Short Stories & Writing Contests

Road Less Traveled

It was a quite nice tuesday morning, when Robert was walking down the street to pick up his friend Elinor so they could go to school together. Dark clouds were crowding not far away in the sky, but the sun was still shining through. It made Robert being optimistic towards making it into the school building before it would start to rain.

The only thing Robert didn't consider was Elinor. By now she was still having her breakfast and wouldn't be ready to leave soon. Just as she couldn't see the clouds to the west of the small city, both of them were living in, Elinor wasn't aware of how fast time went by while she was still sipping on her already cold cup of hot chocolate. Too lost she was in her thoughts to notice how late it already was.

As Robert was making his way up the doorsteps in front of his friend's frontdoor, he took a short look through the window. Insinde he could make out Elinor Miriam White. Her long black hair was loosely falling over her back. They were still a mess from Elinor's restless sleep, but Robert didn't mind since it meant, that he was the one to brush it while Elinor would go drinking the rest of the hot chocolate she used to have every morning.

He loved the feeling when he was running with his fingers through her soft hair to loosen a knot without hurting her and she was secretly enjoying it, too. Elinor loved these moments when the two of them would just sit next to each other. Sometimes Robert would start a conversation then or they would go through the last lessons together, but more often they were just enjoying each other's presence in silence.

It needed more than only one knock against the kitchen's window to make his friend come out of her thoughts. Then Elinor got up from the table and finally opened the door for Robert.

"I really should give you a key, shouldn't I?", Elinor questioned, as they both entered the kitchen.

"Isn't it a bit too soon for me to move in?", Robert was joking.

"You're an idiot, Robert Frost!", she was shouting out, boxing slightly against her best friend's shoulder, "I didn't mean it that way."

"Ouch!", he was complaining.

"Don't be such a wimp.", Elinor was teasing him then. A big smile was creaping onto her face.

Why does he always have such a big impact on her? If she needed silence, he gave her silence. If she was close to tears, he was the one to make her happy again. If she was feeling uneasy, he was the one to make everything alright again. If she needed someone to wake her up just like now, as she found out by looking on the watch hanging over the oven, he made her being awake. How did he do that?

"It didn't hurt at all.", Robert tried to talk himself out of this situation, "I- I just didn't want to- to- think you're weak. Because-"

Then his voice finally broke. Not even another stuttering sound came out of his mouth. What was she doing to him? He could not even form a proper sentence in his head anymore. Nervously he looked down to his Hands, just like always when he got speechless in her presence. His hands were shaking, he noticed in astonishement. Not even having to come in front of the class or that speech he had held at the beginning of the year in front of their whole school had made his hands shake from nervousness just like she did just now.

"Because what?", she asked him, when she was holding her brush out to Robert.

As he took it out of her hands, she noticed that his were shaking. Elinor thought it was better to pretend she hasn't seen it, because she was already chaffing him enough, she thought. She feared it could do harm to their friendship to tease him more than necessary. A big fight between them was nothing she wanted right now just as they have gotten so close to each other.

She also feared she could scare him too much to take the next step. At school you couldn't overhear the voices whispering behind their backs. Everybody said, that the thing between Robert and her, was 'true love' and some called it even 'love on first sight'. Even Garth Norfolk did and he was as blind as a bat when it came to feelings. Elinor for sure didn't want to be the reason why - whatever that strange thing between them was - got destroyed. Also she didn't want to loose a friend, her best friend, if he wasn't already more to her and she eagerly wanted him to be more to her just now.

"Because you're strong.", he said after a long time of silence, in which he tried to gain back his speech.

"Like Superman?", Elinor wanted to know after taking a long drink from her now cold chocolate drink.

"You would be Supergirl then, you know...", he began to stumble again, "Because you're a girl."

After Robert had said this, there was silence again in the White's kitchen. But only minutes later it ended, as Robert had finished brushing Elinor's hair. Then she thanked him while getting up from her chair and went upstairs quickly. When Robert followed her only moments later, she already came down the stairs again, fully dressed in her school uniform and her school bag in her hand. Like the real Gentleman he was, Robert took her bag and opened the door.

On their way Robert was reading out loud the last entry in his history notebook, while Elinor was braiding her hair. What none of them noticed were the dark clouds above their heads in which small Drops of water were formed as they walked underneath it. Finally one of them got big enough to separate itself from the cloud. After it's long way down it hit Elinor's cheek. Then another one hit Robert's hand and then a lot them were following these two. It started to rain.

Robert was cramming his notebook into Elinor's bag, because it was too laborious to put it back into his own and he knew his friend wouldn't mind. While doing this he was silently swearing at the rain. Elinor left hold of her unfinished braid and started to run. After Robert's book was savely packed away, he began to run after her.

Shortly before he finally reached her, she stopped at a crossroad. As he came to a stand next to her, Robert could watch the red traffic light turn green. He took it as a sign. Hell, he was litterary standing in a crossroad, he thought, maybe I should take the road less traveled on this time. So he took her hand in his to stop her from crossing the road. Instead he pulled her closer and leaned down to her.

And then they kissed.