Chapter 1
I stared blankly at the bowl of fuzzy cheerios in my bathroom sink. I hadn’t noticed it as when I first started to brush my teeth but now as I was ready to spit out the toothpaste in my mouth, all I could think of was how a mold could be so blue. It wasn’t even a normal mold blue, but a vibrant neon blue that would scare away anything from eating it. Why can’t I have a normal life? I thought as I tried to figure out how to maneuver the bowl without touching the nasty fungus.
Leaving the toothbrush in my mouth, I gingerly lifted the bowl from the very bottom onto the back of the toilet. Finally having room, and after inspecting the sink for any blue fuzz that might be hiding, I managed finished my morning routine while glaring at the bowl, half expecting it to move. Which I swore it did a few times out of the corner of my eye.
Making my way to the living room, bowl in tow, I found “the best roommate in the world” moving around. Lucy flitted around the living room like a hummingbird, in the only way a morning person can as she hummed cheerfully. “Good morning Evangeline! Isn’t this a great day to be alive! God is really shining down on us today.” Her singsong voice grated against my sensitive ears drums.
Lucy was a tiny girl only standing a hair above 5 feet tall. She had curls and curls of bright blond hair that on a good day could reach just past her butt. She has always been happy and energetic, which was one of her most annoying qualities. Her happy-go-lucky attitude revolved around her getting her way, and with me being a huge pushover, she always got her way.
“Why is this bowl of cerritos being used as a petri dish in our bathroom?” As I asked her this question, I soon found the reason without her input. The sink of HER dishes was filled to the brim with old moldy plate of half eaten food. Some looking much more terrifying than the bowl I held in my hand. The sink that was clean the night before, was now the most disgusting thing I had even seen or smelt for that matter.
“That? Oh, I ran out of room in the kitchen sink so I put it in the bathroom,” Lucy said with a smile on her face as if what she said was completely normal. “I was cleaning my room out early this morning because…” She paused dramatically as I looked at her like the crazy person she was, “I have a date!” She explained excitedly and let out a high pitched squeal as she crash landed on the couch to squirm around like a five year old. My expression didn’t change as she hugged a stuffed animal she had brought out of her room.
“Oh, Evangeline he is the sweetest most amazing guy I’ve ever met,” Lucy kept talking but I stopped listening as I stared at the nasty that was our shared kitchen sink. Lucy must have had months of old leftover food plates hidden in her room for all this to have piled up. Did student housing even read any of the answers we put down on our questionnaire when we got placed in our room? Because whoever thought that Lucy and I were going to be a “great match” needs to be sent to a hospital for people who are criminally insane.
“So you are going to clean this up then?” I interrupted Lucky’s tirade of gushing. She stopped for a few seconds as she looked at me completely confused before bursting in to ear piercing high pitched laugh.
“You are too funny Evangeline. This is why I’m so glad they gave me such a hilarious roommate! I can never guess what you are going to do next. Of course I’m not going to. Today is your day for dishes silly. Oh, but they have to be finished by at least five o’clock! That’s when Travis gets here! Oh! I’ll also need you out of the house tonight. Maybe stay at your parents or something? I want it to be super romantic…” I zoned her out again as I stared blankly at girl. She talked animatedly while talking about her new boytoy.
“Lucy I don’t have time to clean up YOUR dishes. I have to study for my exam Monday along with shit tons of homework for my other classes,” I said in the calmest voice I could manage. The plates stared back at me as I spoke. I was not going to clean up her mess for the hundredth time this year. Much less when I have so many other more important things to do.
Lucy stopped in her tracks as she looked at me wide eyed, “But today is your day for dishes! That isn’t fair! Every time its my day I do them. You can’t just break our rules whenever they suit you Evangeline. You always do things like this. You are so selfish.” Lucy was now screaming as she wailed about how her life was so tough and that I was just making it worse. How could I treat her like this. Blah blah blah. She always started like this whenever I brought the dishes or how I used the internet the most, so she shouldn’t have to pay for it. I lasted all of ten minutes of this before I broke, just like every other time she did this.
“FINE fine fine. I’ll do it but this is the last time,” I knew I was lying to myself even as the words left my mouth. This wouldn’t be the last time. I would never grow a spine and tell her to go shove it and Lucy knew that. All her fake tears and crying disappeared almost instantly as I caved and went back to flitting around the living room like a butterfly high on crack.
Turning my attention to the sink, I just sighed and left them there to do later after I got some studyinging in. Lucy didn’t pay any attention to me as I wandered back into my room. Once the door was shut I silently screamed into the air before collapsing into my desk chair. Why couldn’t I have any other roommate in the world? It couldn’t get much worse than this.
I spent the first hours of my day working on sample exam questions and an essay that I was 100% sure I was going to fail no matter how hard I tried. It was a little before three before I stopped working on school work and had set out to deal with the dishes. Noticing a missed call and voicemail left for me I grabbed it and put it on speaker as I put together a game plan to deal with the nastiness that was our kitchen sink.
“Hey Eva…” There was a long pause as I found a pair of gloves to put on as I turned on the hot water. “Listen. I’m breaking up with you.” I dropped the first dish I had picked up as my everything slowed down. My heartbeat filled my ears as I stared at the phone in complete and utter shock. My entire body lost feeling as I froze stared at the voicemail screen on my phone. I couldn’t breath as the tightness of my throat threatened to close completely. “It’s not you, it’s me. Sorry but I just feel out of love and I need to focus on me. Good luck.” The voicemail ended as I clenched my jaw, trying to understand what was happening.
“To delete this message press 7, to save it press 9, for other options please press pound,” The voice of my voicemail spoke robotically. My hand found my mouth as I held back the first sob that tried to escape my lips. I didn’t even care that just a moment ago it was holding a fungus infected plate. Panic rising in my chest as I picked up the phone and called Derek back. It would go straight to voicemail every time. I tried at least 20 times but everytime, straight to voicemail. Then I started to desperately test him but all the messages would not be received. Tears started to well in my eyes and I wiped them away as quickly as possible. He had blocked my number. Almost a year and half of blissful happiness and it was gone, and I had no clue it had been coming.
I sank to the floor against the cabinets as I stared at my phone. I screamed. I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore and the pain racked my body so violently that I at moments it felt like I was having a seizure. I sat there crying my eyes red for over an hour after having thrown my phone across the room. Why had he done this to us? We were so happy. This came out of nowhere. Why hadn’t he talked about his feelings? At least I wouldn’t have been blindsided like an idiot. He had even promised to go to my cousins wedding with me only a few weeks ago.
Pulling my numb body off the floor, I walked into the bathroom and washed my face with water and stared at the reflection back at me. My toxic thoughts seeped out of my mind as they hit me full force. You didn’t deserve him, he could do so much better than you. How could you have even thought that he was the one? You are stupid and ugly and this is exactly what you deerve. To be alone. No one would ever really love you.
Tearing my eyes away from the mirror as the tears started to fall down my cheeks again. I burst into my room with my arms wrapped around me as I tried to keep the pieces of my heart from falling apart. Sitting down into my desk chair I took deep breaths trying to call myself as the clock on my computer came to life to show me it was already 4:30. I was suppose to have the kitchen sink cleaned by 5:00 for Lucy and her stupid boyfriend. She also wanted me out of the house. Fine, I’ll be out of the house. Rage filled my thoughts at Lucy, at Derek, and at the world. Half hazardly, I threw on a tee shirt and jeans. A hat to cover up my not so styled hair and a pair of converse before bolting out of the house leaving my broken phone behind.
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I was four drinks deep before even acknowledging that the bartender serving me was a real person and not just a drink dispenser. He had placed the 5th drink in my binge in front of me without even asking if I wanted another. I took it without thinking. I was half way through it the cold emotion deprepresser, before I really took in where I was. I had driven for over two hours listening to break up songs and balling my eyes out. I had nearly hit at least three people while I drowned in my tears. I wasn’t even mad about the traffic because it gave me more time to sing and sob.
I had calmed down enough to know that I was going to drink like a fish out of water tonight, and I pulled into whatever town I was in and walked into the first bar and demanded a drink as I sat pitfully in the bar stool.
The alcohol numbed my mind and distracted me from my heartbreak. Taking a moment from drowning myself, I looked around at the bar. It was a very old styled as there was a lot of runefest type things. A giant rams head above a fireplace, thousands of crystals on every flat surface, and handing clumps of herbs. One nearby was lavender as I tried to smell it but my nose was clogged from the crying.
“Oh are you alive now?” A voice cut through my thoughts on the lavender as the bartender stood in front of me cleaning a glass, his eyes looking me over curiously. My ashamed eyes dipped back to the fifth drink in my hand before finishing it off and putting it closer to his side of the bar. Without question he made me another, this time doubling the already doubled drink and handing me my now sixth drink in the span of an hour. I was going to hate myself tomorrow. “What to talk about it?” He pushed me gently as any skilled bartender knows how. How many blurry eyed girls had he comforted in his years of bartending? He looked to at least be in his early 40’s but in a handsome way.
Taking a deep breath and another drink I let it all spill out. How the love of my life had just decided that he didn’t want me and completely cut me out. How my shitty ass roommate left me to do her dirty ass plates so that she could have a dream night with her new boyfriend. How I wasn’t even allowed in my own house tonight because she wanted alone time with him. The list grew and grew as I just tacked on everything that had ever gone wrong in my life. How I was going to die alone and sad because I wasn’t worth anything to anyone and this is what I deserved.
Wrapping up my sad and pitiful life, I sipped slower on my seventh drink as the first six had started to really kick in as I felt myself sway back and forth. My tears having dried up at least 10 minutes ago, I sat staring at the cherry that the bartender had put in this one. It held my blurry gaze before the silent man in front of me spoke after my long tirade.
“That sounds pretty lame,” He said softly gauging my reaction. I looked at him and started to laugh as if that was the funniest thing I had ever heard.
“You have no idea,” I said chuckling to myself as I sipped on my drink. A smile resting on my lips for the first time that night as all real emotions faded away as the alcohol poisoned my system into thinking everything was fine. Using the straw, I pulled out the cherry to find out it wasn’t one. It was bright red like one but the shape of it was almost a perfectly rounded square. I stared at it curiously before popping it in my mouth. A bitter sour tasted filled my mouth and I pinched my face as the sour pulled at my jaw muscles.
The bartender laughed at my expression as he casually leaned against the back counter. His eyes were trained on me when I managed to get over the flavors in my mouth. I giggled to myself amused by my reaction and I simply stared back not in any state of mind to know I was being rude by staring.
“You know, you just ate a Tala berry. They say that they give you magic powers,” The bartender said playfully as he watched me.
Giggles took over me at his words, “ I’ve never heard of that before. Is it from a different country?” Magic powers. I was almost drunk enough out of my mind to believe that, almost.
“It is. It is from my home country of Valnora. We grow them in special soils that we fertilize with magic crystal powder. Rumor has it, that if a non-Valnoran eats one, they will awaken their inner magic,” the smirk never left his face as he watched me with a gleam in his eye.
“That sounds pretty cool. Wouldn’t something like that be super expensive though? If it gives people magical powers, I can only imagine what some people would pay for it,” I giggled as I finished off my drink and pushed it back to the bartender who made no move to take it.
“Well you don’t get your magic powers till you get to Valnora. However once your Ojin forms, it’ll be harvested leaving you with no magic.” He said simple before getting up from his leaning position and walking to the back.
Harvested? What did that mean? What the hell was an Ojin and where on earth was Valnora? I had never heard of a place like that before. My poisoned brain couldn’t hardly keep up with the thoughts of Valnora. It just sounded all made up and silly. A fit of giggles over took me as it seemed too funny not to laugh. Nearly falling out of my chair, I caught myself on the ledge as the bartender appeared on the wrong side of the bar. I looked up at him curiously about to ask what he was doing when he raised his hand to my face. A golden gen looked to be embedded in his hand. I stared at how pretty it was before a sudden blackness filled my mind and I was unconscious.
