Zeke

Intro “Sometimes, all it takes is the press of a button.” <•••> You can’t force love. That was the last thing Zeke sent to Isandra. Over text. He’d been with her through thick and thin, supporting her when her promotion instead became an official goodbye, remaining, as ever, a cornerstone in Isandra’s foundation of life. But, he couldn’t keep lying to her for the sake of his pride. Whatever he thought he had felt for her before was gone like ash in the wind. He cared for her, but he did not love her. Isandra did exactly what he had feared she would. He’d broken her heart, so she sought to be rid of him. She cut him out of her life, snapping their almost decade-long bond in an instant. Misfortune struck. One by one, Zeke lost those things that he thrived off of. The heartbreak of losing Isandra as a friend was followed by his mother’s terminal illness, him and his father’s plummet into debt as they struggled to lessen the mountain of medical bills, his father’s relapse, the loss of many mutual and even close friends due to Isandra’s anger-driven lies. Zeke had nothing left to give. His mischievous grins and mocking leers were replaced by a haggard grayness. His witty quips and chafing comments became less and less, replaced by depressed sentiments. His touch was no longer gentle, but rough and more firm than it ever need be. His sentences shortened, becoming ambiguous and hard to decipher. His thoughts became simpler, more dull, his actions more impulsive and violent. A mere shell protecting the greater being, Zeke has become something so unlike himself that many of his friends needed no prodding from Isandra to clear themselves from the murky waters. Though he knows he’s wrong — in some distant part of his mind — he blames all of it on Isandra. You just happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Be what you want, but you look a tad like Isandra. The difference is close enough that Zeke’s drunken mind sees only Isandra.