The Never Ending Train

8 Memory?

I sit down on a bench at the park. It's been a while since I've been to this park. The one I used to go to all the time when I was in highschool, only a year ago. It was pretty huge, a lot of kids from my highschool would come here after school to hang out. There were huge group games like freeze tag or water fights and other childish things like that. I can't believe I played those games in my high school years, but it was fun.

I sit down in front of the large pond, watching the reflecting surface. The peace is penetrated by angry shouting in the distance. From the words of cheating and trust and love, I'm assuming it's an angry couple...or ex couple now.

I try to tune them out to listen to the ducks in the pond. My purpose in coming here was to relax and relieve some stress after all, only able to find a little bit of time for myself during this busy time of year with finals and all.

But the couple gets closer and that only makes them louder and louder.

"You stupid wrench. Fucking asshole! Not even...spawn of Satan!!" A girl was screaming. "First that girl in senior year, then my actual mother?!?!" I cringe. That's really messed up. I pray that whoever did that learns their lesson and gets Karma, and also that they will take themselves and this girl far away from me and my peace.

"No! It's not like that! I would never do that! If you would just let me ex-" The guy is cut off by a series of hysterical sobbing. I look around but I still can't see them. However, according to their voices, they must be right in front of me, probably behind that giant tree and the line of bushes.

"What?" The guy asks.

"I said I'm going to become a lesbian!!" The girl screams. I almost cackle.

"Wait, I know I did some messed up things but you can't just decide every guy is bad because-"

"So you admit it!!" I don't know if that was intended but that was smart.

"I-What!? No?!"

"Why is your denial a question?!! You really did sleep with my mom!!" She cracks on the last word. "Fuck you! I hope you never find love again! Not that this was even close to that apparently. Fuck. Now I have to.." The words fade as she stops screaming and I can no longer hear her.

I suddenly feel bad for eavesdropping, but this is a public space. If they wanted some privacy, they would have gone somewhere else. Or the girl was too devastated to think about that.

Across the huge pond, a girl, or woman, around my age, runs out of the cover of the tree and disappears down the path. A guy appears right after, scratching behind his neck like he doesn't know what to do now.

He looks around and his eyes meet mine. I quickly look away with a thud in my heart, suddenly mesmerized by a patch of grass. After a moment of silence, I look back to the tree and he's not there. But I hear footsteps coming towards me, looking to my left, the guy is walking straight towards me. His entire 6 foot, brown hair, chiseled face self.

I try to keep my face cool and nonchalant as he approaches and sits down on the bench next to me with some distance between us.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that." He starts. I don't say anything. "I didn't... y'know, with her mom. She came onto me first."

"So you never cheated?" I ask. I don't know why he's telling me this stuff but it's tea and drama so I'm here for the ride.

"Oh I did, with that other girl. But after that I swore never again." I scoff, thinking he was actually going to be a decent guy.

"It was a mistake, and one for which I didn't deserve another chance. But she gave me another chance, and...well it's gone now, even though I didn't do anything wrong but I didn't deserve one in the first place and her mom just had to go and-"