Tides and closures

"IBB! IBB!" I heard someone banging on my door non-stop.

"IBB come open this door right now or I will break it", I heard the voice scream again but I was just too tired to scream back.

"IBBBBBB...." The last bang and scream brought me back to reality. I sluggishly went downstairs to open the door.

Standing in front of me was my friend Zoe who was boiling already.

"Why do you want to break my door this hot afternoon?"

“So that’s was why you decided not to open the door? you shouldn’t have then”, she said sarcastically.

“What brings you to my home, young Lady?” I said glaring at her.

“Your home? Which home? The home we searched the entire city for? The home we both furnished toge….”

“I am sorry Your Majesty, what brings you to our home”, I bowed my head.

“IBB you are something else and that’s why I’m your only friend as everyone else can’t kee—

“Hold up young lady, did you come here to give me a lecture or what?” I rolled my eyes.

“Anyways your negative energy can’t kill my vibe as I am too excited to be sad”, Zoe said excitedly.

“Wow! Two insults in 15minz, nice one Queen Mother”, I salute you.

“Anyways that’s by the way”, Zoe said smiling sheepishly.

“Guess what baby girl?!” Zoe said squealing in excitement.

“I can’t guess, just let it out!”

“We are going to the Beachhhh”, Zoe screamed.

“By we, you mean who and who?”, I turned left and right in search of Zoe’s beach partner.

“Me and you silly!”, Zoe said rolling her eyes.

“You can’t be serious though and for starters, I don’t have a beach outfit except I can wear my suit and heels to the beach,” I said playing the no outfit card that works every time.

“Hahahaha, not this time young woman as I came prepared, take this”, Zoe handed over a bag to me, and in it was a beach dress, slippers, and sunglasses.

“Oh, my world! What is this Zoe?”, I asked in utter disbelief.

“A step to ending your boring life”, Zoe said giving me her white toothy smile.

“Thank you for the grand gesture but for real I do not want to go to the beach.”, I said slumping on the couch.

“No girlfriend not on my watch! the whole squad is going to be there and we will have lots of fun”, Zoe said.

“I know it’s going to be an adventure but I don’t just feel like going, my social battery is almost dead ugh!”

“I don’t feel like going yaddeyahdah”, Zoe mimicked me.

“Zoe McPherson Johnson!” I screamed.

“Yes!!”Zoe screamed back.

Replaying everything in our heads we didn’t know when we burst into laughter.

“For real IBB we talked about this already, we said we were gonna socialize more but honestly you ain’t helping”. Zoe said sadly.

“Okay fine I’ll go and please stop with the puppy face”.

“Yes!!”

We both changed into our beach outfit, boarded a vehicle, and in no time we were in Taniz Beach and Resort.

We met with the rest of our friends and everyone was surprised at how Zoe could drag me out of the house. We exchanged pleasantries and the fun began.

Not in my wildest dream could I have imagined that I would have so much fun at the beach and for once Zoe was right.

The games, the jokes, the pranks, the drinks, and the food were top-notch.

Just when I was having the time of my life and not caring about anything in the world, he showed up.

For a split second, I thought the drinks were messing with my head as I was forced to take some shots but I was right, it was him, the devil who turned my life around.

I wasn’t the only one who had seen him, Zoe saw him and I saw how her countenance changed, she knew our story and she knew coming in contact with the devil was not a good idea.

“Are you okay? Can we leave?” She mouthed

“I am fine” I mouthed back.

“Her eyes spoke how sorry she was and I could see that she blamed herself for bringing me to the devil after all these months of misery.

From the corners of my eyes, I watched him greet the rest of the squad. How could I have forgotten that James and he were very close and they went almost everywhere together and that explains how he came to the beach.

Trying to stop the chaos going on in my head I was drawn back to reality by the familiar sweet voice I had fallen for “Hi IBB, nice to see you”

“Hi Chris,” I said under my breath.

Looking into his brown eyes I thought about a million ways to kill him in a split second and the top on my list was drowning him in the water. Calm down IBB too many action movies

“How’s your little sister Faith?” He asked.

I rolled my eyes at the question but answered anyway.

“She’s fine thank you” I answered and immediately walked away.

The voices in my head congratulated me for my dramatic exit but deep down I wanted more.

I wanted closure and clarity.
How could he have deceived me, how could he have constantly lied to me that I was the only one, how could he have made me fall so hard for him and how could he hide the fact that he was married?

At that moment I needed answers and I needed those answers to heal completely.

I stood up from the chair I was sitting on and went straight to him.

“Could we talk for a few minutes?” I asked him.

“Sure”

We walked to a secluded place so no one could hear our conversation.

“I have a few questions for you and I need you to answer them sincerely”, I said looking directly into his eyes.

“Ok, no problem”.

“Why did you make me fall in love with you when you knew we had no future? Why did you come into my life exactly? Why did you disappear after I found out?” I asked.

“To start with IBB, falling in love with you was never the plan and when it happened it was so hard to withdraw as I knew how emotional it would have been for you as you were deeply in love with me. IBB all these do not make sense or justify what I did and I am sorry, I am so sorry for putting you through such an emotional roller coaster. Disappearing after you found out was the only way I could think of.

I listened with wrapt attention as he spoke.

“I am sorry for making you my second option, you can hate me all you want but do not think you aren’t worth a good man”.

“Thanks for the closure”, I walked right after I said these words, somehow I felt light, it felt like a burden was lifted from my shoulders.

Other than feeling light I felt happy, I felt so happy that for the first time in months, I had thought about the painful breakup with the traitor and I didn’t shed a single tear. I was happy because I had inner peace, I asked all the questions that was bottled in my heart for months.

With every step I took my smile became bigger, I was finally letting go of this emotional baggage.