Tidal

August: Brinley

Brinley

I picked up my soft yellow sweater with my school's emblem attached to it, once vibrant and full of life the cotton-blend was now dull and faded. Seems about right, I thought to myself. I tossed it into my suitcase and continued to pack up the belongings that were neatly organized on my bed. The double-wide closet with the beautiful french doors I'd insisted on used to hold pieces of me from every walk in my life, now it seemed bare; packed up and abandoned. The only thing that covered the almost empty shelves was a large brown wicker chest with gold detailing that weaved in a delicate pattern.

The "ex box" is what my best friend Ainsley called it as she made me put together for the relationship that ended at the end of senior year. I picked up the heavy wicker chest that consumed more space in my mind than it did in that closet. It was full of him, every love letter he had ever written me was splayed across the bottom of it. My corsage from prom, although now dried out, still sat pristinely in the glass box my mom had insisted I put it in. The memories of Preston covered every inch of that box, corner to corner was covered with the boy who I had given my heart to for four years. Hot tears pricked in my eyes and I wiped them before they could hit my cheeks. I would not cry over him anymore, he had wreaked enough havoc on my life in the past 4 months. I could have never imagined the deception I was in store for when I laid eyes on the sweet face I would claim as mine.

His blue eyes covered with green flecks lit up with amusement as he walked down the halls surrounded by his teammates. The tall tanned boy with the Colgate-grade smile had made my breath hitch and head spin when he noticed me in the cafeteria for the first time. I couldn't believe that he was a freshman when I examined his broad and muscular chest the first time at the field party when they had run in with their chests painted our school colours after a big win.

A soft knock at the door pulled me out of my trip down memory lane and I slammed the lid down making a mental note to toss the box before I left for college.

"Hey sweetie, almost all packed up?" My mom had been coming in my room periodically for the past 12 hours making sure that I was actually making progress with the suitcases I had to fill. Her soft brown eyes gazed around the now empty room, stopping at the box placed in front of me. Her gaze was now harder as she wrinkled her perfectly manicured brow looking at the memory box in distain. Her honey blonde hair fell into her face, casting a shadow across her olive complexion. She grabbed a hair tie off of my night stand and brushed her hair back into a low ponytail. 
 "Come on Brinley," she said with exasperation, "when are you going to throw that damn box away."

"Just let it alone, Mom." I rolled my eyes; as if she had any clue about what had happened. I had made up some bullshit story as to why Preston and I had ended things. If I told her the truth she would tell my brother and that would just wreak havoc.

"Things end, Brin. He wasn't the right one for you, you both fell out of love with each other. It's time to throw that thing away." She gabbed on as if she had been there the night we ended things, "it's a bad omen and it's been three months since you two split, time to move on." With that tidbit of unsolicited advice she turned on her heel and walked out the door.

My mom meant well, had I told her what really happened between Preston and I should would be at his throat. She never really liked his company and had insisted that he was going to break my heart one day, the 'pretty boys' always did according to her.

She was right about one thing though, it was time to move on and move out. I had chosen Alabama U as a last minute choice to put 1,778 miles between every problem that was lingering in Albuquerque. Saint Pius X was going to be a place of my past, I was ready to trade in the yellow and black for red and white.