Another Chance: The Shattering

Recap: I’m a 21 year-old boy who moved away from my family and friends to live with the girl that I loved. But it turned out that after 3 years, she had been cheating on me, possibly the entire time. In my grief I blindly put faith in a watch that my grandfather had sent to me that he said would turn back time. True to his word, it seemed as though the watch could take me anywhere within my own time line, which I used to try my hand at a relationship with a classmate of mine named Tina.

February 25, 2012:

“‘Cause love’s such an old fashioned word, and love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night, and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves-” My phone pierced the silent blackness of my room which caused me to jump out of bed to shut it off. Even after I had silenced the ring it insistently blinked that there was a new text message from Tina. This was the first that I’d heard from her in what felt like a lifetime, though in reality it had only been a week. I lazily wiped the sleep from my eyes with the side of my first, then flipped open my phone and checked my new message.

“Please open the door.” It read, a simple request, and one that I decided did not require pants to perform.

Stretching my legs actually felt good as I pulled myself to my feet, stepping immediately onto a discarded pair of pants. Instead of putting them, on I kicked them aside, pushing them further into the growing pile of clothes that had started to consume my bedroom floor. I shook my head to clear out any lingering cobwebs, making my way clumsily into the living room. The doorknob twisted and I pulled the door open gracelessly.

“Were you still asleep? You know it’s three in the afternoon, don’t you?” There she was, the woman that I loved, auburn hair resting gracefully on her t-shirt clad shoulders. “No, I didn’t know, I was sleeping. Please shut the door, the light burns my eyes.” Hesitantly she complied, the door shut quietly and Tina fell quietly into step behind me. “Do you want anything to drink?” I asked, looking back casually to see the shadow of my girlfriend standing behind me. “Nope, I’m fine. Some sort of light would be appreciated though.”

The kitchen light turned on for a second was bright, but then it flickered and burnt out, returning the house to its mostly-darkened state. Some light was pouring in from the skylight above the living room, but it rested solely on one of the desk chairs. “I guess there’s no light in the kitchen, try the one out there?” My call was immediately answered by a glaring light flaring into existence behind me. “Have you not cleaned at all since Friday? This place looks like it was hit by a tornado!”

From the kitchen I laughed as I rooted through my refrigerator for anything to eat. “I have not. But in my defense, I’ve either been working or sleeping, so it’s not that I’m not going to clean, more that I just haven’t gotten to it yet.” My voice died down as I reached the end of my sentence, an awkward silence followed which I broke almost immediately, “So, what do you need? I’ve got today and tomorrow off, so I’m up for anything you want to do.” I left the kitchen, my search for food abandoned. When I saw her I could tell that something wasn’t right, she was looking away from me and her expression was far from happy.

“I just thought that we needed to talk a bit, about us.” While I hadn’t had many girlfriends, I could tell that was a bad sign, so I decided to tread carefully. “Sure babe, what do you wanna talk about?” Tina’s hair shined as she turned to face me, the light making it seem redder than it was brown for an instant, “You don’t have to be nervous, I just want to talk.” I knew that I was slightly on edge, but I quickly denied it, “I’m not nervous babe, should I be?” A smile briefly flashed across her face before she answered, “I can tell you’re nervous, you only call me babe when you are.” With a just a hint of anger I retorted, “I told you I’m not nervous ba-” With a sigh I looked down at the floor, “What did you want to talk about?”

Tina sat on one of the two desk chairs, the only one that was clean, before continuing, “I just-” she paused, biting her lower lip subtly, “We’re not working out.” The impact of that sentence hit me like a bus, I was speechless for a few seconds, and after that all I could manage to say was “Why?” She had prepared for this, it showed in her immediately reply, “Because we’re different people. We like different things; I like being outside in the sun, you like your games. I’m not saying I don’t like you, I’m just saying that I don’t think we work as a couple. I know you didn’t see anything wrong with our relationship, but I’m not happy, and I think we should just stop.”

My mind screamed as I fought to hold back the tears I knew were coming, “Tell her that you love her, that you don’t care that you’re different because all you want in life is her! Say something; anything, just don’t let her go!” I looked up from the floor I’d been staring at and smiled as much as I could without looking fake, “Yeah, I get it. I mean, I guess I always knew that we couldn’t keep it going forever.” She stood up and put her arm over my shoulder; the warmth of her gesture hurt a lot more than it helped. “Look, I know it’s tough, but this is for the best, trust me.” I could feel my resolve breaking, and I knew that if this went on any longer then I’d do something that I would regret. “I’m fine, I’ve just-” I paused, trying to think of a way to get out of the situation casually, “I just need to take a shower. If it’s already 3 then I should really get to the grocery store before it closes. Can you lock the door on the way out?”

Tina patted me twice on the back before she took her arm off of me and turned away. Somehow the room seemed to darken as she walked towards the door. She walked out into the morning light, and turned back for just a second with a downfallen expression before she shut the door. I almost broke down right there and then, I wanted to chase after her like in the movies, to grab her and kiss her and tell her that she was everything to me, but I just stood there frozen, staring at the chair where my love had been just moments ago.

On numb legs I stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the shower, I couldn’t care less how hot the water was or wasn’t. I practically fell into the tub, landing heavily on my ass under the spray of water that poured over my skin and carried my tears to the ground with it. Tears came out of me in a steady stream, followed by powerful sobs that caused my body to quake with sadness. I halfheartedly rubbed the soap across my body, what difference did it make if I was clean or not?

The hour that I spent in the shower felt like days, but I finally managed to stop crying and pull myself off the ground. I did need to get groceries, no matter how hopeless life seemed at the moment; and with that thought I dried of with the closest towel I could find. As I rubbed the coarse black fiber against my skin, my mind drifted back to all the times Tina hard rubbed me, using a towel as a flimsy excuse to grab at my manhood, was sex all she had ever liked about me? No, I refused to think that, even for the second that it had crossed my mind the thought stung.

With a sigh I pulled out the only remaining clothes that I had; a dark blue pair of jeans and a light blue Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirt. I also had to clean the laundry, a task I hadn’t even thought of until just then. All the more reason to go to the grocery store, I thought, knowing that I’d also need detergent to wash the clothes. My boots were buried under a heap of clothes next to the door to my room, I had replaced the damaged shoelaces, but the shoes themselves were still coming apart at the seams. Finally I donned my black Venom hoodie and walked out the door, hoping that life could take my mind off Tina.

My black Chrysler lay dormant in the driveway where I had left it the night before. As I leaned back into the leather seats, I could smell her sweet perfume in the car, as if she’d upturned a bottle of it in the passenger seat just to torment me. With the smell of spring flowers filling my nose, I turned the key in the ignition and sped off down the street. “Warn your warmth to turn away. Here it’s December, every day!” I sang along with the music, but it didn’t cheer me up at all.

Within minutes I was parked outside of the grocery store where I used to work, silently asking myself whether or not I really wanted to go in or not. Sighing, I opened the door and stepped out into the dull, lifeless afternoon, my feet dragging behind me as I stepped through the automatic doors and pulled out a shopping cart. Almost immediately I heard a voice behind me, “Hey there, long time no see!”

I knew before I turned around that it was Christina, of all the people that I didn’t want to see right then, it had to be my ex-girlfriend Christina. She had certainly changed since I’d seen her last, her clothes hung off her shoulders like hand-me-downs and her pants were only held in place by a tight belt, which made them look even more outrageously big on her. Her glasses were scratched horrendously, and I briefly wondered how she could see through them at all, especially because they were held together in the middle with duct tape.

“There was a reason for that.” I coldly replied, taking my cart from the group and walking off into the store. “Don’t be like that,” she called, running up behind me, “can’t you at least pretend to be a civilized human being?” My response was a glare so cold that it could have flash-frozen a volcano. “Fine, sheesh.” I heard her take a step away before turning back and arguing, “You know, at least I’m nice to all the people I fuck.” An angry snarl escaped me and I spun back towards her with surprising speed, “That’s it, you and I are not friends you don’t just walk up to me and act like everything’s cool. And if you listen to anything, listen to this: if I see you ever again, I will be the last thing you ever see. Do you understand?”

She was as pale as a ghost, and her mouth silently opened and closed as she tried to re-discover words. Everyone in the supermarket was staring with shocked expressions, all eyes on me. Leaving my cart in the center of the aisle, I stormed out of the building, leaving all the judgmental eyes behind me. I fell into my car seat and furiously twisted the key in the ignition. The entire ride home was made in silence, my thoughts were racing by so quickly I couldn’t hold onto a single one as I made my way back to my apartment.

Slamming the door, I stomped my way up the stairs and shoved the front door open with so much force that the hinges nearly broke off of it. There she sat, my Tina, idly spinning in one of the desk chairs that I left sitting in the living room. As I walked in, she stood up, quickly speaking, “Look, I’m sorry about this morning, I didn’t mean to sound so final about it. I just think-” She never got to finish her sentence, my arms wrapped around her and my mouth crushed itself into hers. To her credit, she resisted a bit at first, but then melted into my embrace, giving in willfully to each movement of my lips on hers.

Deftly I swept her feet out from under her, holding her in my arms the way a husband carries his bride. My tongue invaded her mouth and she reluctantly met it with her own, gently playing with it like she used to. Tina’s arms wrapped themselves around my neck, a sign that she knew what was happening, and trusted me. Step by step I made our way to the bedroom, Tina actively participating in each rough, lustful kiss. We reached the bed just as she was starting to get restless, pulling at the buttons on her jeans in a futile attempt to remove them.

I dropped her on the bed and immediately climbed on top of her, dropping my head so that I could bite at the base of her neck. Her hands were already tearing at the zipper to my jeans, sliding it down with surprising ease as she fished in my pants for my erect cock. Without a word I broke away from her and peeled her jeans off her roughly; with a little help from her they were on the floor in seconds, leaving her bald, wet pussy exposed to the open air. She smelled like desire, and I could tell by the look on her face that she wanted me.

My dick pulsed as I leaned back down to kiss Tina, who hungrily kissed back and humped up at me to show her readiness. There was no foreplay, no teasing, no love as my 5-inch penis plunged into Tina’s tight little cunt; immediately I began to ram my member in and out of her each thrust added more momentum to the next. She screamed loudly, her nails digging into my shoulder blades but she still fucked back into me, trying to force me deeper into her pussy. The room was still, the only sounds that could be heard were Tina’s moans and the slapping of our groins as I pounded in and out of her relentlessly.

She slowly slid her hands down my back, finding their way to my ass; using this position as leverage, she pulled me into her harder than before, causing her to groan in approval. I watched her writhe beneath me, her face betraying the pain that she felt, but she never asked me to stop. Without breaking flow I pulled her t-shirt over her bra-covered breasts, revealing more of her smooth pale skin. Slowing my pace only slightly I tore the bra off of her, the snap in the front making an abnormal cracking noise as it broke open; with her breasts in the open now I firmly planted my right hand on the bed and used my left to grope her. If this bothered her at all, it didn’t show; in fact, her pussy seemed to tighten around me.

Without warning her entire body tensed up, and I could feel her vaginal muscles squeezing my member as hard as they could. Taking that as my cue, I railed Tina for all I was worth, sending her body into a shuddering orgasm that seemed to go on forever. Pleased with my work, I took one of her nipples into my mouth, running my tongue along the edge of her tiny areola while I pushed myself further into the depths of her vagina. A sudden gasp drew my attention, and I looked released her nipple to look up at Tina’s face. For just and instant our eyes met, and in hers I could see the beginning of tears; I lost it in that moment, my dick started to spew hot semen into her. Pulse after pulse ran through me, stopping at about five, and then our stare broke, and I was back on Earth.

I was lying on top of the girl that I loved, the girl that did not love me back, and I could feel the lump forming in my chest again. My limp cock slid out of her as I stood up, pulling up the zipper on my jeans; she didn’t move to stop me as I left the room, and not a word was said between the two of us. My footsteps seemed to echo as I crossed the living room, shoving the front door closed as I passed; it felt like I was back at the supermarket, with all those people silently passing judgment on my actions. Supermarket, Christina, she filled my thoughts like a radio hit single; clearly she was to blame for all of this.

The bathroom was pitch black, and I had no intention of lighting it as I reached beneath the sink, groping for an old watch that I had hidden there months ago. After a few seconds of blind searching, my hand wrapped around something solid and smooth; pulling it out confirmed my suspicions, I had indeed found my grandfathers time-traveling watch. I flicked the light switch in the bathroom so I could see the dials better; the small bronze watch was exactly how I remembered it: The small black hands stood resolute while a thin piece of metal ticked away with the passing of each second.

After admiring it for just a moment, I pulled out the tiny round stopper and twisted it back several times, causing the numbers representing days to flip back rapidly. Back to a time where I could hurt Christina the most, before I had given up my life for her. As I pushed the stopper back into the watch, I turned around for one last look at Tina before I vanished.

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