Chapter 16.

**Tessa’s POV.**

He cheated on me- not that it should seem like a big surprise, he was a player after all. But the fact that he had the nerve to tell me even after I told him I loved him was extremely mind blowing. Him cheating on me was so uncalled for, we got into an argument and the next thing I know; he was having sex with another girl. If he could do this once, there was nothing stopping him from doing it over and over again, I was not going to stay to be hurt by him again. Yes, I loved him and was almost desperate to have him, but not desperate enough to let my heart break more than it already had.

“Tessa?”, I could recognize that voice in my sleep, “Why are you sitting on the floor? And… wait, are you crying?”, he strode towards me quickly and knelt in front of me. I could not answer him, I would look stupid and that was the last thing I wanted him to think of me so I just sobbed, trying my hardest to stop the tears flowing aimlessly down my cheeks. I was taken by surprise when his arms went around me as he pulled me closer, “Shhh, its going to be okay”, he whispered while I grabbed unto his shirt and cried into it, letting my salty tears stain the bright blue fabric.

Seconds turned to minutes and we were just sitting in the middle of the hallway, he trying to comfort my crying self until I calmed down. “Thank you”, I whispered to him with a sad smile,

“Its alright”, he shrugged and rubbed my shoulder in a soothing manner. We remained silent for a while, and I realized something; Alex did not even bother to go after me, he never cared about me that much. He was a horrible person, a monster, “He did not deserve you”,

“Excuse me?”, I looked up at the extremely handsome man that had his arms wrapped around me,

“Alex, he does not deserve you. You are too good for him”, he said. I narrowed my eyes to slits and furrowed my eyebrows, was I that obvious? “You are crying in front of his room, its not rocket science”, he answered my unvoiced question,

“Oh”, I relaxed my face and looked to the ground, extremely embarrassed that he had seen right through me. It made me wonder how many girls had been in this same position that I was in and it irritated me to the core.

His arms left my body and he stood up, taking me with him, “Enough with the pity party”, he smiled, “You have to move on”, how do I just move on from someone I just started loving? It is impossible for anyone to move on that quickly, “You seem like a strong girl”, I could deny that to the grave. I was anything but strong; when my father died, I almost jumped into his grave to be with him and right now, if not for someone comforting me, I would’ve cried buckets.

“I am not strong”, I told him, leaning against the wall,

“You are Tessa”, he insisted and I nodded. Silence once again engulfed us until he spoke up again, “I have a concert today, would you like to come?”, on another day, I would be screaming in joy but today was not one of those day because of Alex fucking O’Connell,

“I am not really feeling it”, I bit on my lip nervously and looked into his honey brown eyes.

“Come on, I promise it would make you feel better. Plus, you would get a backstage pass”, he tempted while poking my ribs playfully, I let out a loud laugh,

“I don’t know”,

“I thought you were my biggest fan”, he put on a sad pout which made him look extremely cute and I just couldn’t say no. I rolled my eyes and nodded at him, thankful that he had managed to bring me out of my sad state. “Good”, he smiled, “You are lucky. I never invite girls to my concerts”, he pointed out and I gave him a smile because I already somewhat knew this.

Kevin O’Connell lived a very private life, hence, me not knowing he was the son of Andrew O’Connell or that he had step-brothers. He never flaunted girls around like his other band members and that attracted me to him, he was extremely different from the celebrities that posted every occurrence in their life on social media.

“The last concert one of your concerts I went to was last year”, I admitted to him. The last concert I had gone for was just a month before my dad passed away and I did not have the chance to go for any one of them after that.

“I am sure my biggest fan had her reasons”, he teased with a smile which I reciprocated. “Could you be ready by five pm?”,

I nodded my head, “Yes”, I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was only one in the afternoon, that was enough time to get ready for a Ragger’s concert,

“Okay then, my bus will be waiting to bring you”,

“You aren’t going with me?”,

“Nope”, he popped the ‘p’, “I have to be there in”, he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a gold Rolex wristwatch, “an hour. I will see you later Tessa”, he said before walking towards his room, he turned around, “Please, do not cry. He is clearly not worth it”, he gave me a wink and went into his room, leaving me in solitude once again.

Sighing deeply, I picked up my things from the floor and made my way out of the main house and to the quarters where I lived. Thankfully, my mother was nowhere to be seen, the last thing I wanted was for her to see me with my face like this. She clearly found my pain amusing and this time, I would not have been able to hold back any harsh words towards her- not that I usually did, but this time, they would sting more because I would pour out all the anger bottled up for Alex on her.

I threw the things occupying my hands on my bed and stripped out of my clothes before grabbing a towel and heading into the bathroom. Pausing at the mirror, I took a good look at myself; my lips looked oddly pale, my eyes were red and blotchy and dried up tears matted my flushed cheeks.

Frustrated at the sight of myself, I ran my hands over my face and left them on my lips. Alex had cheated on me, he did exactly what Gabriel had predicted he would do. I should have headed to his warning, I should have never let Alex do this to me; he played me, he let me fall for his sweet words, his warmness, his beautiful face, his hunky body, his good sense of humor. It was all a lie- he was all a lie, I should have known that everything was too good to be true, every moment spent with him was a moment wasted in my life.

He was right about one thing though; he did not deserve my love. He was not worthy of it and I never should have given it to him but, it was too late, he already had it. I had said the three words and it was something that could never be taken back- they were just way too heavy.

He was a jerk, a douchebag and an asshole but even after knowing this much, my heart still pounded at the thought of him, he was the first man that I had ever fallen in love with and he was the first man to break my heart.

Firsts were hard to forget.