Generic Love Story

I wrote this when I was 13 (some of you may have read this a long time ago):

"The Generic Love Story"

Again...... NOT directed to anyone, just a generic love story, you've read it several times

~Cameron

Part 1 (told from the girl's perspective)

She had been sitting at the table for about an hour. The 24 hour chinese food shop was emptey except for her. It was the place they had used to go to everytime they went on a date.... but those times were long gone.... years ago in fact. Oh what she would have done to have those days back... but she had given him up. She wanted him back... and tonight would be the last chance she would have, he was going to be married in three days. She closed her eyes held her hand over her mouth, she had to figure out how she was going to tell him. The cook in the kitchen said, "Hey lady, you alright, you been sitting there for a long time." She turn around and replied, "Yes, im fine, just waiting for someone". She looked up at the clock, 11 pm..... John must have thought she was crazy... calling him at 10:45 at night saying that she had to tell him something. She looked down at the table and almost started crying. Then she heard the bell above the door ring, she looked up, it was him. He smiled at her. She couldnt help but beam. john was tall, handsome, funny... perfect. She say John sit across from her, and he said, "What do you want to eat, ill pay". The thought had never occured to her, she had asked to meet at a restraunt, of course he would assume that food would be involved.. she replied, "Im not that hungry, lets just share some rice and lo mein. " He answered, "Sure". Soon the food had come, and they started chatting and eating the food. It was finsished quickly, and he said, "Maria, what did you want to talk about?". Maria felt and deep hollow feeling in her stomach, like butterflies, she closed her eyes and took and deep breath, "Well... uh,....i", she looked down. Maria felt him touch her chin and bring her head about so that his eyes were facing his. She had started crying. "Maria, what is it? Dont cry." Maria responded, "I still love you." Through her clouded eyes she saw him stand up quickly, and she heard his chair fall over, with a lound metallic clang. She blink quickly, removing the tears from her eyes, but they kept coming, her lips started quivering. She wanted him to say, 'Oh Maria, so do i! Forget Joanna, i want you, i always have, lets run away together!' But this was not the case. She heard this "What! You tell me this now?! Maria.....i..... oh my god... i cant deal with this, goodbye, dont come to the wedding". She saw him turn to the door, and she heard that bell, and the metallic slam of the door. She broke down, she floding her arms on the table and layed her head down in them, she cried like she never had before. Her body was bouceing up and down from the forced of the salty tears that flowed from her eyes into her mouth. Suddenly, she heard and deafening crash, the screeching of metal against metal. She lifted herself from the table and stepped outside the resteraunt. There had been a crash...... she saw John's mustang... its was mutilated, and there was a truck too, on the side of the road, it wasnt as bad off. Heavy rain started to fall. She ran to John's car.. she saw him there, barely breathing, peices of shapnel in his arm. the air bag had'nt deployed. She paniced, her breath was hard, her tears blend with the rain. She pulled him from the car, and she dragged him to the side of the building. She started pulling shrapnel from his arm.... but she only torn more skin that way. Johns eyes were moving rapidly, and he stopped breathing. Maria started CPR...... she knew it would be the closest she would get to kissing him again. He started breathing again.... and it sounded like he was trying to say something. He started choking... and his eyes glazed over. She look around for someone, she saw a man hanging out of the door of the truck, and the restraunt cook was with him. She layed ver John's corpse, and cried. She heard sirens.






Part 2 (from the guy's perspective)


The steering wheel was cold in his hand. He had been driving 2 hours. Why was the steering wheel still cold? Why was he still cold? It was raining. Damn. The forecaster said it would be sunny. It had been raining all day. John needed sunny. John needed something to push out the feelings in his gut that told him he had more in common with the rain than his fiancée. More in common with Maria than his fiancee. More in common with the rain than the sun... that damn rain that blocks out the sky. Drenches you. Wont stop. Wont ever let you forget it is there. The same rain that fell the night he found Maria with another man, the night he ended it. Unforgivable. ...Unforgettable. The rain wouldnt cease. It continued with the quick, annoying, endless pitter patter on the windshield. The same windshield he had thrown Maria onto the first time they had made-out. Damn. Damn rain. John flicked on the radio harshly. He had to get the rain out of his head, he needed to get Maria out of his head. He was engaged. He wasnt allowed to think about "that ex." He wasnt supposed to get a call in the middle of the night. Most of all, he wasnt supposed to go, and he wasnt supposed to tell his fiancee that he was going out with the guys. The radio. Right, the radio... A song about cheap sex and good beer was playing. Thank God--just the rubbish to get him out of this sappy mood.
Damn her. Damn the road. Damn the rain. Still raining. Why was he letting this get to him? Dammit, he knew what this was anyway. Another manipulation. Maria always did that very well; it was her key talent, to manipulate him. And that's all this was. Another chapter. The afterword to the thrilling conclusion of their relationship. Maria was a good author. A cold writer than punched out chapters with force and eloquence. She knew her character so well; she knew John just so well. Too well. Better than he fiancee. He missed it. He missed having someone know him inside and out. Damn, why did he miss it? She ripped him apart when he opened that door. It was all so personal... and that's why it hurt so badly. The grand manipulate. The micromanager. He missed it. Why couldnt his fiancee know him that way? Why didnt she by now? He gave himself to her far more easily than he did once to Maria. That's why it hurt. He lost. He was careful not to give in to her. He went through shit before and Maria would be different. John was careful.
It didnt matter.
He fell hard. When he saw her with him--his hands on her, both red faced and tired... John fell. That was the end. The message on her machine was enough to dispose of trash like her. Shit. I never asked her. Why didnt I ask for an explanation? It didnt matter- doesnt matter.
Keep driving.
He rounded the curve into the city. There it was. That obnoxiously bright red sign. Pulsing through the night, rain and mist. The glowing "24-hour" sign perched precariously over the top of the window. As John approached the light became his nemesis. It was like driving into Hell. Brighter than the sun and hotter, too. He felt like he could feel a significant difference in temperature as the light pulsed forward and then back. He hated that sign. He used to love it; now it was Satan incarnate. And there was the little 24-hour Chinese restaurant under it, the only one this side of New York. He pulled into the parking lot. Closing his eyes, he thought of a script for this conversation. How are you? I'm well. I'm getting married, oh- but you knew.. huh, too touchy? Pressing on a sore? John wanted to. He hoped this hurt her. He sat. The rain was harder than ever. Each drop, each enormous drop seemed to slam into the windshield with emotion. With anger and spite. John almost expected the glass to burst under the constant attack. He stepped out of the car. "Shit!" --He was ankle deep in gushing rainwater. Damn rain. John stepped into the curb and peered into the window. There she was. Her head was down, he hair flowing over her shoulders. She looked the same-- beautiful as always. Suddenly he wasnt so angry. Suddenly, the rain wasn't so terrible. Damn.
I stepped into the store.
She jumped and smiled wide as he approached. Such a warm smile, so inviting... like the black widow's must be, he supposed. She looked rough, like she had been crying... but it didnt matter. That face that had drawn him in the beginning still drew him, even now-- after the end of things. But he wouldnt fall for it, not tonight. She who had torn down his foundations with deceit would not break my house again. Why I am here? Sitting down, John said, "What would you like to eat, Maria? --I'll pay." That was good. Direct. No hellos and no sympathy. What was this about? Why couldnt he just mend bridges? Damn her. She can't expect me to remake what she torn apart. Damn, I knew what she was going to say; why did I ever come? At the question, she seemed surprised, but quickly spit out, "Oh, uhm, I'm not that hungry.. want to share some rice?" Ha, just like old times, he thought. "Sure," he said. Just like old times, when he rescued her from her drunk parents or her drunk boyfriends... He knew why they drank, now. He should have. Victims just like he was. Why did she want to come here? Damn. He remembered. It was here, at this very table, that I asked her to be my girlfriend. The old fortune-cookie trick. Haha. Damn. John wanted to stop thinking about things that... Damn.
The food finally came. They ate quietly. He was growing more comfortable. He didnt like it. He didnt want to like being here. Goddammit! He needed to get this over with. She needed to say... Shit. But maybe that wasnt what she was doing. Maybe she was.. different. Maybe there was a chance she wasnt a manipulative bitch anymore. But he needed to know. "Maria, what did you want to talk about?" he asked. There it was. Rhinos stampeded on his diaphragm and were heading to his head. Why did I ask? I knew... She looked down. Damn. It was happening. Closer than we think... Shit-- Why did he ask? Why did I ever do it? She was mumbling something. I touched her chin up and look into her eyes. Shit. "Maria, what is it? Don't cry." Why? Why was I pursuing this? Dammit! And then it happened.

"I still love you" ---


--He was on the pavement. Wet.. What happening? That red light... Godd.. Here he was, on the brink-- and Hell was shining through the night. Maria was over him. Damn. What was happening? What was she doing to his arm? It was so hot... I couldnt focus on anything, what were my eyes doing? Suffocation... release. There she was. God... she was longing for something, a last word.. an answer. God, I remember the look in her eyes! I tried, oh, God, I tried so hard to say it! I tried to tell her that I hated her her... but I couldn't. Black, Lord-- and then you.


CURTAINS





a note: I actually finished the story Sunday night but accidentally hit BACK on the browser and lost it all. I decided to redo it today. I think I was in a better mood to write this particular story on Sunday night, but whatever.

ps. like that ambiguous ending? hehe.