Day 381 Immune

"One year," she swipes at my face almost viciously. "I wasted one year of my life to him. I mean, who does that?!" She demands to anyone who'll listen and I duck to avoid getting smacked in the eye by her blush brush.

I'm getting my makeup done...by a clearly-overly-emotional makeup artist who looks a bit of a wreck from getting hammered the night before (something I wish she had mentioned before I sat down in her chair). She's recently broken up with her boyfriend (of a year, if you hadn't been paying attention before) and she's not exactly handling it well. Turns out, it's not the first time either.


"When my last boyfriend broke up with me," she says as she dusts shadow on my lids. "I burned everything he ever gave me." 


I stare. "Everything??"


"Yup." She nods proudly, swirling a new color before cupping my chin again. "Everything. I even recorded it. Even managed to burn one of my cameras too." She scoffs.


I pause for a moment and confess, "I've held on to everything my exes have given me."


"Are you serious??" She looks at me like I've spoken 8 different levels of blasphemy. "How could you?"


I shrug, "I just...kinda hide it all. Eventually, I forget they're even there." I think about a certain something I hid away in a bag in the depths of my closet. "Sometimes, I find them. If it hurts to look at them, I know I'm still a little bit in love and they go back to their hiding places... and sometimes, I find them, and it doesn't hurt anymore so that's how I know I'm okay now."


"Do you throw them away then?"


I'm a little startled when I realize, "No." I laugh a little. "By then, I guess I don't have a reason to throw out a memory that doesn't hurt anymore."