In the safety of our room, Sonia gave me a big hug and said, “Now tell me what's wrong, Avril. Because I know something is.” I took a deep breath and sat down in the armchair in the corner of the room.
“My ex-boyfriend. That blonde guy you saw is my ex...I dumped him because my dad asked me to.” I hoped I wouldn't have to explain the whole situation. I had only met Sonia when my tour started, almost a month after the whole ordeal with Deryck, and she therefore knew nothing about it. And it was always so painful to have to talk about it. Just like a bad bruise, it heals eventually, but it will still hurt if you apply pressure.
“Because your dad asked you to? That's the dumbest excuse I've ever heard for a breakup!” exclaimed Sonia.
When I heard that, I just cracked. “Yes, it was a dumb choice!” I wailed. “I know that, and I've been regretting it every fucking day ever since. I'd do anything to take it – and him – back now.” I had thought that I had cried myself dry back in the bathroom at the club, but apparently I hadn't, because I felt a tear roll down my cheek when I blinked.
Not wanting to look at Sonia, I buried my head in my hands again. “I'm s-so stupid,” I sobbed, my shoulders shaking with every breath I took. I was filled with self-loathing right now, and I couldn't help it. “I p-probably don't deserve h-him anyway....”
“You love him, don't you?” asked Sonia. It was a very simple question, but it was one I preferred not to answer. Sonia was my friend, but not at the level where I could spill all my feelings to her. I had known Deryck longer than I had known her.
Being the presumptive type that she is, Sonia took my lack of an answer to mean yes. “How long were you guys together?” Sonia sat in the chair opposite mine and put her hand on my back to comfort me.
I gave a half laugh, half sob at the question. “We dated for three days,” I told her, my voice just dripping with bitterness. Sonia apparently found this a lot funnier than I did, because she had to remove her hand from my back to stifle her giggles.
“Avril, you're still this crazy over a three day relationship? That's ridiculous! You need to move on.”
“I knew you wouldn't understand.” I curled up into a ball and pouted. See, there's a reason I don't open up to people. Nobody ever understands me. Sonia may have been right. It might have been best at that point to just move on. But in my fucked up head, I just couldn't see that. I couldn't see any way to go through the rest of my life content with losing Deryck. I've always been one to put up a fight, especially when it concerns people I care about.
“Avril, I'm sorry,” my friend sighed. “It's just that...well, you're young. You're young even compared to me. You'll find someone else in a few years, I promise. And you might be surprised. You might find somebody who means even more to you, someone you really love. I know that sometimes it feels like someone you can't get over must be someone you love, but it doesn't work that way. You just don't know how it feels to be in love until it happens to you for the first time.” Why do I have to listen to this bullshit from everybody who thinks that they know what's going on inside my head?
Then I said something that would have been better relegated to my thoughts. “Sonia, how the hell would you know? You've never loved a man!” She pursed her lips tightly. As soon as I saw her face, I wanted to take it back. I shouldn't have been probing at her soft point.
“I'm trying to help you, you know. You don't have to be a bitch about it. Do you really think that matters?!” Sonia cried. She had jumped up from her chair and was glaring down at me. I could have sworn that her dark, almond-shaped eyes were glowing with fire, she was so mad. “I've loved women before. I know what it feels like, and I know what it feels like to think you love someone when you don't. You never realize it until that person is long gone.”
“I-I'm sorry,” I squeaked. Having only been friends for a short two and a half months, I had never seen Sonia mad before. She had warned me a few times before that there is only calm and extremely pissed off for her, with no middle ground. I guess I didn't listen closely enough to those warnings.
“I'm sorry, Sonia...I really am. It's none of my business who you love or which gender they are. But if I admit that I have no idea how you feel, you have to accept that you have no idea how I feel. Everyone tells me I don't love Deryck, and I know I do.” Sonia seemed to accept my apology, and she calmed down a little bit. Her eyes returned to their normal, relaxed state.
“What makes you sure of this?” she asked gently. Sonia as my personal shrink was back. She sat back down in the chair next to me, and held my hand.
I had to take a minute to mull over my thoughts. It was so hard to put into words how I felt about Deryck. Even in my own brain, it was hard for me to put together exactly what about him made me tick.
“I guess,” I started slowly, “that I knew it was love at first sight. I know that sounds so dumb, but after the day I met him, I couldn't stop thinking about him. I still can't. It was two months ago that we got together and then broke up, but I still think about him every night. I see him appear in front of me when I close my eyes. And when I'm near him, even if we're not together, or things aren't going great between us, it doesn't matter, because still, no one else matters to me.” I sounded so dumb. I was waxing poetic, and poetic is not a speech pattern I like to use.
“Oh, Avril,” sighed Sonia. “You're really hurting for him, aren't you?” I nodded.
“I hurt every day for him. I want him so badly...and to see him on Valentine's day...I just....”
Sonia reached out and squeezed my shoulder with the hand that wasn't wrapped around mine. “It's okay. I would have run away, too, if it was my ex.”
We both sat in silence for a little while. I needed that. I felt like nobody could give me sound advice, so I just wanted someone who would listen to me. But finally, Sonia did speak up.
“Avril, you obviously want him badly enough for it to be worth trying to get him back. Go apologize to him. Tell him what you told me: that you made a stupid mistake, and you want to take it back. If he feels the same way, then he will take you back.”
“I can't. He...he has another girlfriend now. It's just...over for us.”