Prologue-Annie

I could feel Annie’s thin hair tickling on my chest. It felt so good having her right there. She was perfect; this was perfect. Watching her sleep was surreal. Looking at her made me feel cozy. I could feel her skin sticking on mine. Her body had its own essence, such a delicious essence. I was encircled by it. The only thing I could do was to give up and sleep in her arms.

She wrapped her arms around me, making my body feel her heat. I smiled. I gave her a good night kiss on the forehead and then I closed my eyes...but even though I was tired, I couldn’t sleep. I just laid there next to her and prayed to God so that we would be like this forever.

Laying there, looking at the stars next to my girlfriend made me think: And what if I had fallen in love with her? But that couldn’t happen, not again! I mean, I’m not prepared for that kind of relations…IM ONLY 24 FOR GODS SAKE! I said to myself just a bit worried. “Love?” I thought with my eyes still shut. Love…love is such a deep word but it’s always pictured as a common thing. What is love? No one can give the exact definition…at least I cant. I know it’s a feeling. I know it feels good being in love. But I don’t want to be in love again…it’s not like I fear love….NO! I already forgot how to love and be loved anyway….

Chapter 9 -Speak!

There was a complete silence. I noticed that there was no one in the bar except for the three of us and the bar man. Hadar was immobile. She looked like a sad doll, with her mouth wide open and her eyes all watery. I didn’t know what to say. There was nothing to say.

Logen didn’t know what was happening. She was surprised by my reaction and Hadar’s reaction. She was innocent from all of this. Hadar walked slowly towards me. I couldn’t face her. It was all too hard. I turned towards the bar guy. He was gone.

I could hear Hadar breath deeply. Logen was scared. She had no clue who was that woman and after all, she had no clue who I really was. She silently got off her chair and started walking her way out but…

“Do not move!” Hadar shouted. She closed her eyes and placed her hands covering her face. Then she dropped them down again. She was nervous. “So John,” Her voice was cracking. “what did I just interrupt? Oh I’m really sorry I mean…I didn’t want to bother my boyfriend when he’s trying to kiss another…” She gave a contemptuous look to Logen. “girl.” She finally said.

“Hadar please-” I managed to say.

“Please what? Oh so this is why you left huh? Who is she? Who are you!” Logen didn’t answer. “I can’t believe this. Two years John, two whole years. Speak! I’m waiting. Come on; tell me that you don’t love me anymore! I want to hear it coming from your lips. Just say it…just say it please. Tell me that all the sacrifices I’ve made were for absolutely nothing. Tell me that you don’t want to spend the rest of your life with me. I knew this would happen someday. My parents…they warned but I was deaf…deaf for YOU, damn it deaf for YOU! ” She started crying. “…Come on…I want to hear it. Just say it…please.” She was almost whispering now.

Every single word she said stabbed my heart right away. The guilt was tremendous and the pain so big. I had failed her and our love. I could feel my world crashing against me and then exploding. There was no future for “us”. No Yale, no economic studies, no family, no more love. No more “us”. What had I just done? Did I really want this? I wasn’t sure about that.

“If you’re not going to speak then I will.” Hadar said in her normal voice. “I can’t believe I was going to help you with your application for Yale. This is outrageous! John what do you think I am, a robot? I’m not doing your-”

“I don’t want to go to Yale for god’s sake! This isn’t my dream. It’s your dream! You can grab your freaking work and tear it into a million pieces! I don’t care.” I was completely out of control. Poor Hadar…this was so harsh and mean.

“Oh well that’s what I’ll do right now! If you want to spend the rest of your life playing in filthy bars like this one then that’s your problem! And let me tell you this John. This is over! ” She yelled uncontrollably.

“This is over”? What did she mean by that? Was she breaking up with me? This couldn’t be true. This had to be just a bad dream, a simple nightmare. All I had to do was wait until I woke up. But I didn’t wake up because I was simply already awakening by the sad truth. It was all over.

“What do you mean?” I just couldn’t believe it.

“What do you think I mean John?” She turned around and walked out of the room in her black high heels. That was the last time I saw her. I heard that she did make it to Yale though. She works for a mining company in South Africa now. She’s very successful and already has 2 kids with a guy called Samuel Robinson. Maybe I wasn’t the right guy for her after all…

I turned to my right…she was still there, Logen. She had a lost look.

Maybe…maybe it was time to restart?

Chapter 10 -Electric Blue and Red Passion

She stood up. She’s leaving I thought. What could I do? I had torn my life apart just one minute ago and I had hurt her in the way. It was fair for her to leave without saying a word.

“What? Are you going to stay sitting there all night long?” she said. I was surprised. I didn’t know what she meant exactly. Wasn’t she angry or what?

“Look, I’m sorry for all this. I didn’t want you to get involved but she-”

“This happens all the time.” She said laughing. Was she being sarcastic? “Stop all the `I’m-so-sorry-blah-blah-blah` rant and take me to the McDonalds in front of this bar, I’m hungry.” She smiled. Had she gone crazy? What was going on with her? She should have slapped me and then yelled at me and… All I could think was: what the hell?!

“Hey!” She snapped her fingers right in front of my face. “Wakey wakey. Let’s go!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the bar.

We walked inside the McDonalds and sat down in a table next to the window. The place was practically empty…it was 12 am. Suddenly I realized a very important fact: the McDonalds was about to close.

“Um Logen. I think they’re closing.” I said pointing at the cashier who was walking towards us.

“Indeed we are. Thanks for the visit though.” He smiled and pointed at the door.

“Oh what a pity but I’m hungry. Umm, I want to order a Big Mac and-“

“Um lady, I think you didn’t understand the message. GET OUT!” He yelled. Whoa, someone was in a very bad mood.

“Fine!” Logen said rolling her eyes. We stood up and left the place with the cashier inside.

As we walked down the street to catch a cab we both started laughing hysterically out of nowhere, remembering the cashier’s face. He had gone all red and his eyes looked as if hey were about to bulge out!

“Oh my god!” Logen kept laughing. “What a hysteric bitch!” I laughed.

“I know.” I answered. “If only we could teach that looser a lesson…” We paused for a moment.

“I have an idea.” She opened her purse and got two graffiti sprays out of it. Electric blue and Red Passion said the labels. We looked at each other. “He will never forget this one.” We grinned maliciously and ran back to the McDonalds up the street.

I took a look inside the restaurant. The guy was inside the kitchen. Then he entered into the bathroom. This is our chance I thought.

“Quick!” I said. We looked down and up the street, no one but us.

We walked in front the big entrance wall of the restaurant and started writing on the wall. Logen wrote “McDonalds sells rat-meat” and drew a rat next to it, and I wrote “McDonalds sucks harder than anything/anyone”. We stared at our master pieces and laughed. It was perfect. The cashier would get fired and would have to clean the whole wall. Who could he put the blame on? No one would believe him.

“We should better get going or he’ll catch us.” I said.

We walked down the street for the second time. Not even one cab or bus in the road. And not even a sign of Logen’s phone number so I decided to make a move.

“So…where are you going now?” I asked her.

“Umm. I don’t know. Maybe to a friend’s. I” She hesitated”…got kicked out of my house.” She stared at her feet “Personal problems.

“Oh. I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what to say. “Well maybe you could sleep in my house tonight.” She looked at me puzzled. “I have one extra bed” I added quickly.

“Oh…really!? Thanks. You’re the best!” She jumped and hugged me…and kissed me on the cheek.

But as she separated her lips, our eyes met. I wouldn’t miss the opportunity so I kissed her and she kissed me back. I couldn’t hide my feelings. I liked Logen. Even though I only knew her for 2 hours I felt as if I had met her long time ago. Both of us thought we were “destined” for each other. I was her Electric blue and she was my Red Passion.

She hugged me and I hugged her back. She smiled and closed her eyes.

“What the hell are we doing?” She whispered.

“I don’t know. Just…don’t speak.” I whispered back. But as I vocalized the last words I could hear a car parking next to us. A door opened. We un-hugged each other and faced the person.

“Don’t move.” An officer said. “You are arrested. Reserve the right to keep your mouths shut.”

As we got inside the car we could see the cashier waving at us with a grin on his face. It’s all he’s fault I thought.

“Fuck you!” I shouted.

“I said keep your mouth shut!” The officer said.

I was pissed off, so angry that I didn’t even bother to look at Logen. I closed my eyes and decided to put my mind in blank. I didn’t want to think about the money for the bail and less from where I was going to get it from. All the problems…I just wanted to erase them all with a simple blink. Everything was upside down in my life.

Then I opened them again: We where in the same corner. What had happened?

“John?” Logen said. “Can you give this man your address? He’s driving us home.”

“Wait what? How come-” Logen raised her wallet…full of 100-dollar-bills. Who was this girl?
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We arrived to home-sweet-home. I turned on the lights and found a note on the kitchen’s table. It was my mother’s. It said she had gone to “pass the night” at one of her many Latino friends. Oh mom I thought.

“Whoa this night was crazy!” Logen said laughing. I turned towards her and dropped the note.

“Yeah. We almost got into trouble eh? Thanks for the help Logen.” I said thankfully.

“Well no problem. All because of a romantic moment.” She said.

“It was all worth it though…” I said. It just popped out.

“I guess so.” She answered blushing.

I showed Logen the way to the guest’s room. She opened the window and asked me for a glass of water.

I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. I felt kind of uncomfortable with her sleeping next to my room but I wasn’t going to let her sleep in the streets either. I had taken the right decision, I was sure of that.

I entered the room. She was sitting on the bed, facing the window and the wind was blowing her brown-orangey thin hair. I sat next to her and handed her the bottle. But she placed her hand on mine. We both turned towards the other. I could see her sad eyes. She transmitted me sadness but at the same time warmth and strength.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. Her lips were soft.

“Kiss me.” She whispered into my hair. And so I did.

We didn’t think about what we were about to do or who we were. After all we had been through that night, we were still two strangers.

That was the moment when I realized that I was madly in love with this Logen stranger and that she loved me right back. “Destined” for each other.