Love at First Stoplight
Stoplight
Cami
Startled by the shouting, I looked up to see my best friend in all his muscular glory. Donned only in a pair of heart-printed boxer shorts and a baseball bat ready to swing.
Right, I live with my very handsome and very sassy best friend, Hugh.
He squinted his eyes to get a better look at my crouched figure on the floor and when realization dawned on him, he finally lowered his baseball bat.
“Camilla? When did you–” Hugh questioned, but his words were cut off when he took in the sight of me. Drenched and crying. He hurriedly climbed down the stairs and knelt in front of me.
“Oh my god Cami! What the hell happened?” he exclaimed. His worried eyes scanned me up and down, he squeezed my cheeks left and right until he was satisfied and was sure that there weren’t any physical injuries. He grabbed the sofa blanket and threw it around my shivering body as he held me up and ushered me towards the kitchen. He made me sit down on the island chair and before he could move away, I buried myself deeper into his chest. Without another word, Hugh wrapped his arms around me and just let me cry. He patted my head which was so comforting that I cried even harder.
After what seemed like hours, there were no tears left to cry. I let go of Hugh and looked up at him.
“Hot chocolate?” he asked, a comforting smile gracing his face. I nodded my head and he went around the counter to fix me a cup.
“Are you ready to tell me what happened, Cami? I thought you weren’t supposed to come home until next week,” Hugh said, placing the hot cup of chocolate in front of me and sprinkled on some tiny marshmallows. My lips started quivering when I tried to get the words out.
“C-Chad…”
“What about Chad…?” Hugh dragged, his tone becoming dangerously low.
“I wanted to surprise him for our anniversary,” I answered quietly.
“Okay… then what?” he said, urging me to continue. I pressed my lips together in an attempt to contain my emotions.
“I was on my way to his office when I received a text…” I started, holding the mug tightly in between my hands. “He said it’s not working anymore and he broke up with me”
“He dumped me Hugh, he dumped me through a text and on our anniversary no less.”
“He did what?! Oh, that bastard is going to get it,” Hugh spat as he reached for his baseball bat. My eyes widened in alarm because I knew Hugh wasn’t kidding around. I immediately reached out for the bat and took it away from him.
“Give that back Cami and get the bail money ready,” he said, trying to pry the bat away from the other side of the counter.
“I’m not even done Hugh...” I hiccupped, the tears threatening to fall again.
“H-he had a woman with him, and she... was undeniably gorgeous. I’m talking about model material, Hugh, which we all know I’m far from being,” I finished, sobbing. Hugh went around the counter and hugged me from the side, placing his chin on top of my head.
“I’ll kill him. I’ll commit murder for you, Cami. But most importantly, you are fucking gorgeous. I don’t know how many times I need to tell you this for you to realize it, but trust me, YOU ARE,” he exclaimed, placing a kiss on my forehead. “And if I weren’t gay, I’d totally shag you,” he added, which made me snort.
I laughed at what he said and playfully slapped his chest. Count on Hugh to tell these kinds of things at serious moments. But it made me smile nonetheless, momentarily distracting me from my sadness.
“Thank you, Hugh,” I said, getting up.
“Come on, I’ll draw you a hot bath then get some rest,” he said, guiding me up the stairs. I’m so lucky to have a best friend like Hugh. He added bath bombs, readied my robe and shut the door.
I stripped out of my wet clothes and looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were so puffy from all the crying and my hair was a tangled mess. I looked further down from my face to my body. I squeezed my arms and sure, they weren’t exactly slim, but it’s okay, they are normal. My eyes then wandered to my breasts, I love my breasts. They were a good, normal-sized boobs. My tummy? Sure, I don’t exactly have abs and it has rolls when I sit down, but that’s normal. The faint stretch marks on my hips, those are normal too… right?
“What am I doing?” I muttered to myself. I don’t like where my train of thought is heading so I quickly got into the tub. The hot water was such a pleasant feeling that I sunk back, closed my eyes, and tried to clear my thoughts.
***
I woke up hours later when my stomach started growling. I realized I didn’t exactly have dinner last night. I opened my phone to check the time and I was surprised to see I slept for more than twenty hours. I guess the events from yesterday did take a toll on me. I moved to get up but a text notification suddenly popped up.
Did you get my text Cami? I’m sorry. Call me if you want to talk - Chad
“If I want to talk?” I read out loud. Ha! The audacity of this man. Is this really the same guy I fell in love with? What else is there to talk about, he was the one who threw away five years of my life. I was a good girlfriend. I wasn’t possessive, or jealous, I supported him through every milestone.
I can’t take it anymore. If I stay any longer in this damn room, I might just suffocate myself wondering where I went wrong. Getting out of bed, I fished for my wallet and keys and got out of my room.
I silently walked down the stairs and slipped on some sliders. I didn’t bother turning on the lights and quietly went outside to avoid waking up Hugh. I trudged down the small steps, unlocking my vintage blue beetle.
I started the car and drove away. I don’t even know if I should be driving in my current state. I’m not DUI-ng per se… just driving under the heavy influence of my thoughts and emotions.
I mean, who the hell does that? Who throws away years of shared memories over a text, as if it meant nothing?
Oh right, douchebags.
He could have at least had the decency to call, but that’s too much to ask, right? I had to be the one to call him ‘if I want to talk’.
I’m getting angry just thinking about the follow up text he sent. I rolled down the windows to let the cold air seep in and cool me off as I drove through the quiet night, reminiscing how this all started.
Chad was my first boyfriend, my first kiss, my first everything. He was a typical popular jock and I, on the other hand, was anything but a queen bee. I was just a regular girl who they said happened to get lucky and snatched Richfield High’s trophy boy. He was the it boy, and much like everybody else, I was charmed.
He was a year older than me and even though we were headed to different universities, we made it work. We endured the whole drama of ‘staying strong’ ‘we’ll make it’ ‘you’ll only be the one’, you name it. We went through all that shebang. And let me tell you, looking at it now, I can confidently say it’s nothing but a complete load of utter bullshit.
Before I could even stop it, the waterworks started again. I wiped the tears away with my sleeves but the tears kept on coming, blurring my view of the road.
“SHIT!”
Out of nowhere the stupid stoplight suddenly turned red, making me step on the brakes a little too hard, throwing me forward. I sent a short prayer up above for reminding me to always wear my seat belt.
Glaring at the damn thing, I settled my forehead on my steering wheel, repeatedly banging it as I counted down the seconds on the stoplight.
“60... thud... 59... thud… 58… thud…”
“It’s going to be a long countdown, you sure you’re not hurting your steering wheel?”
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