The Heartbreak Factor - Part Four

Sat in Nandos, I sipped my drink through my straw as I sat, staring out the window whilst Chloe ordered our usual. Watching the people dashing past the window as the rain drops trickled down the glass, I seemed to be lost in my own thought. “What’s up, Sam?” Chloe asked me as she sat down on the chair opposite me, placing her glass on the table.

“Nothing,” I lied, escaping my deep trail of thought as I flashed an unconvincing smile to her as she sat looking at me. 

“Stop that,” Chloe laughed. 

“Stop what?” I asked, taking another sip of my drink.

“Stop lying,” she smiled. “We’ve been best-friends since forever. I know you better than anybody else and I know when something is wrong.”

I sighed, knowing she was right. 

“So tell me what’s wrong,” Chloe smiled as she reached her hand across the table to take hold of my arm in a reassuring manner. 

As she held onto my arm, I sat staring at the ring on her finger. “I don’t know why he hasn’t done it yet,” I mumbled to myself. 

“Done what yet?” Chloe asked me, looking at me in confusion. 

“This,” I said, pointing to the ring on her finger. “I mean, he’s said he will but he hasn’t even done it yet. There have been so many perfect opportunities as well but there’s nothing. Doesn’t he love me anymore? Doesn’t he want to marry me anymore? You and Josh got engaged no problem. Why can’t he just do it?”

Chloe looked at me before taking hold of my hand. “Don’t be so silly,” she grinned. “He’s still crazy over you and does a ring on your finger really have to prove how crazy is about you? You can see just by the way he looks at you or the way he is with you that he loves you. A ring doesn’t have to prove that. Does it?”

I shrugged my shoulders. 

“You have the world’s most beautiful baby together,” she smiled. “Doesn’t that prove his love for you?”

I reluctantly nodded, taking hold of my straw with my teeth and biting on it as Chloe continued to look at me, smiling. There was obviously no point in even trying to explain it to Chloe as she didn’t understand – Josh and her were already engaged so she wouldn’t even know what it was like to wait for a proposal. She still hadn’t even convinced me that it didn’t matter if we were married or not; and with the way she was smiling at me, I knew she wasn’t telling me what she really thought. 

“Anyway,” she laughed as she sensed I was getting suspicious with the way she was smiling at me. “You will never guess who’s got fat!”

Pushing the thoughts that had been circulating my mind for the last few weeks, I joined in with her attempt at a gossip session. “Who?” I asked, trying to look interested when I really wasn’t.

“Sarah Barker,” she giggled. 

“Sarah?” I laughed.

Sarah Barker, or ‘Barking Barker’ as seventeen year-old Chloe and I used to refer to her as in secret back in college, was the girl who bullied everyone who she thought she was higher than – so basically, she bullied everyone apart from her ‘gang’. Back in first year of college, Sarah used to make snotty remarks about me and Chloe all the time. They would be comments about our hair, our clothes, even our choice of conversation topics in the college canteen.. absolutely everything. Sarah was one of these primo girls who would have all the boys chasing after he and get all the compliments off the girls, not to mention straight As in all her exams. Apart from the fact she was a complete bitch to everyone, she had the perfect life – both her parents were happily married and she lived in a huge house on the outskirts of York where her room was stocked with all the top designer brands and labels.