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Mending a Glass Heart
| Passions in Prose |
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Mending a Glass Heart |
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UNTAMEDelegance Member
since 2009-05-30
Posts 222Oregon |
Messa walked down the hallway in a state of forced indifference. She trudged through the swarming masses of excitedly chattering females that always seemed to congregate at the exact places that make them hardest to navigate around. Probably not an accident. Probably aimed not at Messa, but towards the boys that were attracted to the simpering girls like children to candy. But today was special. Today there were high-pitched squeals as the girls contemplated what they would get. Today there were hearts, sparkles, roses, and oodles and oodles of red and pink. Today everyone was practically oozing silly things like “love,” “forever,” and “boy/girlfriend.” Today was Valentine’s Day. Messa had turned sixteen just three weeks before. This was the age that her parents would finally let her date. At least, officially. For a while—about six months ago—she had been dating a boy from the swim team. She’d thought that she was the luckiest girl in the world. She’d believed in words like love and forever. She’d thought she was in love. But her stupidity came crashing into her face with a resounding WHAP! It had happened the afternoon that Brandon—the boy—had skipped swim practice. Messa had been told by the Drama Director to go find Allys—Messa’s “Best Friend Forever”—because she hadn’t shown up for drama practice. Messa was the assistant director so things like this naturally fell to her. She had gone to look for Allys at her and her friends—Allys, Daisuke, and Brandon—favorite hangout; the art room. At she had walked into the room, she heard sounds coming from the supply closet. Messa had opened the door and stopped dead. Allys and Brandon were entwined in a less-than-innocent way that would forever be carved painfully into the inside of Messa’s eyelids. The two noticed a person standing the doorway and reluctantly pulled away from each other’s lips. When he saw who it was, Brandon’s expression of bliss immediately changed to one reminiscent of a cornered animal; panic and anxiety etched into every feature, however Allys—the same Allys that Messa had grown up with; had made mud-cakes with down by the river; had gone to the beach with; had constantly been comforted by Messa when one of her many crushes had denied her; had helped Messa through the death of her cat—that same Allys just smirked and, with a contemptuous sneer, said to Messa, “Well, what did you expect? You never gave him any. And it’s not my fault if I’m about 90 times hotter than you’ll ever be.” Then she had turned to Brandon and French kissed him. A scowl covered Messa’s face as she coldly said, “I am still here and I have something to say to you.” She grabbed Brandon’s shoulder and pulled the two apart. Brandon looked at his “girlfriend” and his had eyes widened just in time to see a curled fist make contact with his stomach. Then Messa had turned around before Allys could flee and punched her in the jaw. Messa smirked just thinking of the punches she had thrown. The next day Bandon had sent her a small envelope. Inside was a small ceramic half-heart that Brandon had bought. The other half was hanging on a leather strap around Messa’s neck. Messa had told him in a playfully chiding voice not to lose it. Brandon had grabbed her hand and kissed it saying, “The day I lose this is the day my love for you is lost. Which will never happen.” The heart in the envelope was smashed to bits. Messa snorted at the fact that she had believed him. She reached up and ripped the heart from around her neck. Laughing mirthlessly she watched the little piece of glass glinting in the sunlight as she let it fall from her palm. It hit the concrete without breaking, but Messa soon took care of that with the heel of her shoe. There was a distinct cracking sound as she stomped on the glass and watched her heart shattering into a million pieces. So for the past couple of months Messa had walked the halls with ice in her eyes, cutting herself off from boys. She sent a glare of ultimate death to any catcalls or pick-up lines that came her way and no one had tried anything physical since they saw the bruise she had left on Trevor Malkovich’s face. She still had Daisuke though. He was always more like a big brother than anything else and he treated her with the utmost respect. So much that Messa tolerated his male presence and somewhat loosened up around him. Anyway, back to the present. It was because of Brandon and Allys that Messa trudged grumpily down the hall, staring at the floor to avoid seeing the roses and hearts and couples that crowded the school. She bit her lip to try to stem the flood of tears that never quite seemed to leave her eyes. ‘I can’t cry!’ she thought desperately. “HEY, MES-MES!” Messa’s head flew up at the sound nickname, hoping it was Daisuke. Her eyes scanned the crowds, searching for the familiar sweep of tousled, just-been-sleeping blonde mop that Daisuke decided the call his hair. It wasn’t there. Instead, Messa’s eyes met the fiery red locks of the new kid, Kaji. “Oh, hey Kaji.” Messa said quickly walking away. Her evasion attempt didn’t work. Kaji just hurried up and walked/ran beside her. For a minute, Messa kept up the quick almost run, but—seeing as Kaji kept up—she dropped to a normal walk. All that time, nothing was said. The two were just walking and not talking. They were walking towards the football field now and right beside the football field was their destination; the Swimming building. It held the swim pool—of course—the boy’s and girl’s locker rooms, a hot tub, and a sauna. This was where Messa, Daisuke, and Kaji had their last class of the day. “So,” Kaji began, trying to instigate a conversation, “you going to the Valentine’s Night Dance? I bet you already have a date!” he said quickly smiling widely and laughing nervously. “No. I’m not going.” Messa said in a guarded voice. “Oh. That’s too bad. You should come! It’s gonna be lots and lots of fun. There’ll be good music, and strobe-lights, and there’s even gonna be a chocolate fondue fountain!” He announced excitedly. “An’ Brandon.” Messa whispered under her breath. “What?” Kaji asked, looking curiously at Messa. She remained silent, determined not to go crying for pity. Kaji smiled and said, “Oh. Well, why aren’t you coming?” Messa cringed, letting her hair swing forward to cover the humiliated blush creeping over her face. Once again, tears gathered in her eyes. Messa crossed her arms protectively across her chest. “I…” she faded out. ‘Can’t cry. Can’t cry. Can’t cry.’ She called out almost hysterically in her mind. “Yeah?” “I… I d- I don’t want to talk about it with you!” She blurted out in a harsh, trembling voice. “Oh!” Kaji sounded surprised and kind-of hurt. Messa bit her lip as she realized how mean she had sounded and more tears gathered. “Oh, well, that’s okay. I’m sure it’ll still be fun without you there. I mean I’m sure we’ll still have some fun and it’d be more fun with you there and everything and…” Messa drifted off, not really listening at all to what Kaji was saying as they walked across the field. It was a clear day, and bitingly cold. But it was clear and the sun was just peaking up from above the low-laying layer of mist that hung over the town every morning in the winter. She just wandered through the conversation, occasionally making a half-hearted comment here and there until… “Well, I have to be going. Got a couple of things to do before class starts.” Kaji said speeding up. “I hope you feel better and sorry about Brandon and Allys and all.” He smiled that big smile again and ran off ahead to the swimming pool, leaving behind a shell-shocked Messa. ‘Huh?’ Messa thought. “How’d he know about that?” she contemplated for a moment more… “Wait! What all did I say to him?!?” she squeaked out loud. “What?” came an inquiring voice from behind her. “Daisuke! What’s up?” Messa smiled. “Eh, not much. Same ol’, same ol’. Boring old school.” The two walked together for a minute in silence. “So, I saw you talking to Kaji.” Daisuke said, the tone of his voice asking if anything happened between Messa and Kaji. “No! Nothing happened!” cried Messa, answering the silent question. “And anyways, he just moved her. I don’t even know him!” “You know, Kaji isn’t that bad of a guy. I knew him from Japan before we came here and he’s my best guy friend.” He paused. “You know he likes, Messa.” Daisuke said in a low and gentle voice. “No!” Messa shouted and ran off towards the Swimming pool. She whipped open the doors and ran to the girl’s locker room. She changed into her swimsuit as fast as she possibly could and literally flung herself into the pool. On Fridays they were allowed free time in Swim class so she just swam around. Floating around in the water, her mind calmed and floated with the flowing water around her. Just drifting, Messa began to swim in a random, lazy pattern that vaguely resembled circles. She had just began doing laps around the pool when she felt something grab her leg. “Auughhhhh!” she screamed, but it was drowned by the water rushing around her head. Messa struggled and kicked for a few moments until she felt her foot make solid contact and the thing let go of her foot. She relaxed, staying underneath the water and letting the tension flow from her shoulders … Until she felt something grab her arm. Eyes wide, she turned to face her assailant, fist at the ready. It was Kaji. He was blushing—Messa could see that even under water—and his green eyes were bright and shining. He put a finger to his lips and some air bubbles escaped his mouth. He handed Messa a plastic bag and then swam away, in a flurry of bubbles. Messa surfaced and grabbed the edge of the pool. She hoisted herself up and sat with her feet dangling in the water. . Inside the bag was an antique rose pink envelope, gorgeously embossed in iridescent gold. She opened the bag and slit open the top of the envelope. Messa saw the tip of a small crimson slip of paper. She shifted the envelope and shook it gently. Into her outstretched, waiting hand fell a small delicate object. Tied together with a golden thread were two half hearts. Crimson hearts. Two red hearts made of metal painted with translucent red lacquer. Attached to the hearts via the golden string was the sip of red paper that Messa had first seen. It was upside down in her palm so Messa took the paper in her thumb and pointer finger and hesitantly flipped it over. “These won’t break as easily as glass.” The words were written in gold and were in plain Timed New Roman script, but they seemed to flow across the red paper like cool running water; sweet and pure. Warm, yet heartbreaking. The tears that had been held in for months spilled over, finally began running down Messa’s reddened cheeks. She sat there quietly crying, shoulders racked with silent sobs of grief. She didn’t even notice the person that came and sat down beside her on the pool’s edge. “Mes-mes?” Came the gentle beckoning from Kaji. He waited; Messa didn’t respond. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I mean… I didn’t mean to make you cry. Are you okay? I…” he paused. “Oh, that was a stupid question wasn’t it?” He looked down, trying to hide the fact that he was blushing. “There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.” Messa said with a small, watery laugh. Kaji laughed a little as well. Messa looked up through her tears to see Kaji’s red face. She smiled a tiny smile. “Ya’ know, you’re kind of cute when you blush.” She said before she could think about it. She felt her face heat up. ‘Great, now I’m the one blushing.’ She thought. Kaji lookes up with his mouth open in shock. “What? Oh. Yeah. Heh. Thanks.” He smiled while turning even redder. He laughed nervously. Messa smiled again—embarrassedly—and looked out at her classmates swimming. She noticed that the laughter from Kaji had stopped and she looked over at Kaji again. He had a small, thoughtful smile playing across his features. “What?” Messa asked. He chuckled warmly. “You don’t even know how beautiful you are, do you?” he paused as Messa’s face once more lit up like a Christmas tree. Then he slowly began again. “So, about the envelope…?” he trailed off waiting for an answer. His face said that he expected the worst. “Well…” Messa started licking her lips that were suddenly dry. “I think I have an answer but I don’t want to shout it out to the entire class, so I’ll whisper it in your ear.” “Um, okay.” Said Kaji nervously, anxious at the mysterious nature of the answer. He leaned forward to put his head in front of Messa’s, who was biting her lips uncertainly. Messa swallowed and took a deep breath. Quiet as wind blowing through summer grass she whispered. “I’m not sure if I can promise much but…” she faltered a bit. “but I can try.” Then she turned to the side and kissed Kaji. Messa put all of the love she thought she had lost into that one kiss. The kiss was as pure and sweet as dew and beautiful as snow-covered rosebuds. Messa gave her all for one more shot at love and left the rest up to Kaji. Kaji’s eyes widened in shock, but soon he relaxed and kissed back so tenderly that Messa felt tears stinging her eyes again. Kaji’s arms wound gently around Messa’s waist and pulled her close as Messa wrapped her arms around his neck. They both smiled into the kiss as they heard whoops and catcalls—led by Daisuke—erupted from the students around the school. *** Twelve Years Later The dark-haired woman called out from the kitchen, where she was busily crushing Oreos™ with cream cheese to make Oreo™ balls as a Christmas treat. From the ring finger on her left hand glittered a delicate ring decorated with a small, red, heat-shaped diamond. “Kaji honey, can you pick up Lynn tomorrow. I want to stay a little late at the studio. Kayla needs some help with her waltzing techniques.” “Oh, I don’t know.” said the fire-haired man, walking into the room. “I might need some payment.” He said teasingly and same up behind the woman and grabbed her waist in a tight hug. Messa gasped in surprise at Kaji’s sudden embrace. Then she relaxed and turned to him smiling. “Oh? And what might that be?” she asked. “This,” Kaji said while turning her around and planting a sweet kiss on her lips. Messa smiled and pulled away. She touched her hand lovingly to Kaji’s face. Her hand that was still covered in Oreo™ and cream cheese goop. “Hey!” he cried loudly. Messa just laughed and said, “Love you.” Laughing as well, Kaji returned the phrase. “Love you, Mes-mes.” And sealed it with a kiss. |
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| © Copyright 2009 Melissa Reneé Axtell - All Rights Reserved | |||
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