The Fic Lab Prompt: there is a map on my heart that leads to the place i met you the very first time.
I don't know why I keep ending up here, but I feel drawn to this place. Did it mean something to me in my other life? The life I can't remember.
I look around trying to figure out why this old diner calls to me. I see nothing but cheap plastic seating placed around wooden tabletops, and greasy menus that will never be completely clean again. There's even a small jukebox on every table that no one ever uses.
I sit in the same booth every day, looking into the faces of strangers, waiting for something that never comes. Like an unplayed song in the jukebox.
In the corner of the tabletop, someone has carved the initials A & J surrounded by a heart. This carving looks like it's been there for years. My fingers trace these initials and I feel a tingle of recognition. Could one of these initials be mine?
But everyone here calls me Mary. It feels familiar, but it doesn't quite fit. Like a dress bought ten pounds ago - once perfect, but now slightly off. My whole life feels the same way.
I'm pretty sure I used to be happy. I dream every night of a blond-haired boy, his blue eyes sparkling as he smiles at a younger me. Some nights he picks me up and swings me around. Some nights he leans down and kisses me. Some nights we make love.
These dreams feel like memories. Of a joyfulness just out of reach. Of a life stolen without any reason why.
But I know the reason why. I reach up and feel the scar under my hair, just above my ear. And I silently pray for it all to come back to me. Pray for my blue-eyed boy to find me wherever he is. He never does.
But I won't give up hope. It's all I have left. So I come here every day, to this downtrodden diner, drawn by a force I don't really understand. Waiting for my dream boy to come back to me.