Sandcastles | Completed

15 | mine

• • •

Leah Baker

I rolled on my side, pulling the comforter over my head like they made what I was doing imaginary. The emptiness of the bed served as an immediate reminder that it was very real.

My finger moved up the screen, reading the picture captions, the statuses.

The white screen switched to black, and I was now studying tweets, scanning through likes.

Another switch, another black screen, pictures in the shape of boxes.

She didn't seem like a bad person.

I wanted to message her. I wanted to ask if she knew. The last strands of hope that maybe if she knew, she'd reject him.

I didn't know her but I hated her.

She was 22. Five years younger than us, and from the stuff she put on the internet, seemed immature. That made no sense to me because Elijah hated immaturity.

Nothing he did made sense to me anymore.

My finger hovered over the small heart as I observed the picture. She was standing beside her parents and another young couple, smiling proudly as she held her diploma up for the camera.

Kensley was beautiful, but she wasn't me.

3:30 AM

I left the room and to go into the kitchen, bumping into Elijah who was coming out of the guest room.

He barely looked at me before he continued down the stairs. I noticed he was wearing shoes, saw the key fob in his hand, "Where are you going?"

I knew the answer, but he never outright admitted that he was going there. I'd like to think that I put up with that because I hurt him first. He just needed to hurt me back, and we could move on from it.

The affair lasted a mere 6 months. This was barely month 2 for him and Kensley.

"Elijah?"

His voice drifted upstairs "Go to sleep Leah."

How could I?

Forgetting that I was hungry, I went back to get my phone, using a number I didn't think I'd ever dial without a gun to my head.

The phone rang and rang, until eventually, Marc answered gruffly, "That motherfuckin' house better be on fire."

"I don't know how to get Elijah to stop hating me," I replied pitifully.

They always knew how to get him to do what they wanted, maybe he'd tell me the secret.

"If he beat your ass he'd probably feel better, but he won't. What you cheat for and you know he sensitive?"

"I was hurt. He had y'all to run to, but Tracey acted like he was the only one who lost the baby. And then Eli started worked more, and instead of trying to help, he kept talking about a fucking therapist. I didn't need a therapist. I needed my husband."

Elijah came from a family of shitty people. It's why he distanced himself from them the first chance he got, only to go running back time something happened that he couldn't handle.

We were supposed to work through it together, but he wanted to do it alone, thus forcing me to do it alone as well. He knew my family didn't talk to me, he knew I had no one else.

"Sound like a buncha' excuses." Marc yawned, "You needed dick from another nigga now you mad he want pussy from another bitch. Don't ever call me 'bout no bullshit like this again."