Thursday on love
Everyone wants to answer this question
Emil
"Dad, what's Mom's favorite fairytale?"
Darren
"We'll be together forever, won't we?"
Ida
I could have walked out on Mark so many times. Our first fight on campus, the time he proposed to me, when we couldn't agree on plans, and now this recent spat---all of these fights still ended up with the two of us in a room, looking each other in the face.
Mark
"We grew up in the same neighborhood. We could have been in each other's lives earlier."
Lize
"It wasn't real with him,"
Marce
After what happened with my parents, I knew it was hopeless for me and my sisters. How could I possibly believe in love if the very people who could teach me about it felt it no longer had much meaning for them? My friends weren't very good examples of it either.
After what happened with my parents, I knew it was hopeless for me and my sisters. How could I possibly believe in love if the very people who could teach me about it felt it no longer had much meaning for them? My friends weren't very good examples of it either.
Yet part of me could never really give up. I told Emil so, that afternoon when we were hanging the rose lanterns.
"You're my exception," I said.
"To your rule about jerks and people not changing?" he quipped.
I nodded. "I was so glad you did prove me wrong."
Emil
"Dad, what's Mom's favorite fairytale?"
I couldn't help but smile. "La Belle et La Bete,"
It took Alix some time to figure out the French. "You mean 'Beauty and the Beast'?"
"Yeah. It's kind of our story."
Her brow furrowed. "How?"
I really had to try not to laugh. "Your Mom and I weren't always the best of friends. I used to be awful to her. She called me a beast once."
Her eyes widened. "Then what happened?"
"A lot of things."
"Like what? You courted her, you changed, what?"
"A long story. I'll tell you when you're older, petite."
Darren
"We'll be together forever, won't we?"
Well trust Colin to ask that question when we were already fully dressed, and not in the heat of the moment. "I'd like to think so," I said as I finished tying my shoes.
"You know, even if you do go to London with Maan....I won't forget you," Colin said.
"And why?" He could have anyone he wanted, and despite all of that he still picked me.
He looked me in the face. "You make things real for me."
I blushed, knowing it was the highest compliment he could ever have given me.
Ida
I could have walked out on Mark so many times. Our first fight on campus, the time he proposed to me, when we couldn't agree on plans, and now this recent spat---all of these fights still ended up with the two of us in a room, looking each other in the face.
"When I said 'yours in life and death', I meant it," I told him.
"Even when we were in college?" he asked.
I nodded. "It's more than just being together till death do us part."
"Why?"
"Call me blasphemous, but heaven won't really be heaven without you, okay?"
Mark
"We grew up in the same neighborhood. We could have been in each other's lives earlier."
Ida shook her head. "It wouldn't have worked, Mark. We weren't ready for each other."
I smirked, remembering our first disastrous conversations, both in San Mariano and in college. "What would have happened if we met, say later?"
"I'd be dating someone. Maybe Ethan Zamora. As for you, I don't know."
"Would it still be love then with someone else?"
She shrugged. "Passion, yeah. You know me. Intimacy, maybe. Commitment, maybe not. Wouldn't have lasted. You're the one I could have it all with."
Lize
"It wasn't real with him,"
Cue in everyone cringing. "And why not?" Ida asked.
"He treated me like a doll. Never really knew me," I said. The sting of eight years was too hard to just shrug off.
"He wouldn't know love if it hit him on the nose," Marce pointed out.
"Yeah. And nor would I either."
"What?" My friends sounded like I'd said it was the end of the world.
"I don't know. My parents were bad at it. I had some awful boyfriends...."
"So what will you do now?" Marce asked.
I smiled. "Find out for myself."