

"Uncle Ewic! Uncle Ewic!" Any other day, the excited screams of his nephew and niece would have been music to his ears. But in that moment, it sounded as though the twins were trying to make his head explode.

"Hey, guys," Squinting down at them, Eric tried to smile. But he was not sure if he smiled, or just grimaced. Unbothered, Cayden and Kayla darted forward. Each hugged a leg and before he could process. They were in the house, already running around.

"I would ask, but given that you smell like a brewery, I don't need to," Eric did not even bother getting offended by Beth's words, she was being honest afterall. 

Stepping aside he let her in, glad for her presence when she headed to the kitchen and began poking around. Heading upstairs, Eric brushed his teeth and showered. By the time he got back downstairs, Beth had a hangover remedy ready for him, as well as a plate full of bacon and eggs. A steaming cup of coffee that looked as though it were tar was right next to it. With the shower having restored some of his humanity, Eric walked towards his sister and hugged her..

"Beth, my queen, my one and only older sister. The myth, the legend, the warrior who..." She returned the hug briefly before stepping out of the embrace.

"One more word out of you, and I'll eat all of this on my own," Not willing to check if she was serious, Eric pulled out a chair and dug in. He polished off his plate in silence. Listening to the twins babble and Beth's soothing voice as she talked to them.

When he finished his meal, he washed the plate and went to the living room. Settling on the couch, Eric instantly found himself surrounded. The twins cuddling up to him.

It was nice, having their tiny warmth surrounding him, and Eric closed his eyes, enjoying the moment.

"So, it was yesterday, huh?" Eric opened his eyes, and looked over at his sister who was sitting on the armchair closest to theirs. 

Not bothering to ask what she was on about, he nodded...they both knew it was about Melissa.

"You have not dated anyone since the break up...I worry about you little brother," 

"Not today, Beth just...let it go okay. I do not want to talk about dating, or Melissa," His sister did not push after that, allowing Eric to close his eyes and settle down for a brief nap. But even as he did that, he could not help but feel that it was not over. That she would bring up the topic again, and the next time that she did, she would not be letting things go so easily.

It was shameful.

He was a grown man still crying over his ex years after their break up. Not wanting to look into his sister's knowing eyes, Eric turned his attention to a spot on the wall.

" How's work?" He asked, still not looking at her. The conversation change not at all subtle. But his sister took pity on him, telling him about her latest translation project. A short while later she left the twins with him so that she could go run some errands. When she came to pick them up, Eric pretended not to see the worry in her eyes, and she pretended not to see the hurt in his.

But he could definitely see that she was worried, it would only be a matter of time before she said something.

Eric really did not want that time to come.