Regal Love

Chapter Five

I was feeling quite rebellious after I dumped Bryant so to feed this craving, I made a Twitter, an Instagram and a Facebook account to reconnect with my long lost friends and family. Being quite older and not so good at technology, I struggled to make the accounts initially but successfully made. And not to my surprise, I saw that Bryant had an account or more on each. I blocked him on all platforms and Wrote my name as Liz Desiree. Desiree is my middle name and my last name is Compton. If I had written Liz Compton, Bryant would have found me out one way or another and he had no idea that my middle name is Desiree. It was only the next day that I had managed to add all my family and friends since I had fallen asleep in the mattress in my new bedroom.
I still did not upload a picture yet because It was dark the night or rather midnight that I made the accounts. My younger sister Danielle accepted my request in facebook and texted me,
“I might be wrong but are you Elizabeth Compton?”
I was so happy that she texted. It had been years since I had talked to her.
“How are Eric, Erin, Mom, Dad and Pepper?”I replied. Eric and Erin were the youngest among us. They were identical twins. I was the eldest among them, Danielle was about 10 years younger than me and the Twins were 13 years younger than me. Our parents were teen parents. They had me when they both were 17, my maternal grandmother had raised me as though I was her own child while my parents completed their high school, got their degrees and had stable jobs. They had broken up after they graduated high school but fate worked like magic as they fell in love again after they both completed their college education. Dad became a doctor and mom became a teacher.  They dated for another two years and dad popped the question. They got married in the grounds of the high school where they first started dating, I was their ring bearer and flower girl combined. I was 7 when they got married and my life kind of fell into place. I got all the love I ever needed from my parents, 3 years down the line Danielle or Elle as we call her was born and after another three years the twins who are the trouble makers of the family were born. Mom had adopted Pepper from a shelter when I had gone away to college to cover my absence and it sure worked wonders. I had never been so homesick in my entire life, I texted Danielle for hours and had these constant visits down the memory lane. I did not even realize that I was crying when my family facetimed me later in the evening. I wanted to tell them about why I had, as Elle terms it abandoned them for so long but I did not have the courage to do so. They seemed so happy and telling them about the hell Bryant put me through would destroy them. I had to cut the call as I had to clean up my apartment, I had plenty of time in my hands to catch up with them again.
I went to the departmental store to buy some vegetables, utensils, a bed and other furniture that my apartment lacked. As I walked down the aisle where artificial plants were kept, I saw Aiden and Veronica get cozy. It was a sight that bothered me deeply and my only explanation was that they were supposed to shop for the office not to make out in public, I did not entrust Veronica to waste our precious time coiling her arms around Aiden. No wonder Aiden wanted me to stay home for as long as I wanted to. Aiden caught a glance of me or maybe had just a hunch of me staring at their act of public indecency, he looked at my side but I quickly hid behind some fully stocked shelves. As much as I wanted to interfere between them, I knew that it wasn’t the right thing to do as I had called in sick. I wrapped up my shopping and went home in a truck that I hired to transport the furniture.
It was around 6pm when an old friend of mine texted me in facebook if I should meet up with her at a club. I was so tired and all I wanted to do was to sleep but I remembered how Bryant did not like me making plans with my colleagues or girlfriends, so out of spite I agreed to meet Michelle. I did not have an outfit that was fit for clubbing so I wore a knee length lbd that I bought to wear to an office party two years ago, Bryant did not let me go but since I paid a big amount for the dress I did not discard it. I must have grown a bit, although I think it’s not scientifically possible but the dress which reached my knees two years ago, no longer reached my knees. I grabbed my purse and phone and headed out to the venue Poison Ivy Lounge, I personally did not like the name, not that it mattered anyway. Michelle who used to be my best friend in law school was waiting for me outside the club. She was a redhead and decent looking woman. She looked a little older than she actually was, I won’t mention that to her.
“Liz! How long has it been since we last met.” She pulled me into a tight hug. I still wasn’t used to smiling and hugging everyone I met because of the trauma that Bryant had put me through but I was willing to change. 
“You.. look the same” I knew that it would make her glad even if it was a lie.
“We both know that that’s a lie” She laughed.
“My ex-husband drained the life and beauty if there was any, out of me” She cheerfully said.
“What?” My jaw dropped. I did not know that she was divorced, let alone married.
She gave me a long sigh dragged me inside the club.
“I’ll tell you over a shot of vodka” She said.
“Oh how times have changed. We once used to talk over coffee.” I sarcastically replied.
“I married Eliot-” she said as she downed one shot of bitter vodka.
“Eliot, as in, our classmate who slept in class half the time?” I was in disbelief that a smart and brilliant woman like her would go for a douche bag like Eliot, but then again I was in a toxic relationship myself so I am not in the position to judge.
“uh huh” She nodded a yes.
“We started dating after graduation and he popped the question shortly after. I was over the moon and I even texted you and mailed you about it but you did not reply. And by the way you have some major explaining to do. Back to my story, I got a job at a firm and Eliot struggled to find employment. I told him that it was okay and that not everyone is lucky to get a job right after graduation. We were engaged for four years because he did not get a job yet and my firm did not pay me enough for us to have the wedding that we always planned on having. I even agreed to pay for the wedding and you know how grand I wanted my wedding to be so yeah, I took a huge loan for the wedding and it was everything that I dreamed about except the fact that you did not respond to my calls, texts or emails. I wanted you to be my maid of honour but since you were not around I chose Sidney, my neighbour.” She paused. She ordered another shot of vodka.
“Our wedding was perfect, we had our honeymoon in Bali. Fast forward to six months, he started acting weird. I thought he was just frustrated that he couldn’t get a job so I gave him the space to meditate. Moreover I was busy working day and night trying to pay off the loan. He started being so distant and started speaking less to me. One day..” She paused to drink her second shot of vodka.
“I had an important presentation to give but I had forgotten to bring the important documents so I drove back home quickly to get it. I don’t want to get into details but I caught him cheating on me with my Maid of Honour, Sidney. She is not even that pretty okay.” She started crying. I assumed that she was getting a little tipsy.
“I felt so hurt and betrayed, I started throwing things and breaking them. I did not even go back to office to deliver the presentation because of which I got fired. Basically I caught my husband cheating on me with my maid of honour and lost my job at the same time.” She started crying in the club. I felt so bad for her but I couldn’t do anything to help with that.
“They even had the audacity to label me as mentally insane in the court. After 6 months of struggling to divorce him and also after struggling to get the ill accusations off my back, I am free today. And you just happened to add me on facebook.” She wiped her tears.
“I am jobless, I have student loans, the huge marriage loan, a cheating husband, a messy divorce, I had to sell my apartment and car to pay the loans but it’s still not enough. I am 29 years old and I am living in my parent’s basement” By now she had wiped all her tears but there was this hollowness in her eyes.
“You can work in my firm if you’d like” I said.
“What?” She looked sober now.
“I just partnered up with my boss’s son and kind of opened up a new firm. It’s not fully functioning yet but we are working on that” I said.
“You just got really lucky, why can’t I breeze through life like you do” she looked and me and said.
“If you hear my side of the story than you will realize that there have been storms in my life instead of the calm breeze you think I have in my life” I said and took her back to my place. The longer we stay there, the more she’ll drink herself to further destruction.