Writing Rambles…

These are just bits of random stories that I play with in my head from time-to-time. Enjoy.

11/24/2011 Writing Ramble.

Emma & Noah–Chapter 1

Once upon a time. In a land far, far away, there lives a girl with eyes the color of the lake. But this is no ordinary lake. No, this lake has magical abilities, an almost human like quality about it. Once of it’s most famous qualities is to make people live forever, but a terrible price….

The click of the keyboard trails off.  “Ugh!” Emma exclaimed, “I can’t start a story like that. It’s complete crap! Nonsense, I tell you, nonsense!”

Noah absentmindedly pats her shoulder as he passes by her again on what is probably his one thousandth pace back and forth behind her chair that night. In his hand he holds the most recent draft of the article he’s hoping to submit to National Geographic to go along with the photo journal he just completed on his trip to Nepal. His strong brow is furrowed in the concentration of making sure each word is maticulously read through and crafted perfectly. This will the be the article that gives me my break this time. It has to be, he thinks as he takes note of Emma’s complete emotional meltdown that is ramping up to fullswing.

“Okay, okay. I’m paying attention. Calm down. No need to go nuclear on me,” he croons to her as he throws the article draft onto the worn couch next to her desk and walks over to her to rub her shoulders. It’s a sure-fire way to relax her in about 10 seconds. She makes a move like she’s going to bat him away, but once she understands his intentions, she sits back, mellowing out already. Shoulder rubs are her favorite.

Noah starts making small circles with his thubs over the knots that pop up on the insides of her shoulder blades, near her spine. She makes small noises that tell him he’s hit the right spots. He keeps making the small circles, methodically easing away all her pain, like he has done for so many years now.

“Feeling any better?” he asks hopefully. He knows in he’s in warmer water than he likes with her these days, with his gerenal aloofness and then snappish attitude when he is actually present.

“Yeah. For now…Thanks,” she replies reluctantly.

“Anytime.”

The room is quiet after this brief exchange of words but Noah, lost in his thoughts, stays behind her chair rubbing her shoulders anyway. He normally stops after about 10 minutes but tonight he wants to keep going. He needs some time to think for a minute before he starts talking to Emma again. Keeping her satisfied with extra long rubs is the only way he can do that. If Emma noticed that her treat has been longer than usual tonight, she doesn’t say anything. Instead she melts under his hands, allowing her tense muscles to be molded and manipulated like putty.

Noah’s mind has been buzzing with different thoughts for the past several months. It started with the quick windfall of cash after miraculously selling one of his articles on the hypothetical political system he created, what should be a changed from the system we already have, and what the future would look  like if we followed those plans, to a small magazine in DC. It wasn’t a lot of money, nothing to really make many changes in his life with, but he was able to finally spring for his dream trip to Nepal to do the photo journal he’s been dying to do for years. It was a fantastic month and a half long trip backpacking through Nepal and parts of Buhrma, documenting the culture there that has catpivated him since his high school World Cultures class. It was acutally the class Emma and Noah met in. They’ve known each other that long; nine years in total. Best friends for the first five years, and slowly turning inseperable. They’ve been together, offically now, for the past four years.

It was really just a coincidence that they actually met at all. They had been teamed up with two other people for a ‘team teaching’ project that their teacher did every year, with each new group of students she had. Noah recognized everyone in his group, including Emma, though they had never actually spoken before. Emma only knew one of the group members and barely even seemed to recognize the other two as being a part of the class at all. Noah had shocked her in the first 5 minutes they were all sitting together by asking her, “you like art, right?” Emma was so taken back, she was barely able to answer him before the other girl took over and started conducting the group, planning out what culture we should try to get  and what each person would want to research/teach the rest of the class. For the majority of the three-week long project, though Noah tried everything he could to get Emma to loosen up, she refused to let him in. In fact, she remarked on how much she hated him when they first met. They were the exact opposite in every way back then.

First off, Noah was a looker. Though completely oblivious to his appearance, Noah had that ‘just-tall-enough-so-most-people-have-to-look-up’ height, and the athletic solid build boys get after years of hard work in sports. He had expressive eyes, that always searched for yours and held it while talking. They were a very unusal color: light grey-blue, with brownish-red starburts in the middle. He had perfect straight teeth, and a permantent smile etched in his strong jaw. He kept his blond hair slightly longer in the front than the back, but it was always messy so no one could ever tell the difference. Despite having all of these good looks on his side, and the humble attitude to boot, Noah was outgoing. He was social. He had a lot of friends. Though he talks of his high school days of having limited friend groups, he interacted with everyone he met and won people over instantly. He never gave himself any credit for how amazing he was. He still doesn’t. Though at times Emma can note how frustrating it can be, it is an endearing quality of his.

For everything that Noah was when they met, Emma was the complete opposite. Though not facially, hideously disfigured, she wasn’t by any means attracting any of the guys. She was taller than most girls, with a lot heavier build than them too. Her hips were large, but sterdy. Meant for heavy use but were ones that plagued her on how terrible she thought they looked. She too had eyes that told a story, that gave away her inner secrets, but they were a warm light chocolate brown with a dark brown, almost black, ring around them. Her hair was kept very short. Not normal girl short; boy short. It spiked up in the back and was slicked down in the front. Her teeth were straight, and one of her good qualities, but were very rarely ever shown to the people of her high school–she never smiled much. She wasn’t depressed or angry. She just wasn’t very outgoing. She felt more comfortable keeping to herself. She knew that she could trust her abilities to get things done, and she had one goal in mind for high school: to do well. If that meant not having a lot of friends, she didn’t seem to care.

After several weeks spending time together in class, working on the project, and lots of charming on Noah’s part, he finally won Emma over. But not only did he win her over,  she fell for him. Really hard. It wasn’t something he had bargained on considering her looks. He, just like everyone else did in high school, thought Emma was a lesbian. He thought Emma was just kidding herself on liking him, but after just a few more weeks he knew he had a problem. He didn’t feel the same way for Emma that she did for him, so he did what he thought was the best thing possible. He avoided her. He wouldn’t hang out with her, wouldn’t call her, and once school was over that was it. He planned on going off to college and only seeing her occasionally when he was home, if she dropped the whole ‘being in love with him’ thing. That was his plan anyway.

And it worked for the first year. He moved away from their hometown off Little Foot, New Hampshire, and went to a small liberal arts college in Vermont. It wasn’t far, but it is wasn’t close enough that they could ever really see each other. They talked only occasionally online, but Noah created his own life. He made lots of new friends with his natural charms, and he fell head-over-heels for someone himself. Her name was Rory, and he never really talked to Emma about her at first, trying to spare her feelings. He knew from his own past experiences it wouldn’t be easy on her. And then again, there wasn’t too much to tell. He was having a hard time getting the girl of his dreams to fall for him. She was playing very hard to get, but it really just fueled the chase for Noah. It was a game he truly loved, though he did love the end result just as much.

According to how he tells it, it took a year to get this girl to fall for him as well. During the summer following their first year at college, Emma’s final year of high school, Rory finally agreed to date Noah. It was also during that summer, after Noah fulfilled his promise of taking Emma to her senior prom, the Emma and Noah started hanging out for real. Emma’s feelings for Noah had finally been confessed and he put her in her place. He said if she could deal with him not returning the feelings, then he saw no reason they couldn’t truly be friends. So just as Emma was being allowed into his life, Rory decided she wanted to be with Noah too. Noah says to this day, it was the best summer of his life. But it was also the start of some very complicated years ahead.

And now, even though things had finally evened out and been bloosoming for several years,  they are only going to get complicated again. Noah is keeping a big secret from Emma. He didn’t go on his Nepal and Burhma trip alone, like he had told Emma he did. Rory has re-entered his life. And she spent the whole month with him.

11/25/2011 Writing Ramble.

Emma & Noah–Chapter 2

 “Ouch! Ouuuuch!!” Emma exclaimed from the kitchen, “I’m bleeding!”

Just like everytime something bad happens, whether it be emotional or physical, Noah’s heart stops for just a second. He instantly assumes the worst and fears something is going to take Emma away from him forever. To some it may seem like an irrational fear. After all, bumping your head on the dryer while getting the laundry out doesn’t usually cause someone to die. But something as small as that, is enough to get Noah’s blood quickened.

Noah rushes into the kitchen from his office to see what the damage is. “What happened?” he asks as he’s walking towards her, his eyes already zeroing in on her hand.

“Oh it’s so stupid. I cut my freakin’ thumb on the top of this can. It’s only a scratch really, but I can’t get it to stop bleeding now.”

“Lemme see it,” Noah says soothingly as he pulls her hand towards him. He sees she’s tried to stem the bloodflow by wraping a paper towel around it tightly. But Emma’s right: it won’t stop bleeding. Noah peeks under the corner of the towel to double check to see if the cut was small enough to close on its own.  Nope, that definitely needs stitches, he thinks to himself.

“Babe, this isn’t just a scratch.”

“It doesn’t hurt that much though. How bad is it?”

“Well, let’s just say, you need to get stitches. Now.”

“Greeeat.”

“I’ll get the car. Meet me out front of the building in five.” Noah walks to the counter and grabs his keys. As he’s heading towards the door he calls over this shoulder, “And keep that wrapped up!”

“Ok,” Emma replys.

It comes as no surprise that since he’s lied about the one thing, and person, he swore he never would to Emma, Noah’s been in a state of panic and confusion for a while now. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do about it. He knows as soon as Emma finds out he spent the entire month backpacking with Rory by his side, instead of her, she’s going to leave him. There’s no question of it. He wants to avoid this at all costs, but he knows that eventually he’ll crack. He knows he can’t keep lying to her; she can already tell something’s up.

Noah’s had an incredibly hard time acting like his normal self since he returned home. The fire he once held in his eyes for Emma seems to have been dimmed by what he has done because he knows this will ruin everything. All he wants to do is spend the rest of his life with Emma, but his selfish act and desire to have one last hurrah with his first love has cost him the future he wants. He knows he ultimately can’t change whatever is going to happen, but he is determined to fight like hell.

As Noah shuts the door to the apartment and starts to head down the six flights of stairs to his car in the parking garage, he thinks back to the first time he was absolutely sure he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Emma. It was just a month after they had started dating, back in November of 2011, when they planned to meet in Boston and spend the weekend together. At the time Noah was living in Virginia and Emma was living in the same town where they both went to college in Vermont. It was a very short trip, just two days and one night since Noah couldn’t afford to take any time off from work. But despite how short it was, it was enought to make them fall even more in love with each other than they had been.

It was a long trek up from Virginia. Noah’s bus ride was a nine hour trip, overnight. Just a few hours after he had left work on Friday, he was sitting on the bus with nothing to do but wait. The night before he had slept for only 2 hours. Every night before traveling to see Emma, or before Emma arrives to see him, he only sleeps for just a few short hours. It was going to suck this time around the most because he knew he wasn’t going to get any sleep on the bus. 48 hours without sleep seemed like a huge sacrifice on Noah’s part, according to Emma. She had begged him to just stay home and forget it. But Noah insisted on making the trip anyway—he wanted to see her that much.

Even though the trek was long, and he was kicking himself at some points, Noah arrived in Boston to a very happy, and just as tired, Emma who had gotten up in the middle of the night to drive down and meet him. Noah remembers how it felt to see her standing there, with her long brown hair down around her shoulders, and his favorite green shirt poking out the top of her black fleece. She was a welcome sight after so little sleep for the previous two days. When he finally got to embrace her, he never wanted to let go. She laughed as he played around saying he could fall asleep right in her arms now that he was finally with her. She stroked his hair as she stood there holding him until he was ready to move.

Noah remembers how he couldn’t stop smiling at first. He was so happy to have her close to him again, being able to look into her eyes and see what she was thinking. He couldn’t stop looking at her, the beautiful girl she had turned into over the years. She had grown out her spikey hair so it now hung past her shoulders. It was darker than it was before, but it suited her better than the many other colors she tried over the year. Blue was still a close second though. Her face had thinned out, and she finally started wearing make-up. At first she didn’t know how to apply it, so it looked like she wasn’t wearing any at all. But with time she developed a lot of skill. The make-up brought out her eyes and made them heart-stopping. She started working out and with a lifestyle switch to healthy eating, she started shedding the pounds that she always hated. Noah loved her curves and told her she never had to lose the weight if she didn’t want to. But she did it for herself and gained more of the confidence she lacked in high school. She stated dressing with more style, a professional women, not a kid anymore. Sure there was the time and place for casual clothes, but for the most part she always looked put together. And the most important thing of all, she had mellowed out considerably. She wasn’t uptight and bitchy anymore. No, she went with the flow normally and kept a levelhead in even though the most stressful situations. She was outgoing and worked hard to get to know people wherever she went. Her smile, which she flashed so much more often now, captivated people and no one, Noah especially, could ever not notice her now.

They had several different things planned for their weekend in Boston, all different and stuff Noah was looking forward to doing. But he would have been just as content sitting somewhere and not moving all weekend with her by his side. Once they had stepped out of the bus terminal he quickly realized this thought would have been entirely impossible. Winter had finally set-in in New England—it was freezing! They rushed over to the subway station and back into the warmth. As they made their way to their first destination, which was a breakfast place on Diners Drive-ins and Dives, they made chitchat about different things. Nothing of real significance but stuff to keep themselves entertained.

After an interesting breakfast that involved a lot of steak and eggs, and walking around trying to keep themselves warm, Noah and Emma decided to go their first destination: The USS Consitituion. The tour of the battleship itself was very interesting, and pieces of history niether of them had learned in school before. The real fun they had though was in the museum. There was a section that allowed you to get interactive with different things, which completely designated to kids, but they didn’t care. Instead, they decided they wanted to take part in all they could anyway. It was all geared towards ‘A day in the life of a sailor–could you hack it?’.

Emma tested Noah on the entrance questions required of all prospective sailors. Noah successfully tied up a sail on the mock rigging they had. When Emma tried to walk out on the rope, leaning on the swinging arm of the mast, she lost her balance. Noah joked that she would have been deader than a doornail if that was a real ship and she was a real sailor. There were many other activities and games that educated them on what they would have had to go through back in the late 1800s, and they spent more time here than they did at any other part of the museum. Noah remarked on how much of a kid Emma was when she insisted on hoisting up a fake goat, that made noise when people walked up the stairs, onto “the ship” they were on. Noah remembers watching her and how her face lit up by just being free to explore things and not worry about what other people thought of her. She never usually let go this much, and he really enjoyed seeing her so happy.

His mind wanders away from that wonderful weekend as he pulls around the corner from the parking garage. He sees Emma standing by the door. She has her purse on her shoulder and is clutching her thumb in her other hand. Once she has slid into the passenger seat and shut the door, Noah notices how pale she is. With his eyes forward, after he’s pulled out into traffic, Noah says, “I didn’t go alone on the Nepal trip. Rory went with me.”

 

Emma & Noah–Chapter 3