The Deplorable Love Story, Zoraida Fermin [sci fi books to read txt] 📗

CHAPTER ONE (Maliyah):

I entered the room and paused, feeling all tense and suddenly nervous. I’m so nervous that I start to break a sweat. I walk across the room waving through people as I make my way to the bar and sit in what I like to call “the perfect seat of the house.” It’s the perfect seat because you can see anything and everything that’s going on. It’s isolated but not so much that you can’t make conversation with the person near you. Plus it’s less than five feet away from the bathroom, so I’m close but not so close that I can smell if someone took a dump. I’m moments away from sitting down and ordering my usual. As I take a seat getting ready to order, I start to feel all tense and nervous again. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me from staying here.

I use to come here every Friday with my mom since I was a little girl. I was seventeen years old when my mom passed away. She got murdered, and till this day her murderer has yet to be found. Till this day her murder remains an open case. As soon as I got the news, I stopped coming to the bar. I though stepping back here would sink my heart into my stomach all while I fight back the tears threating to get out. I remember sitting at the table with my mom. Eating my food and hearing her say, “crying is showing weakness.” I didn’t cry, but it brought back the memories I have wanted to refuse to remember because of the tears, but instead, it has made me smile from ear to ear.

    I ordered my usual and glanced across the whole room. I noticed a guy in the corner of the room staring in my direction. The expression on his face looked so stern, and but yet nervous; sort of the way most people look before heading into a fight. As I glanced into his eyes, the thought of my mom overwhelmed my train of thought. The only thing I can think about is my mom saying, “Looks can be deceiving.” It’s crazy how a person can look sweet and innocent but could turn out to be an asshole or a bastard. The thoughts in my head consumed me for a good ten minutes. By the time I got out of my head and into the real world I realized that I was no longer looking in the direction towards the guy from the corner, but at the table where my mother and I once sat. A few minutes later my food arrives.

I begin to eat and think of times I had here with my mom, as a smile breaks through the surface of my serious face I realized the guy staring at me from the corner had moved. I didn’t know to where nor did I care, but I suddenly started to feel the feelings I have tossed away come back once again. I know having these feelings twice is coincidence and that three times is a pattern, but the first time I felt all nervous and tense was when I had walked into the bar. So I just decided to flick it away. Maybe I’m just being paranoid about coming back to this place.

    As I get ready to pay and go the guy from the corner starts to make conversation with me. If I may speak freely here, I got caught off guard. I knew he left that part of the bar. However, I didn’t think he would’ve left that spot to come up here. You’re probably thinking how the heck did that ever catch you off guard? When he’s the guy that you caught staring at you from afar. Then he suddenly decides to sit near you? I know I get it. Its common sense that a guy whom stares at you and moves closer to you would eventually begin talking to you. But for me, it’s rare that that ever happens. Before my mom died, I use to get hit on all the time, but I was a different person back then. I would regularly go on dates, go out every weekend with my friends and guys I’d barely knew from college. Ever since the murder, a lot has changed and drastically.

I haven’t been on a date in five years; come to think of it I haven’t been to any clubs or parties. I stay home to read the same book or watch sad TV shows until it is time for me to go to bed. I even switched my college and dropped all my friends. I know it’s unhealthy to live my life like this, but I know it’ll change eventually… right? Just not today and maybe not tomorrow, or even in a year but I have a feeling that it will improve when I’m healthy and ready to make a change in my life. Just right now I’m scared to let go of who I have … I mean of who I had. It’s been five years without her, and I’m still not ready maybe I’ll never be ready, but for right now I’m perfectly fine with that.

      He moved closer to where I was sitting. He looks at me and says, “Hi. Can I buy you a drink?” I was stunned to hear that someone wanted to buy me a drink. "It’s been so long that now I become surprised when someone asks me that kind of question." “Um no sorry, but thank you.” I was tempted to say yes just for the hell of it, but now that I’m no longer in college or working a part time job I needed to be responsible and say no. "Yeah right since when have I ever been “responsible.” Since today smart one." He was appalled. Honestly, by the way, he looked at me, makes me think I’m the only girl that has ever said no to him. He even had me repeat what I was told to make sure he correctly understood what I said.

So then he apologizes to me and says, “Where are my manners? I’m Skylar James Anderson, and you are?” Well, I answered his first question by saying it walked out the door and it is probably not a bad idea to follow it. But I didn’t even know the guy, so I didn’t. I took a good thirty seconds debating if I should say my name until I saw how impatient he got, and then it unwillingly fell out of my mouth. “I’m Maliyah Nichole Smith,” even a smile broke through. It was like I had no control what so ever! "Be brave; you got this." He then again asked if he could buy me a drink, but my answer was still the same.

I don’t know if he thought that asking me the same question again would change my answer. "Guys these days, they believe that you’ll change your mind if they continuously ask the same question over and over." Which only seemed to make him upset. I came up with an excuse to leave the bar before I got him to loathe me soon. But I have to admit I do feel a little sorry for leaving the poor guy like that. I only kept hoping that Skylar was not a creep or a stalker, but only time would tell, right? I grabbed all my belongings, said my goodbyes, and began to make my way to the door.

CHAPTER TWO (Skylar):

I’ve been coming to this bar for as long as I could remember. I love sitting near the windows because the bar is well you know a little dark for my liking. Coming here is the only place that can always keep me sane and calm and relaxed. Honestly, could not tell you what it is about this place but ever since I noticed how I got once entering in the bar, I decided to keep coming. It was like therapy except not having to deal with that ridiculous bill at the end of the session, and not having to talk about my “feelings.” Ugh, I hated that word, feelings. I loathe feeling any emotion. Everything I’ve felt in my life was all negative.

         I’m sitting there minding my own business, eating my meal and reading my newspaper. It’s been about two hours since anyone has opened the entrance door, but the exit door has been opening and closing, opening and close and well you get the point right? Right. When I heard the bell ring for the entrance door, I glanced up. She was the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. Well, the second prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. The first girl was about five years ago, but honestly, I would much rather not get into that. That part of my life was and has been hard to get over and just thinking about it makes me break down.

         Anyways before I got … you know all emotional. She walked in as beautiful as a woman could ever look. The place was pretty crowded, so she forced herself in between people and around the tables till she got to her seat. Looking at her, I didn’t think she would have sat at the bar. She seems to be a social butterfly, but I thought about going up there and making small talk. I noticed she place her order and sat there looking around the area. It seems like she has never been here before. She glanced my way, and instead of looking away I made eye contact with her. I’ve never got butterflies while having a girl look at me before. “That was new,” I said to myself without moving my lips. If she was looking, I didn’t want her to think I was going crazy or worse, thinking that I was already there. I waited until she was almost done eating her food to give me enough time to talk to her.

         When that time came, I hesitated to go up to her. I’ve never met a girl who could give me butterflies without even having a conversation with me first or without even saying hi or smiling at me. She gave me one stern look, and that was it. Whatever her name is, I need to find it out fast! She has to be something special to be able to do that. And I bet she is.

         I finally built up all of my nerves to walk over to her. At first, I realized I didn’t know what to say to her, so I sat about two seats away from her. Keeping her near me for when I did come up with something to say. When I sat near her, she looked a little uncomfortable. She looked uncomfortable. I see she’s getting ready to pay, but I still didn’t come up with anything to say to her. I