Lucille's POV
It has been a week since the launch party of the new magazine. More importantly, it has been a week since Ethan and I last talked. He wanted to find the truth and I wanted him to find it too. I became restless with this back and forth between me and him. I believed that with the truth, we would be able to end this ongoing fight. No matter what happened with the truth, I believed there was no way of turning back to what we had. I have Axel. He has Cecelia. We are both happy where we are. At least I would like to believe so. The truth would only be the scissors to cut the hanging thread that tried to hold on despite it pulling further and further apart.
The company was currently in a meeting right now, but without our boss, Jan. Everyone is staring out of our glass window to watch the conversation between Jan and Ethan. I could see Ethan from across the company room standing with his nice build and tall height. He turns to look at the room. Our eyes meet for a split second before he turns his focus back to Jan. He hands her an envelope and takes one more glance at me before he turns his back from her. Jan heads back into the meeting room with the envelope tight in her grip. Everyone has their eyes locked on her as she walks up to the front of the room. She sets the envelope onto the table.
"Good afternoon, everyone. Let's begin the meeting," she says. Everyone prepares their notes as I watch and listen to the meeting. The meeting was a short one. It lasted only an hour compared to their usual meetings that typically lasts around 3-4 hours. Everyone was packing their notes to put away before Jan makes an announcement that makes everyone stop.
"By the way, our wonderful model, Ethan Collins has invited all of us to a home game tonight," she lifts up the envelope and waves the envelope. Everyone gets excited, and begins conversing amongst themselves about the tickets.
"Since he was so generous, I hope you all make it tonight. Come grab your tickets, everyone," she says. All the staff stand up to go grab their tickets except me.
"Lucille," she calls my name. I look up to her and make eye contact with her.
"Yes?"
"You too."
I look surprised, and point to my chest.
"Me?" I mouth.
"Especially you," she says, and then waves the ticket signaling for me to go grab one. I do as she says. I walk up to her and take the ticket from her hand. I stare at the ticket. I've never seen Ethan play a game. Even before everything happened, we were always so busy that I never got the chance to go watch one of his games.
"You're going, right?" Jan asks. I look up from the ticket.
"Um..."
I couldn't say no, could I?
"Great!" she says before I could respond.
I guess now I am, I thought.
"I'll see you all there."
Jan grabs her stuff and leaves the meeting room.
"This is going to be fun. I've never been to a real baseball game before," I hear one of workers say.
"Lucille," Mike calls me.
I turn to face him.
"You need a ride for the game? A few of the employees are going to carpool together. We could give you a ride."
"I actually don't think--"
"Oh c'mon, Lucille. It'll be fun. You found Ethan for the magazine too. I'm sure he'll want to especially see you there."
I don't know about that.
I just smile and nod my head. "Okay."
"Okay, we'll pick you up at 5," he says before he leaves the room with everyone else.
My boss Mike and our other co-workers come to pick me up at 5pm at my place. We head over to the baseball stadium where its jam packed with baseball fans. I have never been to a major league baseball league game so I never knew it would become this wild. Fans were all geared up in their baseball jerseys and clothes. Our seats were at the top of the house in a VIP room. The room was nice. They had a personal bartender in there with a couple waitresses passing out champagne and smalls snacks.
"The power of Ethan, right?" Mike says, smiling at the room.
I just smile and continue to look around.
"Come sit down," one of my co-workers say. She grabs my wrist and pulls me down to sit in one of the cushioned chairs.
"They're in their 4th inning right now... Oh look!" she points out the window.
I stare out the window and watch the game. I could see the pitcher getting ready to throw the ball. That pitcher was Ethan. The crowd suddenly cheered for Ethan because he made a good pitch. Without realizing it, a small smile formed on my lips. He was living his dream just like he had always hoped for. I never got to witness him live it, but I felt proud. He deserved it despite everything. He was always working hard, and I was happy he got his happiness.
In the middle of the game, I started feeling queasy. A strong smell was filling the room and it made me want to puke. I cover my nose, but the smell was strong enough to beat that.
"Calamari?" one of the waitress asks. I turn to her and shake my head before realizing that the smell that was making me want to puke was coming from the calamari. I push my hand even closer to my nostrils to try to block out more of the smell, but I couldn't any more. I got up from my seat and ran to find the closest bathroom. As soon as I got into one of the stalls, I let go of all considerations and puked into the toilet bowl. All I could see was green acid pouring out so fast. My eyes watered from the pain it caused in my throat. Gross, I thought. My puke was green because of the green juice I had for lunch. I wipe my lips with the back of my hand, and try to stand up, but I could feel the puke coming back up. I lean over the toilet bowl one more time, and puke it all out. It felt so good to puke it out because the queasiness began to disappear. I am finally able to get out of the stall so I go to the sink to wash my hands and mouth. I look up to the mirror. My makeup smeared a little so I fix it. What's wrong with me? It's not like me to throw up my food. I'm usually pretty good at adjusting to different smells. Heck, I loved calamari, too. I dry my hands with a paper towel.
I decided it was best I stay outside of the VIP lounge box in case the calamari smell was still too strong for me. I didn't want to throw up again. I stood outside the VIP lounge room, and watched the game from a T.V. screen on the wall. I sit in a chair because all that puke got to my body. I felt weak.
"Lucille?" I hear a voice say. I turn my head, and straight ahead from me stood a face that I hadn't seen in a long time.
"Heather..." I express with shock.
She smiles at me.
"Lucille."
We both awkwardly smile at each other. It was silent before she cut the silence.
"How are you?" she ask. This was awkward. Two enemies at the baseball game of both of our exes who was the same person.
"Good, and you?" I ask, nervously.
"Good," she responds.
Another short silence.
"So... you must be here for Ethan, I presume?" she asks.
"Um, no. Just with friends."
She looked surprised, but not with a satisfied face like I thought I would see her make.
"You and Ethan?"
"... aren't together anymore," I say looking away from her.
"I'm sorry," I hear her say.
"What?" I asked surprised. I said it louder than I should have.
"I'm sorry you aren't together anymore," she continues in a calm voice.
"You are?" I asked. It came out more appalled than surprised.
She nods.
"I mean, in high school..." I say.
"We were young, stupid, naive teenagers. I should have never done what I did in high school."
"No, you had the right. Me and Ethan were wrong for what we did too. We shouldn't have... "
"No... you just loved each other. I should've let you love each other, but I couldn't bear the sight of Ethan actually loving someone and being happy. I thought if I held onto him, he would come to love me eventually. Boy, did I learn?"
"I'm sorry," I respond.
"No, I should be. For goodness sake, you ended up in the hospital and I, juvie hall for a couple of weeks."
"And Theo?"
"A little longer than I did, but he's out."
I nod my head.
"That's good."
Theo hurt me in high school, but I learned to forgive him. Like Heather said, we were young and dumb. Sometimes I still feel like we still are... We're just trying to figure out this crazy world and find ourselves.
"Well, I'm going to head back to watch the game. I'm glad to see you. I'm just sad the past was all for nothing. I really thought you and Ethan would last forever. He truly loved you... I saw it so clear. That's probably why I was always so jealous."
She gives a small, pitiful smile before she walks away.
I sit down and let out a breathe. That went better than I ever thought it would if I ever met Heather again. I just realized I forgot to ask what she was doing in New York, but suddenly everyone starts shouting in excitement. I look over to the screen and see that Ethan just hit a home run.
I thought we would last too, Ethan.