Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

Chapter 88: Acid Rain 

EMMA’s POV :

lan hadn't texted or called for days.It had been days.

Almost a week since that email and phone call debacle.I knew I asked for space, but I didn’t know it was gonna be like this.I tried texting him once, but it wasn’t even delivered.I tried calling, but it never went through.

It was like he turned his phone off purposefully.Or maybe he blocked me? That couldn't be true.We were in a fight, sure, but he wouldn't do that to me.Something was definitely not right.

Today was lan’s gallery's soft launch and even though I wasn’t coming to it, I thought at least he’d call and tell me about it.

This was the longest Ian and I had gone without communication.

And though I was the one who asked for it, I hated every second of it.

I did, however, end up applying for the Paris program and I would hear the result within a week.

There was a small interview that I did for it yesterday, and my interviewer was positive that I would be a good fit for the program.That was a good sign.

I was happy, but I wasn’t too happy due to the circumstances.

I wanted to tell lan about it, but I couldn't.

This whole taking time apart thing was a stupid idea.

With every day that passed, I felt my heart sink lower and lower.

I wanted to talk to him, even just to hear him yell at me, I would take it.

But now I couldn't even reach him.

What was he doing? Was he still mad at me? Or was this his way of teaching me a lesson? Enough was enough.

After a week of this torture, I couldn't take it anymore.

It was a Saturday night and although I should be studying for my finals, I ended up pulling my coat and boots out of my closet, ready to go.

"Hey, you going somewhere?"

Tristan asked when he saw me running across the living room haphazardly.

"Yeah.New York City,"

I said simply and I didn’t stop moving.

I was putting my boots on and my coat on at the same.

"Right now?"

"Enough is enough, I can’t study and I can't concentrate.I can’t live like this, I have to talk to him," I stated.

Tristan was about to say something, but I didn’t wait.

I grabbed my purse from the kitchen counter and headed straight out the door.

I was running as fast as I could.

As soon as I stepped out of the apartment, I saw a taxicab and waved at it energetically.

Taking the cab to the station, I told the driver to step on it.

I wanted to make the next train out, which was in fifteen minutes.

The sooner I could see him, the sooner we could make up and put this stupid thing behind us.I felt so dumb for what I did.I should have been more open and communicative.I shouldn't have kept him in the dark.

"No matter what happens, we'll work it out,"

I remembered he promised me once.

"No matter what happens, we'll work it out,"

I said to myself as if it was a mantra.

The taxi driver probably thought I was crazy, but I didn't care.

I wanted to make sure I remember those words.

That would be the first thing I tell him when I see him tonight.

After getting off the Grand Central station, I took another cab towards lan’s gallery.

It was 9.30 PM and his soft launch started an hour ago.

He was probably still there.

When the cab pulled up in front of the gallery, my heart was racing so fast, I felt like it was gonna burst right out of my chest.

I paid the driver and stepped outside quickly.

Light rain was drizzling outside, but I didn't care.

With a hand above my head as if it could cover me from the rain, I walked closer to the gallery.

The place looked amazing.

There were these big windows all around and you could see everything inside, all the people and the many beautiful paintings hanging on the wall.

My eyes darted around like a hawk, scanning the area for signs of lan.

And then I saw him...or rather, I saw them.

Ally and lan were standing a few feet away from the entrance.

Their faces were flushed against each other.

They were kissing.

She was kissing him hungrily and passionately, and he seemed perfectly okay with it.

My eyes widened at the sight, and I wanted to look away, but I couldn't.

It was like a car wreck that you couldn't turn away from.

I was seeing everything in slow motion, every little detail.

His hand was on her waist.

Her hands were on his chest and they went up slowly to run across his hair.Their lips never broke apart...and their tongues...

"No...!" I breathed.

The sound of my voice seemed to have caught lan’s attention.

He pulled away abruptly and turned his head straight towards me.

Our gaze met and his eyes jolted open in response.

Mine was flooded with tears.

This can't be happening to me.

Not again.

Not him.

Not lan...

Ian was frozen in his spot, looking at Ally with a confused look on his face.

Meanwhile, Ally stared at me and a small smirk played on her face.

This was too painful to watch.

With every bit of strength I had left in me, I turned to my heels and ran out of there as fast as I could.

"Emma!"

I heard him calling out after me, but I didn’t turn around.

"Emma!!!"

he yelled even louder this time.

I stopped my tracks and turned around.

The rain was pouring harder and lan was staggering towards me.

It looked as if he could barely stand on his own, let alone walk.

When he finally stood in front of me, I looked up at him, waiting for him to speak.

My tears had blended with the rain falling on my face, it was hard to tell which was which.

"What was that?"I spoke when he didn’t say a word.

"It's not...what you think,"he looked lost, he couldn't even look at me in the eye.

"It's not what I think? So I didn’t see you two kiss?"I scoffed and pushed him by his shoulder.

"What the hell, lan?"

"What? It’s nothing you haven't done!"he spat back.

"What does that even mean?"I narrowed my eyes at him.

I was waiting for an explanation, maybe even an apology.

But here he was, yelling at me? "Don’t play dumb, Emma.I know what you did,"

he snickered.

"What?"

"I never saw it coming.I thought you were this pure, innocent angel,"he slurred, pausing for a moment before saying, "But turns out, you're just like everybody else.You're a fiicking whore,"

I was frozen in shock.He called me a what...?

"You got nothing to say?"he taunted.

"You probably did them all; Zach, Ryan, Tyler, and the kid living in your apartment.Well, I, for one, am not gonna stand here and be a hypocrite.I'll admit it, yeah I kissed her.I fiicking did.But so what? What are you gonna do about it?"

His eyes were clouded with anger and pride.

I didn’t know what came over me, but the next thing I knew, my hand flew across his face and connected with his cheek.

*SMACK * I had slapped him across the face.

He looked away for a second, rubbing his chin a little, and then he looked back at me.

His dark eyes pierced heavily into mine like he was about to kill me.

He had never looked at me like this before.

I suddenly got scared and I took a few steps back, but he moved in on me and boxed me in between a wall.

I was trapped between his body and the tall wall behind me.

We were in a smaller street, almost like an alley.

It was raining hard and there was no one else around.

I looked up at him with pleading eyes, hoping he would stop moving, but he never did.

My body was pinned hard against the cold concrete and lan’s hand flew up.

I scrunched my eyes shut in anticipation, knowing I would feel the pain next.

But his hand never landed on me, it stood still in midair.

I opened my eyes to see him stepping back.

My body slumped down a little and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Go.Get the fiick out of here,"

he said through gritted teeth.

"What? You're not gonna hit me?" I taunted.

I probably shouldn't do that, but I was angry too. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I didn’t know why he was mad, he didn't have a reason to bet his mad.

My anger was justified.

I saw him kissing another girl, he admitted to kissing another girl.

What did I do to deserve this?

"Who are you?"

I said, choking back the tears.

"This is not you,"

"This is me!" he growled.

"Now you've seen me for what I am and I've seen you for what you truly are,"

He looked at me with such disdain.It was like he hated me.

"Do you not wanna be with me anymore? Is that what you're trying to say?" I asked cautiously.

He didn’t answer me, but he didn’t have to.That look on his face was loud and clear.

His eyes were cold and flat.

He wouldn't even care if I walk away right now and never come back.

He didn’t love me anymore.

"I...I don’t know what's going on.I...I can't...I can’t do this anymore,"

I was breaking in between sobs.

"Leave then,"

"Is that really what you want?"

"I told you to go a million times already, how many more times do I have to repeat myself?"

That hurt so bad.

He really wanted me gone.

All my doubts and fears were true.lan was cheating on me with Ally.And now he chose her over me.

"I really can't do this anymore, I just can't," I choked.

"Me too,"

"This is it.We're done,"

"Boo fucking hoo!"

I felt like I was crushed into a million pieces.

But he wasn't fazed by it one bit.

I looked at him and I couldn't recognize the person standing in front of me.

For a while, I refused to believe that this was him.

But he said it himself, this is who he is.

This was the real him.

"Don't ever talk to me again,"

I spat finally, glaring daggers at him using all the strength I had left in me.

“Goodbye lan,"

And with that, I turned around and I never looked back.lan never said another word to me either.He simply let me go.Like I didn't mean anything at all.I walked all the way to Grand Central Station on foot and under the rain.

It was a twenty minute walk and I was crying the entire time.I was racking my brain, trying to make sense of it all, but none of this made sense.After almost four years together, one night changed everything...

How could that make sense? He was calling me names.He was yelling at me.He broke my heart right in front of my face.He wasn’t even sorry about it.He really couldn't care less about me.

Was it all because I wanted to go to Paris? No, maybe it was before that.

We’d been drifting apart here and there.

Maybe he realized he never wanted me all along.

He wanted Ally and not me.

Images of lan and Ally kissing, and maybe doing more than that, filled my already heavy head.

I had to stop and held onto a light pole because it was getting hard to stand on my own feet.

Air was escaping my lungs and no matter how hard I try, I couldn't breathe.

It all made sense to me now.

The distance between us made him realize that he didn't love me anymore.

At the end of the day, I wasn't enough for him.

Our love wasn't enough.

How could he do this to me? I broke down in the middle of the street in that dead of night.

The rain continued to pour mercilessly as I continued sobbing into the cold air.

Get it through your thick head, girl! This is the cold, hard truth.

He doesn’t love you any more.

He wants her and you're only in the way.

I didn’t have the strength to stand anymore.

I curled under the rain, on the hard concrete, wishing the earth would swallow me whole.

Everything has an expiration date, and our love was no exception.

As powerful as it may be, like all things in the world, love ends.

And ours ended tonight.