In One Moment

It took one moment to realize what all those years really meant to him.

 

I think she had always wanted to get married in this church. She didn’t go down that aisle quite the way she would have wanted, I’m fairly certain of that.

 

I watched as the mahogany coffin was wheeled down the aisle and grieving family members and friends dabbed their eyes for the life they knew she was taking with her. It was odd to me that we celebrated a life that was no longer present on earth with us, leaving an empty void to be filled. Surely, even that should make me want to cry. Just a tear. Just one will do.

 

I felt Mallora’s hand on my shoulder. I instantly felt at peace. I looked behind me to see a darker figure, dressed in a black trench coat in the back of the church. He leaned against the wall of the church with one leg bent and foot against the wall like the anime characters we knew in high school. His dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, the gel in his hair holding it in a smooth, sphere that he called his head. James never looked happy but hardly looked sad.

 

I walked through the crowd of people piling out of the church, not really seeing where I was going before I realized I was finally outside. It was unusually sunny for an early spring day and it felt like every flower known to man was about to burst open under the warm sun. I could still feel an ice-cold chill but I couldn’t really tell if it was just my imagination or if the ocean breeze was kicking in again.

 

The doors to the church were wide open so I could see all the way down the aisle of the church to the altar. Mallora stood in front of the tabernacle, her head bent down, seemingly in some sort of contemplation. James came up from her right and stood near her. She swung around, and I could have sworn there was this light in her eyes until she realized that it was just James. I couldn’t really tell what they were saying although I could tell the argument was beginning to become intense. James grabbed her by the arm forcing her to face him but Mallora pulled away, yelling something unintelligible to him. Mallora was doing all of the arguing, but that’s when James reached out for her arm again and pulled her in to press his lips against hers. I turned away. I could feel my back breaking at the awkward way I was twisting and the time I spent in that position.

 

When I finally turned around, Mallora was standing right in front of me, tears filling her eyes.

 

“Eddie,” she whispered, the tears falling out when she finished saying my name. Mallora reached out and wrapped me in a tight hug. Once again, my breathing was calm, but something in me was exploding, making me feel like I was bigger than I used to be.

 

“You have something important to tell me, don’t you?” I asked still overwhelmed.

 

I never heard her words. I only saw the visions.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

“Eddie and Mallora, you two pair up,” my biology teacher said to me. I sighed and walked over to the lab table where Mallora stood, looking disgusted over a dead piglet were going to dissect.

 

“You take the worksheet and help me identify everything, I’ll do all the cutting,” I said. Mallora cringed when she saw all of the entrails our biology teacher wanted us to find.

 

“I should have just watched that video instead of saying I could handle dissection,” Mallora said. I looked up at her.

 

“We could have watched a video?” I asked, cutting mindlessly.

 

“Yeah, we could have been sitting in a classroom somewhere, watching a video, maybe taking notes instead of stabling a poor piglet after he died!”

 

“Eddie, you’re cutting too high!” my teacher shouted, surprising me as I dropped the scalpel and shrieked. I could see Mallora forcing her giggling down.

 

“Eddie, you just found the heart,” my teacher said sighing. “You were supposed to cut lower to the digestive system.” After getting briefed on where the digestive system was on a pig, I turned to Mallora who looked at me smiling.

 

“You found a heart,” she said. I shrugged.

 

“Wasn’t what I was looking for,” I said. I didn’t think we would really talk again until later on I decided to go after her during lunch to find her.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

“…and ever since then, I never felt that way about anyone else,” Mallora said miserably. “You’re my best friend. Have been since the ninth grade. I never thought you would have a chance to see me that way.”

 

My heart quickened and another vision appeared.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

“I told you we should have stayed on the trail!” Mallora yelled to me, lifting her graduation gown. The grass was fairly damp and even with the bright moonlight, it was easy to take a wrong step and put your foot in a snake hole or something else equally as horrible—at least by her standards. “Now we’re lost!”

 

“We’re not lost, we’re exploring,” I said, taking huge steps in the grass.

 

“I don’t want to become a missing person the night of graduation!” she yelled to me, still taking care to find any dangerous points on the ground. “The rest of the group probably got to the campground already!”

 

“Mallora, you gotta learn how to take life as it comes,” I said good-naturedly.

 

“Eddie, you gotta learn how to READ A MAP,” she threw back laughing. I laughed from the bottom of my gut before I heard her shriek and I barely saw her fall down in the wet grass.

 

“Mallora!” I yelled running to her. “Are you ok?” Mallora pulled herself up before tackling me to the ground.

 

“Thanks a lot jerk!” she yelled making a mock angry face at me. “Now my gown’s all wet!”

 

“Guess you gotta hike to the camp naked now,” I mockingly snapped at her. She shoved me back into the ground.

 

“You pig!” she shrieked giggling. Mallora got off of me and finally found the column of smoke and the hollering of our friends at the camp. I lay there for a few moments. I rubbed my chest, feeling where Mallora had shoved me.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

Mallora kept going on and on about how she had felt that way for years and years and never knew how to tell me or if it was even wise to do so. That she never knew when the right time was. If it was worth the risk. If I was worth fighting for.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

“Wow,” was all Mallora said. There. I had given her the news. I had to tell her sometime, and better sooner than later, although I had put it off for a week or so for some reason.

 

“Yeah, she’s great,” I said, beginning to get uncomfortable and poking my pork tenderloin with my fork. “You’d really like her. She’s into science and all that, just like you.”

 

“Found a carbon copy of me, eh?” Mallora said with a smile.

 

“I don’t know if I’d ever find someone like you,” I said without thinking about it.

 

“Oh,” she said. “Well, I wish you two the best of luck. All the luck in the world.” I smiled softly.

 

“Yeah,” I said. “I knew I could always have your support.” Mallora nodded her head.

 

“Well,” she said, “what are friends for anyway?”

 

“Helping me cut this pork would be good actually,” I said, offering her the knife. Mallora all of a sudden backed out of her chair.

 

“Actually, I need to take off,” she said. “James said he needed help on a report for the lab.”

 

“Why does he always need your help?” I asked squinting my eyes. “He’s got the same degree as you do, graduated with honors for God’s sake, why does he always need your help?”

 

“Because we work together,” she said firmly. “We’re there to help each other. We’re always there for each other. Always.” My eyebrows furrowed further down, a little confused by her word choice before simply walking out of the restaurant.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

“I should have told you,” Mallora said quietly. “I know I should have said something. Even if that’d mean you’d hate me forever. But I had to tell you. James wants me back. I don’t know why after I nearly beat the s**t out of him for cheating me all those times. Eddie, I don’t want him back. I want to be with you. Whatever that means to you. Please Eddie, I’m begging you, please give me a chance.” I stepped back my right hand rubbing my temples. I couldn’t even remember what she looked like before I told Mallora about her, let alone all those years we spent together.

 

“Eddie?” Mallora said, tears breaking her voice. “Say something. Anything. Just don’t stand there like I meant nothing and she was everything.” I could remember nothing.

 

“But she was something,” I blurted out, trying to revive any memory of her in my mind. Mallora stood in front of me, at first, dumbfounded, until she let what I said sink in before I had a chance to take it back.

 

“I understand,” Mallora said, meaning it. “Of course. She was your girlfriend.” I gaped.

 

“Mallora,” was all I could say. Her name. Only her name.

 

“I’m sorry,” Mallora said quietly before going back into the church where James was still standing, waiting. I turned fully around to see that the hearse with the casket had already left for the cemetery.

 

 

Reviews

[fallendemonofmercy]

oh....
james is a cheater and a bad boy
malloria is keen and attentinve and loves eddie
eddie is her best friend and loves someone else
that someone is in the casket
tragic....
i loved how you showed their important moments twined with the secret fact that another pair of lovers was co existing, too god
such melancholy endings!

[Dara[DRAMATIC]]

I had to read this four times before I was satisfied that I knew what it meant. It's so complicated and at the same time true. painfully true. I feel as though it seems very complicated and I overthought it until the fourth time I read it. In fact, it is actually a very simple story. Maybe that's the exact summary of love as well... It's beyond simple and yet we overthink it.

[~Logic of the Valar~]

yeah, I have to agree with that person below. You do know how to write tear-jerkers. Good work on a job well-done!

[Angel's Lady]

Wow. Very wonderfully and dramatically written! Beautiful work here. You brought it all to 'life' for us to see and you did so very wonderfully! Great story. Great characters. Applause, applause! Great job!

[Angel's Lady]

Wow. Very wonderfully and dramatically written! Beautiful work here. You brought it all to 'life' for us to see and you did so very wonderfully! Great story. Great characters. Applause, applause! Great job!

[DarkAngelWriter]

O_O

I
Don't
Like
Your
Sad
Endings!

I'm about to f*****g cry over here!

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!