It's Not just a Game

Chapter 13: Mending a Breaking Heart

"You wanna dance?" I took a step away from him, raising an eyebrow. He chuckled again and set his now emptied can onto the food table.

"You look surprised sweetheart. I wasn't asking you to fuck me, a dance; that's all I'm asking." He extended his hand out to me, I stared at it as if it would bite me.

"You know. You're cute when you blush." I felt my cheeks heat up almost immediately, and again he laughed.

I took his hand reluctantly and we walked towards the dance floor, a sudden slow song played over the speaker and I felt his hands take my waist. I blushed again and wrapped my hands around his neck. We slowly swayed to the music as others around us fell into place, I kept my eyes on his chest as we spun in a slow circle.

"How is Europe?" I asked, wanting the break the awkward silence.

He smirked, looked down at me. Was he always this tall?

"Good. Boarding school wasn't all that bad, I'm guessing Carter told you?"

"Kinda, she didn't go into much detail, though," I said looking up into his eyes.

"I wouldn't expect her too."

"You guys don't get along?" I asked, a bit concerned.

"No. We get along, better than most. It's a bit more complicated than that."

"I'm listening." I almost pleaded for him to go on, I wanted to know more about Carter and Alec's life; I wasn't getting anything from Carter.

"You know I'm transferring to yours and Carter's school next week," Alec said completely ignoring my last comment.

"That's great, I guess, but what about your boarding school," I asked still curious why Carter or Alec won't open up.

"Well," Alec started but stared straight on through me to something behind me.

"What are you looking at?" I asked turning around, but Alec twisted me back to look at him. "Oh, I was just checking out a girl behind you," Alec lied with a smirk on his face.

"Of course you would, your such a pig," I joked lightly hitting him on the shoulder. I looked up into his dark blue and green eyes. I smirked at him and spun around before he could stop me to see what he was looking at. I wish I didn't do that.

The sight before my eyes made me sick. I wanted to cry, scream, throw up, and punch someone at the same time. I should have listened to Alec. I just stood there and watched as Terran sucked on some cheerleaders face.

"E, I'm sorry, I didn't want you to see that," Alec apologized behind me.

"It's fine, better I foud out now than later," I exclaimed wiggling out of Alec's grip and started walking over to Terran who was still making out with the chick. I don't really remember what happened next, but Carter says I yanked the chica away from Terran by her hair and punched Terran right in the face before walking out of the gym not uttering a word.

I do remember walking out of the gym with a sore hand. I walked through my house not really knowing where I was going until I was standing right in front of one of my mom's portraits. I stared at the painting of Toby and me from when we were younger in the gym with a basketball under our arms, Toby missing his two front teeth with a lakers jersey on. I had pigtails in and a bruise on my cheek from Toby elbowing me earlier and I was in his basketball uniform from his traveling league, since I insisted I wore that all the time until I got my own. In the background, you can see Arion wearing a tutu doing a pirouette. I remember my grandma taking this picture and then my mom decided to remake it and hang it in the library.

I fell to the floor in a heap balling. I don't even know why I was crying so hard, I mean it's just a dumb boy. I cried and cried among all the stories of the happily ever afters and the brave knights and the damsels in distress. I always imagined myself as the brave knight in the shiny armor saving people, but now I feel like the damsel in distress with nowhere to go and no knight to save me.

I stared at the picture wondering why I came in here. I blinked back my tears and got up off the floor because I was stronger than that. I turned around and noticed a piece of paper sticking out of a book. I walked over to the shelf and grabbed the book. The book was different from all the hardcover fairytales, this one was hardcover, but it was a dream journal. It was a navy blue with a cloud on the cover entitled "E's future dreams." I opened it up to see the sloppy handwriting of my 8-year-old self.

I skimmed through all the pages laughing at the way I use to think. Until I landed on a page with a piece of paper sticking out of it, it had much neater handwriting, it was from two years ago.

Hey future E,

I hope high school is amazing and not scary like Toby says it is. I can't wait to play high school basketball. Are you on varsity or are we not good enough yet? I mean I will work really hard right now to accomplish the goal to make it into the WNBA. Well, the real reason I am writing in this dream journal again is because I want to warn/remind you of something. For the past year and a half we have watched Arion go out with so many guys, but in the end, always have her heart broken and you know how bad it hurts to watch your sister be in so much heartache. Well, I want to let you know that it sucks and you are a bigger person, you don't need a guy to be happy. You are a great person and don't need a guy in your life. It's time to mend your broken heart and get over this jerk of a guy.

That's all I had to say to my future self, have a great rest of your life. Love, Ehzamai (8th grade)

I stood there and couldn't really understand why I wrote that, but I was glad I did. With that, I put the book back where it belongs and walked out of the library back to the gym to enjoy my party.

I weaved through my house making it back to the gym in time to see Terran about to leave. I ran over to catch up to him and noticed he had a bloody lip and a nice bruise around his eye.

"Terran wait," I called out to him once we were out of the gym.

"E, I'm so sorry I didn't mea-," Terran tried to explain,but I cut him off.

"I don't want any apologies, I just wanted to say thanks for being my first boyfriend and thanks for giving me my first heartbreak," I said to him," I don't care for a reason at all why I found you looking lips that blonde bimbo, I don't want anything from you except for us to just be friends because I think we are better off that way anyways."

Terran stood there in shock. He just stared at me with his mouth open.

"Well, if you are not going to say anything I would like to know who gave you that bloody lip?" I questioned.

"Carter's brother, Alec I believe, punched me after you left," Terran explained touching his lip," and Carter beat the crap out of the blonde bimbo." That's my Carter beating anyone that hurts her friends.

"Ok, well you can go now, bye," I said to turn with a small wave before I turned on my heel and headed back into the gym.

In the gym, I saw the party was still in full swing and everyone was having a good time. I walked over to the snack tabled and grabbed three slices of cheese pizza throwing it on a paper plate.

"You know you can't mend a breaking heart with food right," Alec said stealing a slice off my plate.

"I know, but I can try," I said taking a bite of my first slice and watched as Alec ate the piece he took from me.

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Hey guys, I know its been forever since I last updated. I can't really say that I have any excuses worthy of your time, but I can say that I am back and ready to update for you guys to keep reading. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!