Hello everybody! Another story part of my holiday collection! Enjoy, eaters of the flesh! Muhahahahaha! (cough, cough)
Oh yeah, Stray the metallic imp or 'make me feel' reviewers, please READ: She has currently informed me that she is ground for a long period of time...so she is not dead or she did not abandon you guys! She haven't forgotten you guys and will continue to write more in the near future. You just gotta...wait.
Words in bold—the song
Words in normal—the present
Words in italics—the past on valentine's day
My Valentine
The singer finished singing and she's walking out
The singer sheds a tear, fear for falling out
You're gone, Rosie. Gone. Torn to shreds. Dead. Erased from the world. Erased from my world. And it was all my fault. You're gone...and I can never see you again. Since, that'll never be possible. I wish I died too. I wished I went along with you.
But bygones are bygones...and it was all in the past.
"Tonight's homework," the physics professor explained, "is to write an essay about..."
But Otto Octavius, future physic, did not pay attention to his teacher's words...he was thinking dreamily. Curtis noticed this, and decided to make two copies of the homework assignment for his best friend. He didn't want the guy to get in trouble.
Class ended, and the college students picked up their things. Otto was still gazing out into blank space, and Curtis couldn't help but chuckle. He shoved his friend back into reality.
"H-huh?" Otto looked around frantically, seeing that the classroom was empty.
"Lovestruck, eh?" Curt laughed, and showed Otto the homework.
"Oh damn. I didn't even notice..." They walked down through the college. Curtis blabbed and talked endlessly about their last science class, after noticing that Otto probably missed it all. Otto listened to some of it, but he couldn't stop thinking.
"You've really need to get responsible and pay attention Otto, it is so not you to ignore like that. Otto...Otto? Otto? Where you go? Ott—"
They continued to walk to get out of the campus, until Otto stopped, staring at a university building. Curtis walked to his friend and looked from where his friend looked to—the English department building. The building was surrounded by people, the bookworms. Most of them gave out Valentine's day cards and gifts. Curtis looked confused and found himself shaking his hands in front of Otto to get his attention.
"Oh Otto! Otto! Hello! Earth to the future doctor Otto Octavius!" he continuously waved his hands. Otto never paid any attention. That is odd, Curtis thought.
"Oh wait!" Otto suddenly blurted out, lifting up his binder and backpack, taking out a book and folded card. This made Curtis jump, and Otto started to run to the building, dropping his things behind. They were heavy to run through. Curtis looked at his friend, then to the things he dropped, and then to Otto once again. Dumbfounded, he carried Otto's things and followed him into the building.
And its hard to say how I feel today
For that years gone by
And I've cried...
How long have it been Rosie? Years? We've been together for a long time. Today is Valentine's day. Do you remember when we first met? When we first kissed? It all happened in that same day.
But now, you're gone, and I wish this day never existed either. I remember in the years after we met, we would celebrate like crazy on our anniversary...we would skip work together and have breakfast in bed...we would go out to eat in an expensive, fancy restaurant...we would watch a movie together...go to dances...everything.
But they're all memories to me now. I can't...I can't experience them anymore. I can't do them without you. You're gone, and it is my fault. And I treasure these memories really well.
Otto ran, and he had never run like this before. He wasn't good at such exercise, not that he could find the time to do so, but he ran so fast, as if his life depended on it. He then stopped in front of a particular classroom, in the heart of this building. And, before he touched the doorknob, someone opened the door...an elderly lady was seen from behind it.
"Um...hello?" the lady asked.
"Uh...do you have Rosalie Harris in your class?" Otto asked.
"Yes, I have her next session." The lady made a confused look. Otto gave her a paperback book with a folded and neatly decorated card inside. He blushed.
"Can you give this to her? She doesn't know about me or this and..."
"Sure!" Rosalie's teacher smiled warmly. "I'll give it to her!" Heh, kids today, it is so lovely to see them together! She loved how her students write love poems to each other, and the romance books! It's amazing how this young man knew, that romance was Rosie's favorite choice of genre! And, he said Rosie doesn't know about him, right?
Blushing, Otto bid her thank you and good bye, and walked down the halls to the outside, passing literature students and teachers. He turned red especially, when this beautiful tan-skin colored woman passed him, who had brown-blondish colored hair in a ponytail, who smelled of rose oil perfume. She didn't pay attention to him...just yet.
Oh god...he thought, maybe I should go back and get that card from her teacher before she reads it! But too late now, he could see the professor already giving the girl the card and book, and that made his heart beat at a very fast pace.
Its hard to say that I was wrong,
It's hard to say that I miss you
Since you've been gone it's not the same...
Today...I stand here, in front of your grave. I never thought I could find it, but I did. Your name, written beautifully on the gravestone...your birth and death dates...nothing else. I wish I died with you. I wish I was there with you. But you're gone...and it is all my fault.
I blew a kiss to your grave and placed a rose over your burial mound. Oh gods...Valentine's day...funny, how I used to love this holiday! He he, funny, how I used to say that this holiday was among my favorites!
Now its not. It only brings back pain...memories...I miss you Rosie. I really, really do.
"Otto!" he jumped and turned around. It was only Curtis...and he looked like he saw the whole thing because he was laughing like mad! "You...dog!" his good friend laughed.
"He he, shut up! Not funny!" Otto couldn't help but laugh with him. He doesn't know why though, especially when he was definitely nervous.
"Oooh! Of course! How come I've forgotten! It is February 14th! Valentine's day!" Curtis clasped his forehead.
"And you will not talk!" Otto snapped.
"Hn. I still need to think about what I should do with Martha today..." Curt nervously laughed, giving back Otto his backpack and binder, "you know, my girlfriend?"
"What is it like to have someone anyway?" Otto asked. They walked through the campus together, talking about Valentine's day.
"Hmmm," Curt mused dreamily, "wonderful. I love Martha with my full heart!"
"Do you think it'll be possible with me and Rosie?" Otto asked.
"Rosie's her name? That's nice! Um...I don't know, it depends on how you treat her and how you love her and respect her. Why you picked her anyway? Did you just looked at a crowd of bookworms and suddenly pointed to this girl?"
"No. I met her a couple of weeks back, when I was being picked on by Joey."
"Joey? Joey Brown? You mean that prick?" Otto nodded. "Man! I thought you've rid of him!"
"I did." Otto raised his hands up before his best friend gets worked up some more.
"What about him?" Curt asked.
"Well, Rosie used to date with him—"
"Now, why would you want to date Joey's girl?" Curtis interrupted.
"Curtis! Are you going to let me talk or what! Like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, Rosie used to date with him, until she saw the bastard beat on me at first sight. She stopped him and threatened to call the police on him and have him expelled from the college football team...and then they broke up after that."
Curtis smiled. "Does she know that you like her?"
Otto sighed. "No...but I have thought a whole lot about her after that. Eventually I started following her and learning about her, knowing her daily routines and learning what she likes and where she lives..."
"Peepin' tom, Otto?" said Curt with a smirk. This made him blush hard.
"No! Now, how are you going to go around and say that!"
"I'm just joking Otto, calm down!"
They were silent for a while. They sat on a bench by the subway stop, busy people passing to and fro.
My worries weigh the world how I used to be
And everything (I'm cold) seems a plague in me
I'm a monster now...my love. I have 4 of my creations fused to my back, the four actuators. I can feel them right now. I...I can hear them. They speak to me, Rosie. They make me do evil. I have let them go out and steal and kill. I was so selfish.
I tried to do the experiment again...even though it failed the first time. I couldn't accept the truth that you're dead. I couldn't accept the truth that my life's work failed...and my life was taken away...absorbed by the mini-sun. I was kinda hoping that the experiment would take my life just as it took...yours...and it nearly did, ha ha, I tried to sacrifice my life to save the city by committing suicide. Look like that plan failed. And yet, I'm so far from you.
"Oh God! What if I screw up?" Otto began to panic, "what if she doesn't like me? I couldn't really get girls to like me...what if I'm not her type? Oh god, oh god, you got to help me Curt! I-I-I don't know what to do!"
Curtis grabbed a hold of his friend. "Calm down buddy! The reason why nobody liked you is because you never got in the habit! I'll help you old friend, don't worry."
"You will?"
"Of course! I had Mar since high school. I'm used to it by now, and I pretty much knew what girls like and don't like. And first of all, I don't think a girl would like someone who would get pretty worked up like this! Trust me, I panicked, and I ended up not eating for a week."
Otto gulped.
"Don't worry! For, you have the great Doctor Connors of love by your side!" Curt held a fist up to his chest in pride.
"Ahem, you're not exactly a ladies man yourself," Otto chuckled. Curtis had messy hair, and wore braces and usually white polo buttoned shirts. He looked like a lovable geek, someone who isn't handsome, but isn't ugly either. You could say the same thing for Otto, with those lovable brown puppy eyes...up to the fact that he was fa—ahem, I mean for you fangirls—beefy, and he has a bowl-cut, if you get my drift. Well, he never had time to exercise, and he had limited his diet on chips and soda. He had so many work to do, with college and all, he had no time to shape up. Maybe he'll follow that Atkins diet everyone was talking about.
"Oh well, I may be a science geek, but I'm a happy geek, with a lovely hairstylist as a girlfriend if I recall! And you'll be a happy geek too with a lovely poet named after a rose!"
Otto smiled at his best friend. The train showed up, and they both stood up and walked to step in.
"Meet you tonight at your apartment, right?" Curtis asked.
"Yeah, sure. Anything!" Otto replied cheerfully.
"Ew! Gays!" some guy blurted out after hearing their two comments. The two science students looked weirdly at the guy and took slow queer steps away from the man.
"Oookay, let's not do that again!" Otto whispered. Curt made a nervous chuckle and nodded.
And its hard to say how I feel today,
For years gone by
And I've cried...
I'm so sorry Rosie...I'm...so sorry...please forgive me. I'm a monster now. A criminal. A demon. And you're an Angel. My angel. And I hope you're my guardian, because I need you now. More than ever...I can't live without your love...
"Rosie Harris! Wait!" Mrs. Johnson stopped Rosie before she could go and take her seat. Rosie was confused. Was she in trouble?
"Yes Mrs. Johnson?" She approached her literature teacher. The woman gave her a paperback book, complete with a folded piece of paper tucked inside the pages.
"A lovely nice young man stopped by and asked me to give this to you!" Mrs. Johnson smiled warmly.
Rosie took the book. "Really? who?"
"He didn't say. He just asked me to give it to you, and I said okay."
Rosie nodded and then took her seat with the book in her hands, examining it. A book, "The Princess," written by Jude Deveraux! One of her favorite romantic novelists! How did this stranger know?
"Heh, must be Joey," she scoffed, before taking out the folded piece of paper from the pages. It turned out to be a colorful, decorated homemade card, with someone else's scrawny handwriting—not exactly Joey's.
"What?" She opened it, and it turned out to be a poem. She read through it and smiled, and then saw a little note by the bottom: 'Meet me by Thumb hill at 7 PM tonite.'
It's hard to say that I was wrong
It's hard to say that I miss you
Since you've been gone it was not the same...
Rosie...I miss you. And I'm trying not to cry...
Otto sighed deeply. "Are you done yet, Mar?"
"Almost done!" Martha Thompson, Curt's girlfriend, cheerfully replied in a sing-song tone.
She was doing his hair, after an hour of washing it, combing it, and fixing it to what pleases him. So far, Otto was given many choices, with none that suited him. It was until Martha thought about dye his hair to a darker shade of brown, and curling it, though it already naturally was curled. (He he, to think, Otto with a perm...well, how do you think he straight it out to a bowl-cut hm?)
Curt came in the room with a shocked glance, soon covering his mouth. "Oh my god..."
"What?" Otto asked, furious.
"There ya go! Here, how do you like this!" Martha handed him the mirror, and Otto looked at his reflection...then looked up back at Martha.
"Do you like it?" Martha asked.
"Like it...?" Otto looked at his hair again. No more bowl-cut or straight hair...his hair was neatly trimmed, and randomly curled. It was like a mixture of straight, curly, and spiky hair, and it looked so awesome...that Otto looked nothing like a geek. Sure, he has some weight, but the hair matched beautifully with the eyes, and he liked the way his dark-brown hair reflected by the top off from the lamp's light.
"Like it?" he repeated. "I-I-I love it! It is awesome! It is...groovy! Wow, thanks Mar! I owe you a whole lot!"
"Hm. You're welcome! You certainly looked a lot more handsome! I'm sure this Rosie girl would like you!"
Curt looked at his girlfriend with a queer look. "I am so going to ask you to get my hair done! How come you never did?"
Martha smiled, sweeping the floor of Otto's hair she has cut. "You never asked."
"Uh-huh. Oh Otto, I stopped by the store while I was out, and I saw this! You should try it on!" Curt took out a black corduroy T-shirt from a shopping bag, along with a dark brown pair of jeans and a brown leather jacket. (Think I'm trying to make it similar to the trenchcoat)
"Now, where did you get that? How did you get the money? That looked expensive!" Otto asked, looking through the clothes Curt brought him.
"Uh duh! Ever heard of 'part-time jobs'? Don't worry, I got plenty of money for me and Mar's date!"
Otto looked guiltily at his friend. Of course, his friends...they're putting so much effort and time on Otto, they haven't got together for Valentine's yet. "Oh...well, I really thank you guys, and I'm sorry if I'm interrupting your time together..."
"Non-sense!" Martha laughed. "I'm having fun! Right, Curt?"
"Make over!" he snickered. Otto playfully punched him in the arm. "Hey, what's better than helping a lovebird with a 'blind date'?"
"You go on, and see if those look good on you!" Martha nudged Otto to the bathroom.
It's hard to say, I held my tongue
It's hard to say if only...
Since you've been gone it's not the same...
Rosie looked to her mirror, in hard thought. It is 6:00, only an hour until her set up 'date'...should she come, or not? She could tell by the poem, this man is very nice and romantic, but she have never seen him or know this 'Otto Octavius'...or does she? She can't remember; she was so busy in college.
She wore a maroon-colored pancho, and a tight pair of pants. Well, she did just broke up with Joey, and she is very interested in the owner of the poem he gave her...maybe he's the guy she needs.
Rosie read her poem again. Such beautiful words... I am so definitely going to meet him! He must love me so dearly to put these heartfelt words...
She picked up her collection book of romantic poems, and slid the letter/poem in the book and left it on her coffee table and headed for the door. But, before she turned off the light, she stopped, and turned around to receive her book, and left her apartment with it.
'Thumb hill' is in Queens, so she knew where 'Otto' meant. If you approached it in an angle, it'll look like a sticking out thumb, thus the name. She never been there though, she lived in the neighborhood in the other side of where it was. She didn't bother go outside much when she was young, her parents owned a large beautiful library filled with all shorts of books. She have read them all, and found it was good.
Worst than the fear is the lie you told,
a thousand times before...
worst than the fear is the knife...
You know what's funny? You've always told me that you'd stay with me forever, no matter what. You'd love me for eternity, no matter what I do or what I've become. Would you still love me now? You have promised me that you wouldn't leave me...but as you can see, that promise was broken. I tore it apart, like broken glass shards.
Broken glass shards...your scream haunted my dreams, haunted my every thought, echoed through my ears. Your death tore me to shreds, and I tried to keep it in, I tried not to believe it. I tried to keep my life in order, I thought maybe you're safe at the hospital...and that people would forgive me if I try and correct my mistakes by doing the experiment again.
But it was the truth. I wish there was a way I can bring you back. I need you Rosie...I can't survive without you...I can't be sane without you. I need you...I want you...please forgive me, and come back.
Otto stepped out the bathroom, straightening out his brown leather jacket. Martha and Curt watched in astonishment; he have looked rather sexy! He have looked nothing like the Otto before, but a nice and complex, sensual man, ready for his date. No, ahem, his first date.
"Well, I'll be damned..." Curt smiled, and jokingly let out a wolf-whistle. Martha gaped happily and clasped her hands.
"Well, what do you think fellas?" Otto said with a smirk.
"If only you have looked like that before, swarms of girls would come chasing after you!"
"You think so?" The two couples nodded.
"Well, Mar, I think our work here is done! Oh, and it is about time too! You got 30 minutes to get to Thumb hill!" Curt pointed to the clock.
"Aw shit! Can I borrow your bike?" Curt nodded yes. Otto came bolting out to the door...but—
"Otto!"
"What?" he asked.
"Whatever you do, just don't be frightened. Just kiss her right on. I did that to Martha, and look where we are now." Curt smiled, holding his girlfriend's hand.
Otto smiled at his good friend. "Thank you for everything, Curt. You're always my friend." And so he ran off.
It's hard to say that I was wrong
It's hard to say that I miss you
Since you've been gone it was not the same...
Rosie looked at her watch. She's here, in a quiet and dark night, at exactly 7 PM. Otto was not there.
5 minutes passed. He is still not there.
10 minutes. Not there.
And before another minute passed, Rosie have given up, and called it a day. "He doesn't exist," she spoke sadly, "It was all a prank."
But before she left:
"Oh my love is like a red, red rose,
that's newly sprung in June;
Oh my love is like the melodie,
That's sweetly played in tune..."
Rosie smiled, and turned around, and she could see a manly figure in the darkness. She could not see him, but the moon helped her 'see' him. He had a warm, masculine voice, and he continued to speak:
"As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
so deep in love am I,
and I will love thee still, my dear,
'till all the seas gang dry."
Rosie smiled some more. It was the poem from the letter! He has memorized it. Rosie walked up slowly to the man, and him up slowly to her...
"'till all the seas gang dry, my dear," Otto continued to recite, "and rocks melt with the sun..."
"And I will love thee still my dear," Rosie joined him before coming closer into his personal space, "while..."
"The sands of life shall run..."
They then...embraced into...their first...kiss.
It's hard to say, I held my tongue
It's hard to say if only...
Since you've been gone it's not the same...
I smiled sadly over your grave once more. Rosie...we never did finish the poem I first recited to you...
"and fare thee meel, my only love..." I spoke, closing my eyes, "and fare thee meel a while..."
And I turned around to leave, but I finished the poem...
"And I will come again my love...though it were ten thousand mile..."
Hard to say
The Used
Review! And, Happy Valentine's day!