The Breakup

3. The Remorse

The apartment felt so empty without Ali’s radiating presence. Though she’d cleaned up the mess and redecorated, everything about the place reminded Emily of her.

She’d often find herself setting the table for two before remembering there was no one else. Emily had been the one to dump her, but the ache in her heart was still excruciating. She’d thought Ali had been ‘the one’.

So she tried to go about her life as if nothing had happened. Pretending she’d always been on her own.

But there were moments when she couldn’t help but think of Ali’s sweet laugh or cute habits and in those times, her heart broke all over again.

‘I love you,’ their last conversation played over in Emily’s mind until she couldn’t take it anymore and broke down in tears.

I still love you. Emily couldn’t shake that from her mind. She was still hopelessly in love with her best friend.

…

Ali spun around and around and around until she felt so dizzy that she started laughing. Her head was light and spinning and she felt so at peace in that moment. She didn’t want the night to end.

She jumped around to the beat of the pounding music and laughed, filling the air with her sweet sound. Everyone was staring at her in awe. The guys wanted her and the girls wanted to be her.

Spinning…spinning… Her loose dress billowed up around her as she spun.

And then falling…falling. Her head hurt and she felt heavy and numb. Her smile vanished and the giggle was cut off abruptly.

She rushed to the bathroom and threw up everything she’d eaten that week.

When she was done, she trudged over to the mirror and stared at herself. Her makeup had run down her face and her strapless dress had fallen so far that her lace bra was completely exposed. Vomit stained the front of her body.

‘Oh, how the mighty have fallen,’ a sharp voice startled Ali.

Beside her stood Paige, Emily’s bitchy ex-girlfriend. Ali had to admit she looked hot in a tight fitting black dress.

‘You look like shit, Alison,’ she smirked.

‘Paige,’ Alison sighed, ‘what brings you here?’

‘I’m just out with my new girlfriend. You know Emily, don’t you?’

Ali wanted to slap that smug look right off Paige’s perfectly made up face. Instead, she tried to hold herself together, she didn’t have the energy to deal with Paige tonight.

‘Good for you,’ Ali barked as she stormed out of the room.