Genres: Teen/Young Adult, Romance
Estimated Length: 17 Chapters, (about 35,000 words)
(Length as of Now: 1 Chapter (about 2,102 words))
Warnings / Comments: No warnings, but it isn't for people who get annoyed with characterizations and plots that are character based.
Summary: Elizabeth Thomas has been in love with Damian Bourne for longer than she could recall, but the time has come, so she believes, for her to let it go and move on. Easy to say, not so easy to do, especially since he's back in her life...
Author's Notes: This story was inspired by someone who once stated that if him and I were to ever get together, we'd be just another cliche.
Dedicated to: The guy who inspired me to write this story, My Muse and good friend, PMB, you know who you are.
They met through unusual or, perhaps, common means; a slight compassion-fueled cliche masked by the shared concerns of two broken hearts. They were opposites in both appearance and central self. A force, both agreeable and stubbornly not, pushed them toward the other in a moment not only out of touch, but time as well.
She was fair of skin, yet dark of hair. Her name, Elizabeth Thomas, spoke quite common, plain even, and neither betrayed or hinted at her unique sense of self. She used her pen to share her heart, her feelings, and her soul. Emotionally she felt stilted, her lips unable to form words aloud. Sarcasm dripped off her tongue, omissions seared from her eyes, and the truth lingered on her thoughts.
He, while light of skin, was light of hair as well. His name, Damian Bourne, paints a modern picture, hiding an elder soul. He spoke confidently, coming across as both arrogant and judgmental, but no matter, he was neither. His views on himself varied, traveling from sky to dirt faster than the beat of a hummingbird's wing. He spoke in a manner most honest, wearing his heart on his clean, pressed sleeve.
Friends considered them as one does a therapist. Troubles of relationships flowed past familial lips through bended ear, without a care to what the listener felt, and surely they did not trade places to offer even a semblance of comfort. Woes spoken by either Elizabeth or Damian were brushed aside, morphed into another's problem not even equivalent in importance. No blame could be placed among any one's pallet, for, while not weak willed, Elizabeth and Damian allowed it to happen. Whether out of fear or of pride, they tried to sweep away their troubles in order to help another.
Like any typical story of romance, they shared an unfathomable attraction toward one another. Yet her stubbornness to see the truth, to feel what she feels, to admit what she knows combined with his pessimistic outlook on love, on on trusting another individual, drives them apart, but, at the same time, continuously brings them back together.
A simple, yet complex moment in time brought them to a forefront; it is in that moment their lives truly begun.
Mr. Thomas has always held high hopes for his two sons and daughter. While both of his sons found happiness in ways that dismayed him, he accepted it with an unspoken despondency. His hopes then fell on his only daughter, and youngest child, Elizabeth, a young woman both bright in books and smart with life, who showed him a promise that heightened what he made his expectations to be. He encouraged, and shoved her to become someone of importance. Anything less than money rich he considered as failure; her happiness, he said, was his importance, but his actions spoke otherwise.
Mrs. Thomas only expected what was given or shown. She accepted her daughter's choices knowing, without doubt, Elizabeth need not try to be somebody, for she already was. She listened without judgment and tried, often times unsuccessfully, to understand, but regardless she let her daughter carve her own line in the stone.
"Elizabeth," she would say, "you can always talk to me about anything." While at first Elizabeth didn't believe her mother for her word alone, she eventually found she could talk to her mother. The older she got in her teenage years, the more Elizabeth came to cherish her mother's unwavering presence.
Elizabeth's life began on a day with little importance to herself. the day started like any other day did. her alarm clock rang out painfully even though she had already opened her eyes, but her feet never touched carpet until the alarm sounded. As normalcy sought, she went through her daily routines in the same order as all other yesterdays; bathroom, get dressed, and grab a water bottle before rushing off to school.
Being the intelligent young woman she was, and is, Elizabeth did well with her studies, yet never as well as she, and many others, knew she could achieve. A procrastinator to an almost terrible extent, she often rushed through assignments leaving noticeable errors in her wake, and while she knew she should change this aspect about her person, she had no idea how to go about doing so.
After school Elizabeth was semi-happy to have the afternoon off from work, but wished she had some plans to occupy her mind. thoughts, better left o a dark crevice of her subconscious, surface to create a curiosity. After all, she hadn't spoken to him in some time. A couple weeks at least, since she inquired to his life. Yet, despite her will to believe otherwise, Damian always managed to slip past her mental shields. Something about him, something Elizabeth herself found hard to name, kept her in a wonderment that often sent her to another space of time; he was an enigma to her.
On a sigh, she sat at a table near the back of her favorite coffee shop. Her cell phone lay quietly in her palm as she willed him to text her, to call her, to- Elizabeth's head jerked up from her cell phone musings at the sound of the entrance bell rang loudly, breaking her from her hypnosis- be there.
Elizabeth choked on her latte and wiped her eyes. she wondered if she had finally gone insane and would be seeing him when he just couldn't be there from now on. She never would have believed her imagination this concise, to get everything in perfect detail from the spark in his eyes to his very stance. She couldn't comprehend that he wasn't a figment of her imagination, until he received his iced chair. She watched him turn, finally noticing her presence, as he strode over to her table.
"Elizabeth," She closed her eyes as she tried to hide a wistful smile; she always did love the sound of her name falling from his lips, "What have you been up to?"
"School and work," A simple reply, said with a simple smile, but they barely hid her not so simple feelings, "And yourself?"
Damian settled into the chair across from her, a downcast, far away look in his light, jade green eyes. "Outside of school, there's the musical and work."
"How's everything going with Laura?" While Elizabeth did ask the question, she wasn't too sure she really wanted to be anymore knowledgeable about the subject.
"I'm on the downside once more," Damian vaguely replied, but Elizabeth understood. She knew the mountainous road he traveled with Laura, how she goes from affection to indifference, playing him as a pianist plays his keys. Yet, he goes back for more, either out of love or regularity. Elizabeth wasn't sure if even Damian knew, himself. Laura was manipulative, in such an obvious manner that everyone who knew her agreed, though few would tell her so; Elizabeth wanted badly to be the one to inform Laura of these facts.
"Ah, well that's... fun." It wasn't, but she wanted to break the rising clouds.
"Yes, I can hardly contain myself." The corners of Damian's mouth quirked up a little, lighting his face.
They drank in comfortable silence, each thinking about things they felt better off forgetting. Elizabeth was already realizing the time for her to move on sat around the corner. She knew she could only take so much time waiting on someone who didn't even consider her worth waiting for. Damian knew Laura wasn't worth the pain, or confusion, he felt both mentally and emotionally tired from all the stress she causes him. He knew deep down he doesn't deserve the way she treats him, and that he could do better, but a part of him couldn't turn away from her.
Elizabeth, without shame and propriety, gazed at, and contemplated, Damian. 'What is it about him?' She wondered to herself, a common thought for her, but one she couldn't seem to answer; always she finished the question with a statement of fact: 'He's just another guy.' He hadn't changed over the years, or not too much so. His platinum blond hair fell to his shoulders, and he now stood a respectable six feet. the glasses he use to sport were now a rarity to see, having been replaced by contacts, which, in Elizabeth's opinion, made his eyes stand out in the most beautiful way. The way he held himself now proved slightly different, giving him an air of confidence that bordered on arrogance, which wasn't present before. While confidence seemed to carry around him, a tinted cloud seemed to be forever implanted in the air that surrounded him. A sadness she couldn't stop herself from wishing would change, to be the one to change it.
She acknowledged that his inner self was both exactly the same and opposingly different. Where he was once realistically optimistic, he now took a more pessimistic stance. Closing her eyes, Elizabeth could still picture the happy, always smiling face of a Damian when she first fell in love with him; they had both been fourteen at the time, young and in love, but neither were the same anymore, both realized this. she couldn't lie, not even to herself, that she missed the days when she and him were young; when life and love seemed a tad bit simpler.
Opening her eyes, Elizabeth grinned upon noticing Damian giving her a questioning look.
"What's on your mind?" Damian watched her for signs of omission she may, and usually did, give.
Elizabeth could hardly say nothing, he knew her all to well, but she refused to tell him that her thoughts lay with him. conversations, much like this, were often and hard for her to have since she had to speak as if the one she was in love with didn't sit before hr, as if he wasn't the very same to ask the question, "Oh, I was just thinking about him again."
"In what way this time?" Damian leaned back in his seat with an unreadable look on his face, but with curious eyes.
"Mine and his shared past." Elizabeth chose carefully as to not lie, but not to reveal too much; she didn't want him to know it was he she considered.
"Oh," he paused for a moment, choosing to look beyond Elizabeth's shoulder, "sounds troublesome."
"One could say that." She leaned forward, settling her elbows on the table, gazing at him, holding back a chuckle that threatened to escape.
"You wouldn't?" His eyes roamed her face, skepticism clearly written all over it.
She shrugged, "Depends on the moment really. Sometimes I find thoughts of our past..." she pauses as a memory of the two of them relaxing in front of the television came to her mind's eye, "comforting, welcome even. Other times they're, as you say, troublesome."
"Explain."
Elizabeth cocked her head slightly, questioning, "Explain what?"
Damian leaned forward, relaxing hes head to lay against his fist while his elbow rested on the table near Elizabeth's own, "Explain how they're comforting."
Oh, she hadn't really expected that, "They remind me how it can and would be," she shook her head willing him to see she didn't wish to continue. She's been strong enough to keep it to herself, but she didn't want to push her luck by adding salt to the wound.
Damian glanced down at his wrist watch, "I have to go. I told Laura I'd meet her at four."
Elizabeth forced a smile, disappointed, "Okay then." She glanced at her cell phone for the time, a quarter till four, "I probably should be heading off as well."
They stood up quickly and started fr the door. Once outside, Damian looked back at Elizabeth, "Perhaps we can run into each other again tomorrow... around the same time?"
Hope washed over her, breaking her heart once again, "I have to work tomorrow," She watched as his eyes turned downcast, "but I'll be here around this time the day after tomorrow since I have it off as well this week."
He smiled, warming her, "I guess I'll be seeing you then."
"I guess so," Elizabeth smile back and watched him as he walked away before turning to head towards her home.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Once Elizabeth arrived home, her two cats, Itsy and Bitsy, began to assault her with their loud complaining for food.
"Come on, babes, lets get you some food," Elizabeth cooed as she bent down a bit to pet them both.
The cats continued to meow until the food laid right before them, almost as if to say, "Hurry up, woman! We're starving!"