Toni's POV
There it is. On the floor. The invitation.
Cheryl & Minerva
Invite you to their wedding ceremony
It's too late. It's 100% over.
Cheryl's getting married, but not to me.
I don't know what I was expecting.
We haven't dated since high school and we haven't talked about our romantic relationship in years.
She's now with Minerva, in love with her and there's nothing that can change that.
Why did I let her go so easily?
FLASHBACK
"You're amazing, you know that right?" I said with Cheryl's perfect body on me, our bare legs tangled together and our hands intertwined. We just graduated and let's just say that me and her had a little celebration in our bed.
"I know," she answered with a chuckle. Her chuckle slowly turned into a sigh. I looked at her and saw a frown appear on her face.
"You okay babe?" I questioned, worried about my girlfriend who became sad all of a sudden.
Cheryl took a deep breath, "Toni... You know I love you with all my heart". My heart instantly shattered when those words came out. I just knew what was gonna come out of her mouth.
"Cher, I know that you and I are going to different colleges but that's not gonna change anyth-," I was interrupted with Cheryl.
"It's gonna be too hard TT. After college we both have different dreams to follow, tearing us apart even more. I can't handle that," she expressed, tears streaming down her face. Her crying just made me want to cry. I hate seeing her cry and it hurts even more knowing that I'm causing the pain.
"TT just know that my love for you remains in my heart, always," she started and so was the waterfall out of my eyes.
"I'm just so grateful for the time we had. You loved me when no one else did. You showed me how to love, you showed me your loving soul and the raw, vulnerable and beautiful you," she sobbed. I laid my hands on her cheeks, wiping her tears.
She continued, "We could stay together throughout college and graduate, but we start to have petty arguments about our futures and have those arguments kill us slowly," she paused for a few seconds then continued, "Or we could break up now, handle the pain now to avoid it in the future". She looked at me half regretting her decision and half sure with the decision.
She's right. We have to let each other go. It's the only way to avoid the pain in the future. It's just horrible that we have to deal with the pain now.
"I love you," I sniffled.
"I love you too," she wept, making this 10x more painful and difficult than it was.
We stared into each other's sad eyes and leaned in slowly. Our lips touched and we shared a slow and passionate kiss. We held each other as if our lives' depended on it. When we finally pulled away, she snuggled up to me with her tears landing on my bare, cold skin.
END OF FLASHBACK
Why didn't I fight for her?
Why didn't I try to change her mind?
I now have to live with the consequences.
My soulmate has moved on. I ran through fire for her, now my love for her is ashes, and so am I.
You probably guessed that I haven't moved on. I graduated college with full honours. I chased for my dream job and successfully became a professional photographer. Now I'm running my own photography business. I've done many photoshoots for celebrities and have won 'Photographer of The Year' for the last couple years.
My life has been going up,
my reputation has been going up,
my bank account has been going up.
The only thing missing... her.
