After My Boyfriend's Childhood Sweetheart Provoked Me1
My boyfriend's childhood sweetheart cosplayed as Jesus, accepting my sincere prayer for a whole hour.
After the laughter revealed the joke, she clutched her stomach and collapsed into my boyfriend Sergio Smith's arms, while his group of rowdy friends rushed out to join the chaos.
I lowered my gaze, watching the statue I had painstakingly brought being tossed around and kicked on the ground, feeling numb.
Seeing Sergio in the crowd, laughing loudly, I felt a wave of pity.
What Sergio did not know was that the one truly afflicted was him.
Day and night, I prayed to Jesus, hoping he could live a little longer.
***
This was the fifth year of my relationship with Sergio.
Two months ago, Sergio was diagnosed with late-stage cancer.
To help him maintain an optimistic attitude in battling the illness, I deliberately hid this from him.
I lied and said I was sick, asking him to accompany me to the hospital for check-ups and to exercise and keep a healthy routine together.
At first, Sergio was happy to do these things with me.
However, once his friends learned that he was spending every day doing this with me, he started to change.
"Sergio, don't you get bored of eating plain food with your girlfriend every day?"
"Exactly, it's understandable that she's sick, but she can't force you to do this every day."
"I think Sergio is doing just fine. Who gets sick and expects their boyfriend to accompany them for every blood test? As a girl, I think she's being a bit too dramatic."
"And because of her, Sergio hasn't hung out with us in a long time."
"Before even getting married, she's already controlling him like this. If they marry, will she have him tied to her waist every day?"
Perhaps even Sergio himself had forgotten that I was in their friend group.
His friends did not like me much, and I didn't like them either, so I rarely spoke up in the group.
Over time, everyone forgot about my existence.
The one accusing me of being too controlling and dramatic was Sergio's childhood sweetheart, Kirsten Myers.
From the first time I met her, Kirsten didn't like me at all; her words dripped with hostility.
However, I brushed it off, thinking it was our first meeting and Sergio was standing up for me the whole time.
I was not surprised that Kirsten would speak ill of me.
I didn't care how Sergio's friends viewed me.