𝐔𝐍𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃

1 | leaving home

In my hands, a big cardboard box is balanced as I climb down the white marble stairs of what seemed to be my home for one and a half years. I'm pretty sure that the box weighs more than myself, concidering that it contains almost all of my literature books and university textbooks along with a sweatshirt and two pairs of jeans that didn't fit in my suitcase.

When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I carefully place the box in the backseat of my charcoal Ford Fusion since it didn't fit in the trunk. For a financially unstable college student I surprisingly have a lot of things to transfer from my girlfriend's-ex girlfriend' apartment to my new home. It is truly amazing and surreal, how living with another person for almost two years can change your habits entirely overtime, starting from drinking morning coffee (I don't particularly like coffee but I don't hate it either) to doing laundry every single day (even if there are literally five pieces of clothing in the laundry basket) and oh yeah, having four different laundry baskets for crying out loud-one for whites, blacks, colorful clothing, wool and underwear. Wait, that's five and there's labels with capital letters on the side. I didn't mind the fact that Evelyn was and still is a neat freak. Her clothes are organized according to size, material and color. The same applies for her underwear and her socks as well.

Everything in her house has a special place. I could live with that. It only made me better at organizing my own space and respecting someone else's boundaries. Splitting the chores in the house taught me how to be more responsible and I slowly improved my cooking skills. I would find myself wanting to cook for her at times, but only pasta since she said that those were my best dishes. Living with Evelyn was pleasant most of the time. Her perfectionism sometimes could be annoying, but it was also a turn on. I liked it when she took control and she would easily convince me to experiment during sex. Sex with her is explosive. Sex with her is all flames and ecstasy and so fucking consuming. She wasn't the first girl I've been with and she'll definitely not be the last, but I doupt I'll find another woman as skilled and as confident as her.

Or as beautiful.

My phone vibrates in my back pocket and I take it out. The screen lights up the word 'love' and a red heart right next to it. A picture of her playfully licking off my ice cream is the backround. Her natural red curls frame her face while her sky blue eyes are vibrant and alive. She's smiling even with her pink tongue poked out. She's wearing a pink shirt with the buttons open at the top exposing a good amount of cleavage. I'm right next to her, smiling gleefully as I watch her steal some of my chocolate mint ice cream. I remember I tickled her afterwards until she let out the ugliest yet most adorable accidental snort and she that's when she told me she loved me for the first time. It was a moment of serendipity when she uttered the words 'I love you' and of course I said it back. We started dating officially on our first year of college and we moved in together several months later. I used to live in a frat house before moving into her apartment. It was fun living in a pool of dirty laundry and a continuous circle of partying and drinking but I was serious with Evelyn. I wanted to work things out.

However, relationships aren't as sweet and savory like what the movies and books portray. I knew that, of course. I wasn't expecting a perfect life or the fairytail ending with her, but I thought that she would never change. We met for the first time in the university's laundry room and truth to be told I had no idea how to sort my clothes let alone start the machine. I didn't even have a quarter with me and I remember being so embarrassed with myself for being such an idiot. Evelyn must have been checking me out, because she was the only one who noticed me spacing out in the middle of the room, with a white basket filled with dirty and smelly laundry. She then helped me arrange my clothes into blacks and whites and she even gave me quarters to start the machine. She's an empathetic person and she's very caring and considerate towards strangers. Sometimes, she would let her feelings overwhelm her to the point that she would get sad over little things, but I loved that about her. Her empathy made her shine in the crowd.