Love (standard:other, 891 words)
Author: davidg.	Added: Apr 22 2001	Views/Reads: 3228/1	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
called Love... surprisingly about love and what it can do.

Love. 

I lay in a million pieces on the bathroom floor of Luke's apartment. He
smashed me six weeks ago after his girlfriend of six years, Lisa, 
walked out on him for good. Every second since that moment he hoped 
that she would walk back in and forgive him, just give him one more 
chance. He had never loved anyone or anything as much as he loved her. 

The wind blew outside. Its force rattled all of the windows in Luke's
apartment. It rattled all of the windows in the building. It hadn't 
been this strong in a long time. 

Luke sat hunched over his computer in the corner of his living room with
all the lights off. 

It was obvious that he was the only one living here, this place had not
been graced by a woman's presence in a long time, there was junk 
everywhere, old beer cans and cigarette boxes lying in the corner of 
the room, never to be touched again. He had not cleaned his apartment 
in a month and he no longer cared. His hair was greasy, his clothes 
stained by the fast food he had been living on. Prostitutes had turned 
him down twice in the last week and his consumption of drugs had 
rapidly increased, although he had not taken anything in a while. Last 
time he went to Mark, the dealer he had used since high school, he had 
been mugged walking home. He decided not to go to the police, as he had 
no excuse for being in that neighborhood at that hour of the night. 

The neon orange glow of the city night worked its way through the
rattling windows and stained the walls. 

Whatever it was he was looking at didn't seem to make him any happier or
feel more content. It could have been porn or it could have been a chat 
room or on-line bingo. He never raised single expression as the white 
light from the computer screen covered his face. 

He had finally moved from suburbia and aimed for a life in the city at
the age of 25. He never enjoyed college, but he got the B.A. in 
business as his parents expected of him. He lived with his parents, 
Michael and Sarah, for two years before he moved to the city. 

In years past, he longed for city life; he wanted to live in an
apartment block, surrounded by people like himself so that he could 
discuss the art exhibition of the month, or the novel of the week. But 
this never happened. His neighbors didn't seem interested in anything 
but their managerial position in the corporation they worked for. He 
learned to hate city life. He hated being a mere pedestrian, part of 
the herd. His parents were worried about him and came to visit every 
once in a while, complaining about his drinking or smoking, asking when 
he would get a job or when he would next contact Lisa. 

Since Lisa had left him nothing seemed to work out in the city so he
decided to give up for a while, to relax. To stay up till 5am every 
morning enjoying the fruits of cheap Internet connection and the 
wonders of cyberspace. Some nights he looked at holiday destinations 
that he knew he would never travel to. Other nights he looked at women 
he knew he would never sleep with. Other nights he chatted to people he 
knew he would never meet. 

The break up had hit him very hard. He was sure that Lisa was the one
for him, everyone had told him so. He constantly thought of Lisa's 
brown hair and green eyes. He longed for her to be back in his arms, to 
kiss his wounds, to assure him that everything was fine. I had seen it 
all, the good and the bad. Lisa had been building up to it; she had 
been planning a break from Luke for about two weeks, since he quit his 
job. Luke never saw it coming and had no idea what to do when she had 
gone; she had shaped his life for him, he had had it all planned. In 
the last two weeks he had run out of tears, run out of the frustration 
that riddled the first days of Lisa's departure. 

Just nine months ago they had rented a cabin in Michigan, beside the
lake. One morning they went down to the beach and using a piece of 
twisty driftwood, Luke wrote in the sand "Will you..." and be before he 
could finish writing Lisa wrote "Of course I will" with another piece 
of driftwood. They went back to the cabin hand in hand, got drunk and 
then made love. Luke hoped it would always be like this. 

Tonight was like every other night but different. 

He left the computer and headed to his bedroom. The computer screen
still blinked with advertisements and lit the living room. 

The night ended and the morning descended upon him. He took the bottle
of aspirin he had purchased the day before and swallowed all of the 
pills with a chaser of vodka. 

He lay on the bedroom floor, semi-conscious, looking at a picture of
Lisa, the one he loved and he waited. 

And I lay on the bathroom floor in a million pieces. 


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