Page 19 of Always There Bayou
I sat down on the bed, my head spinning from all of the different emotions. My stomach flipped, and I was on the verge of letting the tears flow once again. The end of a relationship always hurts like hell, even if you know it was never meant to last.
I’ve never been the type to dwell too long on my emotions because I knew that I was prone to depressive episodes. So, I tended to distract myself with basketball. However, since the season was over, I couldn’t just chill at the practice center. The next best thing would be to hit up the gym. I’d have to do that tomorrow.
“Cory?”
I look up to see Denny standing at the doorway, a concerned look etched across their face. I quickly swiped at the tears that had fallen as my chest tightened. I hated how vulnerable I became around them, and I hated that they had to see this mess that Christie had caused. I hated that they had to experience her harsh words. I hated it all.
“I know you don’t want to hear this,” they say, breaking the silence. “But I’m glad she’s finally gone. I never liked the way shealways treated you. It was…a toxic relationship, and you don’t deserve that.”
“Yeah…” I reply, lying back on the bed. I cover my eyes with my arm and take a deep breath. I could feel the tears threatening to fall again. I hated this shit so much. Why the fuck couldn’t I stop crying? “Fuck!”
“Cory?” they call out to me, but I don’t answer, afraid that my voice will come out shaky and they’ll realize I was crying. I feel their hands on my arm, gently pulling it back. I shake my head, sighing before turning over onto my side and away from them. “Cory, please just look at me.”
“Denny, can you just leave me alone for a while?” I ask, trying my best to keep my voice level. “I just…I want to sleep.”
“No, I can’t leave you alone,” they say, gripping my arm to pull me up. I huff loudly, shaking them away.
“Damn it, Denny, I asked you to leave me the fuck alone!” I yell and they jump back. I sit up, glaring at them. “I just need time to myself, okay? It’s already embarrassing that you had to witness all of that, and that I can’t even…”
I stopped myself from talking before I said too much. My eyes connected with theirs, and my heart dropped at the hurt in them. Instantly, I felt like shit, so I reached out to them, but they backed away from me. I could feel myself internally panicking, and I opened my mouth to apologize, but nothing came out.
I was fuckingeverythingup.
“Denny, I’m…”
“I’m just gonna go,” they say, shaking their head. “You’re right. You need some time alone, and I’m not gonna get in the way of that. I think I’m gonna stay at my aunt and uncle’s house for a while. I need some time alone as well.”
And with that, they turn, exiting the room and then the apartment. I felt my stomach turn as my world crashed around me. I couldn’t do shit right. I’d never yelled at Denny before, so I can only imagine how hurt they were. I wanted to run behind them and apologize, but my body wouldn’t cooperate. Instead, I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes, trying to even out my breathing and lower my heart rate. Within minutes, I was drifting off to sleep.
December 20th, 2024
It had been almost two weeks since Denny and I last talked, and by now, I was convinced that they hated me, but did I blame them? No. They’ve always been nothing but nice and caring to me, yet I treated them the way that I did. I missed my best friend, and I hadn’t been able to sleep peacefully since that night.
“You look like shit,” Cordell says as he enters the kitchen. I ignore him as I try to concentrate on the plastic pieces in front of me. He comes back over and peeks over my shoulder. “What are you building?”
“Ukelele,” I mumble, lost in the calming task of building a Lego set.
Ever since Christie destroyed damn near my whole collection, I’d been using my free time to build new ones. It was also helping me cope with the anxiety and depression that threatened to bubble over. This was a hobby I picked up a few years after my mom passed. My dad recommended that I find something to channel my energy into when I felt overwhelmed, since I had stopped going to therapy after only a couple of months, thanks to my hatred of people being all up in my business.
I happened to see a few videos of people building them, and although it was time-consuming, it felt calming. So, I thought I’d give it a try. It was perfect for keeping me distracted when Denny was busy, but also when I didn’t want to burden them with my mood swings.
“You know, you’ve been over here for a week and I haven’t seen Denny since,” he points out, and I freeze. “Did you guys break up already?”
“We weren’t dating,” I sigh. “I keep telling you this.”
“Yeah, but you want to, don’t you?”
I place the pieces down on the table and turn to look at him. He backs up, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Truthfully, I don’t know what I want,” I admit. “I like them but…it’s just complicated, you know?”
“What’d you do?”
“So, I kind of snapped on them after walking into my wrecked apartment thanks to Christie’s crazy ass,” I said, and his jaw dropped. “Denny didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of my anger, but I was overwhelmed by everything that had happened thatday, and I lost my cool. Now…they won’t even return my calls. It goes straight to voicemail. The texts get read, but there’s never a reply. What do I do?”
“You got a car, don’t you?” He asks nonchalantly. I nod, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. “Then why are you still sitting here sulking? Talk to them! It’s not like you don’t know where they are. Don’t y’all track each other’s every move like stalkers or something?”
“First of all, it’s called sharing our locations. Secondly, I have yours too.”
