After Five Years

Chapter 3

When I wake up I feel hot and my head is pounding. I tense when I realize I'm tucked up tightly next to a naked body that's practically lying on half of me. The arm that's wrapped around my waist suddenly tightens and I look to my side to see Isaiah's head snuggled into the crook of my neck, his breathing is slow and steady.

Squeezing my eyes shut and praying he's still as deep a sleeper as he was in high school I lift his arm and slide out of the bed. I hear Isaiah move causing me to freeze thinking I woke him up. After a minute of not hearing anything I turn around and look at him.

He's rolled to his back and his breathing has evened out again. His face looks calm, the frown lines that were there yesterday are nowhere to be seen. The edge of the blanket rests across his stomach and my eyes zero in the lock tattoo on his chest, right over his heart. I look down at the tiny key tattoo on my wrist and a memory I haven't thought about in years resurfaces.

"We should get tattoos." Eighteen year old Isaiah says as we lay on his couch watching a movie.

"Tattoos?" I ask.

"Yeah, like matching tattoos or something."

"Not matching. Also not each others names." I say crinkling my nose in disgust.

Isaiah laughs.  "Definitely not each others names. How about I get a lock and you get a key? Since, you know, you have the key to my heart." He looks at me with a dorky grin.

I fake a gag. "That was pathetically cheesy." I tell him even though I actually love the idea.

"Awe. Come on, it was good."

"No."

Suddenly he grabs my foot and starts ticking it. "It was good and you know it."

"Fine!" I shout giggling. "It's a cute idea!"

He lets go of my foot. "That's what I thought."

"When are we going to get them?"

"How about next week?" He suggests. "On your birthday."

"Okay." I smile at him then turn back to the tv.

"Hey Meg."

"Hm?" I look back to him. His brown eyes staring into my green ones.

"I love you."

I lean over and give him a quick kiss. "And I love you."

Sometimes I wonder what happened in the two months between us getting the tattoos and graduation. Why I wasn't good enough for him. Why he suddenly wasn't interested anymore. And if he never really loved me, then why he suggested the tattoos.

Isaiah suddenly rolls to his side and pulls a pillow to his chest and I'm snapped out of my daze. Being as silent as possible I gather my clothes and get dressed. I need to get out of here before he wakes up. I didn't even want to have a drink with him and now here I am picking my clothes up off his floor in the early morning. This was a huge mistake and if I can leave before he wakes up then I can move on as if it never happened.

Once I'm fully dressed I take one last look at Isaiah and walk out of the room. Walking to the front door I notice the house is practically empty and there are no pictures on the walls. Strange. Silently I open the front door and walk out of the house. I look around and realize I'm in a nice neighborhood only a mile or two from Electrik, the club I work at.

I spend my entire walk to the apartment thinking and wondering. Thinking how I wish I could change everything but also given the chance I don't think I would change anything. Wondering if Isaiah and I hadn't broken up if we'd be married now. Wondering if he ever regrets what he did or if he's happy with the way his life is.

When I open the apartment door Mia is sitting at the kitchen island. When she sees me she drops her phone, jumps up from her seat, and rushes toward me.

"Where were you? I was about to call the police." She says pulling me into a hug. "Meg?"

"I was with Isaiah." I tell her and her face turns into one of complete shock.

"Isaiah as in..." I nod.

"I was leaving and I bumped into Cameron and Isaiah was with him. I talked with Cameron for a little bit, then when he left Isaiah asked me to have a drink with him and I don't remember what happened after." I tell her running my hand through my hair. "I woke up in bed with him this morning."

"Okay... What did Isaiah say?"

"I just told you I don't remember what happened after we got drinks."

"No." She says. "I mean this morning."

"Oh. Nothing, he was sleeping when I left." I tell her.

"You left while he was sleeping?!?" She shouts but then realizes the kids are sleeping in the living room so she starts whispering. "If you don't remember what happened then how do you know you guys didn't work stuff out?"

"Yeah... I'm pretty sure that didn't happen."

"How do you know? I'm still rooting for the whole thing to be a misunderstanding." I give her a dry look. "Seriously though, what if the girl forced herself on him just like Jeremy forced himself on you?"

"Like I told you the day it happened and hundreds of times since." I say getting frustrated. "He was totally into the kiss and I stood there for literally five minutes after waiting to hear any excuse and he didn't say anything. It obviously wasn't a misunderstanding."

"You're right." She sighs then frowns. "I'm sorry. What are you gonna do now?"

I sit down and rest my back against the apartment door. Tears cloud my vision as Mia sits down next to me. My voice shakes as I speak.

"Pretend it never happened."

***

Hello lovely people! I just got back from camping with my family. It was nice and totally relaxing but my brothers and I were at each others throats by the end. Also I got a major sunburn. Again.

What do we think? Any good?

Comment. Vote. All that jazz.

P.S. Oh my gosh. So I literally had this whole chapter typed and I saved it and then I went to publish it and it somehow only saved the first paragraph. I was about to start crying. Then when I was in the middle of retyping the whole chapter I realized you could restore previous versions of the chapter and was able the restore the whole thing. Thank goodness! Mini heart attack.

P.S.S. My cat just tried to jump from my bed to a tall cabinet I have in my room. He totally missed the top and smacked his face into the side.