Love Journey

9. The Journey

***

Troy Stevens

I am still at UWI and I am so confused. I am sitting in a beastly cold room for the last three hours, watching people go up on the stage of the lecture theater and talk about practically nothing. My urge to leave is great, I'm not even paying attention anymore as I scroll through Twitter since there is free wifi.

"Young man in the white shirt" I hear the man say but I continue on my phone without looking up, I feel eyes on me and when I look up the entire room is looking at me, including my mother scowling. I go on the stage and he asks me some silly question about the last presentation. Luckily for me I've mastered multitasking, I get the question right to his surprise and he hands me a silly bag of "goodies". I return to my seat and my mother gives me the eye and whispers "Get off your phone"

I am completely done with this day, I haven't eaten in three hours and the presenters just keep coming. After 4 hours of torture it is over, I sit on a bench waiting for my mother to call David but she stands and begins to walk, I follow her,

"What are you doing?" I ask as she walks towards the exit,

"You have to learn Barbados again, no taxi gonna teach you that" she says smiling at me Great! Just great, I am two minutes away from death and my mother think it's time for me to rediscover Barbados. "Come on mum! I'm hung-"

"If you don hush up behind me, you int getting no food" we continue walking and I hear my stomach growling with every step.

After getting a number three van and going to town we stop at KFC before getting a Jackson/Shophill van. This is the first time I am getting to see familiar places, I did not pay attention when we first got here but I am enjoying the scenery as memories flow through my mind. The pounding music also brings back memories, of school fairs and parties, and for some reason I remember a girl. A girl with big brown eyes, and ribbons in her hair, I don't remember much more but I do remember her slightly. We get out the van and walk back to our house, I walk quickly past her house just in case she sees me. Stop thinking about her I scold myself she is just another female.

I am so happy to get home but my mother isn't so happy because my Aunt is here. We push the door and there she is standing by the kitchen counter talking to my grandfather,

"Good evening" I say hoping to make a quick escape before the fireworks begin,

"Ahhhh Troy you remember your Aunty Va?" my grandfather asks not noticing the tension between his daughters,

"Hello Troy. Yuh look real sweet now, can't say I know much about you since I haven't seen you years" she hisses with a smirk, I smile awkwardly trying to get away,

"Let's have a drink. Tell me about your day Troy" I know my grandfather really wanted us to have a relationship again but this isn't the time for this. My mother is still at the door, her hand gripping the knob tightly, she walks towards to bedrooms,

"Stacey why don't you join us mmmm?" Ava says pouring us some drinks, my mother turns slowly from her path up the stairs and looks at her,

"I would join you, but I don't drink with snakes" she smiles sweetly and continues to her room.

Why did we come back to this?

***

Samantha Eden

Tre has been calling Ayesha's phone the entire evening, she still looks really sad which is expected, she was completely smitten with him. He was all she talked about, which was rare since she hardly spoke. We get her to cheer up a little, but I know she is going to be hurt for a while. She begins the process of deleting pictures of him from her Instagram, unfollowing and unfriending. This is what I hate the most about relationships, you let someone into your world, into your space, they take you for a fool and then after all the time and moments shared together, when it's all over you're the one losing sleep at night thinking what did I do wrong. This is why I'm done with relationships and done with trying to make someone love me, I'm going to focus on school and come out on top.