Meeting

How do I tell you my story? I must warn you it’s not one that’s believable. Sometimes it’s even hard for me to believe one so farfetched. But then once and a while I’ll catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and there’s no doubt. I could start at the beginning of my life, but it wasn’t to terribly interesting before I met her.

  Who may you ask is her? Ah, that is not a question that is easily answered. Because she and I are a part of the same story, a part of the same life, the same love. So if I was going to tell this story, I think I would have to start with her.

  I got out of the army about two years before I met her, and when I got out I wasn’t prepared to live without a chain of command. For me, the army was the only thing I knew outside of my parent’s house, I went in right after high school.

  The army recruiter got me hook line and sinker with the recruiting video for being a scout. So I spent the first four months after high school at Ft. Knox Kentucky and the next twelve years after that being a soldier for the U.S. Army. And after two deployments and two marriages my career as a soldier needed to be over.

   I spent twelve years learning the ins and outs of recon-naissance and heavy machine guns, so when you get out of the army your career opportunities are kind of limited. So after I came back to Seattle I did the one thing I knew I could do, manual labor. And after a year or so of smashing my fingers with hammers, being outside in all kinds of weather I knew construction was not for me.

   For a minute I thought about going back into the army, but the idea of going back to some stupid war just didn’t appeal to me. So I quit working, figured out how to use my GI-bill and started school. So there I was a thirty two year old veteran and starting school.

   I made just enough money from being in the army for school and rent, but not enough to eat. So I had gotten myself a part time job at one of the local hardware stores. I went to school full time and work part time, and this was my life. And I half to say, it wasn’t a bad life.

  It was a Monday in the middle of the winter quarter when I first met her, my first class didn’t start until ten thirty but I liked to get to school kind of early to have a cup of coffee in the school’s atrium.

  I liked the atrium, it was nice. There was a little food court in the back. It had a high open ceiling that had windows that wrapped around just below the ceiling. They let a great deal of natural light in, which was nice for this time of the year.

  None of the other students talked to me unless they had too, which I liked. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m a shy person, but I don’t much care for young people and their problems.

  I was pretty sure I scare most of them, on my second tour in Iraq I got the right side of my face torn up a by a road side bomb. I had my window down and looked out the window and was hit.

  I took a piece of shrapnel down the right side of my face on the cheekbone. The scar that was left wasn’t bad enough for me to want plastic surgery. The scar pulls the right side of my mouth up so it looks like I have a half joker smile.

  After the injury my mom would tell me not to scowl so much, she would say that my half joker smile would make me look half crazy. From time to time I would think about that and it would make me chuckle, which I’m sure doesn’t help with looking crazy. But what can I say; it’s an effective way to keep people away.

  I can remember that first day so clearly when I think back on it, it was raining, stupid rain. There’s nothing like waiting for a bus on a rainy day. I think there should be a law or something against having to wait for the bus in the rain. Wishful thinking I know, but it’s never a good way to start the week. Cold and wet. Cold and wet, two things I just don’t care for.

  I took the bus to school, it wasn’t so bad. It was only about a fifteen minute bus ride to school and like most mornings that morning was uneventful. I had like an hour to kill before my first class so I went to the atrium to get a cup of coffee and went and sat at my normal table. My table was in the back of the atrium near the coffee stand, it gave me the best view of my surroundings. Old habits die hard I guess.

  Sitting down I pulled out my headphones and my I-pod and turned on some classical. I like big orchestras, the fast up-beat stuff for the most part. It’s busy enough that if I turn it up until my ears almost hurt I can basically tune out all other noise. Mahler’s second symphony is my favorite. It’s loud and wild and perfect for tuning out the world.

  After getting situated I pull out my book on Japanese shoguns, it was about the fifth or six time I had read it. But that didn’t matter, so with my crappy cup of coffee and Mahler I was set.

  The atrium was busier than normal that morning, the rain drives them in I guess. And after a few tours in Iraq I had developed something of a six sense. I don’t know if it was anything more than PTSD anxiety, or if it just something in the subconscious that warns you when something’s not right. But there in the back of my mind was a sliver that was making me uneasy.

  So I closed my book and started sweeping the atrium with my eyes. Looking at the different groups of people trying to see what had the hair  on the back of my neck standing up. Stupid PTSD.

  I met the stares of a few people who quickly looked away. Probably the excess noise of the extra people, stupid anxiety attacks. I closed my book, grabbed my bag and coffee and headed to class.

  I knew I was going to be there way early. But that was okay, there wasn’t a class in that room before mine so I just came in and made myself at home. And about the time class started my heart rate was back to normal. I put my I-pod away and tried to forget the atrium.

  Class was uneventful, to which I was grateful. I figured I would go back to the atrium and look over my math homework, I had math after lunch at one. The rain had stopped, to which I was grateful. The kids at school would file out into the world for lunch so I would stick around the atrium and eat in peace.

   The atrium was the center point of the small community college. The four buildings that held the classrooms surrounded the atrium to the north and south, east and west. I loved the layout; I could swing though the snack bar and grab a cup of coffee after or before class without much trouble.

   I didn’t buy lunch at the school or at any of the restaurants nearby, buying lunch just cost to o much money. All through school while growing up I had eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, it hadn’t killed me then, I didn’t figure that it would kill me now.

  I sat down at my usual table in the back corner and placed my old army backpack on the table in front of me. The atrium had wireless internet service, so I pulled out my laptop, hooked my charger up and made a quick check of my e-mail. There was nothing that I needed to answer so I pulled out my I-pod and hooked it up to my laptop. I had just bought my I-pod and hadn’t downloaded all my music yet, so I figured I could eat, look over homework and download music all at once.

  As I watched my computer download music I pulled out one of my sandwiches and started to eat mindlessly. I reached into my backpack for my bottle of Coke and took a large swig. As I had my bottle tilted back someone caught my eye. There, across the atrium sat a young girl, when she noticed me she smiled.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up seeing her smile, she was incredibly pretty. My first thought was that she was some high school girl that was here at the school on some advanced learning program, but the one thing I notice above everything else was that she was nothing like I had ever seen before. She was small, she had long curly hair that flowed down to her waist, seeing me watching her she smiled and waved. 

  Oh s**t. I flushed; it was like being back in high school all over again, me tall and lanky, tripping over my own feet. Being a teenager was a horribly difficult time for me, but after a decade of being in the military my six to inch frame had filled out nicely. And I was still in decent shape; one of the things that seemed to happen to people when they got out of the military was to put on a bunch of weight.

  I was grateful the a third of a life of working out didn’t leave me over night, but I also still did a hundred push-ups and some fifty sit-ups. I always hated doing sit-ups tall people we never really good at them I guess.

  When I saw her smiling at me again I got up and sat on the other side of the table, let her sit looking at the back of my head. I could feel her looking at me, it was like a tickle in my ears. I could feel myself getting irritated, stupid little girls.

  I could hit the streets of Baghdad, or kick in a door with a house full of Al-Quida, but heaven help me if I had to talk to a pretty face. I plugged my headphones in and turned on some opera to drown out my thoughts.

  Only problem though with drowning out your thoughts was that you drowned out everything else with it. And to boot, having my back to the rest of the atrium was about to give me a panic attack. I took a deep breath trying to calm myself and took a bite of my sandwich, it tasted like sawdust so I put it down and took a drink of my coke.

  Then the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I trying to look out of the corner of my eye to make sure there wasn’t anyone standing in my blind spot.

  The first thing I saw was a black knee high boot with about a three inch heel, damn. My eyes traced up the boot to the bottom of a black wool skirt. The girl was wearing a black form fitting P-jacket, under her jacket she was wearing a  white turtleneck sweater. She had her hair pulled back behind her ears, her face looked as if it came Michelangelo painting. Her skin was so clear, it looked as if it were white satin. Most people who were pale form lack of sunlight looked sickly, this girl looked so bright and alive I gasped.

  Her green eyes sparkled as they looked right into mine, I could hardly breath. I felt flushed and uncomfortable with this beautiful girl so close to me, I was in a panic. I hoped that she was over eighteen, because if she wasn’t I didn’t believe I would have the strength to say no to her. I looked around for a quick escape, stupid computer. There was no way I could put everything away and walk off gracefully and to make matters worse, I think she knew it.

  She waited for me to compose myself; I still had opera blaring in my ears. I figured the best way I could get her to leave was to tell her to piss off. I pulled my headphones out of my ears and looked into her eyes and was grateful I was sitting down, my legs felt funny.

   ‘Hello.’

  Her voice was like an angel. Her voice sounded almost childlike, soprano and beautiful. I couldn’t imagine what she would sound like if she could sing.

  My stomach felt uneasy, ‘Hi.’

  My voice compared to hers made my skin crawl. I felt I would contaminate her with all the dirt I’ve accumulated over the hard years of my life; her presence was intoxicating. As she waited for me to say more, her smile grew, I was a worm and a hook and she was going to let me squirm. How I hate women sometimes.

   ‘Can I help you?’ well that was a wonderful thing to ask I thought.

   ’I saw you sitting here earlier and miss my opportunity to say hello, I’m not going to miss a second opportunity.’ she batted her eyes as she spoke. Squirm worm squirm, I thought looking at her. I couldn’t think of anything to respond to that, I knew if I tried to say something witty, it would just come out sounding stupid. She wasn’t going to let me off the hook and talk. I was sinking like the titanic, and I knew it. Stupid little girl.

    ’I’m kind of busy, so is there something…?’ I couldn’t even finish.

  The girl giggled at my agony, looking at my laptop she said, ’Your laptop, must be very insecure.’

   ’What the hell does that suppose to mean?’ Damn it, take one framing hammer, beat oneself on forehead for being a dumb-a*s. Repeat if necessary.

   ’It means silly, I didn’t know your laptop needed its hand held while it down loads songs to your I-pod.’

  I just stared at her, why couldn’t she just leave.

   ’Is there something you need?

   ’Yes actually, I wanted to talk to you.’

   ‘About?’ 

   ‘You silly. What’s your name?’

   ‘Conner.’

   ‘Well Conner my name is Gloria LaClair, it’s a pleasure to meet you.’ she said pulling her hand out of her jacket pocket.

  I shook her hand, it was very cold. You would think that with a sweater and a wool jacket on you would be able to keep your hands warm. I was surprised to find I actually cared about her cold hands.

   ‘Your hands, they’re cold. Don’t you have gloves?

  I was feeling more and more stupid by the moment; I closed my laptop and placed it in its case. I didn’t think about my I-pod as I watched its cord catch and fall to the floor. Gloria knelt down and picked up my I-pod as I pushed the charger into its case and zipped it half way up. Then I noticed that Gloria had my I-pod.

   ’May I sit down?’ she asked looking at the other chair, ’Or are you leaving?’

  She stepped to the other chair and pulled it out. I wanted so much to talk to this girl, she smiled and sat down. I had to sink or swim I thought to myself. I can talk to this girl, I’ve been through war and back I thought to myself.

  So I took a deep breath and said, ’So, how old are you?’

  I just closed my eyes, where’s my hammer. Gloria’s smile vanished and she shook her head slightly, I could see she was trying not to laugh. Gloria placed my I-pod on the table in front of her; she tilted her head a bit to the right and slightly smiled.

  I reached quickly across the table, grabbed my I-pod and quickly got out of my chair. Quickly swinging my back pack over my shoulder, I knocked over my chair. I didn’t even turn around; I could feel everyone’s eyes on me as I walked out of the atrium.

   I still had about an hour and a half till my math class, so I headed off campus to find a coffee shop. I felt like such an a*s, I was so mad at myself for acting so stupid. Here was a pretty girl that wanted to talk to me, and all I could do was act like a dumb-a*s. DUMB-A*S! I thought to myself. I was just so caught off guard by her, I bet she thought I was the biggest moron. Well the hell with her, what did she know? She probably bothered average guys like me for kicks.

  I bet she found guys that she could play with, get their hopes up on, then throw their a*s under a bus. I don’t need that s**t; you know were girls like that get you? They get you standing on some street corner with your hands in your pockets looking like a dumb-a*s. The hell with her, I saw a little bar and decided to hell with math class.

 

  When my alarm went off I was hung over, hung over bad. I didn’t go back to class after I went to the bar, I just went home and me and Jack Daniels hung out. I was surprised I turned my alarm off last night, I don’t even remember passing out.

  I had psyche first thing this morning and math again at one, I was for sure going to have to make it today. I hated missing class, but my teacher was cool. I would just tell him I had a VA appointment, he knew I was a vet.

  As I walked to the bathroom I knew I felt all wrong, like white sickly all over. Sweat was running down my back as I came into the bathroom, oh this was going to be bad I thought.

  I leaned over to turn the shower on and threw up twice hard into the tub. Well, better then on the floor I thought. I turned the shower on and twisted the shower head to wash the puke off the wall, and then I rinsed out the tub. The puke smelled bad, like straight whiskey. I climbed into the shower and let the water cool me down, I always felt so hot and nasty when I got sick.

  After putting on the same thing I was wearing yesterday I brushed my teeth, grabbed my backpack and headed for the bus. I had missed my normal Tuesday morning bus; it was only a fifteen minute bus ride to school so I should have enough time to get a cup of coffee before class.

  I was raining hard by the time the bus pulled up to the stop, this was going to be a rough morning, plus I had to work tonight. Today was going to suck. I liked that about the suck, it never changed. You could always count on the suck to love you. It was the one lover that was never unfaithful, got to love the suck.

  I got to school with just enough time to get a cup, it was so needed too. I just hope I could keep it down. I was able to keep the big glass of water down before I left the apartment. Hell, if I couldn’t, what did I care I didn’t have to clean it up. I walked into the atrium and made a straight line for the coffee. I knew I looked like hell this morning, the other students gave me plenty of space, I was in no mood for anything this morning.

  I got me a twenty four ounce cup of straight black drip. When I got up to pay, there was a little old lady with a hair net at the cash register. I pull two bucks out of my pocket and she stopped me.

   ‘Oh there’s no need honey, a little blond girl asked if I knew who you were. She said that you would need a big cup of coffee this morning so she paid for it already.’

  I looked at the little lady and asked rudely, ’What little blond girl?’ I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and tried again, ’I’m sorry, someone paid for my coffee? Was she short and looked as if she needed some sun?’

   ’That was her, she was very pretty.’

   ’Thank you.’

  I turned and there at my table was Gloria. She was wearing the same wool jacket that she had worn yesterday. But instead of a skirt, she had pin striped black slacks, heals and a pale blue turtleneck. She wore her hair in two braided pig tails, they were laying down the front of her jacket. She was looking at me and smiling, I stood there for a second and growled at her in my throat. I turned and walk to my psyche class, I didn’t look at Gloria as I walked towards the back door. I was furious, stupid b***h is playing with fire.

  I couldn’t think in psyche, my head was pounding so hard I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out of my head. Mr. Lombard was going on and on and on. I had drank all my coffee and needed to piss. If he did not hurry with the lecture

I was going to take my empty coffee cup and piss in it.

  Psyche ended just before I came unglued. The other students move out of my way as I headed towards the door, I hit the bathroom with seconds to spare. I washed my hands, turned to water to cold and splashed the cold water on my face. I took a few paper towels, soaked them under the cold water and placed them on the back of my head. I had a five alarm hang over in full swing; I rinsed the paper towel under the water a second time and held it up to my face. I tried to will the headache out of my head with no luck.

  A guy came out of one of the stalls and joked, ’Man I did that this weekend, sucks don’t it?’ someone had a death wish.
    I took the paper towel from my eyes and glared at the guy. The guy’s good humor died eminently with one look at my face. I threw the paper towel in the trash and head out of the bathroom wiping the water off of my face with my sleeve.

  The rain was pouring outside; I walked quickly to the atrium. Only coffee would save me at this point. I didn’t bring a lunch today, not that I was in the mood to eat. As soon as I entered the atrium I looked to my normal table. Gloria was sitting in my normal chair with her legs crossed. She was leaning back in her chair, she had a stainless steel coffee mug in her hands and when she saw me she smile. My head about exploded, I went and got another coffee and walked to my table.

  I was in no mood for stupid s**t today. I was not in the mood for the rain. I wasn’t in the mood to go to work later. I was in no mood for math problems or hangovers, and now this little girl was invading my space. I placed my backpack on the table in front of Gloria; I set my coffee next to my bag. I looked down at Gloria’s smiling face and felt like punching her lights out.

  I reached down and pulled her out of her chair by her arm, she didn’t resist nor complain. With my hand under her arm I walked her about four steps from the table, without saying a word I left her standing there. I turned and walked back to my table and sat down. As I sat, I could see that I had caught the attention of a few people. I met their stares; I looked hard into their eyes and showed them two divorces and two deployments.

  Gloria hadn’t said a word or even turned. Watching her, I saw her shoulders sink as she slowly walked away. I suddenly felt ashamed, she didn’t deserve that. She just wanted to be my friend, maybe more. I shook my head watching her walk away. Goodbye Gloria, it could have been nice, but you’re better off without me little lady, trust me.   

Reviews

[Riley]

I like the plot you have started. I see a few technical errors. If you would like I could edit and point them out to you, but I usually do indepth editing through Microsoft word so if you want me to message me your email and Ill do some editing. So far it is well written and very descriptive. You do a great job allowing your readers to visualize the story.

[Snickers]

'Cold and wet. Cold and wet, two things I just don’t care for.'
This is something I have to say that is commonly mistaken. I would say, it would sound better like this
'Cold and wet, two this I just don't care for.' or as I would put it
'Cold and wet, two things I absolutely just don't care for.' also
'I had like an hour to kill before my first class so I went to the atrium to get a cup of coffee and went and sat at my normal table.'
I think it should be..
'I had about an hour to kill, before my first class started. So, I went to the atrium to get a cup of coffee, then went and sat down at my normal table.'
One thing I must advice, use " when some one is talking. Because when you use ' you are quoting a statement. I know I'm not the best writer but hey, I love to help. It's good so far, I will read on to find out more about this, and I will tell you if there is anything I advise you to change Mr. John.

[mobamakhan]

Well, I have been doing my surfing fishing from one young book to another on this site: I an, myself, writing, or attempting to write a novel, but I am sixteen and to inexperienced to tell my own stories yet. The one thing in common about them (the stories ) is that every writer has genuinely given it there all to create some sort of literary metaphor of some sort, for the sake of sounding poetic, or whatever, I don't know. But this piece is completely honest, written simply. It is touching, realistic and nice with a prose that is quite natural. Rawness, not exaggeration is needed, and you have it. :) good job, though you are right about forgiving you on editing. But that's everyone's problem, isn't it? ;)