BETH:

I thought I was going to start the day completely normal. But tell me why I woke up to workers moving in furniture to the building across from mine?

"What in the world is going on?" I grumbled as I forced myself out of the bed which I found difficult to sleep on the night before. Apt, I even slept alone without Troy beside me.

I stepped out of the apartment to take a look at the activities going on outside only to see that there was a moving company doing their job to the apartment across mine that had been vacant for some time after the last couple moved out.

I was going to step back inside and act like it didn't mean a thing until I saw Troy standing there. And to my surprise, he was there with Ariana, his arm over her shoulder as they both stood there inspecting what the workers were doing.

Comprehending the situation didn't seem too difficult because I saw Troy directing the workers on what to do. That was one area he liked to focus his strength on as he always stated that everything needed to be just right.

I wanted to head back inside and pretend like none of that was happening but it was too late because Ariana caught sight of me. She suddenly waved to me and it made Troy look up. He sure didn't look any pleased to see me.

"Hi, Beth," Ariana said after she crossed the road to come see me.

"Uhm, hi," I managed to say in return. It was really forced because I was in no mood to actually have a conversation with her if that was what she wanted.

"We are going to be neighbors now. Isn't that great?" She declared out of excitement but it didn't do anything to make me okay to see her. And to know that she was this close was going to be even a bigger problem for me.

"That's nice," I said.

"Troy is such a nice guy. He bought this place for me when I kept complaining about nightmares. Now that I'm closer to you guys, it's going to feel safer for me."

The more she spoke, the more the thought of ripping her head out of her body invaded my mind. I was finding it hard to gauge the level of dislike I had for her at this point and I only wished she would leave my front.

I nodded as if I understood her and then turned around to leave. The instant I did that, I heard a loud thud that actually forced me to look back at Ariana only to see that she was sitting on the ground like she had a fall.

I noticed the twist in her face that suggested she actually fell but how come? How did that happen?

Troy was suddenly running toward us looking all furious. He wasn't actually running as if he wanted to come to see me. He was running down because of Ariana.

"What did you do to her?" Troy barked at me firstly as he bent to help Ariana up from the ground.

I was confused. Did he just ask me what I did to her? Like he was really insinuating that I was the one who caused her fall?

I found myself completely speechless as I stood there transfixed on the spot. Nothing was making sense at the moment to me and I could not even bring myself to understand it.

"Don't blame her, Troy. It's all my fault," Ariana said to him after but it only increased my confusion further.

"Apologize to her this instant!" Troy told me, pointing a finger at me.

"For what?" I had to ask.

"Stop being so petty, Beth. Apologize for what you did."

It was there that I got a hang of the situation and even myself.

"Why the hell would I apologize for something I didn't do?" I asked, my anger laced with a bit of anger.

"Please, don't fight her because of me. I wasn't standing properly," Ariana used her oh-so-sweet voice to try to calm him down and it was actually making me mad because it was more like she was attempting to manipulate the whole situation.

"I never knew you were like this," Troy started to say, his eyes boring into me. "You are a vicious human being. You know what Ariana is going through yet you always find a way to make her feel like she is less important. You need to fix up."

Those words actually hurt me even though I acted like I cared less about what he was saying. Why would Troy say such a thing to me? I was supposed to be his girlfriend yet he was talking to me like I worth nothing in his eyes.

"Let's get you to a hospital," Troy said to Ariana and then carried her on his back.

I watched as he took her to the car we both owned and then drove off. It wasn't a good way to start the day.

BETH:

My sleep has been a mess for quite some time now. By now, I would think it get better but it hasn't. Troy only made it worse for me and I knew I had to go for a checkup before it gets to a point where I can't control what happens to my sleep.

I landed in the hospital an hour after the little incident that I cannot even make sense of as much as I would like to. But I wasn't going to let that overshadow my train of thoughts.

The heavens didn't seem to get my plan because why did I see the Ariana and Troy walking into the elevator as I approached it?

I wanted to turn back but I knew I couldn't risk it. Especially not with the way I was feeling. So I joined them and we got into the elevator without me saying a word to acknowledge them.

Out of nowhere, Troy asked me, "Are you sick?"

Without looking at him, I answered: "Just a bit of insomnia worrying me."

"Hmph. Remind me to get you something later. It might help reduce the lack of sleep you're experiencing," he said.

That sounded like the old him that was always thoughtful. It didn't move me however but it was nice to know that he still had a little bit of nice in him.

I think he was going to utter another word but Ariana suddenly whimpered like she was in pain which caused him to shift his attention to her. She couldn't even stand not being the center of it all for a few seconds and so had to force it back.

The elevator kept going up... Until it didn't.

The suddenness that came with a loud bang affected me. But what was worse was the lights that went out with it.

I was claustrophobic. And my fear kicked in the moment the lights went out. I had to crouch down in fear just so I could at least get a hold of myself as my panic made me start to shake terribly.

I was having a difficult time here. Why did the lights have to go out in this situation? Why did the elevator stop working? My mind is a mess right now and I hoped it would get sorted.

My palms were sweaty and damp as I held them together. I needed comfort but I couldn't even get one.

"Beth? Beth? Are you okay? Talk to me." I guess Troy didn't forget about my fear.

My response came out forced. "Y– Yes."

"Breathe with me. Close your eyes. It's going to be alright," he said, saying the same words that he said to me the last time something of such occurrence happened in the past.

I still remember when it happened. I didn't know how to react at that time so I found myself crying terribly. I was in a worse condition than this but guess who came through for me? Of course, Troy.

He had come down to my level at that time and embraced like I was the only thing in the world that mattered. At least that was how I had felt at that time. But now, he couldn't even offer to do such to me because of the woman beside him.

"Hold on, Ariana. Let me help Beth. She's scared of the dark," I heard Troy say to the woman beside him.

"But I'm scared too!" Ariana protested.

And that was what he needed to completely ignore me while I battled my worst fear. The longer it took for me in here, the worse I became. My condition wasn't something I could handle alone. It has never been.

"T– Troy," I whispered his name, hoping he would have a little sympathy and just help me out.

That little hope was shattered as instant as it came as he said, "Ariana needs me."

Tears slipped down my cheeks as I continued my long battle alone. I buried my head in my arms and it actually made it better for me just by a tiny bit.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lights eventually came back on and the elevator started moving again. I didn't stand up from the position I was in until the elevator reached the final destination.

Immediately, I wiped the bead of tears that had fallen from eyes and then stood upright. I was still in shock from everything that I found myself staggering as I began to walk.

"You don't even care about me, do you?" I managed to say to Troy, my voice exuding the hurt I was feeling. I didn't wait for a response from him before I continued to walk away.

I still had an appointment to meet up with and would have to deal with any other thing later.

BETH:

"I'm home," Troy announced from the living room but I wasn't going to even give him an ounce of acknowledgement. Why was he trying to get my attention when he always sneaked into the house however he liked?

I stayed in my room while going through the picture that my mother sent to me. It was a picture of a wedding gown which had the caption: 'Do you like it?'. I haven't even reached home yet and my mother was already planning the whole event for me.

"Beth? Can you come down for a minute?" Troy called from the living room. I would ignore but it seemed he had something important to speak to me about for him to call me like that.

I walked to see him holding a bouquet of lavender. He also had with a bag of takeout. What was this? A peace offering?

"Here's for the insomnia. It should make you feel better," he said as he handed over the plant to me. I collected it while hesitating. "And this too," he said, handing the takeout to me as well.

I opened it to see that it was a box of seafood which actually made me shocked because he knew I was allergic to that.

"You know I can't eat this, right?" I said, my brows raised at him.

"My bad. I completely forgot," he said, scratching his head.

It was ridiculous to think that he would even try to give it to me when I was clearly not used to taking something like this. I guess he has really fallen out of love with me and was just tolerating my presence in his life.

He didn't need to worry for too long. I was going to leave soon and he could have his 'sister' alone to himself. I don't have the strength to be fighting for a lost cause and I wasn't even planning to do that in the first place.

But then I remembered something.

"What are your plans for tomorrow?" I asked him.

"Uhm, nothing really."

"Good," I said. "Tomorrow's your birthday. Come down from work early. I'm going to make you dinner."

As half decent of a cook I was, I wanted to cook him a meal to celebrate his birthday because I felt like it would be nice to at least spend a little time with him despite the obvious falling out we were having.

I knew he wasn't going to be so excited about that but then he nodded after a few seconds to regard my proposal.

It took a lot of strength to get me to start cooking the meal the next evening. I could tell that cooking was not my specialty and would never be but I just wanted to get something right for once. Maybe I would figure a way to understand why Troy was focusing more on the other woman.

No matter what I did, the food didn't taste any good. I got fed up a some point and just decided that it was okay to be served.

I kept my eyes on the time. Troy should be back from work by now but there was no sight of him till now.

He never showed up no matter how much I waited. Not even a text or a call to let me know his schedule.

I wanted to cry because this was not my expertise but I still cooked him a meal. Showing up would at least appreciate the effort I put into what I did.

I decided to put a call through to him and he picked up on the second ring.

"Are you coming home or not?" I asked.

"I can't," he responded swiftly. "I had to get Ariana to the hospital. She had a nasty cut."

So he was close by before and didn't even bother to check in with me. For heaven's sake, Ariana's new apartment was just right across the other street, one which he even paid for with his own money, but he still couldn't do the reasonable thing.

I was fed up at that point. Something told me he was lying so I hung up the call and went on IG to check the update on Ariana from my burner account after she blocked my main one.

On the burner account, I figured out that Troy was lying. At the moment, he was on a date with Ariana to most likely celebrate his birthday. They looked so happy together and it made me wonder what I did wrong.

"Enough is enough," I said to myself as I stood up from the chair. I carried the meal I had prepared and thrashed everything into the waste bin. It was going to waste anyway.

Over three years of commitment in this relationship and this is what I get from him. I don't deserve this. And truly, he doesn't deserve me.