Friday, August 6, 2010

Part 6

He didn’t let his phone ring for too long. That particular ringtone was specifically set for her. It was sort of ‘their song’ because they listened to it on the cafe on their first date and hummed to the tunes at the same time.

“Hello beautiful,” he said, smiling into the phone.

“Hey there handsome,” her singsong voice returned. He switched the phone to another ear.

“I’ve missed you,” he gushed with a sigh, letting himself fall into his bed. He’d just got back from their third date of the week, and already he was hoping to see her again. As far as he can remember, this was the first time he’d felt so strongly about a girl. He wanted to get to know her better. He wanted to see her every day if possible. Being so far apart from her, as she lives in another town made his heart ache.

He heard her chuckled softly, and he felt a flutter in his heart. A longing. “Me too, what are you doing?” she asked, her voice sounded like an angel to his ears.

“Thinking about you,” he said lazily.

“Oh please...” she laughed again.

They continued talking about nothing. Half an hour later, he heard another call coming in and they had to stop. It was Elisa.

With a sigh, he hit the reject button, put the phone on silent mode and left it on his bedside table. He went out to get a drink.

“Bro?” Dave called out. “Your phone’s vibrating,”

Finishing his drink calmly, he looked at his brother who was just coming out of his room. “Leave it be. It’s nothing important,”

“It’s your fiancée?” Dave said questioningly. Ben just shrugged his shoulders.

“What happened to between you and her?” Dave demanded, while taking a seat in front of him.

“Nothing,” he said simply.

“Then why won’t you answer her call?” Dave asked.

Ben didn’t respond.

“Bro?”

“Look, I met someone, OK. I can’t remember Elisa or anything that’d happened between us. I am tired of trying to remember. I’m tired of having her trying to make me remember. I have had enough. I want to live my life.” His chest was heaving with the intensity of his emotion.

“She was your life, brother. You have to do right by her,” Dave responded. He was staring at his brother with concern in his eyes that Ben had to look away. No one understand the anguish that he had to go through, trying to remember, being shoved with things that were supposed to make him remember, but meeting with a blank each time. No one knows how painful it was to not knowing about his own past, his own life. He just wanted to live, to have a clean break. Why can’t anyone see that?

“I can’t,” was all he said. “Please don’t make me. You don’t understand what I am going through,” he added sadly. His brother stared at him for a long time before he shrugged.

“If you say so. I just hope that you will not regret it,” he said, not unkindly.

To be continued...


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