Love Is Stronger Than Gravity

Ellie and I got dressed at my house. Jack was constantly asking questions about where we were going, who with, what time she’d be back home so she’d given up and came round to my house.

‘‘You should have seen Alex’s face when Jack told him we were going out.’’ Ellie piped up randomly from her seat in front of the mirror as she applied her eye liner.

‘‘I’m not even sure why he cares to be honest.’’ I replied as I zipped the side of my black dress up.

‘‘Because he fucking adores you, Daisy.’’ Ellie said, turning to face me. ‘‘He’s been so mad at himself today. Not about telling you, he said he’d wanted to do that for a while because he felt so guilty-and rightly so-but for actually doing it and keeping it from you for so long. He told me he still loves you, and that he would do anything in the world to take it back, but said he’ll live with the fact that you hate him.’’ I didn’t know how to feel about what Ellie was saying. I didn’t hate him…well I did, but I loved him more.

‘‘Can we just not talk about him for the rest of tonight…please?’’ I asked her. It only made me think into things more than needed.

‘‘Sorry.’’ She replied, then gave me a comforting smile and turned to finish her make-up.

We left my house at about eight, and headed into town, we were already slightly drunk because we’d consumed a full bottle of shots before we left. I’d lost count on the number of clubs we’d been in but we finally settled at one called Basement.

We took a seat in the corner and filled the table with drinks so we didn’t have to keep getting up and struggle past everyone. I took a sip of one of my drinks, not too certain on what it was, but it tasted fine.

I put my glass down and scanned my eyes around the room, watching people as they danced and sang. Then my eyes landed on someone familiar…too familiar.

‘‘Are you seriously kidding me?’’ I said out loud in annoyance. Ellie turned to look at me.

‘‘What is it?’’ She asked me, then looked in the direction I was. ‘‘Oh, looks like we have stalkers.’’ She muttered, then picked her glass back up and tried to hide her face.

It didn’t work though; Jack spotted us and started to walk in our direction, followed by Zack, Rian and then Alex.

‘‘Do you not trust me, Jack?’’ Ellie asked as he took a seat next to her.

‘‘Yes, but it’s not a crime to coincidentally end up in the same place as you.’’ He shot back. I knew they were only joking, and I envied how they could be like that with each other, Alex and I always took things to heart.

Everyone else sat around the table, Alex took a seat facing me. I saw him glance at me a few times but I didn’t want to look at him for more than a few seconds, I actually wanted to hit him more than anything else.

We shared our drinks out between them since there was more than enough and I sat in awkward silence around them while they all made conversation with each other.

‘‘Toilet time.’’ I said in Ellie’s ear then stood up and stumbled away from the table. I pushed the door open and found myself an empty cubical. I sat on the toilet seat for a few minutes. I didn’t need to go; I just needed to get away from Alex.

I wasn’t planning on seeing him that night, but he had to show up anyway, when I wasn’t prepared with anything to say to him.

I finally stood up and left the toilets. I was about to walk back to the table when I saw him standing waiting for me.

‘‘You took your time.’’ He said, stepping towards me.

‘‘As always.’’ I mumbled trying to edge my way around him.

‘‘Can we talk…outside?’’ Alex asked, moving in front of me so I couldn’t get passed.

I sighed, bracing myself for an inevitable argument and walked towards the exit, Alex holding onto my wrist so he didn’t lose me in the sea of people. We took a seat on a wall and I waited for him to speak. I was happy to be outside though, the air was nice on my face, and it cooled me down.

‘‘I’m sorry, I really am.’’ He said, and then turned his face to look at me. I nodded, didn’t say anything because if I did, I know I’d end up shouting at him. ‘‘I wanted to tell you, it didn’t mean anything, it just happened, but I knew if I did tell you, we wouldn’t be together any more, I loved you too much for that to happen.’’ I couldn’t help myself after that, the alcohol had taken over.

‘‘So you didn’t love me any more when I did it to you? It’s fine for you to do it to me and not tell me, but when I do it to you, you shout at me and kick me out of your house in front of all our friends? Yeah, that’s fucking love isn’t it?’’ I shouted at him, standing up from the wall.

‘‘Daisy, calm down, please. I’m not saying how I acted was right, we should have sat and talked about it, but I was so angry and seeing you with my own cousin, in my bed, really hurt. I had a right to be that mad at you, but not for kicking you out like I did. I’m sorry for that.’’ He stood up also, holding onto my hands.

‘‘But I don’t understand how you could just ignore me like you did. You didn’t even at that point tell me what you’d done. In spite, you could have, but you just kept quiet.’’ I was trying not to cry, I didn’t want to cry in front of him.

‘‘I don’t know why I didn’t tell you…I’m an idiot I know.’’ He was right; I nodded to agree with him.

I’m not too sure what happened after that. One second we were stood there, just looking at each other, standing in silence, the next, his lips were on mine.