Realistic Romance

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To start a good romance novel, you need two main characters who are destined to be together. The love they have can never be broken or damaged, and the obstacles somehow have to collide just right to lead to the perfect love ending that will leave you bawling your eyes out. Yeah, those stories are amazing; however, when you're someone like Tanya Farson it makes you want to barf or burn any kind of documentation of love; not because she hates the idea of romance and finding your destined one. On the contrary, she had always believed in soul mates as any other human being, but believing a romantic fairy would come down upon her and bless her with the same heartwarming tale was just not realistic. 

And that is exactly what Tanya Farson was, realistic. 

Tanya had always been locked up and sheltered from the world due to her inability to get along with others and how uncomfortable conversing with others had always made her feel. Growing up as a loner, childhood made living difficult, and often times her own mother would go to drastic measures to make her seem normal. Going so far as to pay other mothers to invite her to birthday parties and gatherings which never helped the problem only intensified the bullying. She never really had friends before middle school and when she did, they all would turn on her the first chance they got. She would even have guys ask her out as sick jokes just to call her easy. The constant betrayal of others struck her to the point of shutting everyone out including her family.

Except Talia, that is.

Talia was her only sister and her only friend, though it did take a lot of time for even Talia to get emotionally close to her. The older sister of one minute had to ease her way in and it was not an easy task. Eventually, the hard work paid off, causing Talia to try desperately getting Tanya to give people chances. She made a vow to herself that she would never give up on her sister no matter how difficult it might be.

Talia walked into their living room to find Tanya's face in a book. "C'mon, get up and get dressed we're going out."

"I'm almost done with the novel. I don't want to go anywhere, so you have fun." She replied in monotone, her eyes glued to the page. Talia reached out and snatched the book out of her hands. "No! You're gonna make me lose my page, Tal!"

"Too bad. Now, get dressed."

Tanya stood up and felt her knees crack. Reading three hours again she could feel. She finally noticed Talia's look and scrunched up her nose. "We're not going to a club, are we?"

Talia tried her best to keep a straight face as she put on her cardigan. "Of course not, Kendra and Mary are meeting us at the little coffee shop by Chris's house. It'll be fine." With a sigh, Tanya grabbed her favorite hoodie. "Hey, I told you to get dressed!"

"I am dressed." Tanya stated, tugging on her sweat pants to show verification that she was, in fact, not going out naked.

"Could you at least brush your hair. Let's not go out looking like a rag doll, shall we?" Talia rolled her eyes in agitation. Tanya smiled and lifted her hood before walking through the door past her. "Ugh, child!"

As soon as they had entered the small café, they were bombarded with her friends. "We have a seat already." Kendra stated as she led them to their table. Once the four sat down, Kendra and Mary's face showed a look of concern when their eyes fell on Tanya. "Oh, you brought her." Kendra stated with fake politeness.

Talia gave her a snarling glare. "How could I not take her. I'm not gonna leave her by herself while I have fun. If you don't want her here then I'll leave too." Talia was about to stand up when Mary spoke up.

"No, it's fine. Stay. Ken was just being her usual big mouth self, so don't take it personal, Tanya." Mary stated apologetically. "By the way, I heard you got an interview on Monday for a sales representative for the huge company that just got built. Must be exciting." 

She nodded and then looked down once more to play on her phone. God, how she wanted to just leave and let them have at it. She never did like hanging out with her friends for this specific reason. "I'm gonna go use the restroom." Tanya shot up from her seat and quickly made a run for the nearest place to hide, but not before running into a certain gentleman. "Sorry."  She attentively looked up through her hood to see an attractive tall male with a button down shirt and denim jeans like he just got off of work, she quickly averted her eyes back to the floor.

He had been holding two drinks that had almost spilt on the both of them. "You're okay. You know, it would probably help if you look up while walking. Just friendly advice." The handsome stranger chuckled.

"Sure. Whatever." With that she squirmed her way past him through the crowd.

After realizing she couldn't hang out in the bathroom forever, she decided to just suck it up and go back. Completely ignoring the fact that she would rather slit her own throat than involve herself with the group that she didn't fit into. She finally sat back down and let them converse until she decided she had enough, "Can I go now?" 

Before any of them could answer, she shot up from her seat and with her head bowed, raced her way out of the café. As she strode down the street back to her apartment, Talia caught up to her and grabbed her by the arm.

"Tanya, that was rude to just walk out like that. C'mon, time to go back."

"I'm fine. Just let me go back to the house, so you can enjoy your friends' company. I'll see you when you get home." Tanya snatched her hand away from her grasp and turned the other cheek without a glance.

Talia had given up as she watched her walk away, not knowing why she had always pulled her along when predicting the same results every time. She stood there lost in complete thought not noticing her two friends heading towards her. She never knew why Tanya was the way she was, or who could have hurt her to the point of such isolation from the world, but it scared her deeply. Talia wanted more than anything for Tanya to be happy and live her life to the fullest. The two girls dragged her back to the café while Tanya still hadn't reconsidered finishing the rest of the night with them.

After the 10 minute journey home, Tanya rushed out of her hoodie and grabbed her book before settling back on the couch and opened to the page that was lost, thanks to a certain control freak.

What a waste. Why does she always have to drag me into shit like that when she knows her friends don't like me? 

As she read, she couldn't stop the tear leak down her cheek.