"Out of clutter, find simplicity.
From discord, find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty,
lies opportunity."

- Albert Einstein

Recap ::
Eloine finds out that Andrew, her ex-boyfriend,
was actually cheating on her with Stacey.
Later Cyan consoles her when she starts crying.

C H A P T E R 1 0 | Through His Words

A lot of things in this world comes unexpected; cheating being one of them. It shatters your walls, makes you question everything and everyone around you on different levels.

But learning how your boyfriend had been cheating on you while you were still dating him- well, the word 'unexpected' cannot really define the depth of it. Not only does it demand you to question the meanings of relationships, trust, etc, but it makes you question yourself too. Like I was doing at the moment.

At least five minutes had gone by as Cyan held me tight in his arms, and I cried. He didn't say much all this time; something I was actually thankful for. It gave me time to wind things up in my mind.

There were a lot of things I could do: demand a justification from Stacey, call and scream at Andrew for being the greatest mistake of my life, or yell and blame God for every wrong thing that had ever happened to me-which were many, actually.

However, despite considering these wide range of possibilities, I knew that screaming or demanding explanations weren't gonna change the facts. It was not gonna fix the situation. So what was the point?

"Feeling better?" Cyan asked after a while, when I had finally stopped crying. His hands touched my cheeks lightly, and I could feel something warm inside of me.

"Yes, I guess." I replied, looking down at our feet. Then my eyes fell upon the newspaper art I was holding, the one Cyan was trying to hide from me a few minutes ago. My hands were clasping the paper so tightly that it kind of had gotten scrunched.

"Oh damn, I ruined it," I said in a small voice, dreading how he might react.

"Don't worry, it's cool." He took it from me lightly, observing the damage. "Come, let's sit."

The garden was not very clean. Apart from the unwanted plants and weeds, it was mostly dusty. Once we took a seat at a rather cleaner part of the garden, he started talking again.

"Eloine, I don't know what it is, and I don't wanna know if you don't wanna say, but just know that I'll be here if you need to talk to someone."

I looked up at his face. He was not particularly showing any emotion, in fact he wasn't even looking at me. But I could tell from his voice that he was trying to mean much more than he was showing.

"Thanks," I muttered, a little surprised by his words. "Are you generally this nice and caring to people?" I couldn't help but ask; no one had ever bothered to care about me so much. And to think, I had only been friends with him for a few weeks.

"Why, is that wrong?" He raised a brow.

"No, just saying." I shrugged. "I really appreciate everything and all, but you know, I find it really overwhelming," I confessed honestly.

He smiled at this and shifted his weight towards me. "You're literally the only one I talk to and who genuinely considers me a friend. So I really feel I should make it up to you for that whenever I can. Do you need more reasons than that?"

A strange sensation filled my insides. I had just lost the only two people I clung to in life, but here was this boy- comforting me, caring for me, and acknowledging me as his 'only friend'.

"It's..it's just a little overwhelming, you know." I pointed out. "Here I just found out that my ex-boyfriend was actually cheating on me with Stacey- my 'almost best-friend' while we were still dating and here you are- being so nice and caring to me."

Fresh tears started filling my eyes again, when I felt Cyan's arm on my shoulder. He then gently wiped the tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Don't let a single teardrop fall," he whispered. "He's not worth it."

My insides ached. "But it hurts, Cyan. It hurts so much to know he was nothing but a liar all along when I trusted him so blindly. It just hurts."

"Ssh.." He pulled me towards his chest again. "It was always part of the deal that pain would be there in life, Eloine. It'd hurt; but just like happiness, it won't stay forever. You can be stronger than this."

"I just wish I hadn't been so stupid for all this time, you know. Like, up until now, it won't strike me even during my worst nightmare that either of these people were capable of cheating." I blurted out in a thick voice. "But here I am experiencing something way worse than a nightmare."

We both stayed silent for a while. I was glad how he was not rushing me to talk when I didn't want to. He was like this, I had learned. He'd not make you feel unimportant but wouldn't really force you on anything either. So unlike Stacey; who was always on the extremes. She either forced you on things she wanted you to do or she didn't care about you at all.

"I wonder why he bothered to stay with me if he didn't love me anymore. I wonder why I'm never good enough for anyone. Maybe, I'm not capable of being loved."

"It's not true, Eloine." He put his hands over mine. "It's just that no one in this world does justice to love. No one values love for what it really is. It isn't really your fault."

His attention was no more on me, but it was neither on the dead plants he was looking at. He looked lost. By now I had concluded that he had a tendency of getting lost from the world he belonged to very often. He made me want to lose myself as well.

"So you're saying you don't believe in love, then?"

He took time to answer back. "No, not that. Love is beautiful. But it leaves too many casualties behind."

"Don't you ever wanna fall in love?" I asked curiously.

He shrugged inattentively. "Falling in love is something different. You can't control that. But it's that the more I see people like you break and burn because of love everyday, the more it makes me surer of the irrelevance of relationships. Every relation in this world gets irrelevant at some point or the other."

Irrelevance. When Andrew and I had broken up before the end of Junior Year, it too was solely because we had come to the conclusion that we weren't working out. That the relation was becoming irrelevant. That there were too many opponents against the two of us.

Our relationship was the hottest topic in school when we were together. Mostly because everyone was betting about how soon we'd break up. He was the hot, popular football player; and I was well, me. No way we could last even for six months, everyone was sure.

But for a whole year we were very much in love, or at least so I thought till now. You see, Andrew had never ever made me feel anything less than special. Not for a single day did he make me feel like we couldn't last or that he wasn't satisfied with it.

Whenever I'd complain about how someone at the hallway had passed a nasty remark about us, he'd say, "But I do love you, Eloine. Is that not enough?"

How I had wished it were enough. But to face people sneering and insulting me everyday was becoming an endless torture. People coming up to me just to inform how Cyan didn't deserve a 'stupid bitch' like me wouldn't stop. To top it all was my dad.

From the beginning, my dad hated the guts of Drew, just like all other decisions I took in life. He complained about the way he clothed, the way he laughed out loud every now and then, how he could never bring me back before the deadline during our dates.

To dad he was nothing but a 'rich, spoiled lad'. It was okay if he was just being the protective dad of the 90's movies. But it was like he too had teamed up with my classmates on a mission to separate us.

So one fine day, I felt all this needed to be over. Partly I was ready; but another part of me still wanted Andrew to stop me. To hug me like before and say he wasn't gonna listen to anyone's bullshit, and that he'd stay with me no matter what.

But when I texted him that day, all he could reply back was, 'okay, then let us break up'.

Now I understood why he agreed to break up the moment I raised the subject. Maybe he was wanting to break up with me for long. Maybe he was looking for just such an opportunity.

I smiled at the irony. Maybe he had been cheating for a long time and sweet-talking to me so I wouldn't suspect.

Maybe Cyan was right. All relations were irrelevant in some way or the other. "But how can you proclaim that no relationship in this world has been right or relevant?" I still couldn't help but ask.

"I'm not in a position to proclaim or anything," he lifted his hands in mock surrender."But I've seen my dad, my mom, you and so many others, you know. It's a mystery to me how someone can be so much in love with a person at one moment and claiming they mean nothing to them the next. We don't know how to value love, Eloine."

I stared at him wide eyed. It was as if he was talking about me and Andrew. But he had no way of knowing about us. Then I realized he was probably talking about his parents. And he looked slightly disturbed as well.

His eyebrows were scrunched, and he was fidgeting with the newspaper art beside him. When my eyes fell upon the paper, I took it from him once again. "So how about this girl in this picture? Yet another casualty, huh?" I asked, smirking playfully.

"Oh, give it back." His cheeks were slightly pink. Why was he blushing, I couldn't understand. Was he not aware how great his paintings and arts really were?

"Ah, no way. You gotta tell me about this casualty." I giggled. "You said you don't believe in love. So you'd say she's a muse or something deep like that?"

"I never said that." His blush grew darker.

I giggled again. And with that playful giggle, I felt as if the rock inside my chest turned lighter. Sometimes some people really have the power to make you feel good even when you feel you've no one left in life.

"God, Cyan, two minutes ago you were talking like you are hundred years older than your age, and now you are blushing like a typical cute school boy."

He tried to snatch the paper back from me again, but of course I didn't let him. The paper had scrunched a little thanks to my tight clasp on it earlier. I flattened it with my hands. The sketch was no doubt beautiful. But then I looked closer.

The girl in the sketch looked a lot like....me.

******

So..I know it's been forever. I'm sorry guys, I had my semester exams. And it didn't help that being the procrastinator that I am, I had to complete the entire syllabus during exams.

Anyways, thoughts on this chapter? I know it was a lot boring, but you got some 'Elyan' moments at least.

However, if you enjoyed it, please do vote, comment, and share. Follow me for more updates.

Also, you can now connect with me on Twitter! My Twitter handle is @Deekshadreamz10. I'd love to find new friends on Twitter (:

P.s. Some people really do have the power to make us feel good. You too were one of them. Once.