I am the Skeleton in the Closet

Abandoned

When I broke up with Eric I was terrified. I didn't think I could do better and when I finally did as I said I would I realized that the world was much lonelier without someone else there holding my hand along the way. I was happier, now that I didn't have someone to constantly feud with, but the more distance there was the more I realized how nice it was to always have someone on my side. Someone that I didn't have anymore. So after a few months of living singularly I started searching for someone new. Now that I had some experience I knew exactly what it was that I didn't want which helped me figure out specifically what I did. I wanted someone tough, muscular, yet not so much that I couldn't win in a playful wrestling match. I needed them to be smart, educated, I didn't want to be the sole brains of the unit. Most importantly, I wanted them to understand me. I wanted them to be able to understand my side of the argument, know what to do when I was upset, and I wanted to feel like that wasn't asking too much. In short, I wanted someone real. They lived in the moment, but weren't incapable of reminiscing on the past. They would understand why I felt the way that I did and we would make compromises instead of blaming or apologising. It took me a few months, but I finally found someone I felt fit these standards.

He was black and stood a good foot taller than I. Skinny, but athletically so. He shared a physics class with me and was already friends with Erica. His name was Micah, and he seemed to like me too. A few weeks of back and forth teasing. Hanging out in the band hallway after school. One day we were alone in the hall and he pulled out a ornately folded origami rose. He'd spent all day crafting it, I'd been watching him start in our shared fourth hour.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" He asked.

Clearly he was nervous, and he couldn't stop shaking, but I took that rose with a shouted. "Yes!" Hugging him tightly our relationship began.

He was perfect. He fit every one of my specifications and we tried to share everything. All of his friends loved me and I loved all of his friends. Erica knew both of us so she was the most excited about us dating. He was a part of theater, just like Erica, so he often stayed after school just like I did. We would hang out for hours before I had work or guard practice. We were always messing with each other in one way or another.

"Do you trust me?" He'd ask as we sat in the band hallway.

"Why?"

"Just.. do you trust me?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Alright, don't move." He'd instruct moving back and to the side. Then he'd run full force at the wall, kick right above my head, and come back down with his arms out like he was ready to fight. "Wasn't that cool!?" He'd get this light in his eyes about it.

"Yeah." I'd laugh out hugging him as he came to sit next to me again.

We were a cute couple. Micah sat directly behind me in physics and quickly learned about my sarcastic enthusiasm about the subject. Our teacher was funny. He had a few catch phrases like 'big G gravity' and he'd say it whenever it was added in an equation. He had a pair of brass knuckles that said 'Thug' on them that he liked to adorn for dramatic effect. He was probably around sixty if I had to guess. Most of his hair was missing and his eyes were heavily prescribed, which made the ghetto physics puns much funnier. He used to film his lectures in case someone was absent and would upload them to youtube. He always picked my class for the video recording. It was because of me. Everytime he would pass something out or project something on the whiteboard I would let out a sarcastic Whooooooooop of excitement that would make him stop in his tracks to laugh for a second. Then he'd regrab the papers and hand them out pointing at me with raised eyebrows looking towards the other students. We quickly established a rapport and, like with Mr. Harem, Mr. Bunt and I exchanged physics jokes in the spare time class had. Mr. Bunt quickly put together that Micah and I were dating and, since we were on such good terms, would poke fun at both of us during class times. I never told him, but I decided to go with a math involved major in college because of how passionately he spoke about it. You could tell how much he loved the subject and he tried to make it as fun for everyone else too. He inspired me to try to learn it, something I never thought I'd be able to do. Truthfully I took the class to prepare me to fail out of college like Gabe had, a way of convincing myself I couldn't do it. Mr. Bunt showed me otherwise.