Faded Memories

Heartbreak. It’s something we never want to feel because when we feel it, it hurts us more than we ever thought it would. To be honest, I didn’t imagine Daniel and I breaking up. Sure, I was young and people may go on and on about how there are plenty of other fish in the sea, but I thought we would’ve lasted forever. I think what hurt the most though was when he just left. Whoosh, he was just out the door and gone probably forever.

I sat down by the island and watched Cameron make ourselves tea. He handed me my mug, sat down beside me and put his around my shoulder. The only time he actually let go was when he was making the tea. I stared at my tea as the heat radiated. I wrapped my fingers around my mug and felt the warmth touch my skin.

“I just don’t get it, Cam.” I finally spoke. “I’m so confused.”

“What happened?” He asked with a soft and calm voice.

“He apologized for what happened the day before your birthday and then started going on about how our relationship was fading away.” I bit the bottom of my lip, trying to hold back any tears. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure.” He said, taking a sip from his mug.

I took a good look at him and realized that he looked kind of fancy. “How was your date?”

He said, “Well…”, and didn’t finish his sentence.

I thought for a moment, and then realized he ditched his date for me. “Oh my gosh, Cam, I’m so sorry. If I knew you–” I began stammering.

“Abby, its fine. Relax. You ditched Daniel for my birthday so I needed to return the favor. But I still would’ve come anyway, no matter what. Plus, when I told Sydney that we had to cancel because my best friend, meaning you,” he pointed to me, “needed me the most, she flipped. Whatever, it’s not a big deal anyway.”

“Are you sure? Because I can call Sydney for you and personally apologize myself.”

“You don’t need to do that, Abby. Honestly, I don’t care at all. The way she reacted was sort of ridiculous.” Suddenly, the doorbell rang. “That must be the guys.” Cameron slid off his seat and led me towards the door.

“The guys?” I asked.

“After you called, I called the guys, told them to pick up a few things and meet us here.” He opened the door and they came crashing into me, surrounding me with hugs.

“Abby, are you okay?” I heard one say. I could barely see who said this since I was squished, but I assumed it was Zach.

“Did he hurt you? If he did, I’d be happy to punch him in the face.” Another one said. That definitely had to be Michael.

“I brought you food and chick flicks.” One more voice said. That had to be Nathan, hands down.

They finally let go, minus Cameron. We entered the living room to watch the movies. I glanced at the couch where the incident had happened and winced. I buried my face into Cameron’s neck as he rubbed my shoulder, trying to dissolve my memory of the incident. We sat down on the couch and had a chick flick marathon.

By the time we started watching the second movie, everyone was asleep except for Michael and I. I looked at him as he kept his eyes onto the TV.

“Michael,” I said, breaking his gaze, “have you ever been in love?”

He smiled, his dimple clearly showing. He fixed his position on the couch and started to speak, “Yuuup, I actually have.”

I looked at my hands for a moment and then back at him, “How-how did you deal with everything after you and the person you loved broke up?”

His face was serious and sincere as he spoke, “It took a while. Feelings like that don’t really go away, but it eventually will disappear. It just takes time. You just need to remind yourself that one day, you’ll find someone out of all the 6 billion people in this world who will love you more than you love them.”

I grasped every word he said, slightly taken aback by his words. “Those are some serious words of wisdom you got there, Mikey.”

He laughed and scratched the back of his neck, “I can be deep, you know.”

Our conversation was interrupted when my sister walked into the house. “Abby?” I heard her call out. She walked into the living room and saw us. “I’m not trying to sound rude in any way, but what are you guys doing here so late?” She asked. The guys woke up from their nap and groaned.

“What time is it?” Zach rubbed his eyes and grabbed his phone to look at the time.

“It’s almost 11:00.” Autumn looked at her watch and fixed her glasses.

“Someone wake Nathan up.” Cameron said who was visibly still tired. Michael grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it at Nathan. Nathan jerked up, making his dreads move around.

“Dude, it’s almost 11:00. We gotta start heading home.” Michael got up from the couch and stretched his arms.

Autumn looked at the TV screen, “Why were you guys watching a chick flick?”

Nathan explained to her, “Daniel and Abby broke up. As soon as we heard about it, we grabbed a bunch of food and movies to help comfort her.” He got up, took out the DVD and put it back in the case.

Autumn walked towards me and embraced me into a hug. “Oh, Abby. Why didn’t you call me? I would’ve left work early.” She finally let go and said, “I feel so bad.”

“It’s okay, Autumn. I know how important your work is to you. Anyway, the guys had you covered.” I gave each of the guys a hug and said goodbye. “Thank you so much for coming. You guys have no idea how much you’ve helped me today.”

I watched each of them leave when Cameron came back and gave me one last hug. “Call me whenever, okay? I’ll always be here.” He said before getting into his car, waving at me and driving away.

It didn’t matter if they were my only friends around here and if they were guys. What mattered was that they were there for me right when I needed them the most.