Michaelishious - Vol. 2021

Dec. 16th: Pierced eyebrow

Her name was Kim, and she was single. Not by choice, but because her friends made her break up with her boyfriend for the past three, and very turbulent, years. Their relationship had been terrible from day one. Sure they had their good moments, but little by little the man with the pierced eyebrow broke Kim down, and now she was nothing like the person she once was. And she had a phobia against piercings.

"You need to start dating again," Tonya said, and tried to encourage her best friend. She had been there through it all. She'd seen that man slowly pick Kim apart so cunningly that they couldn't even tell when it started. They'd tried endless times to make it end, which unfortunately pulled Kim further away from them, because her boyfriend managed to turn all her friends against her. That's one manipulative psychopath right there. And now the damage he did seemed too severe to heal.

"Kim? Don't pretend you don't hear me, because I know you do."

A ghost of a smile pulled at Kim's lips, but it disappeared seconds after. She'd been scrolling through the TV channels without finding anything to watch, and now suddenly she was a die hard fan of... Bridge?

"You have several candidates on Tinder you should check out, and that's after the eight I blocked."

"Block the rest, too," she muttered. The trauma was still fresh, even though it had been over a year since the last time Kim saw him. Or more correctly; his obituary. He died in a car accident with a huge truck. There was almost nothing left of him to bury. I guess Karma was a bitch after all, although Tonya always said she was too nice in this case. She should at least have put him in a wheelchair, paralyzed from neck down and without the ability to speak for a few years. Kim wasn't so sure about that. When she felt so scared without him even breathing on this planet, then how would things be if he was still alive? She didn't want to think about that.

"But Kim, not all of them are like IT."

There had been a mutual decision not to mention her ex's name ever again, so they named him IT after the movie about the clown Pennywise, which was pretty damn exact once you've realized that clowns aren't cute and funny at all.

"You can't push everyone away forever, you know. He's already stolen three years of your life. Don't let him steal your future, too."

Tonya was begging, but Kim turned away to hide the tears that were pooling in her eyes. She hadn't only developed an unhealthy fear of facial accessories, but she also couldn't stand the thought of being near anyone. The furthermost physical closeness she tolerated was a hug from Tonya. And her mother, of course, and Kim's sister, Jadeem. She couldn't even accept a hug from her own father anymore. He was a man, and that was too much.

Kim was tired. She was so tired of everyone trying to help, that she wanted to scream and chase them all away. Nevertheless, she knew they did it because they loved her, and that made her feel guilty as well. So now she was tired of being tired of feeling this way, and tired of the fact that nothing anyone did ever helped. Not even her therapist.

Yes, Kim went to therapy. Twice a week, actually. But it was all a waste of money. The middle-aged woman with a German accent was throwing around all kinds of Latin names, and used medical terms to explain technicalities to drugs Kim didn't want to use. Now she had a whole cardboard box under her bed with pills that kept being prescribed, and if it didn't stop soon, she could probably earn a decent living as a drug dealer. Sarcasm, of course. So was the idea of turning into a lesbian because she couldn't stand the thought of men. She knew it wasn't that simple. It's either you're born that way, or you're not. And now it had come to a point where Kim questioned why she was born at all.

"Kim?"

"Please, Tonya. Just stop."

"But there's this guy...!"