Evie - [wlw]

twenty-three

* this whole album has my heart & soul
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evie
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The long hallway led to multiple corridors and doors that seemed too personal to invade.

Somehow I found my way out to the back and kept myself hidden in the shadows. Away from the small groups of people who were also outside. I continued to walk at a rushed pace until I reached a flowerbed that laid near a decorated pond.

I dropped to the ground next to the planted dahlias. My dress bunching up beneath me and rubbing into the dirt once I caught my weight by the palms of my hands on the grass.

Sobbing with my head hanging low between my arms.

The truth was out and it lingered in the air for everyone to hear. Most of the people around me are strangers I'd never see again but, it still bothered me that they knew everything that happened to me. No matter whose mouth they heard it from.

I wasn't angry at Valentina for confronting Baylor the way she did. But I was a bit hurt that it had been done in this environment. I just needed to sit with my feelings for a while.

It was why I immediately cried and ran off.

I sobbed some more in the comfort of being alone. But my body suddenly shivered and I felt a familiar feeling rack through my body.

I stood quickly and rushed towards a secluded bush. Spilling the contents of my stomach into it. Champagne and vegan crab cakes that left a terrible after taste.

My hand rested against the wall that was behind the bush. It helped me keep my balance until I could stand upright again without heaving back over the grass.

"Here, you look like you could use this." A feminine voice said from behind me.

I cringed and turned around shivering from the cold wind to see Selah of all people, standing on the sidewalk with a small but kind smile.

She held out a glass of ice water to me and I cautiously took it. Then I turned back around to rinse my mouth multiple times before drinking the rest of the cool water.

When I was done I set the glass down on the edge of the concrete stairs that was next to me.

I felt Selah's eyes on me as I walked away from her wiping my tears from my cheeks, and over to the bench that sat angled towards the pond.

I sat with a huff. Most of the fluffiness from my dress took up the extra room for someone else to sit down next to me.

A few seconds into me staring lifelessly at the water that reflected a few of the string lights nearby. I heard the click of heels come closer and then stop over my shoulder.

"Can I sit with you?" Selah asked.

For some reason my eyes welled up with tears at the sound of her voice.

I think it's because for a while I had pictured her being the woman I was cheated on with. Although I knew that wasn't true now, it was hard to immediately remove those images of her and Valentina together from my mind.

"I guess." I croaked out. I wanted to know why she was the one to come and find me.

The beautiful brunette sat down on the other end of the bench. Managing to squeeze her way in and face the pond along with me.

For a minute or two we sat in silence as others laughed in the distance with their colleagues and friends. Enjoying their night and unaware of the two unexpected women who sat together a mere feet away from them.

"I'm Selah, by the way." The brunette with brown eyes turned her head and extended her hand to me. I looked back at her with puffy eyes and then down to her hand that expressed kindness. I took it into my own and shook it as firmly as my weak body could.