love

i.

Hester was ten when she first fell in love. Love. It's such a foreign, distant feeling, yet sought after by so many people. For the first time in so many years, a protective shelter wrapped around her, covering her eyes from the brutal reality of it all. But like everything in life, it goes away. It was like the impending doom of ripping off an overdue band-aid. Sometimes, you just want to get it off in one painful blow. Other times, with enough meticulous scrubbing and wincing, it comes off gently, leaving only the patch of skin paler than the rest.

Yet, it was so beautiful. Every morning, she had a purpose to wake up to. When he just so glanced at her, a smile would instantly light up on her face. For the rest of the day she would walk around like a dumbass on drugs, the grin impossible to wipe away. When she got home, her mom would take one look at her and ask, "What the hell happened to you?", before going back to her cigarette.

Then, reality dawned upon her. Billy Johnson liked someone else. The brunette across the street with perfect round curls cascading like molten chocolate down her back. Slowly, she felt like she was drifting back down to Earth, Cupid's arrow vanishing. She would no longer wait for him at the bus-stop, strategically placing herself next to him during class, at lunch or during recess and snack. No. Hester had once again been released back into her eternal hell.

Now almost eleven years forward, no longer so welcoming and naive towards love, Hester scrambled from a man's cologne drenched bed. She scoured the ground for her death-trap sort of dress, careful not to wake him up. He let out a grunt reaching for the warm figure nestled next to him, just to learn she had slipped away. This game of cat-and-mice was all too familiar to her. She was scared of commitment so she slept around. Dancing around heartfelt questions and yearnings of her love, this was just Hester's way of living.

As her red Honda sped away onto the highway, she glanced at her phone. 30 missed calls from: ANADIL <3, 24 new messages from: THE COVEN, 4 new messages from 857-345-7769. Hester groaned silently. Guilt wrenched her heart as she stared at Ani's name on her phone. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She blocked her swirling thoughts in her brain, promising to deal with them at home. Now she had a bigger problem in her hands.

The man was probably waking up realizing his one-night-fling had long disappeared into the daylight. She promptly ignored them, pressing the red "block" button, almost as if it was smiling smugly up at her. Fuck him, she thought as she pulled up to the rocky pavement to their squat black house sitting amongst a hill overlooking Camelot, the prestigious town of stuck up bitches.

Two years ago, when Tedros, the husband of her dear friend, Agatha, won the election for mayor of the town, he gifted Hester this estate complete with a patio and a garden bed. Personally, Hester thinks Tedros has just the amount of dignity as a poodle (he sure looks and acts like one)- maybe even less. But this was a huge upgrade from their dingy little apartment in Ravenswood. And so she and her two closest friends- the three of them lovingly nicknamed the Coven- moved into the black house.

As Hester gathered herself, she climbed up the stairs, fumbling for her keys. Shit. Shit Shit. She had lost them for the fourth time this month. Anadil's going to kill me. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door. After a series of scrambling (and cursing), Hester was greeted by the familiar ghostly pale skin and blood red eyes. She tried not to stare at the terrifyingly deep circles under her eyes.

"Where the fuck have you been? We were worried sick for you, Hester! Dot was half expecting you to arrive dead in a fucking coffin! A COFFIN." Anadil screamed, pulling Hester in.

All she could do was smile sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. "I was... I... met up with someone?" she replied, her face becoming the same shade of red as Anadil's eyes.

For a moment, something flashed across Anadil's face, causing her nose to become all wrinkled and her wide eyes sad.

"It isn't one of your hookups is it? Hester, come on. You know what, just... fuck it. It's over. Fuck this stupid ass life, fuck us, fuck you!" she screamed. Her usual clam demeanor crumbled like an old bridge, falling into a sea of nothingness. 

Yet Anadil being Anadil, her face fell back into its usual state of non attachment and carelessness. She slipped away from the living room, leaving Hester standing there alone. 

"Ani, I'm sorry. It's just how I function okay?" she yelled, scrambling to keep up with Anadil's disappearing figure. Her voice was shut with a slam of a door. Hester stood there looking wistfully at the wooden door, wanting to bust it open. In that moment, she could feel the delicious pain of love creeping up. It climbed up to her chest like a vine, strangling it making her want to rip everything out. "Anadil, I'm sorry, please can you let me in?" she begged clawing at the door. "Ani! I love you!" she screeched begging, knocking, clawing. "He didn't mean anything! I was fucking drunk. Ani!" she continued. 

For the first time since her mother's death, Hester could feel the tears coming in. The flooded all around her, creating a black river cascading down her face. 

Suddenly, behind her she saw a plump figure waddling towards the stairs. "Hey Anadil, where did you- OH hey Hester! We were worried sick about you..." Dot trailed off staring at the shriveling mess on the ground once a fearless leader amongst the three. 

"What did I miss?" she sighed, climbing down the stairs, resuming her search for nail clippers.