The sweat glistened off his face as once again another heavy box was carted from the small, two bed room third floor apartment that he lived in. Every single cussword known to mankind came to mind as Trey wobbled from left to right down the stairs with a box filled with what he had "lovingly" deemed with the rest of the boxes marked in black pen: "God Only Knows".
Moving from apartment to apartment was suppose to be easy. Not back-breaking! Yet, as usual, Trey had waited till the week before his lease was up to even start packing up, and like usual, he just through things in a box (no matter if they were fragile or not) and shoved things right on top of the other then just taped it shut, thinking no more about it than what it was (a box) in the back of his best friend's Ford pick-up.
"Somebody please just shoot me now!" he muttered as his feet finally touched the ground and he just dropped the box out of exhaustion.
"Okay, forty three steps down, now thirty paces to the truck." He thought to himself.
He picked up the box again, cussing and swearing along the way as he counted steps (it was the only way to calm his nerves and make him realize that it was only 'just a few more feet').
Finally, as if the lottery truck had just backed up in front of him with his million dollar prize, Trey shoved the massive cardboard box into the back bed of the truck.
He whipped the sweat off of his face with his shirt (which was in itself soaked to point that it brought no relief).
Slowly but surely he trudged back up the walkway and up the forty-three individual steps that would take him back to room "324". The place he had called home for over two and a half years.
As he pushed open the unlock door the 'woosh' of cold air from the air conditioner caught Trey off guard, almost sending him collapsing to his feet. The cool refreshing breeze was the only satisfaction he was receiving at this point and time, yet, it wasn't much satisfaction at that.
Trey surveyed his nearly-empty apartment (empty of physical things, but filled to the brim with boxes) and just rolled his eyes. The thoughts of "I'm never going get this done" continued to swell in his head as he trudged on.
Trey walked into his former bedroom (the only room of the apartment completely empty) and laid down on the cool wooden floor next to his closet for some well deserved rest.
As he laid there soaking up the cold air and cold feeling of the wooden floor, a small glimmer caught his eyes.
Trey looked up to see the darkened walk-in closet that he was laying in front of had a small flicker of light coming from a darkened back corner.
"Crap, and I thought I had gotten everything out of here!" he thought as Trey forced himself up and to the back of the closet.
Yet, when Trey bent down to see what was 'mocking' him in the face, he discovered something that was completely unexpected. Staring him in the face was a metal lock box with the key already in the lock itself.
It kind of took Trey by surprise as he realized what he was staring at, and simply smiled. "I nearly forgot about you old friend." he whispered.
Trey found himself sitting on the floor of his closet and opening the box. What he found inside was a treasure trove of personal memories: His first ever porno magazine he had stolen from his best friends house a kid, an empty box of condoms from the first time he lost his virginity, lace undergarment from his forays with his buddies in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. And more pictures than anyone person could think of having in a life time.
The pictures were in no certain order, or organized and ranged from naughty pictures with random girls, to photos from old high school Homecomings. But all of this was nothing to what compared at the bottom of the box.
For at the bottom was an overstuff envelope filled with pictures and other surprises. Trey opened the envelope carefully, as though the secret of life lay inside, and discovered something that brought tears to his eyes.
Pictures of a romance long forgotten. Inside was pictures of girl that he once knew as Beth. A girl he had met in high school and had the classic "high school sweetheart" romance with and eventually asked to marry him.
Beth was the quintessential romance to Trey. She was everything from lover, to girlfriend, to best friend, but most of all, companion. Memories one right after another flooded him as he saw pictures of her in her Prom dress, church clothes, work suit, and many other day to day outfits that she had worn.