It was awful. I felt like someone had just removed all remnants of hope and happiness from my life and I was left as just an empty shell. It had taken me days to come out of my room and even pretend to have an interest in anything. It was like being in some kind of zombie limbo state where nothing seemed real anymore, or at least nothing seemed important to me.
Especially, not some silly Halloween dance.
Shepherd’s Mills was notorious for throwing a huge Halloween party every single year. It was an older town with a big history, full of stories about spooky happenings and paranormal events that couldn’t be explained. Of course no one knew if any of those stories really happened the way the old timers in town said they did, but it was fun anyway. I’d always loved it and I looked forward to the party every single year.
But this year it seemed silly compared to the dreadful feelings I was dealing with.
I pulled up a picture of me and Daniel on my phone just then. It was actually the wallpaper on my main screen. I hadn’t been able to force myself to remove it.
“Why, Daniel?” I asked the picture. “What did I do that made you stop loving me?”
I’d asked that question to myself and my mother almost non-stop since Daniel dumped me.
“People change,” my mother Judy said. “People change, baby, especially at your age. You are twenty-three years old. Your life has just started; don’t sit there acting like the entire world just ended. It may feel like that, but it hasn’t.”
My mother always knew exactly what to say and how to say it to make me feel better. She just had that special calming ability. I wasn’t sure if it was something all mother’s had, a special bond with their babies, or if it was just something unique to my mother.
“I know,” I said through clenched teeth and a river of tears. “But we were supposed to spend our lives together. And suddenly he just decided he didn’t want it.”
My mother paused just then and took a deep breath, which I knew was my mother’s universal signal for “I’m about to lay down some harsh truth, so get ready for it”.
“Honey,” mom said. “Are you sure there wasn’t someone else?”
I couldn’t even find the words to respond to that thought. I had managed so far to keep something that utterly terrifying out of my head, but here it was staring me down like a runaway train about to run me over and I was tied to the tracks.
“It couldn’t be…” I said. But it made sense. I knew it was very possible. It was just a theory, an idea, nothing more at this point.
But I had to know.
That night I went to Daniel’s place to ask him poi
nt blank if he was with someone else. And if so, exactly how long had this slime bucket been two timing me?
Daniel wasn’t there when I arrived. After banging on his door for a few minutes and then realizing his truck was not parked in his garage, I decided to head into town and see if I could locate him in one of his favorite haunts. I knew this might be borderline stalker behavior on my part, but I was so fired up I just didn’t care. When I wanted something I went after it. That was a trait I’d always possessed and it had gotten me in a speck of trouble or two in my life. But I am my mother’s daughter and when I am lit up then you’d better step out of the way.
Just as I reached my car Daniel drove up in his truck.
And he was not alone.
There was a pretty, sexy blonde girl with him that took me a few minutes to recognize. When it finally dawned on me who the slutty looking stranger was, I couldn’t believe it. Hell, it was almost laughable. Was this really the type of girl Daniel wanted in his life? Or was he just having fun for now?
Valerie Reynes.
I was a year behind Valerie in high school. Valerie was miss popularity, head cheerleader, Homecoming Queen, and Prom Queen. She was sexy and bubbly, but all of the girl’s in the school knew her as being notorious for going to parties, getting wasted drunk, and then getting into bed with whatever guy (or guys) were close by. It was a reputation that Valerie didn’t even seem ashamed of. Hell, she had almost flaunted it.
And it only served to increase her popularity somehow.
Daniel rolled his eyes and sighed deeply, clearly annoyed, as he stepped out of his truck and saw me standing there. He threw Valerie his house key and asked her to wait inside for a moment.
Valerie actually had the audacity to wink and smile at me as she passed. What a skank. I could have strangled her on the spot. Looking back I had to admire my own restraint.
“What are you doing here?” Daniel asked. His arrogance was so profound. Why hadn’t I ever noticed it before? Had he kept it well hidden or was I just so in love I was willing to look past the glaring flaws in his character that seemed so obvious now?
“Well, I came to ask you a question, but it looks like I have my answer,” I said.
I turned away and started walking towards my car.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Daniel asked.