Leap of Faith

Valentine's Day

He nods.

“How long have you known?” I ask.

“About a month,” he tells me. I suck in a huge gasp of air and stumble away from him. “I should have told you sooner, I know, but-”

“You’ve known for a month and you didn’t say anything?” I shouted incredulously. I stomped forward and punched his chest with my tiny, insignificant fists. I knew I was probably hurting myself more than him, but it felt good to at least try and punch him. “A month? You knew for a month? You lied to me for a month!”

“Cate-” He reached out an arm to stop me from lashing out against him again.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I yell at him, not caring about the fact that I’m cursing at a hundred decibels. I swat his arms away from me and glower at him. “You do not get to touch me, you lying bastard. You should have told me!”

“I know-”

“You know?” I seethe. “If you knew, then you should have told me.”

“I’m sorry, Catherine,” his voice is full of sincerity but it just sounds fake to me.

“Don’t call me that!” I stomp my foot and throw the closest thing to me at him- which also happened to be the velvet box that held the necklace he’d given me. It hit him square in the chest and fell to the ground. His eyes followed it and stared as the box just lay there. “I have no idea who the Hell you are! You lied to me, TJ- Theo- whatever the fuck your name is!”

“Theo,” he says so quietly that I almost miss it. His eyes rise to meet mine and the sorrow there is obvious. “Cate, I love you.”

“You don’t lie to the people you love,” I bite back at him. The tears spill onto my cheeks and I wipe them away quickly. I back away from where we stand, take my clutch purse from the table and head for the door. Just as I’m about to leave, I take a look back at where TJ- Theo- whoever- stands, his face pleading for me to stay. “You said that you’d never hurt me. Well, guess what? You didn’t hurt me… you broke me.”

And with those words, my inbuilt sense of self-preservation kicked in. Flight. So, I left.

01:26

 I tried sneaking back into the house quietly, but then I remembered that I forgot to pick up my keys as I rushed out for my date with… what’s-his-name.

I groaned and debated what to do. Usually, I would call Georgie and she would come to my rescue, but we weren’t talking so there was no point getting her involved. All my other friends were his friends and it was pretty obvious whose side they would take.

I took out my cell and saw thirty-eight unanswered calls, fourteen voicemails and twenty-three unread messages were on my notification screen, all from him. I deleted them all without listening or reading them. I just wanted to erase all traces of the night from my life.