CHAPTER 72: CLEANING AND MEMORIES

Chapter 72

Saturdays—especially every last Saturday of the quarter—was always for cleaning the entire apartment.

Katherine dragged the vacuum to the side and exhaled, her muscles already protesting from cleaning. She had spent the whole morning rearranging the apartment, changing curtains to new ones, flipping the pillows, dusting everything while arranging the bed and couch positions. It was a ritual she had adopted and had been rimmed in her bones for years.

As Katherine pulled out the last storage box from the closet, she used a napkin to wipe the dust covering the box as she sneezed from the dust. She carried the box out with a grunt then placed it on the floor.

She opened the box to see some album pictures of the twins, used baby shawls and unisex sets, the abandoned parenting textbooks she bought during her pregnancy, the toys the twins used as a nostalgic smile curled on her lips.

As she opened the album, an old picture fell and Katherine picked it up and froze. Her hand stopped mid-air as she looked at the picture.

Katherine sat on the floor, legs folded as she stared at it, melancholy. Her fingers hovered over Aaron’s face, his smile was carefree with the boyish charm, he was in his team jersey. Grandma Sally’s hand rested on his shoulder as Eleanor’s eyes were on Aaron and Katherine stood shyly beside Aaron.

They all looked happy, carefree, and young.

As the image spiraled into her memory, pulling her into the unblemished past that she didn’t want to visit.

College. She could never forget. Her second year in college was the worst year for her that she nearly gave up—or rather she gave up—if not for the little thread pushing her through.

The new semester of second year rolled in and it was supposed to be a fresh start for her and Aaron, yet everything shattered quicker than she imagined.

Whispers, rumors, lies filled the college. It started with stinky gazes before it escalated into verbal abuse, bullying with some taunting.

"She flirts with the lecturers."

"I heard she was caught in the boys’ dorm."

"She’s done abortions. More than once."

"She’s pregnant and doesn’t know the father."

"So disgraceful."

Words latched on her like a second skin, yet she swallowed the numbness, continued to carry herself in as much as she didn’t do what the students were saying. But even the strongest wall crumbled when hit repeatedly.

Then she remembered her friend, her best friend, the girl she called blood sister betrayed her—Eleanor. She was the one who started the rumor. And Katherine had trusted her, told her about everything about her and Aaron, yet Eleanor betrayed her.

Announced on the field about her pregnancy and started taunting, mocking her without even batting a lash.

Then the taunting didn’t stop there. The wannabes drenched her with pig blood in the hallway, or how she was tripped in front of the cafeteria. And how she was outcasted in class with a designated seat that was labeled and designed with ’whore, slut, ingrate.’

Yet Katherine still stuck it in, pushing through. Then there were days when they locked her in the bathroom for hours, guys would throw vulgar comments at her, saying if she was available to bucket their cum, that she’d do anything for money.

Her life was miserable yet she pushed through.

Then Katherine willed herself to ask her friend Eleanor why she did that. She confronted her in the hallway. "Why?" Katherine had asked in a low, broken voice yet not trembling, her eyes were hollow with no emotions.

Eleanor had laughed humorlessly, jabbing Katherine’s forehead like a joke. "With Aaron, you always behaved like you are untouchable and here you are discarded by him," she laughed.

"Why?" Katherine asked again.

Eleanor shrugged. "Because I can’t see you happy while I be the third wheeler. You are no one. If not for Aaron taking an attraction to you, you wouldn’t be like this."

Katherine sniffed. "Is that why you—"

"Yeah, bitch, that’s why I lied. I cooked everything and everyone followed it," she grinned. "Do us the honor to make yourself disappear, you eyesore," she flipped her hair and walked away.

Katherine slumped down, her lips trembled from Eleanor’s words. She wasn’t accepted anywhere she went—Brenda kicked her out, Aaron took a space and he was yet to be back, and school had become unbearable. The only last hope she held—that her friend couldn’t do it—made her heart torn.

Aaron was nowhere to be found and when she needed him the most, he left her alone for the hungry lions to tear apart.

Then she did what she could do—ran to her grandma, someone that wouldn’t judge her, someone that wouldn’t shame her, and someone that wouldn’t kick her out.

Katherine arrived at her small countryside cottage with nothing but a small duffel bag and swollen eyes. Her grandma didn’t ask questions, yet opened her warm arms to comfort her.

"You’re not alone now," Grandma Sally had whispered, pulling her in.

Katherine stayed there, helped with the garden, read books, took long walks. And she was able to breathe for a moment until that unfortunate day.

Until the accident that took Grandma Sally away from her. It was like the world didn’t want her to be happy. Maybe as a punishment for an illicit affair with her boss’s son.

The car crash took the only person who had loved her when the world spat in her face.

And the rumors started again. People looked at her with disdain. They said she brought bad luck. They said she had cursed the family who adopted her. They said she was ungrateful to the Knight family who took her in. They said she had sullied her adoptive parents’ name. She was the ungrateful bastard and she had brought shame to everyone around her.

The death hit harder than Katherine expected. She had no mother, no friends, no safety net—with pregnancy, heartbreak, betrayal, an empty future, and an aching heart.

Katherine had sold the small cottage that was under her name. She packed only what she needed, clutched her protruding stomach, and left.

And she vowed to never step into that horrible city again because the city was filled with nightmares for her.

Now inside her apartment, seated in a yoga style as she clutched the picture, staring at Grandma’s warm face. The vacuum still humming faintly in the background.

Katherine had a soft, sad smile on her face. "You would’ve loved them," she whispered as a lone tear rolled from her left eye and she quickly wiped her cheek with the back of her hand.

She looked at the picture once more, her heart aching as she tore the side where Eleanor was and kept the remaining in the box, closed the lid and returned it back to the closet.

And Katherine stood up, patting her ass and continued cleaning the apartment.