CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

MARCUS'S POV


Despite the hatred I felt for Chelsea deep down I knew that a part of me missed her.
Her memories always found a way to crept into my mind and taunted me.

The memory was like a vivid dream when I recalled the first time I met Chelsea I was just a naive teenager back then.


FLASHBACK


My dad and his wife have four kids. I'm surprised that their marriage has lasted this long.

I shot my basketball through the hoop and scored. I was good at basketball but I was never interested in making a career.
It was just a hobby and a distraction I needed to keep me busy.

I joined the school track team to keep myself busy. It was a good workout and it changed my physique. Even though I was just a fourteen year old boy the work gave me a six-pack and a few hard core muscles.

I was really tall and most of my classmates kept mistaking me for a graduate but I was only in ninth grade. I still had to make my way up the ladder if I was ever going to make it in life.
But most of the girls seemed like the bad boy type but I was more than just a bad boy. The darkness inside sent chills especially to those who thought that they could try to walk all over me.

In life I learned that showing weakness was a bad sign my so called father had taught me that through the hard way.

I might be cold,rude and ruthless but I always came first in every test and assignment.

Staying with my father and his nagging wife wasn't an option I wanted to choose.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead trying to catch my breath. I was a very grumpy teenager. I was cold and ruthless.

Suddenly a car pulled up next door and that's where I met her for the first time.
A girl with red hair that looked almost orange stepped out of the car.

She looked like one of those Disney princesses. Minnie is always blabbing about them and how cool they are. She always reminded me of mothers promise.
I hope that my sister won't make me watch loli rock or winx club. I don't like those shows but Minnie is literally obsessed with them.

And sometimes I'll find myself watching them on YouTube. In other words I didn't actually resent my other siblings. I just hated their parents. And my other siblings never actually treated me like dirt to them. I was the big brother they never had and I guess they weren't so bad once I got to know them.

The new girl looked around the block absently scanning the neighbor. She wore a short white dress that had black polka dots, her red hair cascading down her back.

She had forest green eyes. Eyes that held that special sparkle full of life she must be a very bubbly girl.
She certainly looked like a ray of sunshine.

Of all the girls I've gotten to meet at school I think she's the one I liked. My conscience taunted me but I ignored it and continued playing basketball plugging in my earphones.

Sixty seconds felt like a thousand hours. She was still standing there nervous, our eyes met and her cheeks turned a shade of bright pink.

This can't be happening if she starts liking me things will go down hill and everything will burn up in flames.

She bit her bottom lip.

"Well are you going to say something?" I asked harshly and surprisingly she flinched. Like I had poured acid on her.

She relaxed and her lips curved into a breathtaking beautiful smile.

"Hi I'm Chelsea."


Her name was Chelsea. It was such a lovely name and it suited her as well.

It was clear that she wanted us to be friends but honestly we could never be friends and I didn't have the time to make friends. I was too busy trying to straighten out my messed up life.

I was too busy dealing with the darkness that I've kept inside me ever since my mother passed away.
I felt like exploding and going on a rampage whenever I saw my father's face.

He deserved to be sentenced to death for what he did to mother and I promise one day I'll make him pay and he'll have to face the law for the murder he committed years ago.

I was full of darkness and she was a ray of light and I would only taint her with my inner demons.
My darkness was contiguous.

She was full of life, bubbly, cheerful and happy while I don't even remember the day I smiled.

It was probably on my seventh birthday when my mother planned a surprise party even if it was just the two of us. I enjoyed the beautiful moment and it was the best day of my life.

The memory only revoked the anger and hatred that I had for my father.
If it was up to me he would have long died the day he was handcuffed and arrested is the day I'm going to finally feel at peace.

I'll make sure he rots in prison for the rest of his life.

Chelsea beamed with a happy smile and stretched out her hand obviously she was expecting me to shake her hand as a sign of friendship.

Our eyes locked in a frenzy and I stared at her in disbelief.
What the heck was wrong with her? Did she get the message?

She gave me that look and I rolled my eyes inwardly she made puppy eyes and pouted her pink cherry lips.

Every muscle inside me twitched but I knew that I had to restrain myself and stay calm.

This girl was already messing with my head and that was a warning sign.

I had to snap out of the spell she had cast on me before it was too late.

I sighed deeply, mirroring my emotions, keeping them at bay. I was on the verge of snapping but I had to keep my cool and restrain myself.

"Look little girl-" before I could finish my statement she gasped in shock and frowned at me.

She was very pissed that I called her little girl at the end of the argument she called me mean and stormed off.

It's been ten years and a part of me still wonders if she ever thinks of me.

I tried to grasp the broken pieces, everything seemed to shatter and Chelsea disappeared further into my dark consciousness. It's been ten years but her memories still lingered in my head like a permanent scar. I knew that I hated her but one question still remained.

"Why?"

Why did she pretend all this while?

We haven't talked in years but this strong connection still ceased to exist between us or maybe I was just being delusional.
Maybe I was just holding on to the past. I needed to let her go.
She played me.

And every single thing we shared was just a fucking lie. I gave her my heart and soul but she broke my trust instead.
I should have noticed the warning signs.
She was sent to just ruin me.

Her smile looked so real and for once in my life I thought someone actually genuinely cared about me.

I had Tara in my life but it still wasn't enough for me because Tara was nothing like Chelsea.

"My Chelsea."

Her memories always brought a bitter taste in my mouth. Her memories were still raw; they burned me like acid.

For the past ten years I've learnt to mask my feelings and show no emotion. Being at rehab taught me to be cold and stone hearted.
A year later when I was released I met Tara.

She was very beautiful, young and vibrant. She was in her early twenties.
She was a model.
She had blonde golden hair and blue eyes she had a petite body just like an elegant ballerina but like me she lacked one quality.

"Heart."

Tara didn't have a heart or any emotions.
Compassion and sympathy never existed in her vocabulary and that's one of the things that drew me closer to her.

She reminded me of my mother.

We felt close because we were broken and our pasts seemed to haunt us. We were torn between conflicted worlds light and darkness.

Every time I was with another woman I kept comparing her traits with Chelsea's.
No other woman could ever match her beautiful smile, her laughter, her nervous little gestures.

Whenever she's nervous she bites her bottom lip and when I lean close and whisper softly in her ear her cheeks turn a bright shade of red.
But reality dawned on me and I realized that she's no longer part of myself.
My world ceases to turn black and white colourless.

I had wealth and power yet something was still missing because only Chlsea could satisfy my thirst.