Hell. That's the first word that came to my mind after waking up. Last night, due to certain circumstances, I drank a lot more than I can handle and that's why every part of my body was hurting a lot. The worst was my head that felt like someone was pounding it with a hammer again and again.

Although my body was rejecting the idea of getting up, I dragged myself to the kitchen to make a strong cup of coffee for me. But my mood worsened when my eyes fell on the sitting figure of Ryan on the lounge of the living room.

In the kitchen, Dad was making French toasts. He stopped when he noticed the scowl on my face and put the batter away. "What happened?"

"Why is he still here? Ask him to book a hotel and get the hell out of this house." I muttered as lowly as possible.

"Aaron!" he chided. "It's been so long. He has been staying away for the last six years, just because you didn't want him around you. He hasn't visited us for two years, just because you didn't want to see him. Can't you just move on?"

"He didn't steal my toys or hide my notebook Dad. He ran away with my wife. My wife, on our wedding night, for God's sake." this time, I didn't try to stifle my voice. I made sure he heard me.

Dad's eyes switched between us, helplessness covering his face. "He got what he deserved Aaron. He did a huge mistake but he got screwed over too. The same woman cheated on him with someone else. Isn't this punishment enough?" Dad whispered, motioning me to lower my voice.

"No. Not in this lifetime." I walked away without drinking the coffee. Within half an hour, I got dressed and left for office, not bothering to talk to either one of them.

In the office, I had to bear Clara's presence for almost one hour in a meeting. I was already enraged and then she added fuel to the fire by saying some shitty things about forgiveness and second chances.

Why am I supposed to give second chance to those two people who made me question my existence the first time?

In the heat of emotions, I misbehaved with her and now sitting in front of my desk and pondering over the situation, I was kind of regretting it. Sure I hated her but there is one thing I'd never approved, and that is disrespecting a woman.

I couldn't even concentrate on my work because of her. Even though she was the reason of my first mental break down, her tears didn't give me the happiness they should. Instead, the sight was just causing me more anxiety.

After contemplating for so many hours, it was about 4pm when I finally stood up and made my way to her office. Knocking on the door, I went inside and her eyes widened when she saw me. Now that I noticed, the area under her eyes was slightly red, like she had rubbed it again and again.

"Y.. Yes?" she asked, standing immediately.

"I..." I was about to say sorry when Amber called her inside her room through the intercom. Excusing herself, she asked me to wait while she talked to her.

Once she left her office, I seated myself on the revolving chair and looked around. The place smelled like her, fruity and feminine. Just like all the clothes she left behind, which I had to burn in the end.

As my eyes landed on her computer laptop screen, I regretted the decision of coming here. A video maker was opened on the browser and a slideshow of few pictures was running.

I stared at each picture one by one, my blood boiling with every passing second. These were the pictures of the same man, the one who picked her up last night and some stupid lovey-dovey captions were written on each one of the pictures.

One of the captions specifically caught my attention that was 'Best fiancé ever'.

But I never saw her wear a ring before.

Of course. She hated ring. That's why.

Just like Ryan said, once she finds someone smarter, richer, more handsome than the previous man, she just moves on. That's what she did with me, that's what she did with Ryan and that's exactly what she would do with Mr. Best-Fiancé-ever.

Not wanting to see her cheating face anymore, I stood up and just left the room.

...

For the second night in the row, I was binge drinking. I couldn't even count how many glasses I have had. The reason of drinking was simple, I just wanted to stop this crushing feeling erupting inside my chest. I feared if I didn't drink enough to disable me from walking, I would do something crazy.

"Not again." I heard Crystal's groan and before I know, she snatched the glass off my hands.

"Fuck, Crystal." I shouted at her.

"Pass." she rolled her eyes and sit in front of me, cross-legged. I was resting my back on the headboard of the bed, my legs dangling weirdly from the bed. She was wearing a black lace dress, that only means she was at some club or a party which she had to leave because Dad must have informed her about my state.

"Get out. I'm exhausted." I scowled at her.

"You aren't exhausted idiot. You're drunk." she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. For the first time in almost ever, my eyes flickered to her chest that was accentuated by the position of her arms.

No, it's not me. It's the alcohol talking.

"Just tell me what happened?" she asked, scooting closer to me. The alcohol was messing with my mind, suggesting something, anything that would take my mind off Clara.

"Clara happened." I slurred, telling her what I saw on her laptop. At first, her big, grey eyes widened with surprise, then disappointment coated her pale face.

"I really thought she had changed." Crystal added, lowering her gaze to the ground. She was beautiful, really beautiful, which would make anyone wonder why she was friends with someone like me. And not the shallow kind of beauty like Clara. She had a heart of gold and she stood by me, at my worst and at my best.

"Well, she hadn't." I said and closed my eyes. After a while, I felt her hands around my shoulder as she enveloped me into a hug.

No. This is not good.

"I'm so sorry Aaron." she patted my back, making small circles with her hands. I crouched forwards and tightened my arms around me.

We sat like that for God knows how long. My arms around her had now shifted slightly lower, encircling her waist and pulling her closer. Slowly, she parted from me, her eyes lingering on my face and an inexplicable emotion written all over her face.

"Aaron!" she whispered but before she could say anymore, I kissed her. Not a peck that we had done many times before, a full fledge, heated kiss which ended with my tongue inside her mouth.

"We shouldn't... We.." her incomplete sentences reached my ears but I was too drunk to understand any of them.

With passing moments, her tongue started to move too and the kiss became more urgent. It would have been so awkward if I was not drunk to oblivion because honestly, I never saw Crystal in a womanish kind of way. Its weird to explain this but for me, she was not a female, she was just Crystal. My best friend, Crystal, the one I was undressing right now. That's the last memory I have of that night.

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