After that night, Carrie did not see or hear from any of the three men again. The months passed and Carrie's life went back to the way it had been. Her thoughts constantly returned to the blond man who thought he was an elf and their last encounter. She knew she would never see him or the others again, and that made her surprisingly sad. How briefly they had entered her life and how much they had affected her. She had to admit, she missed the other two men's company as well, but it was the man who called himself 'Legolas' that haunted her thoughts and her dreams.
She tried valiantly to get over it. She met someone, a musician from the show she was currently rehearsing for. Trevor was a good man, an attractive man with light brown hair and hazel eyes. Carrie could tell that he was very much falling for her, but she tried to keep the relationship from getting serious. She was still hurting from the last one. Well, you couldn't really consider it a relationship, just one kiss. But that one kiss made her completely unraveled. She had never experienced one like it before. Still, Carrie knew she had to move on. It had been four months and all three of them had dropped out of her life as abruptly as they had entered.
So when Trevor asked her if she wanted to have dinner and go see a movie, she accepted the invitation. The evening was going well until they got to the movies. Everything was sold out except for some horror flick that Carrie had no intention of seeing. So she offered for Trevor to come back to her place and he could go through her collection of DVDs and pick any one he wanted.
They got back and he began scanning through the titles. "Jeez Carrie, you have a ton of movies here."
"Yeah, well, when you live by yourself it's nice to pop one in and hear familiar voices in the background." He continued to look. "Sometimes, I pop one in before bed and lie down and fall asleep." He pulled one out and showed it to her. Her eyes widened. How had he found that one? She had put it in the back so that she didn't ever have to look at it. "No."
"Come on Carrie, you said any movie I wanted. I haven't seen this one yet."
"No. Please. Any one other than that one."
He laughed. "They're all chick flicks except for this one. Come on. It can't be that bad… The first one was decent." Carrie just sat there on the couch. This was not good, but what could she tell him? She was pining for some guy she had kissed once who had told her he was Legolas? She sighed as he put in the movie and sat down next to her.
She made it through the first few scenes, but as soon as the three hunters appeared on her TV, she felt a tightness in her chest so great that it was painful. She gasped and stood up.
"Carrie, are you ok?"
"I… I uh… No…" She felt tears spring to her eyes. It had happened a million times before in these past few months. No, not now! Don't start crying now! she thought. "I need some air." She walked to the door with Trevor right behind her.
"Come on," he said gently. "Why don't we go for a walk?"
Carrie slowly nodded. They walked out her front door and she locked it behind her. She took a deep breath. Now that they were outside where it was cool she was feeling a little better. She and Trevor walked hand-in-hand down the street to the park in silence. When they got there she turned and smiled at him. "Thank you for being so understanding."
"Don't mention it." He smiled at her. "Obviously something was bothering you. Sometimes a walk will clear your head."
"Yeah," Carrie said. She looked back ahead at the path and hoped he didn't ask what had been bothering her.
"Yeah," Trevor echoed back. "Um… So are you, you are feeling better now, right?"
Carrie nodded at him. "Yes." She smiled tentatively. "Thank you."
"Good." Trevor swallowed. "Good, because there's something I want to tell you. I don't know how to say this, but I like you, Carrie. I like you a lot, and I want to know how you feel because it seems that as I try to get closer to you, you try to push me away." Carrie stared at him in horror before dropping her eyes to the ground. "Do you want a relationship with me, a serious one? Because that's what I want with you."
Carrie took a deep breath. Had she just mistook him for being understanding? She forced herself to look at him. "I like you, Trevor; I do. But why can't we just have a casual, friendly, dating relationship?" Trevor looked heartbroken and Carrie sighed. She didn't want to hurt him. "Look, Trevor. It's not you. I'm just not ready for that kind of serious relationship."
Trevor tilted his head and raised his eyebrows. "Not ready? Carrie, generally when people are our age, they are ready for that kind of relationship. In fact it's what they're looking for."
"Well I'm sorry. But I'm just not ready." He looked doubtfully at her. She couldn't believe he was pushing her like this! She thought for a moment and then came up with an excuse. "Right now I spend so much time dancing and performing and auditioning, I just don't have the time. It would be unfair of me now to commit myself to someone else when I am always running here and there where the work is."
Trevor frowned at her. His jaw set resolutely. "Well some day, when you give up your childish dreams of being a Broadway star, you're going to want a relationship, and there may not be any there for you to have." That hit a nerve.
"Childish dreams?" Carrie snapped at him. "First off, I never said I wanted to be on Broadway. All I want is to perform. I figured you of all people would understand that, being a musician. How dare you!" Carrie's voice was raised and her eyes flashed angrily.
"Carrie… I…" Trevor began contritely.
"No. Forget it!" she shouted. "Just forget it." And with that she stormed off towards the trees ahead of them. She heard him calling her name behind her but she didn't turn around. With tears streaming down her cheeks she sat down behind a large tree. Why did everything in her life have to go bad like this? All of a sudden, there was a jerk to her body and it felt like she was being pulled in a hundred different directions. Pain seared through her. She heard Trevor's voice calling her name from what sounded like a very far distance before she finally blacked out.