Page 40 - Provoke Magazine Vol2

Love Lies: Chapter2
We are never deceived, we deceive ourselves. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Weston and I were like two peas in a pod for the rest of Sum- mer and well into the first semester. He stayed over with me most of the time, stating that my house was more comfort- able, and his roommate wasn’t the best housekeeper. Honest- ly, I just enjoyed being with him, it didn’t matter where we were. We had formed a circle between my friends and a few of his. My friends and I discussed how much better college was than HS and we had made that part of life crazy fun. Now, we were partying, and nobody was waiting for us to get home before a certain hour. We had made a promise to each other that no matter what, we would stay focused on school, graduate, get married and then raise our babies together.
I would end up being the one to change the structure of it all. If I had everything else under control, one thing that was about to get out of hand and jeopardize all our perfect plans.
It was the last week of school before the one-month holiday break. There was the stress of midterms and packing but we were all excited to visit home and connect with some peers who went to other universities. I was the first to finish up my tests and I had the music playing low as I was packing when I heard the front door swing open and Cooper call out my name, “LUXE!? LUXE!? Where are you!?” She was rac- ing through the house, so I came from my room, “hey, bug, what’s going on, did you bomb the online test?” I knew she had been at the library for the past 2 hours taking a test that made most Freshmen hate themselves. We heard about it all semester as she cursed about not dropping the course in time. As I made eye contact with her, she looked like she had seen a ghost and I knew something was wrong. “What happened?” I grabbed her hand and guided her to sit with me on the couch. “I never wanted to say anything because you seem so happy with him, but Weston is cheating on you, or has a girlfriend, maybe before or after you, I don’t know!” she started to sob, and I sat there frozen. A mix of what the f--k are you talking about and a mix of where the f--k is he? “But that isn’t the bad part, Luxe. I saw him hit her. He reached into the car and I can’t tell if it was a slap or a punch, but she screamed and then sped away from him. I only saw it because I was parked near where it happened, and I was letting my car warm before I pulled out. It was just his energy has
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always been off to me, and now I know why!” she was in tears and I couldn’t tell if it was because she saw what happened or she was concerned for me. Weston had never even so much as raised his voice at me. I then begin to wonder how he had time to cheat. His car was his hobby, he went to class and worked. Other than that, he was with me. I reached over and smoothed the hair that led to Cooper’s high bun and I told her, “I will ask him about it, don’t be upset about telling me or anything. I love you Cooper, it will be okay. Just let me talk to him before you go calling for his castration.” I laughed, and she relaxed a little bit to. “I just remember my aunt and I don’t want that to be you, Luxe.” She looked at me and gave me a hug. “I won’t pry into your business but I won’t pretend any longer that he doesn’t concern me.” I got up and headed toward the room for my phone.
Me: Hey, where are you?
Weston: I am headed ur way R U home Me: Yes, and we need to talk.
Weston: k
I went to the porch to meet him because Cooper was home, and I didn’t know what to expect once I asked him about what she saw. We had never had a real argument and I had never had to ask someone, “did you hit a girl on campus today?” So, I just blurted it out after he kissed and hugged me upon his arrival. Immediately, his body language changed. He paced back to his car turned and looked at me with a sneer and asked, “who told you that? I guess you got one of your little homegirls watching me, because I know you weren’t on cam- pus today!” he was becoming angry and I hadn’t seen this side before. “No, I didn’t have anyone watching you!” I re- sponded. I couldn’t think of anything else to say so I paused. He cocked his head to the side, “Yea, I had to get out of char- acter earlier but it’s nothing you need to worry about.” He started shaking his head as if he was in more disbelief than myself. “Okay, what type of relationship do you have with her that something like that is called for?” I asked, with plenty of attitude. He walked over to me quickly, putting his face close to mine, “Look, all of my business, ain’t your business and I’m going to leave it at that. I was coming to tell you bye before I went home but I see you over here worried about the wrong shit. I’m gonna go finish packin’.” He pulled his car door open as I followed behind him. “What’s with the new attitude, Wes?” I asked, as my voice shook. “Lu, I don’t gotta explain any of that to you, you shouldn’t even know about it. I did what I did. Tell your friend that’s peeping out the window she should have asked me what was going on before she ran home trying to tell on me. I’m a grown ass man. I’ll catch you later.” He snatched me in and kissed my forehead, got in his car, shook his head one last time and pulled off.
“What the fuck just happened?” I asked under my breath.
Art Frazier