the truth about love ✵ michael clifford

0.1 - welcome to new york

"Welcome to New York , It's been waiting for you"

Love.

Love sucks. It was such a fake and overrated feeling. Love was merely a façade, a beautiful mask to hide the ugliness of loneliness and emptiness. Love was a fairytale created by the most selfish species- humans- just to have a proper excuse to pretend to be smitten with someone for a short time, just to leave them for someone else. It creates an illusion of the high you feel of a new possible romance. But of course, the idiotic human mind believes that bullshit and designs feelings, feelings that will eventually come back to haunt you. Because of course, you can't be fully devoted to someone at first glance. You feel a sudden boost to your happiness, because somehow, another human being has managed to make you happier than you can make yourself. But of course, this is just a method created by mankind to run away from the dark fear of being absolutely alone. Too bad nothing lasts forever.

That was the truth about love, according to our protagonist.

Meet Skye. She's a bitter-sweet seventeen-year-old. She loves to wear darker colors, even though her mother disapproves of it. She buys ripped clothes. She likes to listen to songs with meaning, and her favorites aren't in the top 100 list, but she doesn't mind. She loves to listen to rain, but she hates thunder. She loves strawberries and bath bombs. She doesn't understand one damn thing in school, but she still finds herself passing every semester. She has a knack of understanding and giving advice. Her room is filled with an endless supply of old books and vinyl's. She has the wisdom of an elder. She's very strong-minded and protects her opinions. You can talk to her about any topic alive, from current world issues to her favorite animals. She always has her guard up, because she's learned from a very young age to never let anyone in too much.

Skye sat in her usual spot at her favorite coffee house, where she always spent hours deep in thought. She admired her view. Others would view it as simple and ordinary, but Skye described it as breathtaking. Her booth was positioned at the far left of the coffee house, small enough for two but that was enough for her. She turned her head to the right, taking in the sights of the bustling city outside the full-length window. She leaned her head against the cold glass as taxis and a variety of cars drove by, full of civilians experiencing the fast-paced life the big city had to offer. Then there were the surplus of people on the sidewalks, getting to their destination the traditional way. Most had their mind engulfed in smartphones, but that was no surprise, because who wasn't already brainwashed by the advanced and exciting technology available at the swipe of a finger. The skyscrapers fascinated her the most, it was just something about them that just screamed beauty to Skye's eyes. Just the sight brought a small smile to her face.

It was always a pure mystery to most of how Skye was so fond of this lifestyle, despite her personality showing otherwise. But that's why Skye was excited to move here. She enjoys adventure and learning more. She enjoys having a unique life. That was another reason she frequented this little coffee shop. It stood out like a child next to all the towers that intimated it from above.

The sound of small talk, cups being moved, the faint coffee house tune that was an unknown piece of art to most, and the muffled sound of the surrounding city that never sleeps from outside drowned about in Skye's ears, creating a looped, rhythmical song ring in her ears, that she fairly enjoyed. She took a sip from her mug, smiling in content at the delicious drink before turning her full attention back to the book in front of her. Just as she turned the page, she heard the easily recognizable laughter of one of her closest friends.

The dirty-blonde-haired boy plopped down in the booth in front of Skye with a grin on his face that seemed to stretch from ear to ear. He snatched the book Skye was currently engrossed in, seeing she hadn't looked up to acknowledge his presence yet, and tossed in over to the other side of the table.

Skye pouted, "Thanks for making me lose my page now, Asston."

Ashton chuckled, since he loved annoying his best friend of nine years more than anything. "You weren't paying attention to me for the full 20.5 seconds I sat here."

She smiled at him, moving her elbows towards the surface of the wooden table and propping her chin on the palm of her hands. "What's got you even happier than usual, Irwin?" she asked, which made the boy return to the wide smile that showed off his dimples.

"I met a girl,"

Skye groaned, rolling her eyes, "I swear, it's like you only took the job as a barista here just to get girls' phone numbers"

The comment made Ashton slightly frown, as he leaned back on the seat and crossed his arms. "I'll have you know, I took this job as a way to save up for a new drum set," he smirked, his hazel eyes glistening in the lighting, "plus, I get both of us free coffee when my boss isn't paying attention."

She laughed, which resulted in Ashton laughing as well. Skye loved his laugh, it was one of her most favorite sounds in existence. It was so contagious that all Ashton had to do was laugh when she was upset and she would be smiling in an instant. Besides, if it wasn't for Ashton's constant optimism all these years, Skye would probably be stuck in an empty hole of bitterness and depression, especially in the darker era of her short life.

So I guess you could say she was eternally grateful for Ashton.

As their laughter died down, she kept a slight smile on face, "So what's her name?"

"Diana," Ashton fluttered his eyes as the word rolled off his tongue like the name of his favorite song. He had such an euphoric look on his face that made Skye cringe. She never understood how Ashton could fall for a stranger so fast. But what she hated most was how he could undo those feelings just as quickly. She always kept those kinds of thoughts to herself, just for the sake of preserving the feelings of those around her. Besides, she can't yell at Ashton for something that human nature was to blame for. Or yell at Ashton in general. It was impossible to get mad at him.

Ashton's cheeks turned a slight pink as he reminisced on his conversation with Diana, the girl with brown hair, dazzling blue eyes, and a cute smile. He had no idea what he actually told the girl, he was too busy observing her to be fully engrossed in the conversation.

As Ashton droned on, Skye found herself almost ignoring him. Her facial expression was consistently her eyebrows raised with a slight smirk, because the new girl wasn't special at all. Once she realized Ashton had changed the subject, she quickly perked up.

"Skye? I know I'm attractive, but it's rude to stare," the Aussie giggled as he spoke, his eyes crinkling. He jokingly waved his hands in front of Skye's face, obviously amusing himself.

Skye blinked rapidly as she realized what Ashton just said and she gave him a disgusted look, "oh god, no, Ashton. Gross." She pretended to gag as Ashton kept laughing, "I just zoned out because you're boring and love struck. Again," she gave emphasis on the last word as she spoke it out loud.

Ashton's face dramatically fell as he pouted, making himself look like a child, "I am not boring, thank you very much."

Skye rolled her eyes as her friend rose from his seat, taking off his work apron, "My shift is over," Ashton smiled, "and I have a date tonight." He shouted a goodbye to Skye as he hung his apron alongside his coworkers' in the back of the coffeehouse and ran out towards his apartment.

Skye finally turned her attention back to her book, letting time fly by as she occupied her mind with the beautiful words that combined gracefully to form the sentences in the book, and pleasing her wonder-filled mind as the plot thickened and challenged her mind.

**********

HI. HELLO. WELCOME YOU LITTLE CUTIE. HOPE YOU LIKED THIS.

except that the ending was shitty bc i couldn't think of anything else but shhhh :-))

I'M RLLY EXCITED FOR THIS STORY AND I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS AND PLOT TWISTS AND SHIT SO YEAH KEEP ON BEING CUTE BYE

p.s- thanks to a super awesome human for letting me annoy her as i asked for her opinion on this at least 67 times u rock dude

- ya girl meli