Tragically Yours

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"So you had been planning on recreating a novel into a theatrical play?" Gail asks as she buckles her seat belt, "Were you even planning on telling me about that?" Once her seat belt is secure, she twists her entire body to face me. She slowly raises one of her eyebrows while watching me buckle my seat belt.

After that is settled, I turn my head to glance at her while igniting the car engine. "Do you want me to be honest or come up with some ridiculous excuse to at least make you laugh?" I let the car's engine run for a moment to at least let the air conditioner do its bidding. Like, it conditions the air to either be cool or warm, in this case it'll be cool because... I don't know, I've graduated as a journalist, not some student with an engineering degree. Oh yeah, back to Gail and her question.

A light laugh came out of her as she shook her head. She momentarily gazes out of the front window of the car and right above where the sky is visible. "I guess I'll go with the latter. Help me achieve my laugh counter milestone." She pauses, and I can feel the gears working inside her brain. "I forgot my daily laugh counter, but please make me laugh."

It's my time to shake my head, "Luckily for you, the ridiculous excuse is actually the honest answer."

"Oh, and why is that?" She asks as her eyes-now shimmering with amusement-are back to staring at mine.

"Because, I honestly forgot about the meeting to discuss how I can recreate the novel into a theatrical play. Luckily, Ethan was there to remind me." I begin to clutch on the steering wheel and turn my head towards the road to see if there's any incoming cars. When I see an opening, I slowly drive out of the parking lot and join my fellow drivers into the road. "Besides, even if I remember about the meeting, I would have played it cool and not tell you until I'm certain you'll stay to see the play." I quickly glanced at her as I said those last words, hoping to see her subtle reaction. When I said subtle, I meant that something shone in her eye, but I didn't quite catch it in time to recognize what it was.

If I can assume something about the happenings in her head, I can safely think that she's thinking about the time the school had finally approved one of my screenplays, and she didn't even get to watch it. I don't blame her for not being there in the auditorium to watch the play, I actually blame her parents for not at least making her stay for one more day. They were in a rush to keep her away from me that they didn't care if Gail finished a semester in high school. If they had let her stay for one more week, then I would have been a happy person watching backstage to see Gail's amused expression when watching my screenplay. I know she would enjoy it since she's the very first person that read the entire screenplay. At first, she was devastated by the tragic end, but she at least enjoyed the entire story. Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. Not everything we wanted to have, we got it in the end.

I focused back on the road ahead of us, thankful that there weren't many cars on the road. It's bad enough that I got a flashback about the past while driving, it'll be worse if something happens to Gail because of me. I can handle myself in a car accident, but seeing Gail suffer the pain because of my mistakes, I wouldn't bear that one.

After a minute, Gail had finally spoken up. "I think... I think I'll have enough time to see the entire play in action." I couldn't face her because of driving and all, but I did see her face me and flash me a smile in the corner of my eye. "I'll stay as long as I get to watch your theatrical play."

Something heavy dropped in my chest, and suddenly, it's hard to breathe properly. If she can notice, Gail will learn that her words meant a lot to me. Even though this ain't my first play, I'll still appreciate her watching it. Well, this will be my first play that came from a novel, so in a way, this is still my first theatrical play that I get to write.