Part Seven
I went home. I never saw Rob again. The lawyer served Rob the papers. We hired a lawyer. Rob changed his mind. Rob agreed to sign something. Rob didn’t want to sign anything. They discussed logistics. Matthew and Rob talked. Rob returned Matthew’s call. Rob wouldn’t return my calls. He wanted more than his share of the company. We talked on the phone. He didn’t hug me goodbye. We left. He didn’t buy me a beer. We went to dinner. Rob quit the company.
Part Six
I hate frats. The whole right side of my body was black and blue. I woke up not being able to move. I went to bed early. Okay, maybe one beer. I didn’t drink. We went to a party. My body started to hurt. Rob, Ben, and I went to the bar. We only won two thousand dollars. I competed in an entrepreneurship competition that morning. He said, I hear you have some battle stories. Dad texted me. I asked Matthew to tell dad. I woke up and cried to Matthew. I told him my baby died. I slept for two hours. We went back to my apartment. It was just a sprain, though the colors behind my skin disagreed. We waited in the hospital for three hours. My pinky was twice the size it normally was. We went to the hospital. We got to Rob’s house. We pushed the broken Ducati a mile. It had no handlebars, a cracked frame, and locks that wouldn’t release. He helped me push my bike back to his house. Rob came. Are you fucking kidding me? I said. They asked if I wanted them to call 911. I was shaking. A boy hugged me, asking me if I was okay. I stood up. I was on the pavement. Did I launch over the vehicle? I didn’t understand how my body didn’t splat into their window. They turned into my lane and the front of my Ducati crushed like a tin can. Technically, I hit them. It was a Rubicon, packed tight with frat boys. I was riding my Ducati. I just wanted to get home. I was tired. It was 4/20 — may that speak for itself. Between the Thursday and Friday someone hit me.
Part Five
Ben gave me a can of mace. I just wanted to be safe again. Marcella made sure we would be safe. She called David, her brother. Marcella’s brother is a cop. I was so scared. He was so scared. Daniel left too — for Ben’s sake. He left me. Ben got scared. They didn’t want me to be alone, walk alone, breathe alone. Ben and Daniel, my coworkers did too. Marcella, my sister, came down to Salisbury and spent the weekend with me. Kyle wanted to kill me. I woke up to a text message. I went to bed. I ate the sushi anyways. I think he thought sushi would persuade me to stay with him. It came to my door. Kyle ordered me sushi. We all became calm. Matthew told me what to say. I called Matthew. Kyle told me he was going to kill himself. My heart jumped out of my skin and with its bloody hands, choked me. I drove home from my last meeting. Then he hung up. Then Kyle started crying. Then Kyle was not okay with it. Kyle was okay with it. I broke up with Kyle. I wanted to eat sushi after. I scheduled it into my calendar the night before. It was between meetings. He was on the toilet taking a shit. I did it over the phone. His name was Kyle. I broke up with my boyfriend. I stayed with him. My dog didn’t like him. My parents didn’t like him. My roommates didn’t like him. When he said I love you, I’d say likewise because I didn’t know how not to. He was a grenade. I was dried glue. His cousin committed suicide. His sister was murdered. His best friend jumped off the side of a cruise ship. By other people, I mean my roommates and friends. He cried when I spoke to other people. I didn’t drink much. I only liked him when I was drunk. I was bored. I was stuck in a mediocre relationship.
Part Four
I fell for that moment. He kissed me. I smiled. I woke up to a glimmer of his tattoos peeking through his Lilo and Stitch onesie. We fell asleep. We shared a jug of water to come back to life. Kyle and I talked on the living room floor for five hours. Jimmy let me be. I ran outside with Kyle. He apologized, didn’t know it was occupied. Kyle came into the room. I told him I wasn’t tired. He told me to go to bed. He picked me up and dragged me to my room. Jimmy found me curled around a toilet. I puked. Kyle was smoking a jay. I was smoking a victory cigar, passing it along to the team. I met Kyle through a flame. I drank until my world spun. He screamed bloody murder and hung on tight. I drove. He held a flashlight behind me. Rob and I took a dirt bike through the fields at night. I pushed Rob down a hill in a tractor tire. We won ten thousand dollars in a business competition.
Part Three
In one moment, I may have lost the person I was supposed to be with for the rest of my life. I wasn’t sure if it was the right one. I made a rash decision. Josh dropped out of college, by choice not intellect, and we weren’t in close proximity anymore. No one knew but us and we were okay with that. I snuck in through windows and left early in the morning. Our relationship became complicated when others walked in and out of both of our rooms. Then we moved into apartments. Like that. You know one of those best friends where you don’t need to talk every day, but only when something serious happens? And suddenly he was my best friend again (with strange benefits). Then I told him I loved him. He cried and I refused to look at him. I broke up with him in an elevator as I finally caught him in lie. Then he was nothing. We went to college and he lived two floors away from me. Then he was my boyfriend. Then he was my partner. Josh was my best friend. What is a cigarette without its flame? Josh was a flame and I was his cigarette. He used to ride my bus home in ninth grade. He walked me home and then walked seven houses down the street to his home. He was my first kiss in seventh grade. I met him in fourth grade. I am convinced Josh and I are soulmates in that cheesy-romantic-fated kind of way.
Part Two
Despite the differences, Marcella and I didn’t function well without each other, making it necessary to be within close distance. In third grade, we would take two different paths of life, and we could see the divide. Austin made string rings for the both of us. Austin was his name. We shared our first boyfriend in second grade. Some say we were tomboys. My neighborhood was filled with little boys, and then there was Marcella and I. I would call her Fish and she would call me Pish. Her mom died in high school and then she basically lived with us. I met my best friend and eventual sister, Marcella, in first grade. My parents were strange, and my brother was irrational, but eventually I got used to it. I was raised in a town with nothing to do but everyone to do nothing with. I was born the 24th of January in 1996 with some fat-ass cheeks.
Part One
