What We Were

Chapter 6: Part 1

{(Julie’s point of view)}

When I opened my eyes, the first blurry image I saw was my bedroom. I saw blankets all over me, and I even had some thick coats draped all over my bed. I still felt achy all over my back and my abdomen. When I looked around I saw a glass of water, tissues, tampons, Tylenol, peanuts, loose change, a bowl of steaming chicken noodle soup, some crackers and grapes on a plate, and some mint gum. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and Emma’s voice. I was startled to see how late it was outside; it must’ve been at least 9:30. I began to go into Emma’s room to make sure she was ok in there. I heard a deep voice and panicked until I got to the doorway and realized it was Noah. He was sitting on the edge of Emma’s bed and was talking to her. He was telling her a story about a fairy princess. It was beautiful. I couldn’t believe he was here taking care of her. I couldn’t believe he was here taking care of me. I slid down the wall and sat with my legs against my chest and listened to the soft voice coming from the other side of the wall.

“Once there was…”

“No Noahie! It’s once upon a time!”

“Oh! Right! Once upon a time! Ok, once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived in a beautiful castle. She loved her wonderful little sister and her parents the King and the Queen. Now, she was so beautiful that every prince in the neighboring kingdoms wanted to marry her. But, she never had the time for them, you see she was not only a stunning princess; she was also very smart and loved to read. You could say she was a little miss smarty pants.”

Noah said in his best De Niro accent. I heard my sister giggle with joy and couldn’t help but laugh a little too. Then she quieted to hear the rest of the story.

“What happened next Noahie? What happened next?”

“Ok, Em’ I’ll tell you. So anyway, this princess one day met a peasant farm boy. His name was Dorkus. He was very dirty, boring, and well, smelled pretty bad.”

“Ewwwww!!! Did she turn him into a toad!!??”

“Hahahaha, No! Wait now hold on just a second, he was a good guy! He even became her very good friend! But one day, he and the princess were walking along the road and suddenly something incredible happened.”

“What?”

“He found out he had a talent. Slaying dragons…well sort of slaying dragons. Along the way back to the castle, he saw a big, ferocious, dragon, and it was hungry. So the farm boy told the princess to hide in the bushes as he would try to lure the dragon away.”

“Did he get away Noahie? DID HE?”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute let me get to that part. Ok where was I? Uh yes, so he lured the dragon out of the pathway and into woods on the far side of the river. He ran and ran until he couldn’t run any farther. His lungs were sore and he didn’t think he could go any farther. Then, out of nowhere, Dorkus MaLorkus tripped and fell on the stones in the creek. The dragon was tall in stature and broad in the shoulders. It raised its mighty claw and said, “Dude, You need to do more cardio. For Serious.”

Dorkus thought to himself, that yes indeed he probably should get more cardio so that he could get super toned. It wouldn’t hurt to be a little more ripped in the summer months, like the dragon for instance. He was solid as a rock. And that’s when he got it.”

“NOAHIE! WHAT DID HE GET?”

“One of the most powerful things on this planet. The thing that would help him in that split second. Dorkus MaLorkus got an idea.

He picked up one of the stones from the creek bed, shut his eyes tight, and gave it a good toss. He heard a loud cry and snarling and a loud final last roar. When Dorkus emerged from the safety of his cupped hands what he saw was strangely puzzling. The stone was only about six inches from where Dorkus had tried to chuck it. Yet the dragon had fallen to its death. As he slowly crept to see if the dragon had truly died, he tried to think of how the rock could have killed the dragon. I mean he knew going into this plan that there was a 15% chance it would actually work. When Dorkus had examined the beast, he looked deep into the dragons eye. Suddenly, it blinked…

It blinked three times…

Finally, just as Dorkus was ready to scream for his life, the dragon whispered through his clenched teeth, “Dude, what are you doing?”

“What am I doing? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I thought you were going to kill me!”

“Of course I wasn’t going to kill you! I just saw you striking out with that girl a few minutes ago so I thought if I made it look like I got slayed, you could get laid, my man!”

“Noahie what does “get laid” mean?”

“So then, Dorkus thanked the dragon, took a quick selfie for proof, and was on his way back to the bushes to get the sweet princess. But then, oh no, it was Sir Scott McNeill, one of the biggest jerks in all the land and sea and sky and space. Although this wouldn’t be proven until modern science caught up years later. Sir Scott had the princess by the arm and had his horsemen along with him. McNeill spoke and said, “Well…Well…Well,  take a look men, we’ve found ourselves not one but two women travelling alone this day, whatever can we help you with miss?”.

Dorkus cowered as McNeill’s men grabbed ahold of him and forced him to his knees to grovel for his release.

“So Dorkus, have you met the Princess?  I hear she’s quite a delicate flower, don’t you think Dorkus?  I think a prize like this one deserves to be with a real man.”

This was one of the slimiest, gruesome, cruelest, most snobbish, self-centered, kind of man, nay kind of boy. Without a blink of doubt, Dorkus said,

“Well firstly, that may be true, that this beautiful, smart, kind, woman does deserve a real man, but I don’t see any around here. At least none that come close to being the kind of man she deserves.

And secondly, what is with you guys and treating women like property. This is such a closed minded way to think if you ask me.”

And what did Sir Scott have to say about that? “Pshh, what a Dweeb!”

Dorkus felt ashamed, until he remembered his selfie pic.

Now, this story had been changed over time, but the way my father told it, was that Dorkus pulled out the picture and showed it to Sir Scott’s men. Once they looked at the fallen beast in the background, they had fallen to their knees with terror and also honor for Dorkus. They figured they were in the midst of total boss. Sir Scott didn’t believe it, but the proof was there. Eventually word got around that Dorkus was an awesome dragon slayer, and even made some friends because of the selfie. The princess was forever grateful for Dorkus’ bravery, but she still treated him the same as before. He liked this because she was different from everyone else. People acted like all of a sudden, he was their best friend.”

“That’s a stupid story! What happened to the princess and Dorkus?”

“Firstly, stupid is a bad word. Secondly, I’m not done yet; I was just getting there…

 So for a long time, Dorkus knew he was in love with the princess, but he never told her...”

“Why didn’t he tell her Noahie?” Emma asked with a little yawn.

“I don’t know Em’ maybe he thought it would make things complicated. Because love makes things complicated…”

“What’s comp-icated?”

“Complicated, it’s like messy. But, then again I think the reason he didn’t tell that beautiful princess how he felt, was because…well because she was a beautiful princess and he was a farm boy. He wasn’t handsome, and he didn’t have a sweet ride, Heck he wasn’t even a real dragon slayer. He took care of animals all day.  Plus, how would he know if she truly liked him for being who he was, or if she liked him because she thought he was an awesome dragon slayer.  He didn’t think he could make her happy. He wasn’t good enough, because he felt like a fake.”

I could hear small little snores and a sigh from Noah. I peeked around the corner and saw him dip his head down and kiss her tiny forehead and turned out her light.

“Night Em’."

With tears forming in my eyes, I quickly got up and walked back to my room. Silently I got back into my bed, turned over, and shut my eyes. It was the only way I could keep myself from crying.