Creative Writing Challenge: The Unrequited Love Story
A creative challenge, indeed! Love has always been a subject I've liked to write about, but I don't ever get the chance to share it with the world. Thank you @steemfluencer for hosting such a great series of challenges, too bad I didn't stumble across them before.
The characters "Adam" and "Charles", as well as the first dialogue between them was provided by the person hosting the challenge.
Here's my entry for Task #7
Adam: Charles, are we still in the hospital.
Charles: Yes sir, after my last story you fell asleep.
Adam: Good. Charles, may I share something with you? I'd like to tell about one of the girls I really fell in love with.
Charles: I'd love to hear that story, sir. Let me pour you a glass of water.
Adam: Thank you, Charles! You are so kind. So, here we go. I was 22 years old only. The last time I fell in love was maybe eight years ago.
Oh Charles, how I wish I could tell you I met her at the subway station when we suddenly found ourselves trapped in an ocean of people at rush hour and our bodies collided. I wish I could say that she stopped on her tracks to apologize and I nicely said it was fine; that she looked so breathtakingly beautiful and that I found courage, out of nowhere, to ask her out that exact same night.
But, no.
We actually met at a robbery.
As it turns out, the universe had decided to cross our paths the day a gang of four criminals entered gun blazing into the bank we both found ourselves in.
She was gorgeous, a real masterpiece with plumped lips, blushed cheeks, and a nervous stare. And before you say anything, it's not what you think Charles; it wasn’t me that was making her nervous, it was the fact that we were being pointed at with guns.
Anyway, we were lying on the bank’s marble floor, following orders from these people when out of the sudden they grabbed her by her hair and took her hostage, the man’s arm gripping her tightly by the neck. Now, it wasn’t because it was her, I would’ve done it for anyone else… probably, but I stood up almost instantly with my hands in the air showing the criminals I intended to do no harm.
“Hey, hey” I caught their attention. If you think having a gun pointing at your head is bad, picture having four at the same time.
“Stay down!” the one that had her in his arms yelled. He did it once more as I showed no intention to do so.
“Buddy, I don’t want to do anything stupid, just take me instead of her” I pleaded, her olive colored eyes were locked on me.
“What?” they questioned as if my request was really that strange. Well, looking back, I can’t say it wasn't.
“Yeah, you need someone to point your weapon at to show the cops you really mean it, right?” they nodded, confused, but still listening. “Well, use me instead and just leave her alone”.
They looked at each other for a while; sure that was a first for them.
“Suit yourself” one said, giving a direct punch to the back of my neck, immediately forcing me to fall on my knees as the other man let the woman go. She couldn’t stop crying, but I could tell from a simple nod she thanked me with all her heart and soul.
After what it seemed to be an eternity, the robbers managed to escape, and we were all rescued. I found myself sitting on the bumper of the ambulance in slight shock, with one of those thermal blankets over my shoulders. An image taken right out of a crime TV show, to be honest.
She walked over and sat next to me, no spoken words, no trivial talk about the weather. Of course not, we were long past that. All I could do was look at her and smile; a sincere smile escaped my lips as a sudden sense of comfort invaded me when I realized what I had gotten myself into. I had just done the craziest thing on Earth to save the life of this stranger.
This beautiful, random, stranger.
Her smile appeared more shyly, just a few seconds after mine, through her smudged mascara and wild hair. My grin only grew wider, when the usual exchange of numbers finally happened, and I began the adventure of my life.
Charles: That’s quite a story, sir. May I ask what happened to her?
Adam: I wish I knew, Charles. I wish I knew.
She was the kind of woman you fell in love with; one you spend the rest of your life with. Genuinely intriguing, she radiated confidence in everything she did, even the smallest things. Always up for a challenge, brutally honest when she needed to be and people respected her; she entered a room and all eyes were instantly on her.
And I was the exact same opposite.
There was a little devil in her and I could tell the first time we met, even in the middle of the chaos we were in. She took what she wanted whenever she wanted it. She was hell inside of heaven; she made me feel powerless, she made me feel like loving her was the best mistake I was ever going to make.
“You fell in love with an attitude” I recall she told me the night she left.
“No, you love me as much as I love you but you are so scared to death you don't even want to try!" I protested at the top of my lungs.
I was somehow surprised by the words that were coming out of her mouth but I should have known that I had already lost her by then.
I lost her the minute sweet whispers turned into yelling, and yelling turned into silence.
“Adam, can’t you just be happy it happened? I loved you, just not like you wanted me to, but we still had our story”.
It turns out, Charles, the midnight kisses, the flowers, and the laughs; that's the easiest part of love and everyone can do it but when the lights went off, that was an entirely different story.
No one talks about love and mentions the dark moments, when it's 1.58 am and you're cursing her name, drowning the taste of her lips with alcohol and wishing you have never met her at all.
Her words echoed through my mind for a long time, hell, they still do, and she wasn’t entirely wrong.
The mere fact our paths crossed and we loved each other carelessly, for at least a while, should have been enough for me. But it wasn’t. I wanted more. I wanted all. I was never able to feel something so profound and real for someone else.
She was home to me.
But I learned the hard way just because someone is your home, doesn’t mean you are theirs.
Image Source
img credz: pixabay.com
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