Love is a Pretty Tragedy

[Chapter 11]

Three weeks passed since the incident. My room has been the only four walls that I have really seen. I was unfortunately forced to speak to my parents, as they would not leave me alone. I suppose they now realize how much they regretted never spending any time with Wesley before he died, so now are trying to be decent parents.

I briefly told them that I was in fact going to college, just like they wanted. However, I was skipping graduation. I just couldn’t imagine facing anyone right now. Surprisingly, they let this slide without much protest as I knew my mother had several gatherings planned for the celebration. I told them I wasn’t going to kill myself, even though I feel like they told the house staff to put me on suicide watch. Wes wouldn’t have wanted that.

I mainly stayed in my room because I didn’t want to see them. They reminded me of everything I hated. I didn't come downstairs for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Sure, the house staff had tried to bring food up. I would usually just tell her to leave it at the door. Once they made sure I was doing as they wanted, my parents didn't seem to truly care. My mother went on with her realtor association meetings and showings, and my father worked as much as ever. His plans were changing now that my brother was not there to take over the council anymore. I was trapped inside my room, and I felt like if I went outside it would remind me of him. Except when I heard my parent's car engine start up and leave, I usually did go downstairs to stock up on food.

It was the first day of July when it happened; there was a knock on the door. My parents had left to go to their usual locations. My father was off to a business meeting, and my mother to coffee with clients. I was downstairs piling up food to bring upstairs. If someone was watching me, they would be laughing as I was stuffing food in my mouth. I was happy to let my brother’s legacy of jamming food in his mouth live through me. However, I couldn’t see how he had managed with this diet. My waistline showed the damage pretty clearly, but I figured it did not matter much anymore.

I wasn’t planning on answering the knocking, but it appeared the house staff was gone for the day. Then the doorbell buzzed as I jumped. I was afraid to see who it was. Curiosity got the best of me though. I slowly edged toward the front door as I swallowed my food to find an impatient Aly standing there. I let out a sigh of relief and opened the door.

Aly looked at me like she didn't recognize me. Then, I realized that is probably because she didn't. My hair was a mess, my clothes were gross and so was my face. "Thank goodness I'm here," was all she said while busting through the door. She quickly ran up the stairs and into my room. I found her in my closet looking through all the clothes.

"What are you doing that?" I said with slight irritation in my voice.

"'We are going out to lunch." She said with a smile on her face.

"Oh, I don't think I can today." I lied.

She came over and grabbed me by the shoulders. Then, she pulled me over to my dresser mirror. I hadn't looked at myself in a while. I was afraid that I would have become a different person without him. "We have to get you back to your old self. I’m sorry that I couldn’t come to your help earlier. I had orientation this past week, which I see that you missed!" In a lot of ways, I had lost track of the days. I was slightly bummed to learn that I missed orientation. I was excited to see where our dorm was going to be.

She shoved me over to my bed, which we both sat down on. "You still have a life. I know it feels like your life fell apart in the course of 72 hours. It is horrible what happened to your brother. And he is a complete ass for what he did after the funeral. However, he was not your everything. You are so much more than just your relationship.” I was actually a little surprised at how sincere Aly was sounding. “You have college with me, you cannot forget! How exciting is that?! Just think of all the hot, older college guys! You can get away from all of this mess. A fresh start." That was the Aly I knew and loved. Aly would always be the one to think of new guy opportunities, when a new guy is the last thing on my mind.

Then I came to wonder how Aly even knew about the break up...other than her attending the funeral. We could have gotten back together. I mean it isn't like I have talked to her or anyone for that matter. What if he had? "Wait, did he tell you about us breaking up?"

"Estelle, everyone knows." I was taken aback by this. Everyone? How could everyone know? I felt violated, like my deepest, darkest secret had just been revealed. Not that the two of us was my deepest, darkest secret, but that moment that had only replayed in my head everyday was so personal. Everyone was not supposed to share that with us.

I guess she could tell by my facial expression that I was in shock, "Did you flush your phone down a toilet? You must have since you didn’t reply to anything I had sent you. No one had heard from you, I was worried..." Aly continued rambling.

The truth was that I hadn't, since I had just gotten it and my computer back today from my grounding for sneaking out the night Wes died. It ended up being a blessing not to have access to my phone. I had put myself separate from the world these past few weeks. The one-way TV, books and taking up painting as a hobby were what I had lived off of these past few weeks. I could forget about my life and only worry about the drama that was playing in front of my eyes. My eyes quickly darted to my easel as I couldn’t remember the last thing I was working on. It was quite dark with shades of blue, purple and black forming a dark cloud over mountains. It wasn’t good at all, but it did help with my depression. I hoped Aly wouldn’t notice, but she was too busy grabbing my phone off my nightstand and handing it to me.

I turned on my cell phone and saw I had 22 voice-mails and 49 text messages. Literally, everyone in our lovely small town knew.

"How?" I asked in astonishment. I set my cell phone back down, not even bothering with checking it.

"Well," Aly started, "Hailey and Claire were at the funeral." They weren't invited, but it made sense they would show up. They were sophomores that always had a humongous crush on my brother. I urged her to keep going. "They texted their best friends who texted their friends, and so on. There are so many rumors going around about it though. I really had no idea what to believe. It was no help that my best friend would not respond to me." She said rolling her eyes. “I knew you needed some space though.”

"Like what?" I couldn't believe that this caused such a scandal. Sure, most people knew about us. I just didn't think it would be every teenager that lived in our tiny town. Just another reason why I hate small towns.

"One was that when you came inside you had a huge black eye forming, and that Henry punched you! Another was that he forced you to have sex with him.” That would be one started by sophomores, I thought. It irony was that it was almost the opposite. “Oh, oh one of the funniest was that Henry was a vampire, and he was going to force you to become one too. I wonder what nerd passed along that one!" Aly said with a laugh. I couldn't help to let a little giggle out either. There were long-standing rumors that two vampire clans lived in our town, but I did not think people talked about it much. I guess people were really gasping at anything. "I tell you the rest later, and you'll tell me the real story. Now go get a shower. You smell bad." She said making a sour face.

"Ugh! Shut up!" I said throwing a pillow at her face. I ran into the bathroom so she couldn't get me back.

She yelled in," Oh! I want pick out your clothes since you obviously do not know how to dress like a single girl." I just rolled my eyes, afraid what she is going to make me wear.

The ice cold water felt amazing on my smooth skin. I decided that being with friends was a lot better than solitude. As I had not cried once since Aly had been here, which might have been a record amount of time for me. I knew she was right about everything. I had to get over him. I knew that I never would completely. I would also love him no matter what he said to me that afternoon. It made no sense, and I had learned to stop trying to make sense of it. I had to add new memories to my life so I stopped replaying those few days. I had to move on with my life.

After much arguing, we decided to eat at Sally’s Tavern. I was initially hesitant to eat out at all knowing that we would see someone, but this place is usually for an older crowd. Despite, the eye rolls I gave in about the outfit Aly selected; I liked it. It was a way lower cut than I was used too. Although, I do have to say it worked for me. As Aly drove to the restaurant, she tried to cheer me up with songs on the radio, none of which I knew anymore. I had apparently missed the new summer playlist as I sat in my room listening to the same playlist over and over again from Wes’ computer. We were about to turn on the street that Mary Jo’s ice cream shop was located, and my heart stopped. I couldn’t see it. I didn’t want to be tempted to look in the parking lot and see his truck. “Aly, can we take another way?”

“This is the fastest way, silly. We are going to Sally’s; I don’t care what you say!” She turned and my eyes went straight toward the pale yellow shack with the bubble letters on the roof. I noticed one thing that was lacking, his pickup truck. I was surprised. I looked at my watch – it was 12:30 on a Tuesday. He usually preferred to work the slow shift when the kids were in summer camp.

The restaurant was so packed that we had to sit outside, even there was only one table that we grabbed before another couple got it. It was almost as everyone in town had decided to eat there today. However, no one had really said anything to me. We said a quick hi to Greg, a nice guy from our math class, who was just leaving as we were coming in. It was surprisingly not awkward at all – none of the oh where have you been all summer?

There was a slight breeze that gave my hair a tousled look. The air outside smelled nice, and it was good to feel the sun rays on my skin again. I was so pale for the summer; it was almost sad to be close to the tan Aly especially when I had a pool in my backyard.

"So let me see your phone." Aly said grabbing it off the table. She was going to read the many messages I had received. I was happy someone was excited to do it; maybe she could do all of the replying for me as well. "By the way twelve of each are from me." She said her eyes widening reading one. It was from a random number and said, "Gurl, I sorry 4 ur lost. Call me if u need some1."

"Great, I have a new stalker who still types like we are 12." I said sarcastically. "Let me see your phone." I said reaching for Aly's phone, except she grabbed my hand even before I was halfway there.

"Why can't I see your phone?" I asked confused.

Aly looked like she wasn't willing on giving up the answer. "Psh. There is nothing interesting in there." She was a horrible liar.

“Sure there isn’t.” I replied.

Aly gave a pained expression, then she took a deep sigh. "Fine," she said at last, "I didn't want to tell you know because I didn't think you were ready. You insisted though." She opened up her phone and pushed a few buttons. Once she faced her phone towards me, I realized why she didn't want to show me. It was a picture of Henry, except not just him. There was a girl there too. She was holding his hand. I was taken aback, might have even let out a gasp. It was a candid, and he didn’t look especially happy. That didn’t really matter. He looked different. He had gotten a haircut and was much buffer, like he had been working out nonstop. I guess he embraced the new single life Aly was trying to do for me with this outfit.

There was something else though, in his eyes, they were full of anger and possibly hate. The girl on the other hand, was short, blonde, skinny and pretty, pretty much the opposite of me except the short part. I always hated blondes. I pushed the cell phone away, not wanting to see it anymore. "I'm sorry, Estelle. Other than that though, no one has seen any signs of him. He even quit his job at Mary Jo's." Aly shared the news. It made sense why his car wasn’t there. He loved his job so much though, and he knew how much I love how he smelled when he came from there. He wouldn’t even smell the same. I would never experience his smell the way I remembered again.

"I needed to see that," was my only response tuning out all the rest that she had said. The picture, I was sure would only flash in my mind a thousand more times. Perhaps it is what I needed to move on with my life. He was reverting back to someone I did not like.

Just then, as if it was a scene in a movie and he entered right on cue, an incredibly, stunning guy walked through the door to the patio. It seemed to be more than a consequence. He seemed like one of those guys who got everyone's attention - tall, sandy brown hair, gorgeous facial features. His hazel eyes caught mine for only a second. A shiver went down my back as I shook my head and looked at my food that I hadn't touched. I wasn't the only one that noticed him though, so did Aly. "Damn, look at that cutie." A very Aly statement. "He is coming over here too." She said excitingly, her voice pitch rising with every word. I looked up, and he was coming to our table.

"Can I grab a seat with you guys? It's packed." His smooth, deep voice cascaded into my ears.

Thank goodness Aly was there to answer, "Sure, take a seat." He did just that and set his tray down.

"I'm Ethan, by the way." Ethan added.

"Aly." She was already batting her eyelashes.

I now picked up my head again and caught his hazel eyes, then averted mine. "Estelle."

"That's a pretty name." Ethan said, his voice almost having a southern drawl. I just replied with a smile and stuffed my sandwich in my mouth.

"I haven't seen you before. Are you from around here?" Aly asked putting her best flirt forward.

"No actually, I'm from Georgia."

"I thought I recognized an accent." I responded. It was weird because I didn't even think that first; it just came out. Ethan flashed me a smile. His smile was different from Henry’s. It was a full teeth smile and was just as charming.

"So why did you move, Ethan?" Aly butt in.

"Well, I'm just staying here for the summer with my grandparents. I'm going to University of Chicago for college in the fall."

"No way!" Aly almost screamed. I wouldn’t be surprised if several other customers’ meals were interrupted from the shriek. "So are we. We will have to show you around."

"I'd like that." Ethan replied then smiled at me. I only managed a half smile back and continued eating. Small talk continued between Aly and Ethan with me adding in a few words. It was strange though; it would seem Ethan would always look at me when he was talking. I didn’t want him to get any hints that I was interested.

I looked to the table to our left and noticed a couple that wasn't eating nor talking to each other. Instead, the guy was looking over at our table, deep in trance. They were both in their mid-40's probably; it was strange for them to just be watching us. Then, the man saw me staring back. His emerald eyes reminded me of someone's, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I looked back at my table, and both Ethan and Aly were done eating looking at me.

"Oh. I'm done too." I said quickly.

"Well, since you girls lent me your table. I’ll take up your trays and be right back." Ethan said getting up grabbing our trays.

I insisted that he didn't bother, but he was already gone. "So what do you think of him?" Aly asked as soon he wasn't in earshot.

"He seems nice." I admitted. “However, also it is a little strange that the first time I leave the house I meet a nice guy that is also going to Chicago this fall.”

Aly rolled her eyes and double-down. "Great, so you'll ask him for his number?"

"What?" I exclaimed. "Aly that would be way too fast. You like him though, go ahead."

"I wish, but he kept starring at you, not me. He has the hots for you." I was about to argue, but she continued. "Estelle, I know you want to get over Henry, and you are having trouble. Now, is the chance. He is hot, nice and it won’t get to serious. Also, Henry has obviously moved on." The picture of the two of them flashed in my head. It sent a pang through my heart, and I knew Aly was right.

Estelle's Father's POV

I had just sat down on my chair with the newspaper when the telephone rang. I reached for the receiver on the coffee table, then pressed the green talk button.

"Hello."

"I met her. She was everything you said she would be, beautiful but timid." A deep voice said over the phone. There was a lot of background noise, but I instantly knew who it was.

"Ah, Ethan my boy. Everything went as planned then?" I was glad he had gone through with the plan and that Estelle had finally gone outside the house, so he had the chance to meet her.

"I got her phone number, and we plan to hang out soon…unfortunately it will be with her friend though." Ethan said sounding a little disappointed.

"Don't fret. She will leave." Then, I heard keys jingle in the door. I had to get off quickly. "I got to go, but keep me updated. It is very important that this works out, and your parents are counting on you." I hung up before Ethan could even reply. I noticed Estelle staring at me, most likely surprised that I was not hidden in my office.

"Who was that?" She asked.

"Ah a client," It was the truth. "Where were you?"

I could tell she was slightly confused. I wonder how much she heard, but she seemed to let it pass her by. “Aly dragged me out of the house for some lunch. Why aren’t you at the office? I thought you had a meeting”

“Finished early today – we will be having another meeting later tonight so I decided to take a few hours off.”

“Oh.” She didn’t have anything to say to me; I didn’t blame her. We really had no relationship. I heard my wife enter the house, and glanced over her way.

"Someone made their way out of their room." She said to Estelle.

"I did." Estelle seemed caught a little off guard by her mother’s voice.

“You look happy.” I butt in.

“Uh…thanks.” Estelle fiddled with the keys in her hand. “Well, I’ll be upstairs,” she said before rushing up stairs as she usually did.

My wife strutted over to my lounge chair. "Our plan is finally coming into play. About time, I was growing tired of those clients I always have to socialize with."

"It wasn’t how it was originally planned, but I feel like it will all work out in the end." I responded to my wife with a smirk on my face.