Young Writers Society

Chapter 1

“What if I told you that I didn’t love you anymore?” asked the girl questioningly, while a genuine curiosity in her delicate but firey brown eyes. Her eyebrows were raised calmly, while her mouth was pursed and pinched in each corner, waiting for a reply. She looked up and down at the face of a man she had loved for so many years past.

“I wouldn’t believe you.” Luke’s answer was calm but decisive. He spoke it quickly without hesitation, as if by letting the question linger in the air for even a moment, a fragment of it might actually be true.

Anya smiled weakly at the dashing young man, and then turned her eyes away from him. Did she still love him? she wondered, knowing the answer but still daring to ask. Over the years, their relationship had grown extensively, never for a moment coming up for hair. They had been happy, oh so happy with each other! With each passing day, Anya grew more and more radiant, love pouring out of her as if she was a volcano erupting endlessly with wild passion that could burn through confusion and sadness. The love she felt for Luke was awe inspiring and all encompassing. But could love that great…last?

Luke smiled mockingly at her, as if to push the question away. He wanted to make it disappear, but for some reason it lingered on. It’s presents would remain. Her eyes looked passed him, searching on, as if the answer could be found behind him somehow. He removed his hands from her arms, and gently held her neck to catch her attention. He searched her eyes, and she eventually looked into his.

“What is this about?” he asked gently, wanting only to hear her dismiss her recent question as foolishness. She did not.

“Do you still love me? No, that’s not the right question, that is, that’s not the question I wanted to ask you,” she said quietly, but also with a kind of hurriedness about it. He looked deeper into her eyes, much more concerned then before.

“Ask me anything sweetheart, but I thought you knew the answer to the first. Of course I still love you. I’m actually quite upset that you had to ask.” He looked at her firmly then, but she only pulled away from his grip in response. The moonlight danced in her dark eyes, but the night’s darkness made a shadow around her mouth.

“If you’d have listened you would have heard me say that’s not my question for you,” she said almost angrily, in a dismissive tone. She had never dismissed Luke’s feelings before, especially not with a sudden, unfeeling roll of the eyes he could stare into for hours on end. The gesture disturbed him, and he almost gave her a disgusted look. He held it back, not wanting to tempt her mood into real anger.

She gave him a sudden look that seemed to say she realized how atrociously selfish she was acting. She shook her head lightly, as if to take back the rude comment. “I’m sorry. I’ve been horrible tonight, I know. I’ve just been thinking…Luke, listen carefully, because it’s very important. My question…Do you still feel for me, the exact same way you felt when you proposed?”

Luke gave her a quick glance of confusion, but then shook his head and smiled. “Oh Anya! I love you as much as I did then! More even!”

She smiled wryly, but did not look satisfied. She looked almost upset, and had her mouth pursed the exact same way as she had before. This time though, she was not searching his eyes eagerly with a quiet expectation. Instead, her twinkling eyes bore a hole into the front of his shirt where she looked close to tears.

“Was that the wrong answer?” he asked, perturbed. He could not figure her out tonight. That quiet silluette of an angel too beautiful to be on earth. Of a goddess too perfect to love a mere mortal. Had her love of him disappeared slowly, like a sunset drawn with painfully delightful oranges and pinks? There, but disappearing gradually, so you really couldn’t tell how fierce it had been before the end?

She looked back up at him, her eyes looking tired and sad, while dizzying him with love at the same time. “No, of course not. It’s just…did you really think about it? I have. I remember being delirious with love, crazed about seeing you…sometimes I would just lay in bed and think of you, of your face…I had a terrible time sleeping back then. Other times I would stay up all night and think about our wedding…how I would look in my gown, how you would look, how you would look at me. But I’ve realized that I’m not delirious any more.” She looked down at the pavement, tears beginning to course down her cheeks. “ I wish I was! I wish that you would just hold me and I could just melt in your arms…”

“You still can! I’m here, I love you…forever…” As he spoke, he embraced her into his arms, and cradled her head, tears soaking his jackets shoulder. She wept and begged for forgiveness. Other times she tried removing herself from his grip, crying that things could never remain how they were. How they had changed. During these times, he just smiled and held her tighter. He spoke to her gently of the time when they first met. Of how curious she had seemed, and of how in love he had already been. He spoke to her of his love, and of how delirious he still was, and to let the time passing be damned! They were in an in-closed garden in the back of his house, and when she shivered from cold, he took off his coat and draped it around her shoulders. Her lips were puffed with emotion, and he bent down slightly to kiss her. He did not intend it to be as forceful as it had come out, but she welcomed it. She pulled her arm from out of his jacket, and wrapped it around his neck. When they came up for air, several minutes later, she smiled at him with an impish gayety.

“I love you. It’s even more than that though, and you know it.” She smiled and then added suddenly, “ I’ve been waiting so patiently for the wedding haven’t I?” she asked coyly, but with a childish undertone.

“Yes, and I’m sorry for making you wait. I’ve just needed time to plan things. Our future, for one,” he said quietly. He smiled down at her, with only a slight twinge of doubt. Planing for their future was not the only reason for his lack of involvement in wedding plans, and it was also a thin one at that. No, Luke too had been having doubts about their marriage. Anya, for one, was only eighteen. Luke himself was a mere twenty-two.

“Yes, our future…together. Oh darling! I can’t possibly wait any longer to be your wife! I feel as if it is a rank that belongs to me, but doesn’t. It’s so hard to go on living without you by my side. Most people…oh forget most people! I wish we could just elope!” she cried suddenly. Tears threatened to fall, but she quickly brushed her eyes with the back of her hand and smiled. “It will be alright…soon.”

“Soon.” said Luke quietly. He didn’t know what to do anymore. His head always told him to drop her. After all she was a needy mess, and so arrogant. She would constantly make remarks about everything, and pretended that her opinion was above all others. Anya loved to be beautiful, but she always forgot about her appearance the instant she saw something that needed to be fixed. She sometimes even forgot to wear a dress when they went to a fancy restaurant or theater, and would insist upon staying in her regular cloths, which usually consisted of a long, floppy shirt, and plain black skirt. Though on other occasions, she would dress up in her finest things for him, and would walk about the place as if she didn’t even realize how beautiful she was, and how every man in the place would follow her with their eyes... He hated that oblivious side of her.

Still, his heart said he loved her more than he loved any living thing in his life. She was beautiful without trying. Arrogant because she was more intelligent than most. Mocking because she had a witty sense of humor. Creative without stopping a moment to realize how fast she could put logical thoughts together, and above all, Anya was perfect in that very special way that no other woman could duplicate. She was simply everything Luke had always wanted, wrapped up in this perfectly gorgeous body. He loved her the most when he hated her, because even then, she emulated this energy that simply drove Luke crazy with love.

“I think…darling are you listening?” asked Anya gently.

“Yes sweetness,” replied Luke.