I didn't know where to look when we walked in. The room felt too loud, too bright, filled with people who all seemed to know each other, and seemed to notice me just a little too quickly.
My throat tightened. I tugged at my sleeves, suddenly aware of every flaw in my clothes, every difference between his world and mine. I didn't belong here. Anyone could see that.
He must've sensed it, because he leaned in, voice low. "You're okay. I promise."
I wished I believed that. But the stares, the whispers, the polished confidence of everyone around me, none of it made sense with who I was.
Then he took my hand.
Just that. Soft, certain.
And somehow, the noise faded. The looks didn't sting as much. Because even though I still felt out of place, I didn't feel alone.
So we scanned around, and then we found a place to sit with our eyes. On our way to the seat, different people kept approaching us, and he introduced me to them. He spoke with a few of them for a while before we finally sat down.
A waiter came to us and asked what we would like to take. We told her what we wanted, then she left to fetch them.
After the waiter brought what we requested, we were still eating when I noticed that he kept making eye contact with someone. I followed the direction of his eyes and saw that he was staring at a very beautiful girl around our age bracket.
His constant eye contact with the girl made me uncomfortable but I didn't want to say anything, so I didn't seem jealous.
After a while, he excused himself and said he would be back shortly. So after he left, I felt bored, so I just occupied myself by scrolling through different apps on my phone.
I waited for him for up to an hour before I started to worry. I decided to go and search for him. The party was big, so it was difficult for me to find him, so I asked a few people whom he had introduced me to previously if they had seen him around.
Some of them said they didn't see him, while some pointed towards the restroom. So I decided to check for him there and I couldn't believe what I saw.
"Matheo!" I screamed with a look of anguish on my face.
He looked at me and immediately stammered, "Baby…."
I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw Matheo in the restroom making out with the girl with whom he had been making eye contact.
I just stared at him in disbelief, then I ran out of the restroom in tears. He kept calling my name and asking me to wait, but I didn't even listen to him. I just kept running till I exited the premises of the party.
I couldn't take it anymore, I just sat on the floor wailing. I couldn't believe what just happened. I kept regretting why I decided to give him a chance and why I even accepted coming to the party.
I was still crying when I felt a pat on my shoulder. I thought it was Matheo, so I raised my hands to slap him. Before my hands got to the cheeks of the person who touched me, I immediately stopped after I saw Liam.
"Liam! I'm sorry…what are you doing here?" I asked with a broken voice, and with tears still dropping from my eyes.
"The person doing the party is my cousin, so I saw you running out, then I decided to follow you. Are you okay? What happened?" He asked with a concerned look.
"I can't talk right now. Please can you take me home?" I asked.
"Sure," he replied.
He didn't ask me anything else; he just took me to where he parked his car and then took me to my dorm. He didn't ask me anything else throughout the ride; he just kept giving me tissue paper to wipe my tears.
When we arrived at my dorm, I told him thank you and immediately ran into my room, because I was too embarrassed to even say anything.
Immediately, I got into my room, and I just fell on my bed and cried even harder. I cried for about an hour before I finally fell asleep.
My phone's ringing woke me up, so I checked to see who was calling, and I saw that it was Matheo. I immediately ended the call, and that was when I saw that I had over fifty missed calls and some texts from him.
I scrolled through his message and saw, "Baby, please pick up my call", "I swear I can explain, it's not what you think", "She's the one that forced a kiss on me, when she noticed you were coming..."
The last text I read triggered me so badly that I immediately stopped scrolling. Then I cleared our chat history and blocked him
on any app he could use to reach me.
I couldn't stop blaming myself for listening to my heart. I kept talking to myself, saying, " Ava, you never learn. Ava, you never learn. How dumb can you be? How could you decide to forgive him?"
I was still on my bed, losing my mind, when I heard a knock on the door, and I went to check, and it was Matheo on the door.
"Don't you dare Matheo, don't you dare. I don't want to ever see you again. And don't you dare send me money or gifts again. Get out of my room," I said with my eyes squeezed shut.
"Baby, look at me. I swear it is not what you…." Before he could even finish his sentence, I closed the door of the room with force and went to lie on my bed. Then I put on my AirPods so I won't be able to hear what he was saying.
After about an hour, I went to check if he was still there, then I saw he was no longer there.
I was on my bed, watching a movie to distract myself, when Liam called me and said he was at the front of my dorm.