Apartment 403 & 420

ONE. VALENTINE'S DAY

ONE.  VALENTINE’S DAY

            >> ONE: write a chapter in which a character spends valentine ’s day alone.

 

            NOAH BRANDON HATES Valentine’s Day; four days ago, Harry Brandon dies diagnosed with Leukemia and here it is, February 14 – still evident that Harry died a second ago because every time Noah Brandon could blink, an imaginary Harry fades away by seconds making him feel like his ghost reminds him that he is no longer a boy who needs an advice from his father. A man of honor, a dedicated father and someone who can bring sadness to his mother, this is a great shame now that he is crying. He rests inside his room trying to figure out if he should burn all his father’s paintings or try to sell a living out of it now that he’s entering college. More specifically Julliard’s rival, Freya Academy of Arts. He wishes to spend more time with his father to know certain brushstroke techniques but now the only technique he could learn is ‘how-to-bring-back-the-dead’ which is impossibly useful.

            His mother, Cecilia is running around the house doing his chores just to get the lonely times pass by like a blurry hazardous feeling when you just feel that bad luck swarming around the pits of your stomach then you just run away, that is what Cecilia feels.

            He looks at his left to see that his decorated room turned to a now deserted room which Cecilia might use a sacrificial room where she could go up to the Gods to bring Noah and his father back. Or, she could use it as her yoga class for the aging. A knock disturbs Noah from this preeminence.

            “Noah…?” A whisper disturbs his soul. He stands up to see that it is his mother on her middle forty’s and with the wrinkles starting to show, the only hope she can get is that she wouldn’t look like Osama Bin Laden by the end of the day.

            “Yeah mom?”

            “I think you should go now.”

            “To where?”

            “To college of course,” she trails off but continues in a whisper. “And leave me here to rot just like what your father says.”

            His arms instantly attach to the small frame of Cecilia, she sobs lightly as she now tired to cry all day telling her neighbor the sweet memories of Cecilia and Harry and how his painful death made his friends mourn gently. “You know I’ll never leave you, not until I finish college.”

            “Second semester and you’re already up for finishing college? You got three more years, bud.”

            “Mom, I was trying to make a joke so that you wouldn’t sob anymore. You know Dad would hate it when you cry, he wants to see you smiling.” His thumbs brush the edge of her lips to smile but then it falls back to a sadder frown.

            She sighs. “Well your dad isn’t here and I guess I would just have the Hastings come by my house to play charades or whatever gizmo we could ever find. At least leave your Xbox behind.”

            “Mom, you are too old to play GTA.”

            “Sonic, the Hedgehog?”

            “The Limited Edition? I threw it away two years ago.”

            She groans. “Damn,” she inwardly curses. “Anyway, I will help you unpack your things at your dorm. There is not much to do here since it is spotless and there are less laundry from now on. Maybe it is a good thing you did leave.”