Tangled in Love

Chapter 5

Nolan's eyes flew open.

As he stared into the darkness of his room for a few moments, he realized that his comforting grip given by Maya was nothing but a pigment of his imagination, all due to his constant thinking about his girlfriend's indefinite rest. He sighed, his escalating heart beat now settling down in disappointment. His sweat trickling down his face, torso, and limbs began to grow cold against his warm skin and as he glanced at his hands, he saw them shaking uncontrollably. He then noticed his entire body shaking.

In the real hospital, his warm hands cupped Maya's chilled ones, transferring his heat to her. Nolan wanted to cry, with his nose burning a stilled stinging pain, but there were simply no more tears left to drop. He just stared, admiring Maya's peaceful face sleeping so soundly.

"I admire you so much. Especially now, sleeping like there's no problem," Nolan started, smiling fondly at Maya. Then his whole face changed, growing serious as if remembering what he came here for. "My love, you'll always hold a special place in my heart, but I have to let you go," he whispered, nostalgia filling him.

Suddenly, his voice rose. "I have to move on! Stop holding me back! It's not good for me! I have to or else I'll keep thinking, dreaming, talking about you! I have to or else my hopes will keep going up and once risen as high as they can, it will end up plummeting!" he cried at the top of his lungs, again, as if to convince himself of his own words. "Do you know how many sleepless nights I've had because of you?! You've left me waiting for so long that I've moved on already! Do you hear me? I've moved on!" His voice suddenly became soft, so quiet that he almost couldn't hear himself. "But I will always love you." he finished, one tear dripping down his cheek.

Nolan stood up, about to leave, but thinking he saw her hands stir and her eyelids flutter a little, he took a second glance and disappointment flushing over the nostalgia. He was so sick of hoping and hoping, dreaming that she was alive, all as trick, and resulting in devastation. He was too exhausted to continue waiting for her.

He slipped his phone out of his right pocket when a buzz signaled that he had a new message.

"Hey bestie :)," it read from Sasha. He opened the green app holding a blue text bubble, to respond saying, "Hey," and exited again to the home screen.

Immediately after seeing Sasha's contract, Nolan felt an empty longing in his chest for a girl he could kiss, share memories with, love and go to the dance with, just like Maya. Right away that thought sparked "Grace", connecting to their flirtatious texts they had shared. Despite Isabel having figured out their secret relationship, he figured Grace would be perfectly willing to date him.

G-r-a-c-e, he typed, allowing Grace's number to pop up. Thankfully, all his data from his old phone was saved on iCloud and got transferred to this new one.

Starting a conversation, he typed, "Hey, Grace ;)."

Just as he was about to close his phone, his messages grew a small red icon labeled "1" and was followed with a ding. He pressed the banner bordering the tip of the screen, bringing him to the messaging page.

"Who are u?" Grace responded with.

"Lol Nolan," he typed back.

Grace answered a second later, "Get away from me."

Nolan bit his lip nervously, confused and somewhat embarrassed. "Why?"

He stared at his phone, waiting for a response. When a minute passed, his thumbs pressed the square-shaped buttons, forming the sentence, "So anyway, do u wanna go to the dance with me?"