eneaj
My dress was damp with dark blood. I held the baby in my arms like a panicked child, clutching her to my chest as I sat on my legs. We were in the middle of a field, a new moon overhead in the chilly air as I rocked her. When I finally got the courage to turn her more into my view away from my breast, and to wipe some of the blood away from her skin, my own face stared back at me. Stark and unforgettable.
New beginnings.
I woke up, gasping for air as my phone rung underneath my pillow. I hurriedly got up, hearing it thump to the wooden floor, still on its charger. I got out of bed slowly, the careful action doing nothing to keep my vision from becoming tunneled. After I gathered myself for a moment, I was able to reach for the phone and see that Yenvy had called. Her name flashed off my screen- I guess I had taken too long.
I called her back, sitting on my bed's edge.
I was hot and I was tired, and the nightmares I had been having for most of the summer had been the cause of that.
"Wassup?" I cleared my throat.
"I know it's early but I couldn't sleep," my best friend said cheerfully. You and me both, huh? "I checked my email and the real estate agent confirmed things with me- I got the house!"
"I'm happy for you," I yawned. "But can we talk about this later?"
"I know...sleep has been hard for you. And you're all alone back in Dallas-
"That's not true," I sighed. "We're from here. I'll be okay. Just celebrate the new house. I'll even come down and see it."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, as far as comin' down," Yenvy said hesitantly. "I want you to come move in with me, Eneaj."
"Yenvy...I have a life here. I never planned on leaving Dallas. I knew that since I was little. You've known that since I was little."
"But instead of one hour plus of traffic, you can get to Zinnias in an hour or a little less if you come to Houston with me," my best friend said hopefully.
Zinnias was a little city, almost a town, in between Dallas and Houston, but closer to the latter area. My club, Strapped, was at the core of the city, across town from the local Baptist university, ZBU.
"You got me with that," I said, getting out of bed and taking my hair tie off of my moussed braids. "It would make my commute to the club easier. Especially if there's an emergency or something there. I...I'll think about it, Yenvy. But a move is kind of something big."
"We both know Houston well," Yenvy stated, "it's only a slight difference between our city and this one. And I think you'll be pretty surprised by the house too..."
"Yenvy, what did you do?" I groaned.
"You'll see," she said happily.
I could already imagine my best friend laying in bed, a happy expression on her face. "How are you healing?" I asked, going into the bathroom and sitting down on the closed toilet lid.
"By the time you get here, hopefully sometime this week," she added, "I should be fully healed up from the BBL."
"And you're sure it looks natural," I confirmed. "Because two weeks overseas and a hell lot of recovery time would have me goin' back to throw hands if my shit ain't turn out right."
