Chapter I

On the phone with Dylan, her eyes widened.

"A-are you breaking up with me?" she tried to project her voice as much as she could, but the lump in her throat limited her in doing so - at least in speaking clearly.

The silence on the other end lasted for a good few seconds before his answer was finally heard. "Yes...".

His reply hurt more than she expected it to. It sent a punch right through her heart, but it caused her stomach to turn.

Despite what she felt, she swallowed whatever was in her mouth before asking, "W-why are you breaking up with me?". She took in a deep breath. "Did I do something wrong?". Along with the pain in her throat, a few tears managed to break the barrier and roll down her cheeks.

"No..." Dylan began. "It's... it's nothing got to do with you.".

"Then why?". Her voice quivered. "Why are you breaking up with me?".

A silent sigh was heard from the other end. "L-look... many, many kilometres separate both you and me. I don't see how we will work out...".

"But you said we will make it work!". Briella was all too overwhelmed with her emotions to realise that she raised her voice. She was forced to feel the lump in her throat only grow in pain.

"How was I to know how everything would turn out, huh!? I didn't know how it would feel to be at such a great distance from you. I have never been in a long-distance relationship. It irritates me as to how you could be so naive and gullible to believe that something like us would have even survived...". Briella's eyes widen at his words. In all their months together, Dylan never said anything that came as close to being as foul as this. It only caused more and more tears to flow down her face.

'H-he didn't say that... he couldn't have said that... is this all a nightmare?' Briella thought to herself.

"L-look... I am sorry... I really am," Dylan spoke.

"You are sorry?". It was almost as if Briella laughed at his words. She mocked them. "You lied to me! You said how we will try, the both of us, to make it work out!". It was those words that caused her lump to hurt more than it ever did, in turn, it forced her to pause for a second or two. "I believed you...".

Silence followed.

"Well..." Dylan began. "That's on you. Not me...". Briella couldn't believe the words she just heard.

She was about to say something when a foreign was heard in the back. "Babe, come on, we are going to be la-". A pause. "Oh, are you talking to someone?".

Another sigh was let out by Dylan. "I have to go now. Again, I am sorry... I hope life treats you well...".

Before Briella could have even thought of a reply, Dylan hung up.

His voice was to be replaced with a beep or two before her home screen lights up. Not knowing any better, she kept her phone by her ear. She was trying to digest what just happened.

But the more she tried to make sense of it all and accept the reality of the situation, the more surreal it all became.

'A nightmare! This is all just a nasty nightmare, right??? All I have to do is wake up. Wake up, turn on my phone and look at the home screen.'. It was only then that she lowered her phone from her ear.

She looked down at her phone, at the picture of them both... somewhat happy. They may have been somewhat happy, but at least back then... they were still together.

More tears swell in Briella's eyes before they all flow down her face, a few dropping onto her phone.

She kept her eyes on the picture of them both, it all began to become blurry from the accumulation of all the tears in her eyes. Then, without her will, Dylan's words began to come back to her. The reason why she placed that exact picture as her screen saver. '...that way, whenever you feel in doubt, you can look at the two of us, happy...'.

"Happy?" She asks herself. "Is this what you call 'happy'?".

'We will have another moment just like this when I come back...'.

"Now... now I know that you never will come back to me...". From there, she closed her eyes, allowing a few more tears down her face.

"Please let all of this be a nightmare..." she whispered under her breath before taking a pillow of hers into her embrace. But despite her wish, and despite her not being able to comprehend what just happened, Briella knew all too well that this was real...

She dug her head into the pillow that's in her hands. It was then that she finally lets out all the emotions that have built up in her in a form of helpless, painful, lonely sobs.

She cursed her mind as it instantly rewinded memories of them both before he went off to university. All the memories were recapitulated just like a movie. The one and only premier that showed their last month together, their last week together, their last day, all the way to the last hour they spent together.

She got reminded of how that embrace at the airport felt before he let her go. Thinking back over it now, no wonder why it felt like it was their very last one.

All of these painfully-precious only caused more tears to rush out of her eyes as her painful sobs remained in their place between the four walls of her room. The heartbreak began to spread like a wildfire and it had no intention of stopping any time soon.

The words of irony that were once words of promise break her even further.

For the first time ever since she let out her avalanche of emotions, Briella turned her head and looked down at her floor. Everything was blurry from the number of tears still present in her eyes.

She swallowed whatever was in her mouth before muttering under her breath...

"You said... and you lied...".