Beatitude (Depraved Muses Department)

EVERLY

TWO

A s I walk into my local coffee shop, I can’t help but be thankful I wore my large sunglasses as a headband last night so I can use them to cover my eyes today. I’m just not in the mood for the stares. My eyes get me a lot of head turns normally due to my extreme heterochromia—meaning my eyes are not matching in color and if that wasn’t unique enough, one of my eyes is yellow, not light brown or honey, but amber yellow. It’s rare and as someone who doesn’t like to stand out, I hate it. Typically, I wear my colored contacts, making both my eyes brown, but since I was unable to gather any of my things last night before Devon, my boyfr— ex-boyfriend , decided that he’s over me and changed the locks on our… his apartment , I have to rely on my sunglasses to hide them, along with the dark bags I’m sure I’m sporting.

“Hey, Pip!” The sweet older barista, Lucy, smiles politely at me. I’m going to miss her dearly, but with Devon kicking me out, I have nothing left keeping me here. I moved to this city to be with him since I have no family of my own and as ashamed as I am to say it, I relied on him financially. It’s not that I don’t want to work, I’ve asked Devon to let me get a job several times, but he wouldn’t, stating that he didn’t want me out there for other men to look at. He said I was walking sex, that my body makes men go against their better judgment and it’s wrong of me to put them in that position. He would know, Devon was one of the first men to go against his better judgment and hurt me.