Almost Lover
Oneshot
Lovina threw yet another photograph of her and Antonio. The bastard had never loved her. And why would he? She was fiery tempered, and not all that pretty. She had a mouth that could cuss out a sailor, and never said anything of adoration like other girls to their boyfriends. In fact, she almost always denied that they were even dating. Still, she had actually loved him with all her heart.
Looks like she hadn't been obvious enough.
At first, she had thought that Antonio was crazy about her. He had acted as though he had even since they first met, five years ago. Actually, he had probably been crazy about her. But she had ruined that.
Lovina sighed as she chucked the glossy photograph into a garbage bag that was slowly becoming full. She wanted to erase all signs of him and the love they had shared.
You fucking tomato bastard… She thought, as she choked up a bit.
The photograph she had just thrown away was one of her favorites. It was one of them sitting at the beach. They had been all alone that summer night, sitting on the soft sand. Antonio had his arm slung across her shoulders, long fingers gently touching her skin. The leaves on the palm trees behind them danced around in the cool, summer breeze. His tanned face had his soft, easy smile that she secretly loved. Lovina was blushing bright red, and was making a half-hearted effort to push the Spanish man away. He had just replied with a quick peck to her rapidly reddening cheek.
That night, they had gone home together. They had sat together on her large bed, with him softly singing a Spanish lullaby he told her his mother had sung to him. His sparkling green eyes held a sort of sweet sadness to them. She could still picture those emerald green eyes.
His beautiful green eyes…
She had been truly happy that night, falling asleep in her love's arms. She remembered waking up the next day with him beside her, still asleep. She had stayed in bed just a little longer, just to feel him breath slowly next to her.
That night, it had seemed that they would be in love forever, and get married someday.
Lovina scoffed now. It was just a clever trick played by the bastard. A clever trick among many. He was just trying to get… who he truly loved jealous.
How could Lovina not have seen that he was in love with someone else? How was she so oblivious as to think that all those calls to his "madre" was really to… someone else? Someone he loved… that wasn't her?
Lovina remembered all those days he had spent at her house after he came home from work. She remembered how she had always pretended how she was unhappy with him, and constantly called him a "tomato bastard". She had never wished for him to be unhappy. She truly wanted him to be happy.
She chucked another picture of them into the bag.
In this one, they were at a tomato farm, and she, being the impatient person she was, had already bitten into a raw tomato without paying for it. The red juice was dribbling down her pointed chin, and she was desperately trying not to let anyone see. Unfortunately for her, Antonio had his new camera out and had already snapped a shot of her licking the juice off her fingers.
Lovina chucked. She was so mortified that day, but that smile on Antonio's face had made everything seem alright.
She also remembered that she had slapped him right after he had taken the picture, acting as though she were enraged. He had seemed so hurt, but she acted as though she couldn't care less.
Actually, she had never wanted to slap him, but her nature of denying everything was almost instinctive.
Since he had recovered from the blow easily and was smiling again soon, she had assumed that he didn't mind.
Lovina didn't know that every slap, punch, and insult she had thrown at him had added to his mounting dislike for her.
She still remembered that day when Antonio left. He had smiled at her so tenderly, she had thought that he was joking. When he opened his lips to say something, she had thought that he was going to say that he was just joking, everything was fine between them.
She hadn't expected him to say "good-bye".
He had then walked out of her house, and out to the street. A woman was waiting there. He had taken the other woman's hand and they had walked away together, as though he hadn't just broken Lovina's heart.
Angry tears now flooded down her face like a waterfall. She raised a slender hand to wipe them away, but they kept coming down. Lovina squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that would curb the liquid coming out. It helped, but her brown eyes burned. She hissed a bit, then sniffled, before going back to her task of throwing out any photos that had Antonio in them or were taken by him.
Good-bye, Lovina thought.
Good-bye to all of her hopeless dreams. They would never have gotten married. Antonio never was serious. Good-bye to her luckless romance. She should have known that he would bring her heartache in the end.
After all,
Almost lovers always do.
Lovina mindlessly thew photo after photo into the bag. She noticed that all of them were from one night. She closed her slightly wet eyes, as she remembered what had happened.
Antonio had taken her to a street fair that day. She had protested, but he had insisted, saying that he had already bought the tickets. When she asked why he had bought the tickets first, he said that a friend had given it to him.
He said that he wanted her to meet that friend.
In the end, she had given in, and went with him.
The street fair wasn't all that bad. There were street artists that would paint your portrait for you if you paid them. There were musicians everywhere, and would play a small dance tune for you if paid them a sum of money.
Antonio had walked up to a hearty looking man with an accordion and gave him five dollars. He had asked the man to play "Bella Notte" for him and his "little tomato". When Lovina had heard that, she had punched him in the back.
Somehow, Antonio had convinced her to dance with him. She was a horrible dancer, shuffling about awkwardly while Antonio led her with the grace of an experienced dancer. After a while, she had finally gotten the hang of it, and stopped looking like a goose trying to do ballet.
Antonio had teased her about her inability to coordinate her hands with her feet, and she had punched him, then had whined that she wasn't her little sister, Feliciana.
He had then leaned down to kiss her, mumbling to her that he couldn't care less.
After all, she looked "cute" when she tried to dance.
When she caught the word "tried", she had exploded again.
Right when she was about to attack Antonio, a woman's voice interrupted them.
"Antonio? Is that you and… Lovina?" Lovina had turned around to face who the intruder was. She came face to face with a pretty woman with short blond hair that had a ribbon in it. Her large green eyes shone like Antonio's, and her lips were pulled into a funny cat-like smile.
"Ah, Bella!" Antonio had seemed genuinely happy to see the woman.
"Lovi, I'd like to introduce you to Bella. She was the one that gave us tickets." Antonio gestured from Bella to Lovina.
"It's great to finally meet you, Lovina! Antonio talks a lot about you." The woman truly seemed happy to meet Lovina. Lovina was slightly suspicious of her, but after seeing Antonio to happy, she decided to be nice to the woman. After all, she didn't seem like much of a threat.
"It's great to meet you too." Lovina cursed herself at how cheesy that sounded. She probably sounded like a jealous girlfriend. She could feel her face burning red.
"Aw, Lovina, you're so cute! Your face is turning all red!" Bella laughed a bit, but it wasn't much of a mean laugh. It was as though she truly thought Lovina was cute.
"She is, isn't she?"
Lovina felt her face burning even redder than before. It felt strangely good though, when Antonio agreed that she was cute. She quite like the feeling.
"Oh, Antonio, you're making her face burn up even more! Stop doing that, you're making her look uncomfortable!" Bella scolded Antonio a bit. Lovina decided then that she liked Bella. She didn't seem like one to steal her boyfriend. In fact, she looked as though she liked them together.
Lovina chuckled bitterly to herself. Oh how ignorant she was…
Bella was truly a good person, but she still couldn't stop herself from loving Antonio. In the end, she had seized the opportunity to take him for herself.
Lovina didn't really blame her. After all, Bella had never done anything to actively try to make Antonio leave her.
At least, that's what Lovina told herself to stop herself from going to Bella's house with a chainsaw.
Lovina sighed. Had she really made it that easy for Antonio to walk right out of her life?
She supposed so. After all, hadn't she been the one who was always complaining about how she wanted him gone? Well, now he was truly gone, and she was heartbroken.
But I suppose it's my fault, for letting you walk right in and out of my life.
Lovina dumped the last of the pictures into the bag. If was completely full, and hard to carry. Lovina smiled at all the memories the pictures held. She would be glad to get rid of all of them.
Lovina hefted the full bag out of her living room where she was, and out the front door. She tied a tight knot to the bag, then plopped to bag next to her garbage can. The garbage man would be here to pick it up in a few days.
She smiled as she walked back to her house. As she closed the door, she closed her eyes also. Lovina would finally be rid of all those bittersweet memories…
Lovina looked out of the window of her living room.
She saw the bulging black bag sitting next to her driveway, next to her dark green garbage can.
She could now say good-bye to all of her bittersweet memories. Good-bye to all of her hopeless dreams.
I'm really trying not to think about you… but… you just won't let me be!
Fresh tears made their way down her cheeks. Who'd known that Antonio would cause her such heartache!
But, she supposed… almost lovers always do.
Author's note: This is just a random song!fic to 'Almost Lover' by a Fine Frenzy. I wrote it while half asleep, so it's definitely not very well written. Please review! Also, disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia or any of it's characters.