Imagining Us

Chapter 9

From the walls of her room, she could hear the soft, faint waves of cello sounds passing through the walls as Lena played.
It was a slow and mournful sound—a result of the conversation that they just had. Her laptop was open in front of her, she had gotten in nearly an hour of work, constantly pushing what she learned to the back of her mind, but now, it was all she could think about.

Tears pricked at her eyes, but she knew that they wouldn't fall. She just wasn't a crier, but she could feel—and it was so overwhelming that sometimes it felt like she couldn't breathe. She wondered when the accident happened.

Was it recent or did it happen when he was younger? Did he grieve...how did he grieve?

She knew that her loss was different from his because she couldn't imagine losing her mother.

Esi wondered if sometimes he had good days when the loss was far from his mind, but then sometimes the grief just catapulted into you, and the world would flip upside down. Because that would happen to her sometimes, and she couldn't make sense of it.
She could feel so selfish sometimes. Why her? Why did she feel this way? Why did it ache her so much?
They were as prepared for her passing as they could've been.
Afi and Bri lost Sabine too, and even though she couldn't speak for their hearts, from the outside it seemed as if they heeded Sabine's final words to them.

Porte's story had begun to intrigue her.

There were small glimpses when she would see a different side of him, and she wondered if those changes were a symptom of his loss.
She imagined that someone with money like him would always have people around hanging off of their every word.
But, did he have someone who listened to him—actively and consciously?

Unthinkingly, her hand moved to her phone, and she found herself opening her social media app. A few notifications popped up in the corner, and there was a new follower notification. She still had a bunch of follower requests that she had left unattended. Her cousin Joseph—Afia's brother— found it hilarious to give his roadman friends her handle, so she had become accustomed to ignoring requests.
This one was different.

The name was— @pdanvers05. Porte Danvers

As much as she was going to search for him, Esi didn't really think that he had a social media account. He just didn't seem like the type.

Without hesitation, she accepted the request and followed him back.
It was only right that she tapped on his profile and took a peek. He requested her first. That was the justification that she would use for creeping on his profile.
A lot of his posts were architectural designs and photos of unique buildings and nature. It was mostly a controlled page that didn't delve too deeply into his personal life.
Not that she was looking, but she didn't see any posts indicating a girlfriend. She didn't even see a post of the brother that Lena said he had.
There were photos of him at what looked like the Euro football championships.
One photo depicted him dressed in white, surrounded by people outside of a stadium with the flag of the UK in hand. Another photo showed him inside of the stadium box, this time dressed in a red shirt with a white hat.
Embroidered on the hatt was a red flag with a white cross.
The flag looked Nordic but she couldn't exactly remember if it signified the Norwegian flag or the Danish flag.

She would have to ask him about that—him supporting two different countries. She wondered if he was as confused as she was sometimes. Who should she support in a World Cup game—Ghana, Trinidad or England?

Supporting these countries in the Olympics was so much easier—even though there was a total medal count, wins were also individualized. Maybe he was unsure as she was sometimes.

Esi continued to scroll.

She paused at the post. It was a photo of him holding her—technically, she never got the opportunity to buy it— blue Pride & Prejudice hardcover book.

His caption wrote " Have to brush up on my P&P lit. Met Elizabeth today and now I have to convince her that her mother is a redeemable character."

She let out a laugh, shaking her head in disbelief and double tapped the post.

Caught up in scrolling through his profile, she noticed a new message notification.

Tapping it, she selected the first chat.

"Greetings, Elizabeth."

She rolled her eyes at the triteness of it, but couldn't help the smile taking over her face.

"We didn't get a chance to exchange numbers, so I hope you don't mind that I messaged you this way."

Did she mind?
Wasn't she sort of doing the exact same thing?
Well, she wasn't sure that she would have been bold enough to send him a message, but she probably would have followed him.

She searched for a reply and typed, "Hello, Mr. Colins."

That should get the conversation going.

Filled with glee, Esi hadn't realized that the cello music had seized in the wake of her peals of laughter that burst out in response to his reply.

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A/N

Thank you to all those who have been following this story.

I really appreciate it.

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Evie x