Not the girl he knew

Bella.

“You deserve to have a great time Bella, and what better time to celebrate than now?” Audrey, my best friend shrieked excitedly as she led me into the bar.

There was some sort of party going on and she had been invited so she had dragged me along with her.

“You finally got rid of that asshole and your life is finally back on track. We never got to celebrate the divorce back then but we can always do so now,” she added and after that, she ordered shot after shot of vodka.

Things were now so much different then they were six months ago and Audrey was right, I needed to take a step back, catch my breath and celebrate how far I had come.

She made sure I drank so much that I eventually lost my reserved self and even agreed to sing a song at the bar. Audrey had planned the whole thing and the regular me would have been so nervous to do that because I had never sang in front of a crowd before but the alcohol helped with my nerves and I felt so much better when everyone applauded enthusiastically for me at the end of the song.

After all that drinking, I desperately needed to use the bathroom so as soon as I got off stage, I headed towards the restroom.

I was close enough to the door when I noticed there was someone behind me.

I almost screamed when someone grabbed my arm and yanked me back but to my surprise, it wasn’t anything serious, it was Dominic.

After six months, seeing him again at a bar was not what I had planned. Remembering how he had expected me to beg and had treated me so badly because his ex came back, I had no idea how I was supposed to react to seeing him again.

So when he rudely and authoritatively asked me where I had been for the past six months, I ignored the question.

“Let go of me.” I struggled to free my hand from his grip but it was of no use.

“Answer my question Bella, where have you been? I have looked everywhere for you, do you have any idea how uncomfortable it was for me to spend my time looking for you when…”

“Why exactly where you looking for me?” I interjected with an angry voice, “we are divorced, remember? Besides, you told me never to come back and never to reach out.”

“Bella I…”

“Just let go of me Dominic.”

No matter how hard I tried to free myself from him or how loudly I yelled at him to let go, he simply refused to and our little ruckus in front of the bathroom was causing a scene.

The crowd had already noticed us and a bunch of people were already staring in our direction.

Ted and David rushed forward and managed to pull Dominic away from me. I recognized the both of them because they were Dominic’s friends and were mostly around him.

“Woah… woah… let’s all calm down, we don’t need to cause any scene.” David said to Dominic before he turned to me with a surprised expression on his face,

“It’s really you Bella.”

“Oh My God! Its been so long and you sing so well.” Ted joined in.

Dominic opened his mouth to say something in protest when his phone began to vibrate in his hands and he glanced at me briefly as if he was contemplating if he should take the call or not before he answered the phone and stepped away from us a bit.

“Pardon my manners but where have you been? It’s so good to see you again.” Ted sounded a little too excited and even tried to hug me but I stepped away from him.

“Nothing must, just been around. Listen guys, it’s really great to see you all again but I have a friend with me and she will be worried sick by now. We were supposed to be on our way out so I must catch up with her.” I explained to them and didn’t even wait for their response before I began to walk away.

I wanted to get away from them, as fast as I could.

I had barely taken two steps forward when someone called out loudly,

“Stop right there!” Dominic’s voice sounded all around me.

I stopped but not because he asked me to but because I was angry.

He had treated me like I had meant nothing to him, discarded me so easily as soon as his ex lover came back and now, even after everything, he had the audacity to act like he still had some sort of control over me.

I could hear it in his tone, he thought I was the same woman that had lived in his house as his wife and obeyed his every whim, taken care of him like he was her entire world only for him to turn around and stab her in the back.

“You know I actually thought she was different but nope, it’s still the same old Bella, the ever obedient Bella.” I overheard David whisper to Ted and I gritted my teeth angrily.

He was so wrong,

Without a word, I turned around and walked back towards Dominic.

“You still haven’t…”

I didn’t even let him speak neither did I bother to listen to what he had to say before I landed a heavy slap on his right cheek.

His friends and the other people around us gasped in shock after my palm made contact with his face but I didn’t care,

“Are you deaf? I said I am leaving,” I reiterated and the anger that flashed across his eyes as he glared at me should have sent a shiver down my spine but it didn’t because it didn’t matter who he was, what mattered was who I had become-

The one person he never saw coming.