Starry Night

written last year for English class

The high ceilings sparkled with flecks of gold, and the white walls burned her eyes due to the sun's reflection. However, these are not the things that caught Christine's dazzling blue eyes. Directly across from her, Van Gogh's Starry Night hung. Christine had always wanted to see this magnificent piece, and now here it was. The great stars in the sky made her scan the painting and its entirety. The lonely village with the great balls of light reaching downward caused her heart to do flips in her chest. She stepped forward a few paces, but a cold hand against her wrist stopped her. "Look at that," the owner of the hand whispered into her ear. "Beautiful." Christine nervously whipped around only to find her best friend, Monica, beaming at her. She sighed with relief as her shallow breath slowly went back to normal. She had almost forgotten that Monica was with her because Christine often fell into complete solitude when visiting an art gallery. She marveled at the wonderment of such creativeness, but Monica did not feel the same. She did not appreciate art in the way Christine did. "It is beautiful, isn't it?" Christine responded after a moment's thoughtful silence. "Look at that head of hair!" Monica squealed. Christine glared at the dark-haired girl with lowered eyebrows. Monica was not referring to the painting at all, but she was speaking of a darkly dressed boy in front of it. Christine shook her head, and Monica dragged her towards him. Christine resisted at first, but after remembering that the boy was standing near Starry Night, she willingly followed. "Hey," Monica said to him in a sweetly seductive voice. The boy turned around, and Christine realized that he was not a boy at all, but a man. He had a small tuft of hair on his chin that reminded her of an attractive billy goat. "What brings you here?" "The art," he said sarcastically, "Really." "That's great," Monica replied with a flick of her hair. Christine rolled her eyes. "Yeah," he said. Without a second glance, he sauntered away. "Well, he was rude," Monica pouted. She glanced around. "No offense Christine, but art's just not my thing. I only came along to find some artistic hotties, but since the only one is a complete jerk, I'm out." Christine nodded because she had already foreseen this. "Thanks for coming anyway." She gave her friend a quick hug and watched as the curvaceous girl walked out through the double doors. Christine ambled past several more glorious pieces of art until a certain painting caught her eye. John Everett Millais' portrait of Ophelia disturbed Christine, but she could not tear her eyes away from it. The beautiful maiden lay in the water with her luscious hair waving around her, and her mouth was slightly ajar. Ophelia looked so real, and Christine longed to touch her. "I know the feeling," an accented voice said. Christine turned around and saw the same young man Monica had ogled at earlier. "I want to touch it, too." Christine turned her eyes downward and dropped her fair hand, which she had unconsciously lifted, to her side. "Why were you mean to my friend?" she asked defensively. "I did not like her," he bluntly stated. Despite herself, Christine felt her heart pattering over his soft English accent. "That doesn't give you a right, though." He shrugged and turned back to Ophelia. "Tragic but magnificent. The artist truly captured Shakespeare's ideas for this scene." Christine fell in love with his knowledge of fine art and classic literature. "My name's Christine," she whispered. "I'm Sebastian. You can call me Seb." He held out his hand for her to shake, and she took it. However, he did not let go, but kissed the surface instead. Christine noticed that his soft brown eyes were the same color as her coffee preference; lightened with a lot of cream. She lost herself in his coffee brown eyes as he fell into her ocean blue ones. After that moment, the two were inseparable. Christine felt things she had never felt before. Seb was a spectacular artist, a good listener, and full of surprises. He sketched a picture of Christine that made her believe she was looking into a black and white mirror. He let her tell him all her problems, and he did anything to make her feel better. She often found little gifts left by him here and there; a rose on her car, a note in her purse, or a Hershey Kiss in her pocket. They did everything together, and no one ever saw them apart. The day that Seb held Christine close to his chest and whispered that he loved her, she did not hesitate with her response. He leaned into her and placed his lips against hers. Through a smile, he said, "I love you. I do." He sealed his words with a tender kiss, and Christine giggled like a little school girl. "I love you more," she teased, and they went on like this until they were both rolling around on the ground, staring longingly into each other's eyes. As Seb grew as an artist, he was asked to display some of his work for the county's Young Artist Day. The competition was to be held at his and Christine's favorite museum, the one in which they met. Christine arrived at the designated time, but Seb was no where to be seen. She set up his artwork and checked her watch sporadically. As she lifted a certain painting, she noticed the likeness to Sebastian himself. The face on the canvas, on the other hand, was mangled and disproportioned. It was ugly, but perhaps Seb saw himself as this hideous abstract being. Her heart went out to him, but then she suddenly felt angry because he was not there. So many other young artists were buzzing around with excitement and Seb, who had been awaiting this event with utmost enthusiasm, was not around. She sighed, and art enthusiasts began to ask her questions about the artwork before them. Christine did not know Sebastian's pieces as well as their creator did, so she felt as if she did not serve them justice when explaining them. The hours passed with no Seb in sight, and Christine sat her defeated body onto a bench. She ran her fingers along the blue ribbon Seb had been awarded, and his image came into her mind but was quickly replaced with the distorted one. She tried to shake it from her mind when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Christine looked up into the eyes of a kind custodian with a sympathetic grin. "We're locking doors, sweetheart." Christine nodded and stood up, realizing that everyone else had gone. "Okay," she said as she looked down at the several paintings she was supposed to take with her. There were too many for her to carry. "Don't worry cupcake, you can get them tomorrow." Christine thanked the man and walked away. She was furious; how could Seb ditch her like that? She kicked at a rock on the ground, but this did not abate her anger. Wanting to avoid the public eye, Christine wandered away from the main roads and disappeared into the woods. No one knows exactly how the following event occurred, but as Christine stumbled through the forest, she came across a terrifying sight. Just like Ophelia, Sebastian laid in the brook that ran through the forest. His creamy brown eyes were staring, his mouth was open half an inch, and his clothes fluttered about with the flow of the water. Christine swallowed the scream longing to escape her throat and pulled his sodden body out of the creek. She placed him on the grassy floor of the forest and tried to resuscitate him, but she failed in her attempts. His skin was cold as ice, but she pulled him close to her bosom, wishing she could feel his heart beat, but it had ceased its thumping. She brushed his dark tangled hair with her thin fingers and closed his lifeless eyes that would see no more. Christine rocked him in her arms, knowing that she had lost her love, her own personal Ophelia, on that

Author's Note

advanced critique appreciated

Reviews

[Gathering_Stars]

The ending kind of throws the reader for a loop not gonna lie, and there were a bunch of unnecessary adjectives. Powerful writing doesn't need more words, it just needs more effective ones. Overall it's a good piece, a lot of thought was put into it and that deserves credit, it just needs some overall polishing.