Life Support
By Akari Van Halen
Chapter 4
Better Far than a Metaphor Can Ever, Ever Be
Taken from lines of the song "Metaphor," from The Fantasticks…
Love…you are love
Better far than a metaphor can ever, ever be…
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We went to bed; after five minutes, Angel was asleep. But I was still awake, thinking about what Angel said two days ago:
I love you…
I didn't know how to feel. Should I feel happy? Of course! But I don't exactly have a happy feeling inside. Should I feel confused? Because that's exactly where I started…I was confused. Did she love me? Or did she say that to heighten my self-esteem? Maybe I'm overreacting a little. She said she loved me, and I believe it, but for now, I'm really not sure—
Angel turned over, facing me, and snuggled close to me.
It could be a metaphor, I then thought. Maybe her feelings got the best of her. It was Christmas…
Angel wrapped her arms around my neck, smiled, and kissed my neck.
"Angel?" I asked her.
"Yes?" she replied.
"Do you think we could go out on…a date?" Oh, say yes. Please, God, say yes…
"Of course we can! When do you want to go?" asked Angel.
"Uh…how about tomorrow night?" I asked.
"Okay," she whispered as she slowly shut her eyes.
I couldn't be happier.
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The next evening, we went to the Life Café. The night seemed nice; it had snowed earlier and stopped when we left for our "date".
In other words, it was perfect.
We sat down at our table, ordered a couple of drinks, and began to talk.
"So from what I hear, you're a pretty good performer."
"Yeah. It's just a thing for me, I guess. I never thought something like this would actually work for me, 'cause, you know, 'different strokes for different folks'," Angel said. "So…how come you like philosophy and anarchy so much?"
"Well," I began. "I hate to brag, but since I got my IQ score back, which was 185, I decided to take on the same things that Plato and Socrates said. I wanted to live full lives like they did, but the students I went to college with laughed in my face, telling me that Plato and Socrates weren't gay."
"Ouch. But they don't know that as a fact, do they?"
I laughed. "I guess you're right. No one knows for sure."
We engaged in a long, loving stare of near adoration.
She likes everything I like! I thought. And I don't have to explain a word I said or a name to her! She hangs on to my every word! She's such a great listener!
"In your trail of thought again?" Angel asked me, a smile on her face.
"Not anymore."
We laughed. Then, the waiter came with our food…
"I'm sorry, sir, but we're out of what we needed for your meal. Would you like something else?"
That ruined my good mood. Angel could see that.
"No," said Angel to the waiter. "We can share."
"Alright. One spaghetti dinner," said the waiter, setting it down in the middle of the table. We began to eat. A while later, while we were eating, we found out that we were eating the same spaghetti piece! We knew that, but we ate it at the same time until our lips met. We laughed again, with me blushing.
"You're not a bad kisser," said Angel.
"You either," I replied.
"Wanna go for a walk?"
"Okay."
I paid the bill and we went for a walk in the cool winter night. It wasn't the most beautiful part of town to walk through, but we didn't care. After all, we were in each other's company.
"Oh, Tom, look!" said Angel. "A photo booth! Let's get our picture taken!"
"Alright," I replied. We ran across the street into the store that had the photo booth. We took three beautiful pictures, in which Angel and I kept one each for our wallets…
"What will we do with this one?" Angel asked.
"I'll find somewhere," I answered, smiling.
That night, I put the remaining picture in the picture frame. I kissed it, and put it on my nightstand. Then I got into bed next to my Angel.
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Love, you are love,
My mystery…of love…
