A TALE OF LOVE...AND SORROW

A TALE OF LOVE...AND SORROW... chapter 3

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My dear grandchild, I am sure you must be on the verge of boredom at this point. This is merely a collection of my last dying thoughts of the most important things in my life. Or was. John was never open about his feelings-and that's why it took a good 14 years for him to finally confess. Of course I was in shock when he did! I still love him enormously to this day. Why don't we skip a couple of weeks in my life? To the day of the dance. Oh, you should have seen his face when-oh, you'll find out soon enough...

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The doorbell rang which jerked my stomach. I was sitting in my room, flustered by my cream dress. I stood up, checked myself in the mirror one last time and listened out for Father to answer the door. There were polite 'good evenings' from my parents and Hugo to fill the tense air then I heard my mother's delicate footsteps bounding up the stairs. She knocked on the door and walked in.

"Hannah? Your date is waiting for you downstairs." My mother smiled and hugged me. I was sure she could hear my thudding heart. I should probably go to a doctor for that...

"Mother!" I squealed into her chest as she held me.

"Honey, you look beautiful. And if I may say, your date is looking very dashing, too." Mother held me at arm's length and grinned.

"Eeeww... no you may not!" I joked.

She laughed. "Come on, darling." She took my hand and led me downstairs.

I took each step slowly, counting it as one more step to teen hood, one more step to the dance, one more step away from John. I entered the awkward ambience downstairs. Hugo was standing near the doorway in his flattering black and white tuxedo.

Before I could even reach the landing, he took my hand; "You look so beautiful, Hannah." Hugo's voice sounded different somehow; so much more grown up. I don't know why, but that just added to the amount I blushed.

"And look at you! In your tux!" I slyly ran my hand down his arm and he laughed, still gazing into my eyes.

"Have a great time, dear!" My mother gave Hugo and me one last hug.

"We will!" I said, hooking my arm around Hugo's who held onto me tighter.

"Bring her home safe, now." My dad shook Hugo's hand and gave me a curt nod. My dad was never first-class at expressing his feelings.

"I will, sir." Hugo smiled at my dad. Somehow, he didn't look so pleased.

Mother opened the door for us and Hugo took my hand. We walked down my path and to his car, gleaming in the dark night. I began rubbing my eye, careful not to make it red, but it was really irritating me. I noticed Hugo's brother was waiting in his car at the end of the path and Amelia was probably in there too.

"You OK, Hannah?" Hugo asked. I smiled at the worry in his voice.

"Yeah. There's just something in my eye." I continued rubbing it, getting angry at the world.

"Let me see." He lifted up my chin and casually brushed away my fingers. I looked into his green eyes and felt myself blush when I noticed how intently he was looking at me. I looked up at the sky and admired the twinkling stars as he looked into my eye.

"Yeah, I can see something." He put his hand on my cheek and tried to get the eyelash out of my eye with the other.

We stood in front of his car and I leant on it. Carefully, he put his finger near my eye and extracted the eyelash.

"There you go." He said, proud of his small accomplishment.

"Thank you." I said, grateful it wasn't there to aggravate me throughout the evening.