How do you start stories?
Do you start by introducing yourself, or do you just jump into a situation?
I really don't know. But all I know is that I have to get this one off my chest.
And before you jump to conclusions, read.
It all started two months ago. I was just doing my job when I got into this huge mess.
...
...
I can't do this in the first person. It's going to be much easier talking about this in the third person, pretend it didn't happen to me. So that's what I am going to do.
There was once a girl. Shit, way to make it the cheesiest story ever. But, there was once a girl and she believed in good, in love, and in happy endings. She was a simple girl. She never asked for much or too little. She was content but she was still searching for something that was missing from her heart and she thought she had found it, standing at the seaside, looking out at the blue ocean beating down at her feet. The blue waves, shaded with greens and grays that couldn't be imitated, softly whispered to her.
She closed her eyes and momentarily got lost before she was rudely interjected by her very real job.
"Leia, get to work." The girl shook her head, straightened her jacket, cleared her throat and walked back up to the promenade. Her boss joined her on her brisk walk and looked at her concernedly from the corner of her eye.
"Don't. I know, I should have finished browsing the site an hour ago." She tied her hair up and looked at Kate, who with her sunny green eyes was scrutinizing her. She felt like she was being examined under a microscope and was going to be dissected any moment.
"What took you so long, then?" Kate glared at her.
"I was...distracted." She said honestly. The sea did something to calm her that no one had been able to before.
"Well, if that's the case, you don't get distracted Leia. The deadline is on us, you cannot go around gazing at the open nothing, not right now." She stopped in her tracks and pulled Leia back with her elbow. She looked at her once more.
"You should have taken a break after..." She didn't get to complete that sentence because Leia gave her a very stern look, one that said 'we've discussed this before'.
"I think this site is good. They are going for a more natural, open space. This should suit them." She looks back at the white house at the edge of the beach. It was completely whitewashed, with big French windows and a porch out front. It had a neat little backyard and 5 bedrooms in all. The clients for whom the house was reserved had 3 children, a dog, two cats and a lot of adventurous spirits. Leia had never met anyone like that.
"So, we should bring them down here?" She nodded to the question and was then on her way. She walked towards her car, pulled at the door and got in. She sighed as if she had just begun to breathe again and turned on the radio. Her playlist, full of calming songs began playing as if the car knew what she felt. She smiled, softly petted her car, and drove off, towards home.
-
It wasn't necessarily 'home'. Her mother was quite strict; she didn't like messing around, she expected things a certain way and you were just expected to do that. Leia didn't want to live away from her because as much her mother scolded her, throttled her, she still needed care and support. She deserved it. Her sister, Jen, on the other hand, preferred to walk in and out of the house as she preferred. Why would she live in this old town, anyway? She had her life set in New York. With her famous boyfriend and her fashion line doing as well as it was, she wouldn't even consider it.
"Mom, I'm home." She said as she walked in through the bright red door. She dropped her car keys in the little bowl and walked towards the kitchen, the place where her mother usually wandered. She loved cooking.
"Leia, about time. You were about to be home an hour ago." What shocked her was the voice floated towards her from the backyard. Her mother never went there. That was solely Leia's place. She quickly ran towards the backyard.
She found her mother sitting on the wrought iron table. Coffee and sandwiches placed in front of her and sitting opposite her were Leia's sister. And if that wasn't shock enough, her boyfriend was there too.
"Hi..." She stumbled back into the house, not sure if she was seeing things clearly. Her sister looked at her, expectantly. She was waiting for a reaction, an outburst, anything.
"Wh-What are you doing here?" Leia questioned. Her mother glared at her a bit while the boyfriend shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"I need to tell you and mom something." She smiled excitedly and motioned for Leia to sit down at the table. She walked towards the little black table a bit hesitantly and sat down. She locked eyes with Jen's boyfriend, who was surprisingly at ease.
"It's pretty big news, and I wanted to let both of you in person. You know, it's just not the kind of news you let people know over the phone." She was rambling, Leia knew it. Her dyed red hair was open and flowing down her shoulders. Her skin was glowing and her eyes, the usual sparkly blue shifted from Leia to her mother.
"Spit it out, Jen." Her mother said after listening to her ramble for 5 more minutes.
Jen smiled, held hands with her boyfriend, Chris Walls, and turned to us.
"We're engaged."
...
Shifting back to the first person, I can tell that I may be overdramatizing some scenes, but overall, the story that follows, that's entirely true. But that was the day, and I remember it too clearly. It started everything that followed, and I can't seem to forget it. This was the only way I could get past it.
