Levi Harris: A Guide to Middle School

Episode 21: The Break Up

EPISODE 21: The Break Up

‘Levi, please!’ she sobbed. Her Angelic face was drenched in tears. I had to break up with her. Well at least for a short time being. I cupped her beautiful face in my hands and kissed her.

‘I want you to know that I still love you, we just have to separate for sometime,’ I said and she nodded in approval. My heart was tearing inside and I felt sick. I just had to believe in Mrs. Bwana for a moment.

‘Lee. I... Want you... To know... I love you too,’ she stammered and my heart felt a piercing straight in the middle. ‘Why was I breaking up with her?’ I asked myself. I had to do it. For a while at least. I looked into her eyes for what would be the last time in a while and my heart was thumping madly in my chest. I had broken up with Angelina. The girl that I loved. How did I feel after that? Pretty damn bad. She was innocent and sweet and all the girl you could ever ask for. I knew I was making a mistake in breaking up with her even if it was for the time being. But I still went on forward with it. Maybe Mrs. Bwana’s evil rubbed off on me. I stood there with her for a long while but I had to go. I had to leave her standing alone. I heard the drizzle of the rain and then the drizzle turned into harsh rain. They were falling just like her tears as if the angels in heaven were crying over my little drama movie. I walked off into the rain with my head bowed and my hoody on. The scenery of the school turned into a pale grey colour. My head was dizzy from thoughts that kept on pounding my head. I knew this was wrong but why was I doing it? That’s a question I never came to answer. I arriced at my car and grasped the door handle for five seconds before slowly opening the door. My face was wet. It wasn’t wet of rain but of my tears. ‘Stop crying,’ I told myself. ‘Don’t be a pussy.’

    My day seemed dull after that. I felt an empty void being lugged around by my heart and I was what I would call, love-fatigued. The problem with love is that it is such a great emotion that it’s almost impossible to ignore but when you give up and aknowledge love, it always ends up hurting. That’s how I felt that day. Pure love-fatigue.

    September 16th 2009, The $2500 trip

    I had nothing to look forward to in life. A psycho would’ve committed suicide but I had friends and family. Commiting suicide would’ve been utterly selfish. I woke up every morning with the words ‘what’s the point?’ ringing in my head like some annoying old tune. I didn’t know how dumping Angelina helped. She was basically the only thing I had to look forward to.

    I arrived in school looking tired and depressed and the only thought in my head was ‘I hope no one hits on Angie’. I sat at the back of the class with Corey sitting on my left and Mustafa sitting on the desk in front of us, next to Muksin. Then someone came with important news that gave me something to look forward to. Mrs. Shindika, the school principal, fired her way into the form one classroom which was looking quite dirty and purched herself onto the teacher’s desk.

‘As you know, you are now old enough to enroll for the France trip. I’m sure a lot of you want to come so if you wish to come please put up your hand,’ she said. She said it all in one go as if she had no time to waste. I hesitated to lift my arm but as I did, I saw the hesitant arms of Corey and Mustafa raise up. ‘Good. I see a lot of you are interested.’ She then quickly scanned the room and caught eyes with Jennifer, whose hand was erect in the air. ‘Jennifer, please write down the people who want to come quickly please.’ Jennifer responded faster than a bullet. She ripped a paper out of a book that was lying on the desk and she quickly went around the class, signing in people’s names.

‘Thank you,’ Mrs. Shindika mumbled as she set off towards my right, heading for the blue door. She then seemed to pull the brakes on her high heels and stood at the door.

‘Any questions?’ she asked and at least ten hands rose in the air.

‘Yes, Jennifer.’ You could guess what she was going to ask, it was probably what everyone wanted to ask.

‘How much does the trip cost?’ Jennifer asked and you could tell that Mrs. Shindika expected that question.

‘Well I haven’t calculated everything, but it should be around the region of two thousand five hundred dollars.’ She replied. Seven out of the ten hands dropped and only the hands of Mustafa, Jennifer and I still swayed in the air.

‘Samuel.’ Mrs. Shindika said, acknowledging my hand.

‘Err… Where are we gonna stay? In a hotel or something?’ I asked. Mrs. Shindika knew this question. This question had probably been asked each year but she still greeted the question with a smile.

‘Well, we’re gonna stay with some French families. Two people per house.’ She replied, her smile still worn on her face. Mustafa’s hand dropped and only Jennifer’s hand stood erect in the air and you could almost feel the euphoria bursting out of her body.

‘Yes, Jennifer.’

‘Well, like, can we like, bring people who are like not in this school?’ she asked. I was astonished by how many times Jennifer managed to fit in a ‘like’ in a very short question.

‘If their parents are okay with it, you could invite them. Do you have anyone in mind?’ she asked making Jennifer twitch for some random reason.

‘Yeah. My friend Josie. She wants to…’ she was interrupted.

‘Yeah whatever Jennifer, we don’t want to know,’ shouted Mustafa. Mrs. Shindika shook her head in disapproval before heading out the door. Jennifer mouthed the words ‘fuck you,’ to Mustafa before retiring to her twilight book. Mustafa quickly turned his head backwards whilst swinging on his chair and said ‘We’ve got to go France,’ before swinging his chair forwards until all for legs touched the ground. I looked towards Corey on my left and we knew we were both thinking the same thing and we nodded at each other. If my parents allowed me to go to the France trip, I would be back in Europe and not only that; I would also have a lot of freedom. I had to convince my parents. I had to go to that France trip. All the hype over the France trip made me forget about Angelina for a few minutes before thoughts of her filled my head again. I tried to stop thinking about her by thinking about the France trip but it was like trying to stop rain from falling. I hadn’t noticed that the French lesson had started and by the time I had pieced together my mind, the lesson was over and I had not learnt a thing. Moments went on and thoughts of Angelina still rang in my head.

    The day seemed quick and I was surprised when the final lesson, science, was finished and we were exiting the classroom. ‘I have to get together with Angie!’ I told myself. I stood up and I saw Mustafa gliding over to where Angelina was sitting with tears in her face. I could tell he was asking her for the reason to her tears. I stood up with my bag fully packed and made my way to her. But then they both, Mustafa and Angelina, made their way out of the classroom. They were moving quickly and I was trying to catch up but there were piles of people blocking me from them. I could hear their every giggle and chuckle and it was tearing my insides. I couldn’t obtain a proper sight of them. When I finally saw them at the main entrance they were both quiet and still. Looking into each other’s eyes and they slowly moved in. I was immobile. Their lips touched and finally, the devil let me off his lock and I came running at them. Running with my fists clenched. Until I came at a halt and they were right in front of me.