One Bye One

Prologue

"I don't know how you can live a life like this, and in your future you're going to regret it most." Bri told me as we were sipping on our chai teas in the old cafe in our town.

We lived in a small town Jenixa, Oklahoma. The old cafe, Expresso, was an old favorite of mine. It was an awesome place to relax, study, and talk.

"Look, I'm not asking you to understand what I'm doing, but I want you to simply trust me." I replied.

I looked at her in curiosity. Her brown hair nestled on her neckline and her hazel eyes were diverting my gaze. She was confused just as I was, but I knew I had evidence for this argument. She was perplexed, and to an extent I was too, but I wasn't going to back down.

"I just don't want you to get hurt. What your doing is a coping mechanism that you learned somehow through junior high, but you've changed into something evil. There has to be a better way to go about this." She said icily.

I paused, and thought about what she said. It brought me to memory lane, it brought me to junior high.

"Look at that faggot!"

"He sure ain't straight!"

"Hey stupid! Watch where you're going."

"Why do you act so gay?"

I hated when my mind would voluntarily show me these desperate times. All I simply wanted to do was to forget that junior high even happened, but it would never let me do so.

"Earth to Jensen!"

I snapped back into Expresso and noticed Bri's confused look.

"Sorry, please don't bring up junior high again, or my coping mechanisms."

"Sorry, what just happened?"

"What do you think? Every time a person mentions junior high, depression, coping skills, or any of that, I just shut down. I become vulnerable."

She gave me a worried expression. An expression that I had seen too many times. I hated it.

"Stop that, I'm fine." I said assertively.

"No, no you aren't. I see that hesitation between your memories and then your speech afterwards. What happened? You need to talk to someone."

At this point she had angered me, because all I simply wanted to do was to drop it.

"I think we're done here. Good-bye."

As soon as I said that she almost choked on her tea as she watched me leave the cafe.

Inside I felt great. I felt like I finally learned my strength, my assertiveness, I felt powerful to an extent.

As I walked to the door, I turned around and smiled a quick fake smile, making sure she would never bring this up again, or else.