Broccoli

#4

JOHN

I was surprised when I saw Broccoli walking in side my store. Today she was too early. I had just opened a couple of minutes ago.
"A coffee please. "She ordered.
"No Bratwurst today?" I ask her ironically. Of course I knew that no one eats Bratwurst for breakfast. Or are there some guys doing that?
"No please not. "She answered before starting to laugh.
"Am so happy that you are here." I told Broccoli what I actually thought in this moment.
"Yeah my plane is leaving in four hours. That's why I thought I could visit you before. And I want you something to know. Just to make sure that you don't do the same mistake like me." Now I was nosy. So I brought her the coffee and sat down with her.
"Well, probably you remember what I told you yesterday?" Of course. I thought the whole night about her words. In fact I nodded.
"Good. So you also still know that I want to be respectful, right?" Yeah I think she told me.
"By the way, is the coffee made with milk?" I nodded again. A short time after I nodded she put the coffee in the trash.
"Can you offer me something vegetarian?" Now she smiled again in her special Broccoli smile.
"By the way Broccoli, you didn't have to put the coffee in the trash because am not a vegan. And if you want I can offer you some broccoli with cheese just in case it's okay for you."
"Oh sorry I just wanted to be respectful. And broccoli with cheese would be great." I walked to the counter and put out my still warm lunch.
"Thank you." She thanked me. So we were sitting in my Bavarian meat store and eating broccoli with cheese at 10 a.m. After a while I asked her what she wanted me to tell.
"Well, yesterday you and me where talking about mobbing. So I told you about this girl who killed herself" I nodded just for giving her a sign that I am still listening. "Well, she killed herself because of me." I got shocked.
"What have you done?"
"When this mobbing started I wasn't respectful to her either because I was a really selfish person or I didn't want to become a victim of mobbing too. Only later, when the mobbing turned into cyber mobbing I tried to help her. My idea of helping her worked out pretty good. So she was okay again when she found out that I was not since the beginning at her side. In fact she stopped trusting me and then she was killing herself. Yeah so that's why I wanna be respectful to everyone. And I learned that it's never a good idea to tell someone not everything which is important."
I needed a little bit time to get what Broccoli told me.
"Respect how you deal with that. I think I couldn't behave like this if I were you."
"Yeah it's quite hard but you get used to it. I just want you to know this story. I have to go now. I really loved the time spent with you. I hope you enjoyed it too. Call me when I've arrived in Toronto." Broccoli gave me first a little piece of paper than she hugged me for maybe the last time. Finally she left and I didn't want to let her go.

It's been a long time until the little bell at the door started ringing.

I hoped Broccoli was coming back. But it turns out that my guess was wrong. There were just some stupid teenagers walking inside. They forced one of them to walkin front of the others. He seemed to be a boy of the age of my younger brother.
"Hallo."
"Hi, what can I do for you?" I was sure that they just wanted to be cool and get on my nerves.
"Sprichst kein Deutsch, ne?" I had no freaking idea what this boy was talking about. At that time I wished Broccoli would have been here. I'm sure she is speaking German really well. That's why I decided to say "No".
Suddenly I noticed that some of the other teenagers where filming me and I saw that my younger brother was one of them. I get fed up.
"Hey James what the hell are you doing here? " I yelled at him.
"No John. The question is why are you yelling at your brother?" Gary answered my question. "Guys you did a great job. Go, and up load the video." He said to the teenagers.
"Up load the video where?" I asked Gary. I was confused.
"On Facebook, YouTube and some other social networks. Am sure you are agree with this."
"Hey Gary why are you so mean to me?"
"Ohm, you were taking something which is mine?" He looked at me like I am stupid.
"Bro...Eh...!" Was he drunken?
"Oh John, you are a whiz-kid aren't you?" I never thought about that to be honest.
"Well, you "Broccoli" can't help you anymore. She is about to fly miles away. Poor John. I would say you have to be a little bit nicer with me." He smiled at me in an ironic smile. Gary was definitely drunken.
"Yeah dude, never fight with Gary. I would say." Self-confidence wasn't every time a good idea even when he was drunken.
I just wanted to get rid of this bad boy.
"Hey Gary, why aren't you hanging out with your "new"friends?" I asked him and hoped that he'll leave my store.
"Oh they are all busy. That's life when you are fame like me." Gary was such an arrogant asshole. And he smelled like the alcohol bottle (he has drunken before) itself.
"Go out of here! I don't serve assholes!" I yelled at him before he left. Would I ever get rid of the alcohol perfume he left for me?

PARIS

I left John's store behind me. Little tears were rolling down on my face. I was sure that they were going to damage my make-up. Honestly I didn't care. There wasn't a way to stop them in any case.
John and me, we are something special.
We belonged together.

Now I was going to Canada - my home country.
Had I truly believed that living in my home country could replace my soul mate?
I'm so stupid.
Nothing can replace anything.

Now it was too late. I wished I had never applied to the University of Toronto. People like me weren't ment to be at one place for ever. On the other hand, people can change. I should have given me and John a try.

Too late.

Hours later the plane's wheels touched canadian ground.

No desert.
No Arizona.
No John.

This was Toronto. Another city. Another try. Another chance.

I took a taxi for going to my new flat. It was located in around five minutes walking distance to the University. Under other conditions that would have been brilliant. But walking to John was impossible.

Would he remember "BROCCOLI" if I came back one day?

JOHN

Today I had closed my store earlier than usual. What business would I miss without customers?
Everything felt so lonely without Broccoli.
There was no difference between sitting in my store or sitting in my room at home.

Perhaps Broccoli dropped me a message, I thought. Immediately I took my laptop. In fact I had a new message. It was from Broccoli.

"Hey John
Hopefully you are doing fine. I just wanna let you know that I have arrived in Canada.
You can't imagine how much I miss you.
Broccoli"

Immediately tears were rolling down my cheeks.
Saying goodbye has never been easy for me.
But in every farewell there was also a new chance.
Perhaps I would be more useful to think about the positive aspects.
I got to know Broccoli.
She has changed my life.
Otherwise I would be still this Gary addicted guy.

Nevertheless it was Broccoli who I missed most.

Suddenly a new message popped up on my screen. While Broccoli making my life more interesting, I totally forgot about the Academy of Performing Arts in New York City.

I read the message immediately. Of course I couldn't believe it.
They invited me.
For sure it didn't mean that they are going to take me.
But it was a chance - my chance.

Since I used to be a little boy that has been my dream.
Now it was about to get true.
According to the E-mail I'm going to fly there tomorrow for the entire weekend. What a success!

During dinner my step-father started to destroy this dream. He didn't want to let me go. "Arts aren't your business" he said a thousand times.
Nevertheless I wanted to go there. I didn't care about other people's opinions anymore. They could think what ever they want.

Perhaps I had to much self-confidence.
At the end my old-me won.
I wasn't the brave guy leaving home just to get his dream.
I was the one who was silent and who never breaks any rules.
In fact I stayed at home.
My mom cooked my favorite dish to let me feel more happy. I refused to eat it.
My step-father offered me the chance to go to California. I didn't take it.
James lent me his favourite video game which I normally like. I didn't play it.
My little half sister painted a picture for me. I didn't take it and she cried.

There was just one person who could have change something.
One person who wasn't there.

BROCCOLI.