(This is a continuation of the story started in Happy, the previous poem)
She didn’t feel the smile she wore.
Anyone else would be thrilled to double up their stack at the poker table.
Doing so when she knew he had blundered made her cry a bit inside. She wasn’t cut out for this.
Flickering lights were the first things he noticed as he awoke, dazed, confused, and hung over
Laying on the asphalt, he tried to roll off his back but found he couldn’t
As if he was stuck there by the hand of God, all he could see were
Strobing lights pulsating across the cloud-infested night sky
He began to cry when he heard his brother say, “Told you superglue would work.”
Cutting her hair, at one time, would make her cry. It was such a horrible experience
Utter fear would grip her upon sitting in the chair knowing she was at the mercy of the hairdresser
Red hair ringlets defined the core of who she was and were her pride and joy, so she was so particular
Letting the electric razor zoom across her scalp, she smiled.
Suck it, cancer! She would grow back stronger.
Didn’t have any time to recharge, so down went another bottle of caffeine and sugar
Really, sleep was in order, demanded even, but she ignored it
As she had too much to do and way too little time to get it all done
It would have made her cry, except after fifteen years of doing this, this was normal
Now if she had only believed her mother before she had become a mother herself…
Lifting those around her with the strength of her humor
Always trying to coax a smile and plant a seed of happiness
Understanding sometimes people need to cry
Giving them the space in those moments to finish watering their emotional crop
Helping eventually the next crop of the giggles to grow after that soaking
Coloring her face to hide the emotions inside
Leaving a smile prominently painted in place
Outside she was the embodiment of extroverted entertainment
When the party was over she would sit alone in her car and cry
No one knew that the joke was on them
Image: scstylecaster.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/applying_makeup.jpg
Giving her sarcasm free reign
Lori lit into Mark’s response
It made him blush, and that made her happy
But when he started to cry, well that made her ecstatic
Image: sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/072418_ti_mouth_feat_free.jpg
Darryl couldn’t believe this was happening. Not now. Not during final exams. He pleaded with Wendy. “I could spend my time doing anything, but instead I’ve spent it with you. Don’t you understand?”
Wendy burst into tears again. Darryl had no answer. Why was this girl doing this to him? Didn’t he just tell her how important she was? Yet here she was, cradling herself like he had punched her in the gut.
“Look, I…” He just couldn’t find the words to say, and he was sure anything he tried to say right now wouldn’t be the right ones. He tried to touch her shoulder, but she pulled away. “I need to study.” He turned and left the room. He couldn’t decide if he was storming out or fleeing, but either way, he had to go.
*************************************************************************************
Wendy felt more than saw Darryl leave. Her tears continued to escape, but she was holding the rest of the heartache in. If she squeezed herself hard enough she might be able to hold it together till she got back to her dorm room. She waited long enough that hopefully he was gone before she scrambled to exit. That’s when she ran full force into Judy.
“What the hell happened to you?” Judy asked.
“Darryl said he wasted his time being with me. He told me he could have been doing anything else, but instead he had spent it with me.” That was it. The hurt gushed out all over the place, and no amount of squeezing was going to get it back under control. She ran for her room, hoping she wouldn’t run into anyone else.
*************************************************************************************
Judy watched Wendy go, wondering why Darryl could say such a thing. She decided to give that boy a piece of her mind. It took her a bit, but she found in him the basement quiet area studying physics. The putz looked like all he cared about were those damn equations. She walked up to him from slightly behind. He had his hand on the left-hand side of the book, using his finger to hold his place. Judy grabbed the other side and slammed it shut on the stupid kid’s hand.
“Ow! What the hell!” screamed Darryl. “Bitch!”
Judy leaned in close. She wanted to get in this asshole’s face. “How dare you say Wendy’s not important.”
Darryl flew out of his chair wagging his hand. “What the? I didn’t say that!”
“Liar!”
“What the hell do you know?”
A voice from outside the room filled the small basement space. “Keep your voices down!”
“Sorry, Henry,” Darryl said. In a much softer voice he continued, “Like I said, how the hell do you know?”
Judy took her voice down a couple of notches as well. “She told me.”
“She, but, I, I didn’t say that. I told her I thought she was important enough to spend all my time with.”
Now it was Judy’s turn to be caught off guard. “What?”
“I told her she was so important to me that I spent all my time with her. I could have done all these other things, but I just wanted to spend time with her.”
“Did you say it exactly that way?” Judy started to have a queasy feeling in her stomach.
“Well, not exactly,” Darryl said. Then a horrified look came over his face. “Fuck!” He ran out of the room.
“I said keep it quiet in there!” A mountain of a man waddled into the room. “What is wrong with you people? This is a quiet zone!”
Judy shrugged. “I guess it was just a whole bunch of miscommunication.”
“Me yelling wasn’t enough communication?”
“You’re the only one making with the loud right now,” Judy said. She sat down and cracked the physics book. Henry must have gotten the hint since he left. There could be worse things than what she was reading, but then she thought of the mess that had just occurred. She then looked back at the page of equations she had flipped to. “Okay, maybe not.”
Judy closed the book and left the whole mess behind.
Image: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Physics_Book.jpg
Didn’t you know it? This was going to go down to the wire
Every word was being counted, but the paper still wasn’t long enough
And he still had to organize his bibliography
Disheveled notes cluttered the floor beneath his desk
Littered with disparate ideas he was trying to weave into a coherent narrative
It almost made him cry when he thought of it.
Not getting it done would make him cry even more, though, so he kept typing
Eventually, he submitted it and began to pray. It was late, but maybe Doc wouldn’t notice
Image: thematrixmastermind.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/why-deadlines-are-important-1110×550.jpg
Go big or go home meant Lilly was going home
Reaching for the strap she felt the subway lurch away from the station
At least she had come close, or at least she tried to convince herself of that
Now it was over and her bed would be the only one calling
Daring her dreams to try to be that big again she began to silently cry
Image: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/New_NYC_subway_train.jpg
Stories and photos from Scotland
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Abdi Mohammed
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