Goodbye

Page 12

Surprisingly enough I helped Lucy-Ann every morning on my way to work. Initially I was more of a bother than any help to her but as time passed by, she started to appreciate me more. This made working with her much easier. On the other hand, things were not looking too good between Mint and me. She did not like me helping out Lucy-Ann. More than once she asked me why I would waste my time on an obnoxious person like Lucy-Ann. At least this feeling was mutual. Lucy-Ann felt the exact same way about Mint. When I asked her why the two of them did not get along, she just frowned and told me that she did not have any good experience with Mint. When she started working at the company, Mint was acting nicely around her on the first day but the day after Lucy-Ann heard how Mint was gossiping about her. Then she quietly added that pretty people like her were all the same. For a moment she watched me, before continuing with picking up the trash.

I had started to get used to the fact that I could not see my own reflection in the mirror. Every time I looked, this black thing seemed to grow, as if it was feeding on me. However, the truth is, it did not grow at all. I was just getting frustrated by it. Way too frustrated. I wanted to talk with Mint about it but somehow we never really got to talk. Despite my desire for it to stop, we spent all the nights together. Mint told me that she had never met anybody who made her feel the way I did. This should have been a compliment but I just felt sick hearing about it.

I started to enjoy my time without her. Perhaps this was the reason why I was always looking forward to seeing Lucy-Ann. She hated me and she did not try to hide it but it did not make me feel contemptuous. It was kind of nice to be honest because she never did anything mean to me and honestly, I think we grew closer with every second I spent with her.

For instance, I was usually the one trying to start a conversation but this one day it was Lucy-Ann, who was genuinely curious about something.

"Say Aiden, what is it even that you like about Mint?" The days had gotten colder and it was raining almost every second. We were holding our umbrellas, as we were trying to pick up all the trash. It did not make it any easier and besides, on rainy days this street looked even more frightening. I reminded Lucy-Ann that my name was Alec and mumbled something about Mint being nice. Because of all this rain, Lucy-Ann did not quite catch what I said so she asked me to repeat it. I sighed and then told her that I thought Mint was nice. She just gave me the most awkward look I had even seen.

"You think she's nice? That's all?!" I shrugged. What was I supposed to say? She is an absolute beauty that could kill just by smiling at a person. Did she expect me to say anything like this?

"You guys have been dating for how long now?! You could say something about her being fun or being a good kisser or anything besides her being kind of nice!"

This was something I found out about Lucy-Ann. Despite being seemingly shy and introverted, she was nothing like this at all. This girl had anger issues to work out. She could get mad at literally everything and once she got mad, she would not stop complaining. This is what I call 'never judge a book by its cover'.

I tried explaining to Lucy-Ann that Mint and I had a complicated relationship but she would not listen to me. She stopped me in the middle of it and just stood there looking at me. Then, all of a sudden, she asked me if Mint was my first girlfriend. At first I did not know what to answer. I thought about it for a second and then answered unnaturally stiff that you could say so. Lucy-Ann looked at me with such disbelief in her eyes or at least I thought this was the case. It was hard to see her eyes through those glasses because of all the rain. I handed her some lens cleaning wipes that I pulled out from my backpack. Unlike what I imagined, she did not ask my why I had lens cleaning wipes with me, despite me not wearing glasses.

The days went by and it was getting even colder. Lucy-Ann and I decided to take a break from picking up trash. This made Mint happy. What she did not expect was that Lucy-Ann and I started to meet up a lot. One day Mint got so mad that she just left in the middle of kissing me. I did not understand the problem but apparently I was the only one. When I told Lucy-Ann about it, she  suddenly started lecturing me. We were at my place and I was making some tea. She was laying down on my bed, stretching her whole body. I sat down on the floor and waited for my tea to cool down a bit. The floor was surprisingly cold but there was no other place to sit, so I had no choice. Lucy-Ann told me that there was still some space left on the bed but after careful consideration of the space, I decided that this was a bad idea.

"Anyways, you should stop inviting me over. Of course Mint would get mad." I took a sip from my tea but it was still too hot. I burned my tongue. I set the blue cup down and questioned as to why Lucy-Ann even came to visit in the first place. She irritatedly told me that it was because she hated Mint.

"Sometimes I really feel like you don't even love Mint. Whatever. At least make Christmas special for her." Lucy-Ann was already annoyed by all of this but when I told her that I was probably not going to spend Christmas Eve with Mint, her jaw dropped. Her high scratchy voice just went up at least one octave, when she asked me why this was. I tried explaining to her that I was planning to go back to my hometown for a few days. There was this movie that was supposed to come out around this time and I had made plans with some of my old classmates. One of them had already added me to a group chat. So far I was the only one that did not agree to come yet.

After I told Lucy-Ann about this, she suddenly calmed down. She took a sip from her tea. She did not burn her tongue. She put her white cup with bunnies on it down.

"That reminds me. You're so young and you don't have any degrees. How the fuck did you get a job here?" This was the one question I hoped I would never get. I awkwardly tried to smile at her, before telling her that a friend of mine got me in through connections. Lucy-Ann realised that I did not feel comfortable talking about it. She bit her lip, like she had said something she was not supposed to.

"Going to your hometown sounds nice. It's always nice to meet some old friends." I nodded. She did not say anything more than that. We just quietly drank our tea and later said goodbye to each other.

I lay in bed, thinking about what Lucy-Ann had said. I knew that I needed to give my old classmates an answer but I was not sure yet if I really wanted to go. It had been a while. I came to this city to forget about the past but somehow everything just came back, as if it never left my side.

Perhaps going back for a few days was not that bad actually. I did not have to stay for long. Two days would not hurt. I could rent a room for a night. I would not stay for Christmas Eve. This should be alright. I would just go for the movie and for nothing else. Two days. Only two days. Everything would be fine.

I told Mint about this. Of course she was mad but in the end she even agreed that it might have been a good idea. James on the other hand just glared at me with his brown eyes. When it was finally only the two of us, he told me to be careful and that Mint really loved me.