Two Ways to Love [ON HOLD]

Chapter One

                                                            Chapter One

I was muttering various obscene words to myself as I opened the front door to my boyfriend’s apartment. Without a word I dropped my bag onto the hallway floor and took an immediate right, thus entering the small kitchen.

     Still muttering, I walked over to the freezer, opened it and pulled out a bag of frozen peas. I then slammed the freezer door closed with unnecessary force, straightened and gently placed the chilled bag against my aching eye.

     I made my way out of the kitchen and toward my boyfriend’s bedroom, figuring since he’d worked until early this morning, he’d still be asleep by now. I stopped, however, when I noticed someone through the living room window, standing on the baclcony. I didn’t really question the fact that he was standing out on the balcony when he really should be sleeping – I was too worked up over what had happened just thirty minutes ago – and made my way toward the open balcony door.

     “You’ll never believe what that bitch did to m…” I started saying as I walked outside, but stopped suddenly when I noticed what he was doing. He turned to look at me, but I wasn’t looking at his face. My eyes were glued to the cigarette he was holding.

     “Since when do you smoke?” I asked and raised my eyebrows. “You’ve never …” I stopped mid sentence when I met his eyes. Yes, they were the same odd shade of green that belonged to my boyfriend and yes, they were just as beautiful – but these were not the eyes of my boyfriend.

     Confused, I took in his handsome face – his thick, dark eyebrows, his slightly freckled nose and his very kissable and full lips. It all looked precisely as it always did. His dark hair, even though it might be a little messier than normal, was still the same length and his bangs hung over his forehead in that same handsome way it always did.

     Even though everything about his appearance, from his face to his built, looked like it usually did, I knew somehow, that this was not my boyfriend.

     “Dale?” I asked hesitantly. When he raised his eyebrows at me and gave me a look that clearly stated that he had no idea as to whom I was, I quickly said: “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bother you.”

     I gave him an uncomfortable smile and turned around, about to exit the balcony and make my way to where I first indented to go; my boyfriend’s bedroom.

     “What happened to your eye?”

     I jerked to a stop and looked back at him.

     “What?” I asked, then, remembering the bag of peas I had plastered against my face, I said: “Oh! Um … I got hit.”

     Dale cocked his head to the side and inspected my face. It made me uncomfortable and I looked away, gazing out over the frozen lake beneath the balcony.

     “By a person?” he asked. I looked back at him just in time to see him raise the cigarette to his mouth.

     “Technically, it was by a shoe. But yeah, there was a person attached to the end of it,” I said sourly as I thought back to when the gold sequin high heel had collided with my face.

     Dale laughed and my eyes widened at the familiar sound of it. It sounded exactly as when my boyfriend laughed. I offered him a sheepish smile in return. I did not feel like laughing.

     He sobered up and I watched as he dropped the cigarette onto the concrete floor of the balcony and rubbed his shoe over it. When the cigarette no longer glowed, he looked up at me.