Forgetting February
It rained that day yes it poured and the only good thing that came of the current was the fact that outside was wetter than her pillow. Oh the sound of heartbreak rung all too clearly in her chest, burning her at every heart beat making sure she never forgot not even for a second just how it felt to travel to hell and back. The pain was shattering, unbearable, forever. Yes, the pain went on forever, she was certain she would never forget and she never did forget the 28th of February.
She never wanted him because she never did see the point in chasing a boy that was way beyond your reach and he was. She never approached him if anything she kept her distance, she wasn't like the other girls at school, all she wanted to do was go to school and learn and studying him was not an official subject in her eyes. She wasn't like the other girls at school, she didn't care that he came back extra tanned for their senior year at high school from his vacation in the Bahamas. It didn't even bother her that he seemed to have toned up over the summer; that was left for the cheerleaders to debate over at lunch, she just wanted to finish her senior unnoticed.
Unnoticed. That's all she had to be for one more year and then off to an Ivy League College she'd go and BAM the world was her oyster, except he didn't let her go unnoticed. He took notice, he was soul searching, he was tired of his routine, tired of the countless numbers of girls leaving his room each night, he was tired of the turn his life was taking and she was his way out. It started off with a study date here and there, then one turned into two and two turned in three and before he knew it he was hooked. He asked her out to dinner, she accepted despite her heart's protests, and she didn't think she'd enjoy herself like she had but he was charming.
Charming, that's what he was with his boyish grin and devilishly good looks, she couldn't say no. He was a gentleman in all sense of word, caring, attentive and polite. He opened doors for her, pulled out her chair and paid for the outing. Next time it was a movie and after that it was trip to the beach, before she knew it... She was hooked, hooked because the conversations were exciting, exuberant and enticing. Oh and how they laughed, her school girl giggle was like music to his ears, he could watch her laugh all night long if he had to. He was her first kiss.
They had fallen in love, truly, madly and deeply in love with each other. Their friends noticed, suddenly he didn't want to party it out until the early morning, suddenly his grades were above average, suddenly he cared whether or not he was on time for school or not. Suddenly he wasn't so wild. Her friends noticed when she put on lip gloss instead of lip balm, suddenly she straightened her hair for school, sometimes she didn't even tie it up like she always did. She went to basketball matches yet she always claimed she detested the game, she had a pep in her step, she giggled like a love struck teenager, yes their friends had changed and everyone could see it. Then it happened, they came into school together.
Together, something they vowed they'd always be no matter where life took them, they would take on the world together. But not everyone agreed with their together because a jock and a nerd didn't do 'together' that's what everyone said. They made bets on whether they'd last the first semester, they did. They taunted them, the girls just wouldn't except the fact he'd chose a girl whose name they couldn't seem to place, why hadn't they noticed her before was their question. They all agreed she was pretty, yes she was beautiful but that wasn't an excuse, she had to be pregnant with his baby that's why he was with her. Yes, that was their logical explanation to the catastrophe that was their relationship.
They made it through a second semester but the rumours didn't stop they just became louder and louder and ruder and ruder, cutting into her confidence more and more, was it so hard to believe a boy like him could love a girl like her she'd ask herself over and over. No matter how many times he assured her she was the most beautiful woman walking the earth to him, she could hear them laughing at her but still she clung to the boy she loved because no matter what they said he was hers and she was his.
Then there was their parents, their awful rude and extremely conservative parents who didn't believe in their kind of relationship, she wasn't blond and he was far from being black. Why did their love always seem like a battlefield, one fight after the other and it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere, still they held on because their wild, young hearts believed love could and would conquer all. If only the world saw it that way, but they were determined to fight for what was theirs and they belonged to each other, they were sure of that. The man in moon had told them they did, who were they to argue with the man in the moon?
They met on a Saturday at the cafe on the edge of town; you know the one with the little yellow roof top and stripped interior, the one that only served hot chocolate and hot dogs. That's where they met every Saturday morning without fail, they were there both of them saying they were going to the library. In that cafe they laughed, they talked, they felt and the lived every moment of each other's lives because they didn't know how to be without each other anymore. For hours on end they sit in the far corner, gazing into each others' eyes longingly because those precious hours on a Saturday morning were all they had these days, they weren't allowed to see each other.
Then one day it rained, it poured, it was Saturday the 28th of February, he was late to meet her, she waited an hour before he finally turned up. He was the vision if a broken man, she could see it in his eyes, they had lost their spark and his promises of forever didn't live there anymore. He sat down opposite her soaked to the skin, like he'd walked in the rain and she couldn't tell if those were rain drops or tears on his face. Then he spoke to her, he was leaving the next day, he was going to New York because his Dad had got a new job. Then he watched her heart break, she looked at him the same way he'd looked at his parents when they'd told him the 'good news', she looked like the ground had been ripped out from under her feet. She didn't know what to say him the world they'd come to love was being taken away from them forever.
He asked her to dance, it wasn't the first time he'd asked her to dance, but this was different. It was to be their last dance together, at least for now. It was raining outside, but she didn't care they danced outside anyway, spinning, twirling and laughing because that very moment summarised the whole their whole relationship. The rain was everyone else around them, always trying to rain on their parade, but everyone knows it takes more than a little bit of rain to stop a parade, especially one as strong as theirs. So they did what they usually did, they danced through the rain and today was to be no different. It was almost time to say goodbye, he promised to call every day, email, text and write it that's what it took to keep their love alive. But it's common knowledge that promises are easy to make and harder to keep, especially ones made in high school.
He did call everyday and text and email and write sometimes for the first few months then life got in the way, soon the phone calls were once a week and it was weeks before she would receive his next letter and then after a while they stopped. They had both given up fighting a battle they weren't sure they could win anymore, neither said goodbye because secretly they hoped life would lead them back to each other again one day, it didn't, because they graduated from high school and pursued their dreams, her in Harvard and him in UCLA. She would watch his games on T.V. wondering if he still remembered her name, many times she had wanted to dial his old number just to see if he'd pick up, see if he still remembered, she just wanted to say she was proud of him, he'd got what he always wanted, he was now playing for the L.A. Lakers, he'd achieved everything he said he would and she was proud of the boy she'd once known.
Then February came by again and like a mad woman she found herself driving back to her old home town the night before that cursed day like she did each year since he left her that Saturday afternoon. She drove through the night to make sure she arrived there by Saturday morning. It was a Saturday just like the one all those years ago, it was raining, it was pouring the only difference was she was now five years older and not the seventeen year old teenager she was back then, at the end of this year she'd be graduating from Harvard with a degree in Law. It's safe to say Taylor Mckessie had grown up and she vowed this was to be her last trip to this cafe, she was done and she was going to move on no matter what it took. She was ready to let go of the boy who'd taught her to laugh, this was just her was of gaining some closure.
"That time of year again Taylor?" The woman in her mid fifties asked as a wet Taylor run into her cafe as usual on the 28th of February like she had every year for the past five years. She remembered the love struck teenagers sitting in the corner every Saturday morning and she remembered shouting at them to get out of the rain the last Saturday before she ever saw them together again, they had danced for hours in the rain that day, she was sure they would both die of pneumonia that night.
"This is the last time Joanie" she replied, it was the same reply each year and still she'd be back the next year, but for Taylor this really was it. The lady shook her head and handed her the usual cup of hot chocolate, smiling at her. If this young lady didn't move on sometime soon, she'd die alone.
"I know it is sweetie" She replied like she usually did and then she left the girl to sit on 'their' table and look out of the window replaying every memory she held of them in slowly in her head almost bringing her to tears. Love could be so cruel sometimes.
Why am I here? He had been asking himself that same question for the last few hours on his drive down back to the place the held his heart, wherever she was now. He'd heard she was in Harvard, like she always said she would, she'd be graduating this year and if plans would have gone as she should have they would have been engaged and planning their wedding for the coming summer. Did she have a boyfriend, was she in love, was she engaged and going to marry in the summer like she'd planned? Was she happy without him because he was miserable without her and had been since he'd got on that plane to New York all those years ago. Why had they given up so quickly? It was his decision; he had no one to blame but himself for his current state of brokenness.
"Troy.... Troy Bolton" The fifty year old woman chocked from behind the counter
"Joanie... I haven't seen you in years, still here" He sighed shaking off his wet coat
"I think of another person you haven't seen in years" she smiled nodding over at a broken Taylor sat in 'their' spot with her eyes closed and head against the window. She was going to cry he thought. His heart skipped a beat, she still remembered
"Well what you standing there for boy, I been praying for this day to come for years" He nodded and proceeded nervously to the girl who still held his heart after all these, what was he going to say, could he say anything.
He silently slipped in the booth sitting opposite her and watched her for a moment, she was still as beautiful as ever, her hair was slightly shorter than high school, it was shoulder length now and straight, her bangs fell in her fell.
"Hey" he whispered as her eyes flew open recognising that voice she only heard on T.V. interviews these days. It couldn't be him she thought until she met those familiar blue eyes. She couldn't believe it, she blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't imagining him, yep he was still there. She reached out to touch him, just to make sure or maybe it was just to touch him.
"Hey stranger" she smiled when her fingers met his face, he didn't reply. What was he supposed to say now, that he missed her but that was just an understatement she deserved more an overused phrase in his eyes
"Would you like to dance?" Holding out his hand for the sad girl to take, he smiled when she accepted and led her out into the rain like he had all those years ago.
The two twirled in the rain, giggling like love struck teenagers, trying to re-live the same moments they had had all those five years ago. Everything was okay, their laughs still complimented each others, they moved to the same beat and their hearts still belonged to each other. The world could final spin on its axis again because love had returned and forgetting February had proved to be harder than expected.
'Nothing can stand in the way of True Love,
It's easier to catch lightening than meddle with fate'