Another Wave of You ✓

AU - El & Theo

D R A F T   # 4

In the Author's Note I wrote in the first chapter, I mentioned that I'd written thousands of drafts to try to tell this story right. 

Well, to clarify, I'd written four drafts of the first few chapters. Figuring out how to start the story with a bang, with a certain spark, knowing these chapters would shape out the feeling of the book altogether.

Would it be sassy? Serious? Playful? Deep?

Three of the drafts had been a playful, easy read. Light and charismatic. But it always felt like the story was missing something. 

I wanted it to say more than the simplicity of its words. I wanted it to pull at your heartstrings without realising you've been pulled in.

And so, alas, the fourth draft was made... and it established the mood and aura I wanted to create: a little bit of sadness, a bit of melancholy... but also full of heart, soul and passion.

This is that draft.

I present to you, dear readers, an El and Theo you've never met.

1

Eleanor

     "NO," I BEGGED. "Don't leave."

     The elderly man looked down at me in sympathy. "Sorry, kid. I have to make my own wage. It's just not working for me anymore."

     And just like that, he turned and left.

     With the cool air caressing my back, I closed my eyes and let my head fall on the counter with a soft thud. You'd think I'd get used to having employees quitting on me since it happened often—but trust me, I never did. In fact, it just became worse. Every time someone walked away from me, I felt like sinking further and further into the water.

     And It was only a matter of time until I drowned.

     I was sick of this. Sick and tired of endless faces appearing before me—faces I knew and admired—with pity in their eyes as they told me they were leaving. Because this was dying, they said. Because this business wasn't worth fighting for. Like the remnants of what was once here and all its precious memories would be blown away in the wind, its dust forever lost in the sea. There'd be nothing here. 

     As if there was always nothing.

     My chest hurt.

    "Lenny?" A familiar voice called.