Chapter 4- Sapphire

I awoke to the sound of my phone buzzing on my bedside table. I groaned, morning already? I reached out for my phone and grabbed it off the table. A text from Charity.

Hey babe. What are you doing today? Wanna grab a bite to eat? Jacob might be coming ;) xx

I rolled my eyes; she was still trying to hook us up. Didn’t she get the hint that I didn’t like him? And didn’t she understand that I still wasn’t over…Liam. I squeezed my eyes shut. I winced then, memories of him always hurt. Whenever I saw him in magazines or newspapers I immediately left the store. I couldn’t handle it. Not just yet. Even though ‘yet’ had lasted 5 months. I got out of bed in a hurry and tripped over my shoes. I really needed to clean my room. I quickly got dressed and ran for the kitchen. I texted Charity and said I would be there in twenty, the usual place. I quickly made toast and sat down at the counter. I scrolled through my phone endlessly; I had nothing else to do. I opened notes on my IPhone. Wow, I had some pointless ones in here. One of the notes had ‘Liam’ as a title. I furrowed my brow and opened it up. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. He wrote something here before he broke up with me.

Hey Beautiful. I hope you find this some day soon. I just wanted to let you know that I love you even though now we aren’t together. I really, truly do. I didn’t want to end it, I’m so sorry that I did though. I won’t ever forget you. You stole my heart the first time I ever met you. You’re my one and only. Liam- xx

I replayed the memory in my head; Liam wrote something on my phone, I just didn’t really notice it. How could I not? It had been 5 months, how did I not look at my notes and notice it. Tears sprung to my eyes and I let them fall freely. Liam, why did you leave me? Why did you write me this message? You said you didn’t want to end it, but you did. My heart felt as if it was slowly ripping itself to pieces once more. The tears kept flowing and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. How could my heart take so much pain? As if he hadn’t caused me enough grief. I sat at the table for ages staring at the clock. I was frozen. I couldn’t move. Why did he write this? I didn’t understand. If he broke up with me obviously he didn’t love me anymore, right? I remembered that he had told me he loved me, for the first time actually, just before he broke up with me. I sat there, the tears continuously streamed down my cheeks. My thoughts were a mess, I couldn’t think straight. My head was full of questions and none of them seemed to be getting answered. It wasn’t like I could text him now and ask. I could never speak to him again. He had probably moved on by now and was probably dating someone. I remembered the hate I got when people started really liking One Direction. I wasn’t fussed; they all just really loved Liam and knowing that he was there to hold me every night made it better. But I had let him go. I let him walk through that door. I had even asked him to leave. I closed the door on him and made sure he left. I wanted him gone, I couldn’t handle it and now I would do anything to take that moment back. Maybe if I made sure he stayed it would be different now. My phone vibrated in my hand, I looked down and saw a text from Charity.

Babe, we have been waiting for 30 minutes, where are you? Xx

I texted her back quickly saying that I would be there in a few. I couldn’t sit around here and wait. Liam wasn’t coming back. He was a mistake. I couldn’t let him break my heart again and he would never get the chance to. I hated that Liam still meant something to me. I wanted him to mean nothing to me, but it almost made me sick for him not to exist in my life. The thing I didn’t understand was why? Why can’t I forget him? I let him leave but he never left my heart. I wiped the tears away from my eyes. I had to think logically, I should be over Liam by now, 5 months was a long time. Liam probably found a girl, more beautiful, with a better personality, just better in general. He realized that he could do so much better than a girl like me.

Since we broke up, my days had become routine but I never seemed to become any better. Every time things started to look up, something reminded me of him and the life I had before. I seemed to be sucked down deeper into oblivion every time a thought of him popped into my head. I hid my IPhone under the cushions of my couch, so I wouldn’t be tempted to read the note over and over. I grabbed a handful of tissues on the way to the bathroom and prepared for the worst.

-

When I finally reached the coffee shop I had managed to make myself look like I had before I found the note. Charity and Jacob were sitting there chatting as usual. Charity and Jacob sat casually next to each other, they were best friends. I strolled over to them and tried to look normal. This was going to be hard, Charity knew me too well and she would probably be able to sense something was up.

“Hey guys.” I said, trying to stop my voice from quivering.

“Hey!” Charity said, standing up and pulling me into a tight hug. Jacob stood up too and wrapped an arm awkwardly around my shoulder, giving it a squeeze and kissing my cheek.

“How are you?” he asked me, his tone softening.

“I’m fine.” I said with a tight-lipped smile. “You?” I pulled the chair out from under the table and sat down. Jacob was already happily chatting away about how great he was. Charity was looking so intensely at Jacob she didn’t notice me at all.

-

The bright morning sun was shining through café windows. I loved working here. The architecture of the building was amazing. I guess it wasn’t really morning; it was 11 AM but anyway. The café was unusually busy today. Buzz. Another text from Charity, she had been texting me all morning asking if Jacob texted me. I didn’t know what was up with her and Jacob at the moment but I wasn’t sure if it was good. Our little catch up yesterday had consisted of Charity staring deeply into Jacob’s eyes and him blathering on about God-knows-what. Oh great, a whole bunch of tourists just walked in. I went over and told them to wait. I couldn’t find the menus. Shoot, where had they gone? I was pretty sure I hadn’t given them all out. I overheard the two girls in the group talking; they both seemed around 15 years old.

“No, Gabriella, One Direction are here in London today.” A girl who seemed a little annoyed at her friend said. I immediately stiffened at hearing ‘One Direction’. I couldn’t serve them, not if they kept talking about it. Maybe I could ask some else to take over.

“I swear they came yesterday!” the one, supposedly named Gabriella, argued.

“No, they didn’t. I checked on Tumblr and Twitter.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“We’ll see, M-J, we’ll see.” Gabriella said.

“No, I know they arrived today and I know they should be staying for a week or so.” M-J said.

“Maybe we can finally see them!” Gabriella said, jumping up and down excitedly. I tuned out for the rest of the conversation and focused on finding those menus. One Direction in London for a week. Kill me now. First of all, this café was going to be super busy for the time One Direction stayed here and second of all, Liam was in the same place as me. No. I didn’t think I could handle this. Finally I grabbed the menus and lead the tourists to their table. This place was really filling up. I walked back over to the line waiting for tables; three people were waiting dressed rather strangely. I ignored their gasps when they saw me. I had no idea what that was about. I grabbed their menus and walked them over to another table. Finally another girl took over seating and I was left to take orders and serve customers. The only problem with that was my section included the tourists and those guys that dressed funny. I knew it wasn’t only me who thought they looked weird, the little girls looked at them occasionally too. I walked over to take their orders.

“Hi, I’ll be your waitress today. What would you guys like?” I asked kindly.

“Um, I would like a Coca-Cola,” a low-pitched English accent said, “and these two would both like water.”

“Anything else?” I said smiling. Once more I heard the guy that ordered gasp. Why was he doing that? It was so weird. He recovered the shocked look on his face quickly.

“Uh, yes, some barbeque chips please.” I looked at him for a moment; he seemed familiar.

“Okay, I will be back soon.” I smiled again and turned to leave when a cool hand gripped my wrist. It sent shivers down my spine. “Yes?” Once again he seemed lost for words, what is it about this guy? I just couldn’t place him.

“Could we have ice?”