Hope Bound

Chapter 1

Its a bright Sunday afternoon, everybody is enjoying in the Central Park. Some are having picnic while others are just strolling. There is this pretty girl with golden blonde hair quietly sitting under a tree and reading. HOPE is what people call her by. It's kind of funny because she is completely opposite to what her name suggests to be. She finds herself lonely amidst people as she is kind of an introvert. So she is most of the time occupied with her books. A kid calls her and says, "Hope I am hungry, do ya have more cookies?" She likes kids or may be just the idea of kids, for in her free time she babysits and takes kids out to play in return for some cash. At 21, she feels quite lonely as college is over and she just broke up with her boyfriend and also, she is not much of a people's person except for her best friend RONNY. Ronny is completely opposite to Hope. They have been best buddies since college for the past two years and are pretty close to each other, or at least Ronny tries to be. She is outgoing and a total extrovert, though at times, Hope wonders if she is hiding something behind her boisterous nature. Hope replies to the kid, "Kiddo playtime is over, let's go home, your mom will feed you." The kid hardly wants to move from her play area but finally obliges and leaves with Hope.
Sitting in her balcony, with a book in hand, Hope is deeply engrossed into thoughts about whether she could ever fall in love again, giving her least attention to the book. Her phone rings and she finally comes back to reality. Its THEO. Theo has been a close friend of Ronny since childhood, and is kind of in love with Hope since he first met her at Ronny's 20th birthday party. Hope has a little idea about it but she has no feelings for him, though. Actually, Theo is not the kind of guy she would love to end up with. He is more into clubbing and all, just quite the opposite of Hope. She picks up the phone and says, "Hi, Theo". Theo with his naughty smirk that she could see through the phone says," Hey, what's up? Emmm... I called you to ask if you would like to go for this party at Anthony's club, this Saturday, 10 P.M. I have got passes for two and I thought it would be great to go out with you. What say?" Hope, not knowing what to say, says, "Okay." She definitely didn't want to go out with him to some club, with people around. But, she couldn't embarrass him. That's the thing with Hope. She makes decisions she never wants to.
Hope calls up Ronny, "Listen I am in a fix, Theo just asked me for a party at some club and you know what? I didn't know what to say and blurted out a yes, but you know me right? I don't wanna go! Help me now.." Ronny says, "Okay dude I will think of something, but why do you keep doing this all the time? For God's sake learn to say NO. " Finally the idea was that Ronny would accompany them. That way Hope wouldn't hurt Theo and Ronny's presence would ease out the tension. Hope as confused as always, finally chooses her bright yellow dress which she recently bought online, with black heels. She is not much into dressing especially when she doesn't feel like going somewhere. But yeah at the same time, if she is going out for a movie with Ronny or say, bowling, she at times takes a lot of time to dress up, depending on her mood. Ronny gets out of her car and hugs her, "Wow you are looking sooo... pretty. But why didn't you apply any make up at all? C'mon babe wear this lipstick." Hope hesitates but finally wears it. Ronny is dressed in a black short jumpsuit with black ankle boots and dark liner around her eyes, making her look rebellious. They pick up Theo who looks cool in his white tees and blue denims and smiling romantically at Hope says, "Hey how you doing? Looking pretty huh." There is a light breeze about Theo which makes him so attractive that, for a second even Hope can't ignore him, even if she tries to. But nobody knows what stops her from falling for Theo, even though Ronny tried many a times to fix them up. One day when Ronny forced Hope to go on a movie date with Theo, Hope snapped at her, "Are you his friend or mine? I know you are his childhood buddy and all that, but that doesn't give you the right to force me to date him!" Seeing Hope so mad for the first time, Ronny decided not to bring this up ever again. She said," I am sorry Hope. I didn't know you were really so stubborn against Theo. I promise I will never make you feel uncomfortable." They hugged. That day that hug was different. It connected them on a deeper level. They just looked at each other for a few seconds before breaking the awkward silence. Okay, so now they are in the club. Ronny meets a few of her old friends and gets busy with them. Hope gets a little pissed off because she is left all alone with Theo which she was trying to avoid, especially when Theo smiles and acts all romantic. Otherwise she wouldn't mind to be just friends with him. Basically Hope is hopeless about romance because she thinks that she has had it enough. So it just makes her nauseated when she thinks of getting into a relationship again. In fact, she hates boys now! Ronny is drunk and she can get really dramatic at times. She is now on top of a table shouting, "Hey people, meet my beloved friend Hope. She is such a sweetheart you know, but she is soooo lonely and I want to find her soulmate for her. Can y'all pleaseeee help me?" Hope knows that whenever Ronny drinks, she does stupid stuff. But this was very embarrassing for Hope. She tries to stop Ronny saying, "Ronny please, you are out of your mind. Now let's go home." Even Theo is embarrassed and tries to calm Ronny down but fails. She goes on and on about Hope, about how close they are and how worried she is about her loneliness and blah blah. Not being able to take it anymore, Hope leaves. Everybody's eyes are on Hope and Ronny. All their friends are cheering away and teasing Hope as she leaves the night club. Theo follows her and says, "Wait I will drop you, it's late. You won't get a cab easily Hope." But Hope very strictly refuses, saying, "Just leave me alone for God's sake. I need to breathe!" And she leaves, leaving Theo surprised and hurt...