Forgotten

The night ended all too soon and I found myself being pried away from Gerald and led back to the car. My mother had the expression of someone basking in the brilliance of their own triumph. She sauntered with a little skip to her every step and her lips had formed a permanent twist that reminded me a lot of Joker. Her eyes twinkled with a sinister glee that sent chills along my spine. Whatever had her in such a state couldn’t be good, at least not for me.
“Madam Pierce!” the familiar, husky voice sent my heart skipping and my head whipping around in time to see Gerald jogging down the manor steps and hurrying towards us. His dark tresses fluttered around his handsome face and casted shadows across his beautiful eyes with each step. I fought not to let my defenses down when something inside me melted.
“Yes, Master Sanderson?” my mother cooed spinning elegantly to face him, her hands clasped neatly in front of her.
He skidded to a halt a short distance from us, his eyes never wavering from mine as he replied. “May I have a quick word with Ariel?”
The request brought a glint of elation to my mother’s eyes. She smiled broadly and all but shoved me in his direction. “Of course! Please, take your time. I’ll be waiting in the car.”
She gave me no chance to refuse or even protest as she hurried away, leaving me completely alone with him, again.
He hadn’t left my side all evening, not that I could even imagine complaining. Being with him had somehow made the night tolerable. His presence had shielded me from the terrors awaiting me in every corner of the ballroom. I was in debt to him. The least I could do was hear what he wanted.
“I can’t leave without at least hearing your voice, even once. I’ve waited all evening for the chance.”
I felt my eyes grow wide. Was he serious? Had I been silent all evening? I’m sure I must have said something. I’m not a mute. I do speak, when I have something to say. But what do I saw now? He’s waiting, watching me so expectantly. ‘Hi’ seemed a little fruitless when we’d spent so much time together. I felt awful. He’d been so kind to me and I must have bored him to tears with my aloofness. It’s baffling he hadn’t simply given up on me.
“I’ll settle for a cough,” he teased, looking almost desperate, despite the quark in his lips.
Now I really felt like dirt. Why couldn’t I think of something? I wanted to knock on my skull and jar my brain from sleep, but I doubt that would make me look any saner than I was already portraying myself.
“Oh! I get it!” he suddenly cried, making me jump slightly. “Oh man, I’m so sorry! You can’t talk, is that it?”
My eyes bulged. My head snapped from side-to-side in protest, digging me deeper into a hole when he winced and slapped a hand across his forehead.
“I’m really sorry, Ariel. You must think I’m such a jerk!”
I shook my head harder, my mouth opening to assure him that wasn’t the case when a loud honk filled the air from behind me. The sound had us glancing around at sleek, black limo pulling up just a few feet away.
“I think your mom is beginning to get worried. I should let you go,” he smiled down at me in a way that made my heart melt in my chest. “But I’d like to see you again.”
My jaw dropped. He was serious. There was no teasing behind his beautiful blue eyes, not that I could spot anyway.
“How about I drop by your house tomorrow afternoon and we can discuss what to do after?”
“Ariel, we need to be going now!” the shrilling sound of my mother’s voice interrupted my flapping and speechless mouth. I managed a nod that seemed to please him as he ushered me to the car.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He murmured, yanking open my door and allowing me to slip into the leather seat. With a small grin, he slammed the door behind me and stood back as we roared away.
“I don’t know what you did, but well done, Ariel,” my mother praised as we rolled down the darkened road towards the prison awaiting me only a few minutes away.
I knew the minute I stepped foot into the desolate cage that was my room, I would lose all the warmth I’d managed to gather throughout the evening. The feeling of content and acceptance was already fading slowly the closer we drew. My mother’s the-cat-ate-the-canary smirk left me feeling anxious and slightly disgusted. There was nothing more that I could possibly want than to throw open the door and pitch myself out. Only two things could become of my actions. I would finally be given into the arms of death and be soothed into an eternity of peace. Or I’d finally be free of the chains weighing down the frailty of my bones. Both sounded too good for me to even dare.
“We were the bell of the ball tonight, thanks to your quick thinking and brilliant choosing. You couldn’t have found a better match!”
But I hadn’t found him. He’d found me.
“I’m assuming from his previous comment that he’ll be coming by tomorrow to see you?”
I wasn’t required to reply or even glance over. My mother was already lost in the shiny, gold glow of her own world and couldn’t see past the mountains of money winking at her from the horizon. I sat in my mandatory silence, watching the blur of streetlights flashing past the tinted glass.
What I wouldn’t give to be free of this existence. I thought I’d found that with Charles. He’d been my salvation and in my moment of cunning conclusion, I’d even decided that I would use him to gain the freedom I longed for. In the end, it was me who had been used, except at some point I had willingly given him the single part of me I didn’t think I’d ever get back.
That was the price to be paid when stepping into a relationship based on lies and a greed for something that wasn’t there. Charles, the prominent son of a bank owner, could have any girl he desired, and at the time I had been foolish enough to think it was me. Maybe I was more like my mother than I’d thought. I hadn’t craved his money, his position or what I could get materialistically; I only needed him to escape. I’d been infatuated by his promises, in love with his freedom and had a burning passion for picture perfect image he painted with his honey-coated words of the happy life he could bring me. Perhaps in my greed, it was only fitting that I be the one wounded in the end.
I thought back on Gerald and wondered if history really did repeat itself and if I was in line for another disastrous letdown. Not if I was more cautious. Having my heartbroken twice in a matter of days was not going to be in my future. Despite his warm, welcoming smiles, his generous blue eyes and tender aura, I needed to keep myself sane, I needed to stay focused and I needed to get away from this life before it consumed me.