Same Country, Different Worlds
How can you expect things to work out when you're from two different worlds?
He grew up a bad boy in Chicago, and got kicked out of high school by the time he was seventeen. After graduating once attending an alternative school, he put all his energy into music, and managed to cut a demo. But fate wasn't on his side, and he wound up as a paint salesman instead, toting the trusty guitar along in the backseat of his beat up Ford.
She grew up as the caretaker in Cape Cod, raising her baby sisters while balancing play practice with homework. After graduation, she wanted to go to college, but couldn't bear to leave her family without help. She applied at Berkeley, and got on the waiting list. She wished she could drive, but she couldn't afford a car.
The two worlds meet in Hollywood, when she's 19 and he's 23. One thing they have in common: they both love to sing. For her, music was a chance to escape from reality, a life vest saving her from the waters where stupid and dangerous ideas drowned. For him, it seemed to be the only thing he couldn't screw up, the only right decision he seemed to make. The only thing others could possibly seem proud of him for.
Over time, their worlds seem to blend, more and more. They both have ink, they both have a strange sense of humor. They both like Hole, and they always swap stories about childhood TV shows.
The journey is hard. They both struggle, until after a while, he can't seem to do anything wrong, while she can't seem to do anything right. She goes home.
He keeps going, up and up until he finally reaches the top, until he's finally successful. She finds it in herself to come back, if only to hug him and whisper, "I always knew you could do it." He hugs her back.
They spend the summer together. It's one of the best either one of them has ever lived. Twitter replies all day long, about secret inside jokes that no one else can seem to figure out. They go for new ink together too, for new experiences that can be locked away in a scrapbook as only shared with each other. But then, the summer ends.
She goes back home to Cape Cod, and he goes home as well. But not to Chicago. Hollywood is his home now, because he was successful, remember?
Reality seems to come crashing back down to them. He makes a music video, while she sits in her room and watches it. There's a girl in the video. She wonders if he even thinks of her anymore.
The worlds meshed together seem to separate again. The Twitter inside jokes are now between him and his new girl, the one from the video. This new girl goes with him to get ink, but just sits and watches. It's different for him, going with someone who can't feel the pain.
Her Cape Cod boyfriend has been there since before this all started. Since before her world changed to what it was for those six months. But it's decided to change back, and she can't seem to figure out why it couldn't manage to stay the way it was.
She doesn't go for any more ink, and doesn't really use Twitter anymore, either.
But how can you expect things to work out when you're from two different worlds, anyways?