Pre-Prologue
ZSEYAH & JAKAYLA’S FIRST MEETING.
It's a few days before Zseyah "Zey" Morris is set to start her 3rd year at South State University, and she's excited to finally move into the shared house not far from campus and potentially befriend the other tenants. She isn't expecting, however, to be instantly drawn to one of her roommates who introduces herself as Jakayla Colins.
This "pre-prologue" tells the story of their meeting and how they instantly clicked. It's the start of a friendship that lasts even years after they graduate.
Prologue.
Zseyah “Zee” Morris - May 24th, 2021
“I’m so confused right now. Please, stop and let’s talk, okay?” I begged as I trailed behind my wife, Sasha. She ignored me as she continued to stuff the last remnants of her belongings into her bag. Tears flowed down my cheeks as my heart broke over and over again. “Sasha, baby, please.”
She sighs deeply before turning to face me. “Zee, don’t make this harder than it has to be. Just let me go.”
“Sash,” I shook my head, calling her by her nickname. “How can I let you go? How?! You’re my wife! Our daughterjustturned five months old! You were so excited about us starting a family. When did it all change? I don’t understand.”
“I just can’t do this, okay,” she said, her face turning a deep shade of red. I reached out to her, but she sidestepped me. “I thought this was what I wanted, but the longer I stayed with you, the more I realized that I was wrong. I don’t want to be married, and I definitelydon’twant tobesomebody’s mama right now. It’s all too much. It’s all too suffocating.”
I could feel the anger building inside of me as I stood there trying to figure out how I’d missed all the signs. Just a few days ago, she surprised me with a weekend retreat for my sister and me because she noticed how stressed I’d been. I was elated. These last few days were so amazing, and I couldn’t wait to get home to thank Sasha. So, my sister and I decided to come back home a few hours early so that I could surprise Sasha with a gift of my own.
What I didn’t expect was to come back to a half-empty apartment or to see the woman who claimed to love me frantically moving about our bedroom as if she were on a time crunch. It was then that I realized that the trip was just a distraction so she could leave without a word, and I’d thrown a wrench in her plan.
It was pathetic to beg, I know, but we had put so much into this relationship.
Hell, I had gone through many rounds of IVF becausewewere ready to have a child, and now she’s claiming she wasn’t?
Was I living in hell?
“Zee,” she says, reaching out to me, but I back away, causing her to sigh as if I were the one making everything difficult. “Stop being childish. There’s no reason for you to be overreacting like this.”
“Overreacting?!” I exclaim, not believing my ears. I pushed her away from me, and she stumbled back a bit. “How the fuck else do you expect me to act after finding out that theonlyreason you gifted me with a trip was soyou can run away from our relationship! For the last few years, have you just been stringing me along, claiming to love me?You’rethe one who proposed tomebecauseyou were ready to settle down. You cried as you confessed your love for me and promised to love me unconditionally. You promised to always be there for Serenity and me, Sasha! Now you’re telling me that it all meant nothing to you?”
She doesn’t say anything as she stuffs her hands in her pockets, avoiding eye contact. I was fed up, and I felt my blood pressure begin to rise from the amount of stress I was suddenly under. So many emotions rushed through me at once, the most prominent being anger. Had I spent so many years in delusion? How had I not seen the signs?
“Sasha, we’ve been together for three years,” I say, defeated. My throat was sore from the yelling, and I could barely see past my tears. “This sucks, you know? If you hated being here so bad, I wish you had just talked to me. That shit is fucked up. What am I supposed to tell our daughter?”
“Zee, look, I’m sorry, okay? I really am,” she sighs, shaking her head. I watch as she slips off the ring, placing it on the bedside table. She grabs her bag before looking back at me. “I just…I can’t do this.”
I sat down on the bed, my head spinning. I thought back to all the times we’d talked about the future. I thought about all the times we cuddled, and she told me how much she couldn’t wait to start a life with me. I thought about how she was genuinely excited when Serenity was born, even crying when she laid eyes on her. Yet now she was walking away as if all those years meant nothing to her. It hurt so damn bad.
“Just go,” I say softly. Tears were still falling, but I didn’tcare. “You don’t want to be here, and I’m tired of trying to make you stay. I’m going to raise this child with so much love that she will never evenwonderabout the shitty woman who was supposed to be her other mother.”
“My lawyer will be in contact,” she stated. “I won’t fight you for custody just as long as you sign the papers without a fuss.”
I don’t say anything back as she walks out of the room, out of the apartment, and out of my life. I was so distraught because I never thought that I would be dealing with something like this at twenty-four. I thought that I’d be happily married with kids. Granted, I had the kid part on lock, but the circumstances now were far from ideal. The person whom I’d loved and cared for the last three years suddenly decided she didn’t want any of it – she didn’t want us.
I wanted to scream.
So, I did.
“Fuck you, universe!” I exclaimed as the tears blurred my vision once again. “Fuck you for getting my hopes up. Fuck you for not showing me the signs. Fuck you for not stopping me from putting my all into a bullshit facade of a relationship. Fuck!”
I pushed up off the bed with all the strength I could muster. I was glad that my daughter was still at my dad’s house and wasn’t here to witness any of this. Even though she was still an infant, I’d rather not have her around this toxicity. I knew that I needed to keep pushing. If not for me, then for her. I was devastated that Sasha did what she did, but I didn’t have time to sit around and cry. She would get the karma she deserved.
I wiped the last of my tears and took a deep breath. Icaught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and swiped some of my hair out of my face. I usually wore it silk pressed, but it’d been about two weeks since my last appointment. I’d been so sick that I didn’t have the energy to do anything. Although the quick trip brought me some rest, coming back here to this madness awakened the stress in my body once more. I felt as if I were back to square one.
Damn…this bitch really played me.
