Christin

There was a knock on the door one evening. It was Alphonso and all of his stuff. He looked defeated and tired. He came in and put his stuff down. I asked him what happened between him and Pat. He didn’t want to talk about it. So, I left it at that.

The apartment became super crowded. T, Jen and Vinnie in one room, me in another and Alphonso was on the couch. He wasn’t too happy about that but he also didn’t have a job at the moment, so his complaints were unfounded as far as I was concerned. With tension already in the apartment, Alphonso coming back just added fuel to the fire.

T and Alphonso didn’t like each other for obvious reasons. Alphonso had an attitude when he came back from Yakima which rubbed everyone the wrong way. Jen and I didn’t see eye to eye on anything related to T. So there it was. We were all living together but we all needed our own space.

Soon after Alphonso came back he got his job back at Wal-Mart. It was the 1st of the month and rent was due.

“Alphonso, we need to pay rent”

“I am not paying all of my part of rent because one of my cd’s is missing”

I don’t know what pissed me off more. Him insinuating that I stole his CD or him refusing to pay all of his rent. I had done nothing but help him out and he had the audacity to do this. And now I would have to pay whatever rent he didn’t want to pay. When the truth was he probably spent it on an expensive bag or make-up. I was done. This was the last straw.

My friend Shawn had asked me if I wanted to move into her house. It was just her and she needed to rent out a room to make the mortgage. This was my way out and I didn’t waste any time. I went down to the apartment office and took my name off the lease. That was a huge relief. I wasn’t going to be responsible for anything from here on out. If Alphonso didn’t want to pay rent then at least I wasn’t going to have to deal with it. If T was punching holes throughout the apartment, I wouldn’t have to worry about it.

I didn’t realize how stressful the situation had become until I was gone. I told Jen and Alphonso I was moving out. I think they sensed my frustration and understood why. It didn’t matter if they did or didn’t, I was leaving regardless of how they felt. Nobody had cared how I felt so why should I care. I packed my stuff and box by box I loaded it into my car. Everyone was gone while I moved each box. There was no goodbye. There was no see you later. Nothing. I couldn’t move my stuff out any faster. I couldn’t get away any faster. I drove away and never looked back. Too much was said and done to be taken back.

Fast forward three months… I hadn’t really talked to Jen and Alphonso. We would say Hi in passing at work. An occasional few minutes of small talk here and there at work. But that was it. I heard through the grapevine that T and Jen had broken up. I didn’t know the details and quite frankly I didn’t care about them. But when I did hear that they did break up, I felt a moment of relief. I knew that she wouldn’t have to deal with his crazy ass anymore.

After the breakup, I noticed a huge change in Jen. I almost didn’t recognize her. She wasn’t wearing make-up anymore. She looked like the walking dead with dark circles under her eyes. One day I overheard her talking to another coworker in the bathroom. She didn’t know I was listening to her conversation. She was crying.

“I can’t believe he left me…he left me with nothing. Now what am I supposed to do?!”

She was a mess. I wanted to reach out but didn’t know how. Even though I didn’t leave on the greatest terms with Jen and Alphonso, that didn’t mean that I didn’t wish them the best and want them to be happy. Because I did.

Sometimes pride gets in the way. And maybe that was it. I let my pride get in the way.

”So gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits I hope you have found a friend.

Closing Time,

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.’’