Over the past fourteen days, Rosaline had merely been going through the motions of life, without actually feeling as if she was living. She woke up each morning, got dressed for work, pasted on a bright smile for her students and came home feeling utterly and completely desolate. She thought that perhaps overtime she would have adjusted to these bereft feelings, however, it seemed as though as more time passed, her loss and woe only grew exponentially. For that very reason, she grew angrier by the day, wishing there was a way to stop herself from feeling trapped and almost responsible for her own blubbery tears and sadness. She even stupidly began to wonder if maybe she hadn't waited as long as she did to be intimate with Erik, then she wouldn't have found herself in such a painful position as she now did.

The truth was, ever since Rosaline's birthday party had imploded with unexpected lies and secrets, she hadn't been in the best frame of mind. Most days, she resembled a walking, lifeless fragment of a naive girl who was spending too much time torturing herself with the gory details that occurred that fateful day. She hadn't tried to move on from what had happened either, nor had she tried to forget about Erik. Every time she even thought about him, a multitude of emotions stirred within her. Some memories were lovingly beautiful whilst others were dreadfully horrid. She hadn't anticipated that their relationship ever would have ended in the way it seemingly did, which begged the question, how did she even know it was over?

For the sole purpose of seeking closure and of course, in the hopes of gaining some peace of mind, Rosaline knew that she would inevitably need to speak with Erik and end their relationship in person. Although a large part of her believed that she didn't owe him anything, she had enough self respect to want to terminate things between them indefinitely in a civil environment. Of course, knowing she had to take this begrudging step in an attempt to move forward with her life and actually having built up enough nerve to take the initiative to reach out to him, were two very different things. Rosaline knew that she wasn't emotionally prepared to face the consequence of either outcome. On one hand, she would set herself free from Erik, but all at the cost of losing him forever. Meanwhile, the longer she delayed their unavoidable reunion, the harder it would be to put the past behind her and restore her fragile heart and mind.

It was the second Sunday afternoon, since the blowup of her birthday party and Rosaline found herself continuing to wallow in her own unhappiness. She had always considered herself to be a sensitive and sentimental person, which was why she wasn't too surprised to be experiencing this level of grief. Whenever she pondered over her relationship with Erik, she became affected to the point where she was verging on the cusp of experiencing a panic attack. Her tears and emotional turmoil would cause her breathing to accelerate at an abnormal rate, making the repercussions of her breakup far more profound than what was considered to be normal, given the fact it was now impacting her health. Rosaline's mother must her sensed her daughter's suffering from afar and thus proceeded to make her way towards her bedroom, knock on the door and enter inside.

"Rosaline, you must stop this stupid behaviour at once, can't you see what you're doing to yourself?" Challenged Iris, whilst moving to sit beside her daughter on the bed.

"What do you mean?" Rosaline weakly protested.

"When you're not at work you're cooped up here feeling sorry for yourself. I hope you're able see now how bad of an influence Erik really was. Exposing himself the way he did on your birthday was the best thing that could have happened, if I'm being perfectly honest." Iris remarked.

"If you're merely going to remind me of all my wrongdoings during my relationship with him, I'd rather you left me alone." Rosaline numbly retorted.

"I just want you to be able to see what your father, brothers and I have been telling you all along. That this relationship of yours was bound to end one way or another. It was never destined to last Rosaline and as your mother, I'm just relieved it's ended now, rather than later down the road when you could have potentially invested more into him and that farce of a relationship." Iris rudely quipped.

"More than loving him, you mean?" Rosaline quietly retaliated, with a sorrowful expression.

"That's exactly right. If anything, you should consider yourself grateful that you managed to escape the poisonous control he had over you." Iris dramatically declared, as she continued to lecture Rosaline on her blindsided feelings for Erik.

During this time, Rosaline sat listening to her mother feeling torn between two opposing directions. Although she couldn't help but want to dismiss her harsh accusations and put up a stronger fight for what she believed to be true, her mother had pointed out some valid reasons as to why her relationship with Erik was rather damaging. Still, the way in which her mother was speaking to her made her feel as if she was a measly young girl, who didn't know the difference between right and wrong. It was quite obvious that Rosaline had limited experience with relationships, but she still thought her current behaviours and feelings were perfectly acceptable. After all, wouldn't have any other normal woman in her shoes reacted the same way if she saw her boyfriend kissing another woman, was who supposedly meant to be her friend? With these thoughts in mind and those her mother had recently engrained into her, Rosaline felt purely exhausted by the time the late afternoon had come around. She was just preparing to leave the confines of her bed and enjoy a warm bath when a vibrating noise came from across the bedroom. Sitting on top of her dresser was her mobile phone. This would be the first time in two weeks that someone was trying to contact her. Given the fact that she hadn't heard from Erik in exactly that time frame, she wondered if maybe he was trying to reach out to her. With tentative steps, Rosaline walked anxiously across the carpet until the vibrating noise had stopped, indicating that whomever had called was no longer on the receiving end. With a heavy heart, Rosaline finally took the courage to grasp her phone in her hand and read the name of the person who had in fact dialled her number. Upon seeing Erik's name illuminate across her screen, a fresh set of salty tears instantly begun to well up in her puffy, bloodshot eyes.