Him

                I didn’t know what we were all doing there. To be honest it didn’t really occur to me that much. But they were all there, all my friends, every friend I had ever had. All from my present and past lives; I don’t mean ‘past lives’ as in the sense of re-incarnation, just the many lives I’ve already lived in this one.

We were all in the restaurant that I manage, the owner was there too. My brothers were there, although I could only see one of them, I just knew they were both there.

                The restaurant felt more like a school canteen, everyone was just walking around. There were a few people sat in the chairs at tables, but it was noisy in there, there was no concentration.

I can’t remember what came over me; I just walked out the door. That was when I saw her.

She was with her daughter. I didn’t know them; I’ve never met them or seen them before. It’s funny how someone you don’t know can have such an impact on your life.

                “I know who you are!” I said angrily. “Is he here with you?”

                “Don’t talk to me, I don’t know what you’re talking about” She retorted.

This cut through me, hurt me more than she could ever know.

                I went over to the bar, my brother was there.

                “That’s her.” I told him. He told me he didn’t care. This confused me, I could never understand this.

That’s when the owner walked over to her. How could I have not known? Everything he ever does infuriates me. Of course he knew her. With big exaggerated hugs and cheek kissing. I wanted to cry.

                As I tried to ignore all this, that’s when it happened. I saw the door open, and he walked in. I started to shake.

                “That’s him!”

                “We going to jump him then?” Asked my brother.

                “What? No!” I said this to him aggressively, aiming it to the wrong person.

My brother casually said his goodbyes, picked up his bag and walked out the fire exit.  I felt alone.

My girlfriend appeared.     “We should leave to. I don’t want you be near him.”

She started to walk towards the fire exit. I decided to leave via the front exit, that way I would have to walk past him. I could look him in the eye and leave with my head held high. I am a man!

                As I walked past him, I made eye contact just as I had promised myself. But I couldn’t hide the hurt and felt ashamed. I instantly looked away.

As I got outside I could see the sun going down over the water, but it was still bright out. I walked toward the stairs. I stopped, rooted around in my bag for my sun glasses. Taking my time, because what I really wanted, was for him to come out and say something to me.

                I placed my sun glasses over my face. I took one last look round before I walked down the stairs.

I saw the door open. As he walked toward me I was scared of what he would say. I had never felt so lonely.  I wanted my brother to be there still, so we could jump him. 

                I never did find out what he was going to say.