To Caress My Day

Twigs opt to not to take the elevator because of the tears that wouldn’t cease from falling down her cheeks. She didn’t want anyone to see her this way, but at the same time she couldn’t stop the salty drops from pouring. Figuring she needed a little more time to get herself together, she decided to take the stairwells instead.

Twigs made sure to take her time with every step, and stay focused on soothing her broken heart as best as she could so that the pain would stop making her eyes water incessantly. She tried to push the horrible memories of Seth and Rebecca in their underwear out of her mind completely the higher she climbed up, but every once and while she would have to stop to have a strong agonized cry before continuing on with her journey. By the time she got to her floor, Twigs was pretty confident that she was feeling much better, and would be able to face her roommate without having a break down. Wiping the last remnant of her tears away, Twigs headed down the hall to her apartment, and let herself in with her set of keys. She tried to ignore the feel of Seth’s cold house key against her fingers until she got inside and was able to toss the lot of them aside into a small bowl that was kept by the doorway. Letting out a shaky sigh, Twigs dropped her bag to the floor, and walked towards the living room. She knew that to avoid remembering the drama from earlier she should probably avert being in Simone’s presence, but as she heard the strum of her guitar nearby, she found herself gravitating towards one of her closest friends.

Simone was sitting on the couch strumming her guitar and humming along with a song only she knew. She would mutter words here and there, before breaking off to write them down on as pad of paper lying on the arm of the couch. She would then go back to strumming her guitar and humming again. Simone’s fingers halted on the string when she saw a dark figure standing nearby before she lifted her head to see her roommate standing in the entrance way watching her with her sunglasses on. A welcoming smile spread across Simone’s face. “Oh hey, girl. What’s up?”

Twigs tried to swallow the lump that was sitting in her throat, but it wouldn’t go down. She prayed it wouldn’t cause her voice to come out strange, because she wasn’t sure she wanted to relive tonight’s events by having to recall it to her friend. Licking her lips, she took a deep breathe before letting out a watery shaky greeting. “H-Hey…”

Simone’s eyes snapped right back up at her, her smile falling. Even though Twigs had on sunglasses, she could tell by the sound of her voice that something was definitely off. Her brows furrowed with concern as she put her guitar aside to lean against the side of the couch. “Are you okay, honey? You don’t sound alright to me. Did something bad happen with Seth?”

Twigs frantically shook in denial before it turned into a quick and honest nod of her head. Raising a trembling hand up, she pulled her sunglasses off to reveal her bloodshot eyes, eliciting a gasp of surprise from Simone. Twigs quickly strode over to the couch, tossing her sunglasses aside onto the loveseat as she passed by. Simone set aside her writing pad on the floor as she made room for her distraught roommate to have a seat next to her. What she hadn’t expected was for Twigs to lie down on the couch with her head down on her lap instead and her body curled up into a fetal position. That obvious sign of fragility and vulnerability was unlike her roommate’s behavior after a breakup, and so it only concerned Simone further on what had happened between her and Seth. Reaching down, she placed a hand on Twig’s head and gently patted her hair in comfort. “Shh honey, it’s alright, you’re home now.” She hesitated for a minute before softly asking. “What happened to you out there, huh? Was it Seth?”

Uncertain, Twigs didn’t answer Simone right away. She wasn’t sure how she would be able to word it without getting swept away in another wave of pain that seemed to come hand in hand with her tragic tale. Trying to bide herself a bit of time to recollect herself for the billionth time that evening, Twigs took several deeps breathe until she was certain she would be able to speak coherently. “H-How do you know when a man is…is telling the truth?”

Simone frowned at her random question, but thought on it anyway if it would help appease her fragile friend’s state. After a minute of thinking, she finally gave her an uncertain shrug. “I guess it honestly depends on the man really, and if he’s prone to lying a lot.” She paused to wait for Twig’s response, but received nothing, and so she prodded some more. “Has Seth ever lied to you before, honey?”

Twigs smiled a bit at Simone’s quick wittedness, before letting out another deep breath as she tried to recall all the times Seth hadn’t been honest with her. In the end, she couldn’t think of a single one. Sure, he’s failed to mention some things before but never had he lied to her as far as she’s been able to tell. With a shake of her, Twigs gave Simone an answer. “No, not yet so far, I mean as far as I know. I’m not sure if it counts if I haven’t found out about any of his lies yet though.”

Simone decided to change the subject to get to the real root of the problem. “Tahliah, what happened tonight?”

With a whiny groan, Twigs forced herself to sit up and wipe away a few stray tears. “God, I don’t want to think about what I’ve seen tonight, but…at the same time, I’m in desperate need for help.” Feeling her eyes tear up again, Twigs quickly shut them. “I caught the man I love in his underwear with another woman in his bed.”

Simone nearly shot off the couch in awe, but kept herself anchored with two tight grips on the cushions underneath her. “NO FUCKING WAY!” Quickly forcing herself to calm down to a respectable level so as not to upset Twigs any further than she already was, Simone counted to ten in her mind before starting again. “I mean, are you being serious right now!? You caught that sack of shit cheating on you!?”

Twigs nodded. “It damn well looked like it. He was standing in his underwear by the bed with his maid’s 19 year old daughter on her knees on the bed in front of him in her underwear too.” She began to choke on her words, but couldn’t stop there. “I-I couldn’t, I couldn’t breathe Simone! I was so fucking devastated I simply couldn’t stay there a minute longer, or else I swear to god I’d have killed the both of them with my bare hands!”

Still reeling from the shock of it, Simone muttered to herself beneath her breath. “I can’t fucking believe this shit. This doesn’t sound like the Seth that I know.” Letting out a curse, Simone struggled to come to terms with the idea of Seth being a cheating pig. “I can’t believe this happened to you, Tahliah. I mean, that doesn’t sound like something the Seth that we all have come to know would do. Please, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to call you a liar or anything it’s just…WOW, you know? I was so damn certain that that man was as madly in love with you as you are with him, and I’m totally talking about the Disney Princess everlasting love bullshit.”

…And most of all, I love you. I’m in love with you, Tahliah Debrett Barnett. I’ve been in love with you for such a long time…

Twigs violently flinched at the sound of Seth’s confession of love echoing in her head, and once again her eyes closed in pain. Simone caught sight of this, and stared at her with eyes full of concern. “Are you okay, sweetheart? Your behavior is really starting to scare me here.”

“He uh…” Twigs nervously licked her dry lips as the tears continued to trail down her cheeks. “He actually told me that he was in love with me…” Her voice hitched for a second before it came back down. “…when I was trying to get away from him after I caught him cheating.”

Simone’s eyes widened ten times as big as they stared at her. “Holy shit, he did? He seriously told you he was in love with you right after you caught him in bed with some hoe?”

Twigs shakily nodded as she opened her eyes to stare at the floor. “Yeah, h-he did. I couldn’t be sure if he was telling the truth or not since I had just caught him half-naked in his bedroom with…another woman.”

“Damn.” Simone mumbled as she leaned back against the couch and thought the entire situation over in her mind. “Look Twigs, I don’t know Seth all that well enough to tell you whether or not to cut ties with him or not, but from the few times I had been around him I had gathered that he was definitely into you and wanted to be with you, long term.” She expressed gently to her friend. “Now, even though what you’ve just told me about walking in on him and some young ass heifer doesn’t support what I’ve come to believe of him, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I guess what I’m trying to say is is that this is all out of the character he’s portrayed himself to be. If I had known he was the kind of douche bag that would do something like this, I would have told you to stay the fuck away from him long ago.”

Twigs nodded in agreement. “I understand, Simone. Trust me, I’m in the same boat as you. He really had me believing that he wasn’t capable of doing something like this to me nor would he want to.” With eyes full of tears, she looked up to her friend in desperate need of some help. “What do you think I should do now?”

Simone thought about it for a minute. “Well, are you still in love with him?”

Abruptly, a miserably sob burst past Twigs lips and echoed throughout the apartment. Instead of covering her mouth, she merely dropped her face into her hands and let some of her misery out. “Y-Yes, Simone. I-I still love that man mo-more than anything else on th-this stupid piece of shit of a planet!”

Simone scooted closer to her friend, and placed a comforting hand on her back. “Shh honey, it’s gonna be ok, just let it all out. You’re in no condition to be solving this bullshit all in one night, Tahliah. You need to go and get some rest. Maybe tomorrow you’ll feel better and then we’ll try and figure out what to do together.”

Twigs lifted her face from her drenched palms, and gave her roommate a careless shrug.

Leaning over, Simone pressed a kiss to her friend’s head. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out tomorrow, or maybe a month from now, depending on how long it takes for the pain to go away.” When she got another nod, Simone wrapped an arm around her friend’s shoulder. “Good, now let’s get your weepy butt to bed, okay?”

Twigs let out a pathetic laugh as she was escorted to her bedroom by one of her most trusted friends. Simone was right, perhaps tomorrow will hold more answers…