The idiocy of perfection

Hi there

So there are two different endings. Yeah.

Ending one:

"Pleeeeaaaaasssseeeee" Liz whines across the room, "I love football!" She announces, the southern twang playfully drifting across her pleas.

"Yeah, I know, but Audrey's coming over for the first time in like a month and she doesn't." I reply. Me and Audrey and I didn't go to the same college but we were close, BU and Tufts.

Liz was my roommate, a girl from Kansas who was, in every way, a boy magnet. She was a blonde haired, blue eyed girl who absolutely loved sports. She however hated the idea that guys would randomly hit on her so she projected her personality as much as possible to ward off people who wouldn't like her for her.

She wore cowboy boots and various merch of all kinds of media and owned several football jerseys.

She pouted a little, "Now Missy don't you go speaking for your friend." she warned, "Everybody in their right minds loves the home team." She thinks for a moment, "When was the last time you went to a sports game anyway?" She asks, throwing her hands up.

My thoughts spiral into memories, "You look beautiful." James mummers, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "You won the last game!" I cheer, smiling widely, nestling me head into his neck as I pull him in for a hug. He puts a hand on my chin and lifts it up so my lips meet his, "Promise me," he whispers around my lips, "you'll see me in college, no matter where we end up next SuperBowl or something we'll be together." He whispers them sweetly but I sense a desperation behind the request, one I share deeply. "I promise"

"High school." I reply. Liz frowns, "It's sure as hell time we get you to one then."

I didn't tell Liz about James, I thought about him a lot but once he got into a college out in the country for football and I got into Tufts we knew we wouldn't work.

My writing professor knew about James in a way, at least if she picked up on the recurring character, the one with the chocolate hair, the one who was adorably idiotic, the one she couldn't forget.

"ITS. THE. SUPERBOWL!" Liz yelled, apparently Taylor had missed part of the speech. "If I missed it at home I'd be disowned!" She cried.

Taylor glanced down at her notepad, the prompt was glued to the top, write from the point of a character with emotional baggage, Taylor was currently spinning an intricate web of a story about the weight of trying to maintain a sense of identity. This story however carried its on baggage, she kept adding in the wrong details, suddenly peoples hair would change color, dialogue continued perpetually, limbs refused to move, she couldn't write it.

Audrey's number popped up, announcing she was down stairs. Taylor bit her lip, "Let me go get Aubrey"

"Yes! Bring her up here and I swear on all that's holy this girl will go to a bar and watch the game!" Liz announced.

I looked wistfully down at my phone, maybe James would text, still asking me to see him at the Super Bowl, maybe he would come sweep me off my feet.

She shook her head, James was a high school boyfriend, in a couple years she wouldn't even remember why she was friends with him on FaceBook. Or at least she hoped. A little.

"TAYLOR! SUPERBOWL! SURPRISE!" Audrey yelled, grabbing a guys arm and barreling towards her.

A realization hit Taylor just as Audrey did, "Simon!" Taylor smiled, hugging him, smiling widely.

"We better watch the game." he smirks

----------

So that's how I ended up in a bar watching the Super Bowl that night. I was in normal clothes but the fact that Audrey had done my makeup brought me hopelessly back to high school, that one party...

I shook my head, scanning the place, it was nice and friendly but full of kids cheering and jumping and shouting and cursing, the rest of my friends fitting right in with the mix. However I couldn't look at Audrey and Simon, I'd find myself obsessed with the fact that they were together in high school, that they made it.

I looked down at my shoes, blocking Ja- him from my mind. I found myself retreating into silence. College had been a transformative year for me, with Audrey and Liz by my side I had grown more confident then ever, but here, sitting in silence in a loud bar, watching the one sport I'd sworn myself against, with the two people who representing everything I couldn't do, I felt myself shrink.

"Hey, you're routing for the Patriots right, or I can't keep talking to you and that would suck because I have a really good pick up line." a guy with disheveled black hair chuckles, smirking.

I can't come out of this, I'm still in the mental state of high school me, I can barely respond, "Just to keep the suspense I'm gonna go to the restroom before telling you." I reply, I tried to make it as playful as his comment but I know it just came out weird.

As I weave through the crowd my eyes sting, I can't believe I'm frikkin crying. I can't believe it. I lock myself in the one person bathroom and collapse against the wall, holding my head and trying to breath deeply.

I fail, choppy breaths coming in as I try my best to drown out the noise coming from outside. God, why did Audrey have to show off her perfect boyfriend? Why wouldn't James even text? Why did she care!

She sat there, staring at nothing, finally she opened her phone, clicked on FaceBook and looked at James's profile. It was all football, except that one little box that said 'single', the one that taunted her in a million different ways.

She looked at it forever, or maybe for just a second, when it came to her that she was single too. And there was a guy out there perfectly willing to fix that. James was just a story, she couldn't escape him yet but she could acknowledge that his rightful place was in the past.

She got up, and walked out, casting a smile at the black-haired guy. "Patriots?" He called across the room. She smiled, "Patriots"

Hi. Um. Well hoped you liked that! A second one is to come