XV.

While all this went on in the city, things between Romel and Medina Jade got bad.

Romel refused to leave her room. He’d stay holed up there, unshaven, all scraggly and rank. When she tried asking him about what was going on, he could never quite explain it. Sometimes, he’d just ask her to leave him alone. Other times, he’d start telling a story, some story about a rock or a coal or some such thing living inside him, but whenever he did, he’d cut himself off as if he’d only then realized what he was saying was crazy, and then he’d stop. They barely did anything together, wouldn’t watch TV, wouldn’t stay up talking like they used to, hell, they weren’t even having sex. He said when he was with her, it would cause him confusion.

All throughout, she’d tell all this to Aniyah. It was obvious what her advice was to be: “Get rid of the bum.” At first, Medina Jade brushed this off. She couldn’t. It was obvious her boyfriend of several years had gone through something traumatic that he couldn’t explain. It would be wrong of her to send him off to fend for himself after whatever it was that happened to him. But as the weeks wore on, and as he became increasingly more distant, Aniyah’s advice started sounding more and more attractive.

She tried protecting herself from the temptation by simply not being home. Sometimes, she’d stay late at her school with Aniyah. This she tried to limit though. There was only so much of Aniyah Medina Jade was equipped to take. The rest of her time out she spent with some friends she’d met on campus earlier that year after having read a flyer about them on the school’s bulletin board. They were an organized group that played this superhero figurine game, Capes and Crooks. She found some solace in the immersive experience of the game, designing a character, costume and all, then embodying the character in fantasy adventures. It took her away, at least for a while each day, from the problems between herself and Romel.

But, that didn’t mean the problems went away. And avoiding them, it just couldn’t go on forever. Not with the way he was treating her whenever she was at home.

Their issues came to a head one morning. 

Neither of them had been sleeping well. He because, according to him, there were all these pulsating emotions raining in through the windows, she because she didn’t know what to do with him. She got up groggy to get herself ready for her classes. He stayed laying, staring up at the ceiling. Because she was tired, she was taking longer than usual to gather her things. He, his voice gruff and annoyed, said to her, “How long are you going to take?”

She pinched her nose, trying to stay calm. “I’m going to take as long as I need to take.”

“Fine,” he said, turning over and giving her his back.

For whatever reason, on that specific morning, this act felt like one step too far. Intentionally, she began taking extra-long, making noises to disturb him, staring at him with glaring eyes. He, curled up like some infant on the bed, winced as if he were in pain. But she’d run out of pity at this point.

“Am I bothering you?” she asked.

“Kind of, yeah,” he said, his voice all sad sack.

“You could get up and leave, you know?”

He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“And why not?”

“I’ve tried explaining it a million times and I…just don’t know how…”

“Mhm. Right,” she said, slamming her books into her backpack. “There comes a point, Romel, where that little string of words right there, it starts to get really old.”

“What else am I supposed to say?”

“How about: ‘this is what’s been going on with me, this is why everything between us has changed?’ And then, you actually say what it is that’s been going on with you and why it is that everything between us has changed.”

“I can’t. You already think I’m crazy and if I tell you it will only make things worse.”

“Heh…see…that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t think it gets worse than this.”

Romel took a second before saying, his voice all meek and pathetic, “Aren’t you going to be late?” It was, to say the least, the wrong thing to say.

Medina Jade threw her backpack at the floor and marched over to the bed. “You need to get up and dressed right now. You are not staying one more day locked up in here, in my room, in my parents’ apartment, acting like a freak.”

“Babe…no…” he said, begging.

Medina Jade yanked him by the arm and said, “‘Babe,’ nothing, dammit. Get up, right now!”

“I can’t go out there…” he said. He was fighting her, keeping himself in place.

“You will go out there if you want to be with me…” she said, grunting, pulling him with all her strength.

“No,” he replied.

“Yes!” she screamed.

“No!” he screamed back, and with that, he stripped his arm from her grip.

She, in turn, stumbled backward, and fell to the floor on her butt. She sat there for a moment, stewing, her teeth digging into her lower lip. Then, with a sigh, she got up.

“I…” she said, looking down, “I can’t do this anymore, Romel.”

“Then go,” said Romel.

He, in his naivety, didn’t understand what she meant. “No. No, it’s not me that has to go. It’s you.”

“What?” he asked. And, for the first time since this conversation had started, he turned over to look at her. His eyes were all wounded, big and puppy dog brown.

But now, she wasn’t looking at him.

“You can’t stay here anymore. Pack your stuff. I want you gone by the time I get back.”

“Babe,” he said, getting out of bed, going to her. “Babe, no. You can’t send me out there…”

She didn’t answer him. She picked up her backpack and slung it on to her shoulder. Then, she walked to the door.

“Babe…” he pleaded. He tried reaching for her, grabbing her.

She pulled her arm away, the same way he’d done to her.

“By the time I get back, Romel…” she responded, determined.

And then she left him. In her mind, forever. Behind her, she closed the door.