Author's Note: I have ideas in the middle of the night. Which is both cool and bad, because most of those ideas have the potential to be something big, and bad because in the morning I'm more rational and I will go through my idea going 'Nah...no, that won't fit in my schedule...no, that could never happen...nuh-uh...' Weellll, this idea was plausible so I just went ahead and did it. Inspired by a Malaysian band, Scene at the Movies, and their song 'Sunsets and Sketches'. Which features in the story.
The title is Italian for 'sweetheart'. At least that's what the brochures from the jewellery store down the road says.
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Innamorto
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It was a question he had asked when he was ten.
he was a child then, a kid who only cared about adventures and getting the glory--
"Who are you gonna get married to?"
he didn't take it seriously then...now he did care, too much, so much that it hurt--
"Why'd you ask?"
cautious. Testing the waters--
"Meh, all this marrying junk...must have got into my brain or something."
five years. Five years of being together, five years of growing up--
"I don't know. Someone sweet, nice, handsome...someone not like you..."
"Hey!"
he was all of those things now, she admitted it herself but she was too caught up in Kevin to appreciate them fully--
"How 'bout you?"
you. I want you...
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Caught up in fantasy, as usual. He'd broken up with Julie--she had to return to Japan, for some reason or another, and he'd been there at the airport to say goodbye. It was out of courtesy and diplomacy, and not out of his rapidly diminishing love for her. She was a good friend to have, a wonderful listener and, if nothing, she was good at coaching him, but their love had been the sort that lived in the fast lane and died young with a smile on its face. It couldn't have lasted, and this was the best way to end it.
The skies had been blue, and the clouds were white against it.
"Ben," she said, quiet and yet confident about what she was going to say. "If you find someone else, I'm happy for you." She paused for a while, and continued. "I know you have."
"What?" He drew a complete blank. How could she have known? "What? What are you talking about?"
Julie smiled, and said nothing.
They hugged, and then she was gone, just like that. An ending perfect for the last episode of the weepy soap operas his mother used to watch, except this story--his story--wasn't over just yet.
I'm happy for you.
Was it really that obvious?
The aeroplane soared overhead, against a blue sky with white clouds...
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Gwen had been fiddling with Kevin's car radio.
"I'm caught, in between, losing you and losing me..."
"Leave it," Kevin snapped. Ben had always found it amusing that he cared about his car so much.
"With just one, decisive stare, I forget the time it takes to get from here to there..."
"This is my favourite song," Gwen said suddenly. He knew the song, an annoying pop song about getting your crush to notice you.
"I'm so much better than I used to be..."
Kevin shook his head, a smile on his face. Ben groaned, with a joking tone, but he meant it. There was one he liked better--
"Take me there, away from here, where the sun sets still..."
The mood lightened amongst the boys when the song ended, and the horrible (to him anyway) tunes faded into the silence...
"When I'm with you..."
He got up, turned off the radio and lay back on his bed, thinking to himself. "Gwen..." He absently murmured, as though she could hear him. As though she would notice that her cousin, her darling cousin was truly in lolve with her. The fan continued to turn on the ceiling, just as he continued to dream.
Caught up in fantasy, as usual.
Two boys, vying for her love, and she answered to one.
Or maybe (and his breath caught in his throat) he should send her a Valentine's the next day. Red and pink and sparkly gold mass-produced cards flashed into his mind, the ones with the stupidly grinning Cupids on them, the ones he had seen at the mall. No. There was nothing special about them.
Maybe he should tell her himself...
Maybe...
And then he woke up.
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Author's Note: Make of the last sentence, what you will.