Someone To Love

Forever

Someone to Love Chapter 20 Forever

The night sky washes an unnatural shade of lavender in what I'll always remember as the color of this spectacular heartbreak. The stars spray out their glory in number as if all the starry hosts were marshaled right over Alpha Sigma Phi. The evergreens shimmer a luminescent sage as if vying for my attention. It seems all of nature is peacocking - showing off its prowess, its inherent beauty that surrounds us like a song set to the tune of eternity. How anything could go so disastrously wrong in a world so beautiful astounds me. But it had. And now, I'm experiencing the horrific impact from the death plunge I unknowingly took. Cruise pushed our love off the sheer cliff of ecstasy, and left me crashing through the flames, cracking my skull open on the rocky shore each time I thought of him.

I don't know why I expected anything different. I slid my heart across the table like it were a loaded gun, and Cruise blew a hole right through me with my own weapon. I've only my sheer stupidity to blame. I was so naive to think it could have ever worked - that we conquered something so spectacular - that it existed at all.

I run my fingers over my neck. It's still sore from picking at the collar that I latched onto it like a vice. I finally managed to take it off by repeatedly stabbing the keyhole with a bobby pin.

"There's a beer inside with your name on it." Ally links an arm with mine as we enter the frat party that essentially started it all. I suppose it's fitting it'll be my last here at Garrison. I missed classes all week and hung out at Ally's dorm in Russell Hall. Not a soul there was a "loser." According to Mom, Aunt Jackie is the loser for cheating on her poor husband. It turns out they've been in splitsville for almost a year.

Mom wanted to know why Cruise was at the bed and breakfast and I was at Ally's. I guess he told her, his windows were in desperate need of repair, and that I was staying with friends, but she knew. Mom is an expert when it comes to crash landing a relationship. And when she boards that plane for California, I plan on being right there with her. This entire semester was a waste. I got an education I never bargained for - never wanted.

Bodies cram into the boxy fraternity, overwrought with blaring music and bimbos. Alpha Sigma Phi holds the slight scent of used socks and beer much like Pennington himself, and speak of the devil...

His hair glints in the light, shorn a little too close to his head, but he's still safely tucked in his polo with the collar upturned, a white sweater lies tied over his shoulders, ensuring no one mistakes him for a gangbanger anytime soon.

"I hear my dad has this thing for your mom." He nods as if it were everyday people left, cheated - staggered into new relationships like drunken toddlers.

"I wouldn't know. How's your mom?"

"Busy" - he looks as though he could puke on demand - "with the pool boy."

"Ouch. Sorry."

"It's all right. I'm sure it'll be the box boy next week. She likes 'em young. Divorce is final in less than a month. So I guess there'll be a celebration. You down for that?"

"Celebrating the end of a relationship? Sounds horrible."

"You're right." Pen bows his head for a moment, and I reach over and hug him. I hold Pen a lot longer than anticipated until his chest heave beneath me. "I better take off. I see a skirt with my name on it," he whispers, drifting into the crowd.

It's only then I notice Ally's gone, too.

I glance up, and a familiar-looking Adonis lights up the room from across the way.