THE GUARDIAN

Chapter 7: "Anywhere, but Here"

"No." she simply said. "Never heard of it."

I was surprised. I thought all girls knew the movie 'Titanic'. "Wait... so you've never watched it before?"

"No."

"Huh... then I gota borrow that movie, so you can watch it with me! How's that sound?" I did my half smile.

She pressed her lips into a small circle trying to not smile, but she couldn't stop it from happening and she smiled brightly showing her white teeth. She laughed and said, "Sure Tim, I would love to."

I smiled my usual half smile and said, "Cool"

Then it was her turn to ask me a question and she asked, "Tim, have you ever had anyone say something to you that broke your heart?"

My smile dissipated as I remembered what she said to me before.

"Because some guy did that to me before..." she said as Eliza lowered her head as if she was shamed of herself.

I have barley told anyone about this before, but I wanted to tell her everything. "Yes." I said.

She looked at me and said, "What did she say?"

I sighed and said, "What you said to me, before you ditched me."

Her eyes opened. "What?" she said alarmed. "What did I say?"

Then my mind flashed to my memories of the past. So I just told her, "You said to me that, 'You hate me and you never want to see me ever again'..." I looked into her eyes. I saw a haze of guilt in them. Eliza cupped her hands and covered her mouth in surprise. I knew she felt sorry saying that to me now.

She reached a hand toward mine and held it with gentle care, and brought my hand up and kissed it. It was wet and warm... and it felt so... right. Then she held it between her breasts. "I'm so sorry, Tim. I just didn't know what I was thinking."

"You know you've opened an old wound of mine?"

"An old wound?"

"Yea... My last girlfriend I loved so much before, said that to me nine months ago. She ripped my heart out and shattered my very soul."

She put my hand down onto her thigh. "She must have been an awful person then!" she assumed.

I shook my head. "No, she was the best person I've ever had. I knew she was 'The One'." Eliza then looked confused. "Well, we were both in love with each other, it's just because of her father."

"What happened?"

"Well, her father hated any race who was or is communists like my race, And I am Chinese. And he hates Germans and Russians and Koreans and Italians... well, you get the point. And as you know, right now China is still communists. So, after dating my girlfriend for more than one year, he got tired of me and said, 'I will shoot you and spill your guts all over the place, if you ever talk or come near my daughter again'."

Eliza cupped her mouth with one of her hands then replaced it on her chest. "I feel so sorry for you." she said. "So, what happened after that?"

"Well... when my girlfriend found out what her father said, I told her that I will take his bullet just to be with her. And I would run away with her. And that... I loved her..."

Eliza looked at me with her shining eyes. "That's... the most loving thing I've ever heard anyone say..."

"But, do you know what she said to me instead?" I continued.

Eliza shook her head side to side slowly.

She screamed at me, 'I hate you and I never want to see you ever again.' The same exact phrase you said just yesterday's morning.. So after that I never had any sleep. Hell... I barely got any sleep at all... Only about 1 to 5 hr.s of sleep only. Every single night. I just couldn't stop hearin' the same verse over and over, again and again." I then felt something in my throat. Something inside of me that I could not control and I had a tough time fighting it.