Alexmiotti
08-07-2010, 02:46 PM
Hi, this is my first time posting and I hope you all enjoy it. I tried to make it suspenseful and entertaining, even though it's a little sad.
“Did you put a curse on me?”
“What?” Naomi was taken aback by such an awkward question.
“Did you put a curse on me?” I repeated, more slowly and deliberately.
“No, Alex, quit being weird…”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Naomi said, clearly starting to get aggravated. “Why do you keep asking?”
“Because I never used to feel nervous or insecure until you said you were leaving. And now I can’t sleep and food doesn’t taste good and I never feel good when I’m drunk anymore.”
Naomi sighed and looked down at the side walk. “Alex, I asked you not to make this hard.”
I scooted closer to her on the bench, “Hard? How am I making this hard? My car is right there, it could be easy, we could just go home.”
Naomi looked up from the sidewalk and checked the time on her cell phone; 2:18 it read. She leaned back on the bench and looked up at the blue cloudless sky.
“Come on, I’ll even carry you and your bags back to the car. And at the same time! Remember how impressed you used to be when I’d show off? I always knew when you were pretending, which was most of the time,” I faked another smile and leaned my head into her small shoulder. It was warm, unlike mine.
“Alex, please get up”
I went back to my prospective side of the bench, rested my elbows on my knees and let my head fall into the space they created. There was a trail of ants marching to and from some unknown destination with only a leaf interrupting their perfect line. I reached my right arm down to sweep away their pathetic lives, but instead moved the leaf and let them resume their formation. I could feel Naomi’s gaze on the back of my neck, but I knew if I looked at her I might cry and if I cried all things would go to hell. So I kept staring at the ants.
Naomi reached into her pocket and withdrew her cell phone again; 2:19. She fumbled around her purse for four seconds before she remembered she had finished them all yesterday. She drew in enough breath to ask me if she could borrow one when I cut her off.
“I quit remember?”
She sighed and placed her hand on my shoulder. I could feel her tiny fingers spell out the words “I love you” on my back. It was getting harder not to look at her. I tried to count the ants as the passed by, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine… It was always hard for me to get passed nine. Nine was her favorite number, nine was the number of months we’d been engaged, nine was the seconds left before the bus was supposed to arrive.
Each of those seconds felt like a lifetime and I wished to God they were, but at the end I felt her hand move to her pocket and heard the familiar click as she opened her cell phone; 2:20.
I picked my head back up, “Hey, I think the curse is broken! Look, the bus isn’t here.”
“Stop it, Alex, the bus will be here literally any second, this is almost over.”
Instant lump in my throat. It took everything in me not to ask why it had to be over. I knew why, but each time I asked I hoped she would say she didn’t know start sobbing and put her head in my chest and I’d wrap my arms around her and everything would go back the way it was. The way it used to be when…
This thought was cut short by the sound of a Greyhound bus turning the corner. My heart began racing, but I didn’t know what to do with it, I didn’t even know what to do with myself. I watched her pick herself up from the bench and put her purse around her shoulder. She then grabbed her suitcase and stood, waiting for the bus to stop.
I was speechless. For all my strength and knowledge and way with words I was powerless to say or do anything. Those doors opening were the gunshot that pierced my heart. She didn’t even look back. She just got on the bus, went to some obscure corner where she was out of my sight, and let that bus take her to wherever she saw fit.
“Did you put a curse on me?”
“What?” Naomi was taken aback by such an awkward question.
“Did you put a curse on me?” I repeated, more slowly and deliberately.
“No, Alex, quit being weird…”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Naomi said, clearly starting to get aggravated. “Why do you keep asking?”
“Because I never used to feel nervous or insecure until you said you were leaving. And now I can’t sleep and food doesn’t taste good and I never feel good when I’m drunk anymore.”
Naomi sighed and looked down at the side walk. “Alex, I asked you not to make this hard.”
I scooted closer to her on the bench, “Hard? How am I making this hard? My car is right there, it could be easy, we could just go home.”
Naomi looked up from the sidewalk and checked the time on her cell phone; 2:18 it read. She leaned back on the bench and looked up at the blue cloudless sky.
“Come on, I’ll even carry you and your bags back to the car. And at the same time! Remember how impressed you used to be when I’d show off? I always knew when you were pretending, which was most of the time,” I faked another smile and leaned my head into her small shoulder. It was warm, unlike mine.
“Alex, please get up”
I went back to my prospective side of the bench, rested my elbows on my knees and let my head fall into the space they created. There was a trail of ants marching to and from some unknown destination with only a leaf interrupting their perfect line. I reached my right arm down to sweep away their pathetic lives, but instead moved the leaf and let them resume their formation. I could feel Naomi’s gaze on the back of my neck, but I knew if I looked at her I might cry and if I cried all things would go to hell. So I kept staring at the ants.
Naomi reached into her pocket and withdrew her cell phone again; 2:19. She fumbled around her purse for four seconds before she remembered she had finished them all yesterday. She drew in enough breath to ask me if she could borrow one when I cut her off.
“I quit remember?”
She sighed and placed her hand on my shoulder. I could feel her tiny fingers spell out the words “I love you” on my back. It was getting harder not to look at her. I tried to count the ants as the passed by, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine… It was always hard for me to get passed nine. Nine was her favorite number, nine was the number of months we’d been engaged, nine was the seconds left before the bus was supposed to arrive.
Each of those seconds felt like a lifetime and I wished to God they were, but at the end I felt her hand move to her pocket and heard the familiar click as she opened her cell phone; 2:20.
I picked my head back up, “Hey, I think the curse is broken! Look, the bus isn’t here.”
“Stop it, Alex, the bus will be here literally any second, this is almost over.”
Instant lump in my throat. It took everything in me not to ask why it had to be over. I knew why, but each time I asked I hoped she would say she didn’t know start sobbing and put her head in my chest and I’d wrap my arms around her and everything would go back the way it was. The way it used to be when…
This thought was cut short by the sound of a Greyhound bus turning the corner. My heart began racing, but I didn’t know what to do with it, I didn’t even know what to do with myself. I watched her pick herself up from the bench and put her purse around her shoulder. She then grabbed her suitcase and stood, waiting for the bus to stop.
I was speechless. For all my strength and knowledge and way with words I was powerless to say or do anything. Those doors opening were the gunshot that pierced my heart. She didn’t even look back. She just got on the bus, went to some obscure corner where she was out of my sight, and let that bus take her to wherever she saw fit.