Love is a Pretty Tragedy

I let go of Ethan's hand and slowly walked towards the pale pink, strapless dress placed on my bed. My knees felt like they were going to crumble from underneath me, not to even mention the tears forming in my eyes. I turned to Ethan and took a deep breath. "I-I can't." I stuttered. "Please, just go back to the party." I blinked, and I already felt tears on my cheek. Ethan looked confused and hurt. "Please." I whispered to him.

Ethan looked at me strangely, then at the dress, then back to me. His hazel eyes were full of worry, but he just nodded and gave me a peck on the cheek before shutting the door behind him. The spot where he kissed me burned. The regret for leading him on now felt worse than before. I looked back at what seemed like an innocent dress just lying on there, as if anyone could have just placed it there. It looks like it could have been laid out as an option for me to wear to the party. The house staff, maybe even my mother, but I knew only one person that would have had it. I edged toward it slowly, almost afraid of it. Once I was close enough, I wanted to touch it, had to. I reached out my hand and graced the embroidery with my hand. Touching the dress brought back the memory of the last time I wore it.

[Flashback]

"You look really cute." I said shyly to Henry. Even though we had been going out for almost eight months, I was still amazed how insanely attractive he was. It wasn’t even his perfect height, strong arms or beautiful green eyes that attracted me most. It was how much I had seen him grow these past few months, and how beautiful he made me feel. For today, he was wearing a tie, a crisp button-down shirt and a pair of nice pants.

"Not as cute as you. That is really a great dress." I could feel myself blushing. I really did love this dress; it was strapless and it was just the right shade of pink. "Well, here we are." Henry said less than enthusiastic as he pulled behind one of our friend’s cars. It was Emma's 16th birthday party. She was one of the last ones to turn 16, and she was having a formal tea party. Obviously, Henry wasn't too thrilled about this, especially since he had to dress up.

"It could be fun. Let's go." I egged Henry on, but he just rolled his eyes. Of course, he got out of the car all of the same.

We entered Emma’s house, and there were a few other people there. Even after the party had been going on for an hour, it was going by quite slowly. There was some small talk, a few snacks, and a formal dining room. Not much to do for a bunch of 16 year olds that would much rather be out than stuck in a stuffy house. Thank goodness Emma's parents volunteered to go see a movie and go out to eat and left the house for us actually to have a party.

The same thing was on everyone’s mind. It was Logan who was the one to suggest it first before everyone excitedly agreed. We all sat down in a circle, and decided that we did want to play seven minutes of heaven, which turned into seventeen minutes in heaven since Nick said seven minutes was way too short. Everyone agreed of course since almost everyone there was either a couple or liked someone in the room. "Let the fun begin," Logan said excited as he was the first one to reach into the hat."I got number 2." Logan looked around. Everyone stood still and looked at each other until Sophie raised her hand.

"What?" Nick exclaimed. He obviously wanted to be with his girlfriend.

Sophie just rolled her eyes and gave Nick a peck on the lips. "Let's go Logan." Logan followed with a frown, since he knew nothing would happen. We decided that we would play some music to some of our favorite songs and grab some more crumpits as we waited. After five minutes, they were already asking if they could come out. A few people said no, but Emma agreed and opened the door.

Next was Henry. I already felt butterflies going wild in my stomach, what if he picked Lizzy, she could make anyone do anything. Even worst what if he picked Becca, his ex, even if she had another boyfriend now. With all of my thoughts going wild, I barely realized what number Henry picked. "Number 7." I let out a sigh of relief that almost sounded like a nervous chuckle.

"Me." I said softly. A huge smile formed on Henry's face, and he grabbed my hand. Emma got up and led us to the closet, which wasn't anything like a regular closet. It was a fairly large walk-in closet with a few coats, blankets, and boxes. She closed the door behind us, and then we were all alone. This was pretty huge for us. We were hardly ever alone, since we weren't allowed to be together at night, and Wesley was always stalking us. He was planning on driving us to this party, but it just ended up that he had a date of his own this afternoon. We still couldn’t be sure if he wasn’t stalking us or not.

Once we were locked in, Henry chuckled slightly, probably amused that we were playing this game in the first place or maybe that he picked my number. His eyes met mine as he flashed his signature smile. "I love you, Estelle." I smiled back at him and kissed his lips softly. Henry deepened the kiss and grabbed my face with his hands. I didn't want to get too carried away with the kiss since I was interested in doing more than kissing. I obviously didn’t plan this, but it felt so right. I put my hand on his belt and start to loosen it. My breathing heightened, and I took it all the way off. Henry broke away and gave me an unsure glance. "All of our friends are outside, you know?" I looked back into Henry's green eyes as I slowly bit the tip of my white satin gloves before slipping it off my hand. He instantly got my answer. If it was possible, his smile got even bigger. "You sure?" I undid the button on his khakis. He took that as a yes.

I looked back up at his chest and slowly unbuttoned his shirt. He took off his tie and threw it on the ground along with his shirt and pants. I leaned into his bare chest before grazing my lips and kissing him until I reached his boxers. I stood up and turned around as I moved my hair to the side while he carefully unzipped my favorite dress. It slowly slipped off my body only leaving my underwear. We both just stared at each other for a very long moment before realizing we had a time limit unfortunately. I laid out one of the spare blankets before laying down myself.

My head rest on Henry's warm chest. Both of us were still regaining our breath. He slowly ran his fingertips up and down my bare back. I wanted to remember this moment forever, how amazing it was that we worked in even one more way. I couldn’t have thought of a better moment even if it wasn’t the most conventional. "One more minute!" We heard shouted from the living room.

"Crap!" I almost shouted. I rushed to sort out my clothes while Henry quickly put on his. I had my dressed pulled up and was only waiting for Henry to zip it. He was fiddling with his tie, but he wasn't having any luck.

"Forget it." Henry said hopelessly. He came over to me so he could zip me up. I played with my hair trying to make it look semi-decent, when though I knew it was still a mess. "Shit," I heard Henry whisper.

"What?" I had no idea what could be wrong.

"The zipper's stuck." He replied aggravated.

"Let me try, hold my dress." I turned my dress around to take a look. I found the zipper and tried to pull it up, but it wouldn't move. Knock, knock. Emma was already coming to get us. We looked into each other eyes knowing that we were doomed. Emma opened the door and burst out laughing once she found us. Me, trying my hardest to move the zipper, and Henry, holding my top up.

"Need some help?" She joked before busting out laughing.

"It's stuc-," I couldn't even finish the word before she started laughing even louder, and of course by now everyone at the party was at the doorway. She came over and tried to zip up the dress. She couldn't either; it was broken.

"I'll get you some clothes." Emma said through giggles.

Emma brought out just a regular t-shirt and shorts. We decided to leave before we got made fun of constantly. Also, we knew we would have some time Wesley-free.

"So, where are we going to go?" Henry asked as we were heading towards my house. He had his hand on my knee, and his touch still felt electric.

I had no idea, but at the moment I felt invincible. We could do anything we wanted. "Let's find somewhere new. That no one knows about." My eyes were wide at the idea, as Henry flashed his half smile. Thankfully, in our small town, there were several abandoned lots and farms, and right now we could actually find one without Wes around.

We drove for about 10 more minutes before we came upon a side street that I had surprisingly never been down before. I had explored many of these places when I was a child, but this one appeared untouched for some time. "Turn left here." Henry turned left onto a dirt road and kept going for barely a 1/4 of a mile before we found a lake, huge oak tree, a dock and a set of woods beyond the lake.

"Breathtaking." I said with a huge smile feeling this place would become extremely special. "So.." I looked over at Henry and the passion in his eyes was still brewing as strong as it was before. "Again?" I said shyly. Henry's signature smile appeared across his face, “That good, huh?” as he leaned in and passionately pushed his lips into mine.

Today was the most amazing day even through the embarrassment. As every girl, I'd always imaged my first time as perfect with candles and soft music. However, I realized we didn't need any of that since I was undoubtedly with the right guy. Once we arrived at my house, I didn't want to leave, but I saw the sun setting in the distance behind our grand iron gates. I gave Henry one last kiss before leaving his truck and blowing him a kiss, so happy that we had found such a beautiful place, and we had shared so many incredible moments today. As I walked into my house, I completely forgot about my favorite, broken dress that was left in the back seat.

[End Flashback]

The memory was so clear; it was almost like I had just re-lived it. The passion, his warm breath against mine, his hands discovering every part of me, the great love I felt for him – none of it felt the same anymore. Everything else was bland in comparison. Instead of sadness, a whole new emotion formed, one I wasn't expecting, one that I haven't felt through this whole mess. I was angry. Why would he do this to me? Hadn't he put me through enough pain already? He had to ruin my birthday twice now. "AHHH!" I grunted. Without thinking, I picked up the dress and threw it across the room. "I hate you so much!" I screamed into the air. The dress crashed onto my night table, knocking over the lamp and making a loud crash.

I took a deep breath and looked down. There was a letter where the dress had been.