The space between us

Torn Apart

It was a cold bleak evening as snowflakes began to drop from the sky in the borough of Brooklyn, New York. Winter had set in, and there was unforeseen optimism for the year's Christmas, especially for Jordan Bartel, a 19-year-old light-skinned African American who was moving halfway across the country to further his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was young, naive and in love. He didn't want to move to California as much as he wanted to, he wanted to stay in New York, since it's close to Jersey. This guarantees frequent visits to his girlfriend, Rachel, who will be studying at Princeton. Jordan's family was struggling financially. He lost his dad the summer he graduated, and his older sister was kicked out of their house when he was a sophomore in high school after she succumbed to her addictions and almost led to their bankruptcy. His mother and his dad never agreed on anything, and it's almost as if it was always about his sister Naomi. After his dad's death, their mum pleaded with her to come back, but she never answered. There were even rumors circulating that she'd been to jail at least twice after she left, and was last seen in the outskirts of downtown Miami.

To Jordan, his mum was all he had left. His sister, who he was very attached to when he was much younger, doesn't even speak to him anymore. He knew he had to man up and at least try to replicate some of the sacrifices she made for them.

It was finally Christmas, and it was less than a month before Jordan left for California. Rachel had come visit from Jersey, and it felt like all she was talking about the entire time was about how they would spend the time together when he finally gets accepted to NYU, which he declined a couple of weeks back for UCLA. When he would try to tell her, they would make out, or she would tease him with a lot of flattery. He called his best friend Tyrese about it. Also, an African American who grew up in Brooklyn. He has a slightly darker complexion which is richly melanated, he's about the same age as Jordan, and they've been friends since Middle School, the majority of it being because their moms knew each other from church. Tyrese was going to Arizona State for college, and he was cool with the idea that Jordan was going to Cali, since the states aren't too far apart. He told Jordan to follow his heart and that to him was California. "If she really loves you dude, long distance gon' work and if it doesn't, maybe she ain't the one," Tyrese said to Jordan. Yeah, I guess," Jordan said as he hung up. "Rachel.... Can we talk?" Jordan asked as he stared at her glowing hazel eyes. "Yeah, what's up?" Rachel responded. "I....." Jordan struggled to get the words out of his mouth, he proceeded to try again. "I really... love you, you know that right?" he said with a stutter. "Jordan what's wrong," Rachel became concerned and worried. "I'm going to California,"Jordan finally spoke up, this time more confidently. "For New years?" Rachel asked. "No, I'm going to UCLA, I've always wanted to go there and when I saw the acceptance letter, I just couldn't believe it. "I wanted to tell you earlier, but I saw how happy you were about Jersey and I just couldn't gather the courage to tell you." "So you lied to me," Rachel said. "No..... "No, no," Jordan was in denial as he said, "I just didn't want you to freak out." "Freak out? You didn't even think that maybe I would be happy for you. I'm not psyched that you're leaving Jordan, but you should have told me, we would have worked something out. " I should have, I'm sorry," Jordan said. "When are you going?" Rachel asked. "Less than a month from now," Jordan Replied. "Well .... we're going to have to make the most of the time we have left if you're moving thousands of miles away," Rachael said as she wrapped her hands around his neck and tiptoed for a kiss, one that started off lightly but got intense with each touch. Jordan quickly loosened his buttons and sent his shirt flying to the ground, his lips pressed on her neck as he impatiently watched her get undressed. Before they could further their burning s****l desire, Rachel's phone lit up for a call, one which she had been expecting to come through. She made an attempt to reach for her phone from the bed, and it was a call from her older sister Vicky. "Who is it?" Jordan asked, as he sat half naked on the other side of the bed. "It's Vick, I wonder what she wants." "Then pick up and find out, Jordan said". As soon as she picked up, Vicky immediately raged out at Rachel, "What took you?" she said. " Come to my place now!" It's an emergency. Before Rachel could utter another word from our mouth, Vicky hung up. She turned over to Jordan with a perplexed look on her face, and he asked what she said. Without a word , Rachel got up from bed, reached for her clothes, got dressed and walked up to Jordan with a kiss on his lip. "I have to go". "What?" Where? What happened?........ Why didn't you tell me what she said? Do you at least want a ride? Jordan said, "It's cool, I'll take a cab," She grabbed her phone, then her purse, walked up to the door and reached for the knob. Jordan, who was still in bed, gazed at his ceiling, wondering if she would settle for a long-distance relationship. It was definitely worth trying since they shared mutual feelings about each other. Back in high school, before any of it was real, they got together solely because Rachel got cheated on by her then boyfriend and wanted to make him jealous. Jordan initially found the idea proposed to him by Rachel preposterous, but he decided to carry on with it after Ty filled his head with a lot of s**t on how it could help him get closer to Ayanna, a friend of Rachel's whom Jordan have had a thing for since Middle School. Obviously, things didn't go as planned. He realized she didn't see him for who he really was and made their whole relationship a make-out session each time they met. However, Rachel, on the other hand, loved him for him. They weren't fond of each other at first, but they grew out on each other. They were complete opposites. Jordan was a high school jock who was a starting point guard on their school's basketball team. He was stylish, full of swagger, got called a pretty boy a lot but still somehow was not as appealing as Damari. He was the captain of the football team. The overall essence and importance of football at Saint Davidson high was a significant reason for his popularity. The cheerleaders loved him, the students loved him and even some of the teachers felt the same way, according to an infamous rumor that he once hooked up with their science teacher, Ms Christine, which became the gossip for a whole week. This led to her sacking for having an inappropriate relationship with a student. Damari was already 18 when it happened, two years older than the average student in the grade, so she was lucky enough to get off with just a sack. Rachel, on the other hand, was a bit nerdy. Jordan was smart, but not like Rachel… "Rachel takes school way too seriously," he would say. She took too many APs, led the school's debate team for years, had multiple extracurricular activities, including volunteering at a local animal shelter. She had always wanted to go to Princeton, it was her dream school, she felt she needed to have an impeccable stat to go there, it was highly competitive, so her reasons were valid. When she got upset over getting 94% in a test, the other students ridiculed her for being such an over-achiever, and they were right though, at least that was what Jordan thought , ever since he came into her life, she mellowed down a bit from being this perfectionist, to understanding that it was okay to have flaws. She got into Princeton. Among many others, she applied, but it didn't matter because Princeton was always the answer. Jordan was going to NYU. He mentioned it a few times back, between sophomore and junior year, but they never really talked intensively about it in senior year, and Rachel had pretty much assumed his mind was made up for New York University, excited that they were going to be able to spend time together pretty often, not knowing Jordan had other college plans she wasn't aware of.