Soul meeting

[Wixern]

Soul meeting

I sat, quietly, waiting for the bus to move. I drowned the noise around my with the music from my music player, turning the volume up slightly. I watched as other people read, got in or off the bus or simply stared ahead, lost in thought. It was a crowded bus, and I couldn’t easily look away without someone noticing me. Therefore, I looked at the window, and stared at the reflections. I smiled to myself, comfortable in the knowledge that I would not be noticed.

The bus started moving, shaking the people who were standing, causing them to crash into one another and mumble angrily at the reckless driving style of the driver. I stopped looking at others and focused on myself. I was thinking. Thinking about the person I was about to meet. I reached into the pocket of my black leather jacket and pulled out a small piece of paper.

Young female looking for conversation partner.
Enjoys fishing, sports, opera and fancy food.
Would enjoy meeting a tall, dark and handsome stranger.
Interested? Drop me a mail.

I smiled again, briefly. We’d never met, never had any contact, and according to her advertisement, we had practically nothing in common. I’d kept that little fact to myself though. After all, people who differ in so many aspects have far more interesting conversations than those who match in everything, didn’t they?
I crumpled the paper and threw it away. No doubt that it would hit someone, but that was none of my concerns. After all, who’d possibly find out in such a crowded bus?
After a considerably boring half an hour’s worth of driving, the bus grinded to a halt at my stop. I got off, turned off my music player, leaving the earphones hanging in plain sight to establish a somewhat nonchalant image, and looked at the meeting place.

It was a little restaurant with a deliciously French-sounding name, although that was obviously a lie. I’ve been to French restaurants, and they’d spit on a place like this. They’d spit on everything, but that was beside the point.
I looked at my watch. I was ten minutes early, just as I had planned. I entered the restaurant and was about to order a table when a waiter ushered me to a table where a lone girl was already seated.
First impression: Decent-looking girl, though hiding most of her body, looking like an alternative “Rocker” girl. You’d almost believe it, too, if you wouldn’t look at her eyes. They had a certain coldness in them, as though they were looking through you, rather than at you.

I sat down, and opened the conversation.
‘So, what’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?’ I asked her, making sure to put the accent on the cliché.
She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she pulled her gaze off the wall behind me and focused on me entirely, which was considerably more disturbing.
‘What’s a pretty place like this doing with a guy like you?’ She countered.

O-kay, I thought to myself. This is going to become a battle of wits, then. I like that. Let’s see if you can slice me the way you like it.
‘Sharp. I like that.’ I said. ‘I hope you know that we’re complete opposites, according to your little advertisement.’
‘I know. That’s why the ad is a sham. A fabrication of lies, practically every word a lie.’
I tried to keep a straight face, but almost cracked at her last message. Ye gods, I was back at point zero, knowing nothing about her at all.

The waiter had reached our table by now, and requested our orders. I ordered a glass of wine, and a grilled steak. The flash of disgust on the waiter’s face was a victory, at least. Apparently, he wanted people to only order eight-course meals here. Well, he’d have to deal with it, then. He turned to the girl and asked what she would be having.
She, too, would have a glass of wine, as well as a loaf of bread. The waiter positively shuddered with disgust, but noted it down anyway before walking to a table where more expensive orders would be placed.

‘My name’s Jess.’ The girl said, after a few seconds of silence. ‘And if I may add, calling me “swinging” or making any pun referring to the word “Jazz” will result to a shark kick to the softer regions.’
‘My name’s Eric. And, if I may add, the thought of making a pun hadn’t even reached my mind yet.’ I said. This was a blatant lie, as about a dozen puns had already lined up in my mind and were making headway before being smacked by the hammer of her previous threat.
Apparently, Jess didn’t but it either, as her eyes narrowed in a slightly threatening manner.

I tried to guide the conversation to a safe zone by asking what her impressions of me were so far. In retrospect, I might as well have asked a policeman to take my big bag of drugs.

‘You’re a liar, a cheater, a maliciously evil sadist who pretends to be a gentleman.’ She began. ‘I already saw how you entered here, trying to be all nice and shiny when you really couldn’t care less. You watch people with interest for your own mind games, hoping for them to fail and get hurt, because it makes you feel so superior. The only thing that’s stopping you from becoming a murderer is the chance of getting caught, so you perform crimes that have no punishment to them. You toy with people’s hearts, brains and feelings, comfortable in the knowledge that you’ll never have to experience the same form of pain. I saw you when that waiter took our orders. You’d have jumped with joy if you could still feel any emotion. You judged me by what you knew at first, and never took the time to look further than that. I could say you’re shallow, but only in the way an iceberg is shallow: there’s too much underneath to conclude right away. However, you did come here, to me, and attempted rational conversation. Also, you’re most likely to be faithful to those close to you, if only because they can put up with you, as well as believing that there’s still good in the world, because otherwise you wouldn’t be here. So, I would have to say that you’re not entirely evil.’

I sat, quietly, as I listened to her exposition. Somewhere within that time span, the waiter came in and placed two glasses of wine on the table. As Jess finished her storm of words, I took a sip and looked into her eyes. Somewhere, underneath that icy glacier, hidden far away, had to be a warmer core. There was a glow in her eyes that betrayed her interest in me.
I placed the glass on the table, a small trickle of wine progressing downward on the outside.
‘… And that interests you, doesn’t it?’ I asked. In a flash of a second, I could see the impact. If she’d been a normal girl, she’d have blushed. Instead, her face remained the same, except for that one tenth of a second when it showed shock.

‘At least I can say you’re not like the other guys.’ She said, smirking, before taking a drink of her glass.
‘Do you always unleash hell upon people like this?’
‘You make it sound like I’m the voice of judgment of some kind of ferocious god.’
‘Well, I do get the increasing feeling that you’re about to snap my neck.’
‘That’s a nice thought. It would be my first time doing so, however, and the mess would be-‘
‘-Undesirable’ we finished in harmony. Jess raised an eyebrow, the mere sight of which sent a shiver down my spine.

[Wixern]

I noticed my throat was beginning to dry out, so I reached for the glass and took another sip. After that, I reached into my jacket and produced a small package of breath mints. I took one out and started sucking on it. Jess watched with interest.
‘So, you’re a single, lonely male, then?’ She asked.
‘What makes you think that?’
‘Well, I guess that someone who was in a relationship already wouldn’t need a pack of mint on him at all times.’
I gulped, accidentally swallowing the sweet mint. After a cough or two, I spoke again, my voice slightly raspy.
‘You know, that’s the first time anyone ever drew the right conclusion about me. I think we’ve got something special going on here.’
‘Oh yes, I’m sure.’ Jess said flatly.
‘Well, don’t you find me interesting? You basically admitted it before.’
‘Yes. In much the same way as a disease is interesting. You’d like to know what caused it and how to get rid of it.’
‘That’s cruel.’ I said, attempting to look sad.
‘No. Cruel would be to yell “rape” and see what happens to you.’
‘Actually, that would come under the heading of “interesting” to me.’

Jess narrowed her eyes, her steel gaze piercing through me like a gunshot. She seemed far more intrigued than her cold demeanor gave her credit for. I decided to fire back at her, putting her on the defensive.
‘It’s my turn to start guessing about you, isn’t it?’
‘Go ahead, “Freud.”’
I took a sip of my glass. This was going to be fun.

‘You pretend to be a cold, heartless creature, devoid of morale, feeling or understanding. However, since you’re stuck inside a wretched human body, you cannot escape these feelings, so you hide them underneath your icy exterior. You have no friends, since getting close to people may betray your actual feelings towards them. People respect you out of fear rather than friendship, because you seem like such an unstable person. Especially the girls always treated you differently, because they can see through you so much easier, as I’ve learned from experience. You look at the world, and the people, with disgust, if only because they waste their lives by being so god-damned human all the time, so controlled by emotions, so easy to deceive. Which brings me to your advertisement, because it must’ve been a slip you made in a weak moment, which you then turned into a chance to deceive people and laugh at their expense, except that you can’t laugh, because that would be a weakness. You are, in fact, not so different from me.’

I finished the speech by picking up my glass and lifting it up as a toast.
‘Here’s to people like us.’ I said. To my surprise, Jess picked up her glass as well.
‘That we may become the scum of the earth one day, because it sure as hell beats living on it.’
‘Amen.’
Together, we drank until our glasses were empty. We then placed them on the table, causing them to clink silently as they touched each other.
‘I think I’m actually beginning to like you.’ Jess said. A gentle warmness seemed to radiate from behind her eyes. Bingo, I thought.
‘Well, then. Let’s get to know each other better, shall we? I’ll start off. Do you have a job?’
‘I wished I hadn’t. I work at a customer service desk. I deal with the tough cases. What about you? Do you do anything beside watching dating ads?’

In my head, a picture already started to form. “Dealing with the tough cases”, huh? Sounds like you’re the one the others go to at the moment things get out of hand. And I can see why, as well. A cold stare, a businesslike attitude and the ability to make you feel out of place in your own home.
‘Sounds like a tough job. As for me, when I’m not scouting for dating prey, I work in a local supermarket. Stocking the shelves, telling customers to buzz off, ‘cause I’m busy, blackmailing the people I work with by threatening to show the pictures of that one night at the disco. The usual stuff.’
‘So, you work your magic on your fellow workers as well. That’s nice to know. Tell me, however, who you work with normally? I always see people working in pairs in such stores, so that means you must have a regular partner.’ Jess remarked.
‘I do. A friend of mine works there. Together, we fly from aisle to aisle, helping innocent customers and protecting our colleagues from our dangerous boss.’ I answered.
‘That’s real funny, super-employee. I take it your friend knows what kind of person you are?’
‘I tell him, and he laughs at it. Most people do.’ I sighed.
‘Tell me about it. I usually work with another girl. She’s one of the amazingly popular kind, with a rack you could lose a dog in, hair that stretches to her shoulders and a smile that stops traffic, if only to honk at her.’

I smiled, subconsciously. I was rather shocked at this, as I mostly regulate my smiles, rather than have my mind direct them to me. I noticed something odd. I actually LIKED this girl. She’s smart, cunning, sharp, fascinating and she looked quite pretty, if you’d look through her (and I wished I could.)

‘So, why didn’t you send her for me, then?’ I joked.
‘Ha ha.’ She said dryly. ‘She isn’t your type. She’s attracted to shiny things, and will listen only if the sentence contains at least one sequence of “you’re pretty”.’
‘I know the kind. In that case, I’d much rather be with you. You’re pretty sharp.’
‘Don’t make a joke about cutting myself, because if you do, as soon as the knives arrive, you’ll be in deep trouble.’
‘What’s with all the threats? I’m past the stage of joking now, really.’
‘And if I were to believe that, I would immediately lose all the respect I build up in your eyes up till now.’ Jess said with a wink.
‘Well, that’s true. I mean, I’d never expect you to drop your defenses right away. Although I wouldn’t have minded you dropping something, though.’
‘You poor, sexually depraved young man.’
‘I can’t help it. It’s who I am, and you should know that more than anyone else.’

The rest of the conversation went quite smoothly. We talked, ate and even laughed together. It was, perhaps, the most unexpected meeting of my life. But it did lead me to my one and only soul mate. Up until now, I had dismissed love as a silly emotion, used by other people to justify their actions. But now I knew that, for everyone out there, even the most heartless, cynic bastard, there was someone who would fall in love with him. Hadn’t I recently heard some idiot song about that? Along the lines of “Somebody needs you/ somebody wants you/ somebody dreams about you…”
As far as I knew, Jess thought the same way. During the course of our conversation she seemed to melt, her attitude les spiky and her threats less painful. We spoke about the things in live, how stupid people could be, and how easily they could be taken advantage off.

At the end of our evening, we both stood up and walked over to the waiter. He turned around, at first wearing the happy smile of waiters everywhere, which quickly dropped when he saw us. I asked for the bill, making sure to laugh once we’d seen the price; it was about three zeroes less than he’d wanted us to have ordered. We paid, making sure to tip exactly what the waiter deserved: A rich 0.1% of the bill.

As we stood outside, waiting for the bus, the sun was going down. The sight probably would have been terribly romantic, but we believed that it was nothing special. We simply sat, holding hands. This, in itself, seemed rather romantic, but at least we knew who we were holding, and it felt good.

We got in the bus together and shared our journey, making sure to recap the events of the day. As we neared our final stop, we made another appointment for a date.
‘So, that’s next week Tuesday, then?’ I asked for reassurance.
‘Indeed. I’ll look forward to it.’
‘Not as much as I will, I’m sure.’
‘Yeah, probably. So…’ Jess shuffled slightly closer, her face now inches away from mine. ‘What about our goodbye?’
‘I usually just say “see ya later”, but for you I’d say-‘
‘Shut up and kiss me.’
‘Indeed.’
We embraced, and her lips met mine. It was the most magical moment of my entire life, a seal of a feeling between two people. It rocked my world, and nearly made me feel as though there was hope for humans after all. Almost.
After a minute or two, our lips separated and we disentangled ourselves. Jess waved goodbye as she walked off, leaving my live for now, but certain to return later.

As I walked home, I saw the newspaper of today, and took it with me out of interest. As I watched the front page, the first thing I noticed was the date.
“14th of February, 2008.”
Underneath it, in red letters:
Valentine’s Day

[Dash]

D:

I actually read all of that.

Nice story

[kissmydi*]

We embraced, and her lips met mine. It was the most magical moment of my entire life
awwww cute

[Beyond Death]

nice story =]

[Ailysa]

Lol, I know a girl like that in our year. I pictured her the whole time during the story.

It was a good read and there were minor mistakes, if you'd like me to point them out:

I drowned the noise around my with the music from my music player

Me*

And "music from my music player" didn't sound right, with the repetition of music.

Tell me, however, who you work with normally?

Grammar is wrong.

We spoke about the things in live, how stupid people could be, and how easily they could be taken advantage off.

life*

After a minute or two, our lips separated and we disentangled ourselves. Jess waved goodbye as she walked off, leaving my live for now,

life*

‘Shut up and kiss me.’

Lol, what movie did I hear that from?

[BloodNinja]

Yes I saw all of the minor mistakes.

All in all.

A good story, you should write books. Or books with these kind of short stories. I'd buy 'em.

You Sir, have a life ahead of you in writing books!

[Wixern]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I know there's some (minor) mistakes, but I had to work on my laptop and I'm not used to the keyboard on that thing yet (lame-o excuse, but true.)

I liked how this worked out, personally. I heard someone say something and immediately I snapped into the main idea of this story. Inspiration really comes from the weirdest angles at times.

[STM1993]

Very nice !

It was very well described, I can kinda picture the story. Lol "Shut up and kiss me" sounds really funny yet cool. Very well done, especiall for one that's released on Valentines Day =D

[BloodNinja]

Originally Posted by Wixern

Thanks for the replies, guys. I know there's some (minor) mistakes, but I had to work on my laptop and I'm not used to the keyboard on that thing yet (lame-o excuse, but true.)

I liked how this worked out, personally. I heard someone say something and immediately I snapped into the main idea of this story. Inspiration really comes from the weirdest angles at times.

Actually your laptop excuse is valid. I tried using a laptop before and the keys were so ****ing small and all pushed together...

Will you be writing books anytime soon? o.o

[STM1993]

I think I forgot to use one more description in my first comment: It's really SWEET! (especially the "shut up and kiss me" and the embracing parts, was really... aww...)

[Senvae]

Your writing is getting better. This is the first story of yours I read in a long time, that's why I'm saying that. You still need a bit of work, but if you keep writing it will only get better.

Oh and btw, we French people don't spit on everything. Just on hypocritical Americans that would label us with disgusting stereotypes... regardless of the fact that French seems to illustrate an allure of romance and sophistication in their country. (Like faking a French name for a restaurant.) Oh, and don't even get me started on the "Freedom Fries", and how less than 50% of Americans know that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France.

Ok, I'm done ranting. Good job on the story my friend, and keep up the writing. (I think you, Sigh and me are the only ones still writing in this forum, lol.)

[Wixern]

Just stereotyping, Senvae. I've been to a few fake French restaurants, and never have I been treated badly. I thought it would fit more with the character to have an arrogant waiter, and since the French have a convenient stereotype of being arrogant...

Anyway, thanks for the comment. It's good to see that this section isn't dead or dying (it would need to liven up before it could die, anyway.)

[Senvae]

Originally Posted by Wixern

Just stereotyping, Senvae. I've been to a few fake French restaurants, and never have I been treated badly. I thought it would fit more with the character to have an arrogant waiter, and since the French have a convenient stereotype of being arrogant...

Anyway, thanks for the comment. It's good to see that this section isn't dead or dying (it would need to liven up before it could die, anyway.)

Don't worry Wix, I knew it was for story's sake. I was just randomly ranting (I do that often). The only stereotype you portrait in the text was French people proverbially spitting on a fake french restaurant, which basically resorts to saying that French people have exquisite taste and a snob attitude... and I actually have to confirm that even though its a generalization, its probably the only stereotype French people from France deserves. Lucky me, I am French Canadian, so most frenchy stereotypes are absolutely not applicable. French people from France and French people from Canada are about as similar as a snake and a turtle.

[Machiko]

at start i thought it was a real life story =D

WALL OF TEXT nah jk i read it all =D