Saccrine Du Sang

Chapter 1: Noémi

"Have you thought more about what landmarks you want to see when we go to Europe?" my friend Diana asked.

Its raining, and cold right now outside, and we have nowhere to go. We are on winter break and its started flooding so my employer gave us the day off. But that's not what I'm thinking about. No, I'm thinking of how I let someone get so close to me, and let them hurt me. Me and Keith broke up 3 months ago, yet i can't stop thinking about how i thought we were going to get married, we talked about rings and about where we saw ourselves in 10 years, and I thought we saw each other. But 3 months ago, he left me standing in my doorway, alone. I had so much to ask: did I do something wrong? Have I become too boring since school started? What can i do? But I am smart enough to know that nothing you can do can make a man stay, so I let him go. So my friends, Lord knows I love them, thought it would be a good idea to take a trip this summer and travel to different countries in Europe since I've never been out of the country. They think planning this trip and dealing with school would be enough to take my mind off of which, I must admit, was helping significantly.

"Hmm?" I said.

Snap snap. "Hello. Noe? Babe, what landmarks" she repeated on a chuckle.
"It's like you're here.... But you're not here. It's like the lights on but you ain't home. It's like-"
"Ight I get it, I'm not listening. Ok... so I was thinking  maybe we go see the Edinburgh Castle, and maybe wear like one of those flown dresses and run down the hall in slow motion?"

"Uh, ok? Or maybe we can just go to a museum? You know... something normal" she said.

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Oook moving on, next place"

As I was contemplating where I wanted to go next, there's was a knock on the door. I made my way through my apartment to open it. I was really hoping it was my package from Forest, but I know those packages can take weeks. But still it had a cute swim suit I wanted to wear on vacation, among other items I wanted to bring with me. I looked through my peephole and saw a man in a Forest uniform, so when I opened the door I was nothing but smiles. When I signed the package I immediately went to show Diana.

"Oh my gosh that is so cute, that with a cute necklace and some diamond stud earrings? It's giving, Riri on vacation in Barbados circa 2011. I see you."

As I turned and began packing my swim suit, I couldn't help but still feel a little disappointed. I really needed this vacation, that's true, but it hurts knowing I am going under the circumstances. Keith made me feel so disposable. It felt like he just, threw me away when I no longer "benefited" him, his words. See, I met Keith in 2014,  when I was 19 and he was 21. I was a sophomore in college while he was in his senior year, at Coppin State. I was planning to transfer to Howard that year, but meeting Keith changed my mind. He was charming, he took me to Bar One for our first date, he brought me flowers, opened my doors and even brought a little present. It was a necklace with my initials in gold. I thought it was so meaningful, so thoughtful. He put so much effort into just our first date, I knew I could see us going long term. And he was funny, made me double over in laughter, I always had a good time with him. Sure we argued sometimes, who doesn't. When you have two people getting to know each other, of course there are differences and in how we were raised and what we find offensive, but that's normal. Or so I thought. So when he told me he wanted to break up, I was confused, we hadn't really argued that much lately, and everything has been pretty peaceful. So it felt like it was out of no where. Dropped me, just like that.

And just as quickly as my thoughts turned to him, my eyes started watering.

"I'll be right back." I said, not looking at my friend and quickly looking to escape to the bathroom.