A Synderella Story

Brian sat lazily in his seat on the rainy Wednesday morning of August 20th. He had both hands placed in front of him as he twiddling his thumbs and tapped his foot to the beat of [u]The Offspring’s[/u] [i]’Self Esteem’[/i] that was stuck in his head. He had arrived earlier to class today for one reason; he knew that Ashlynn took this class too. At this point, there weren’t too many people in the room. Just Dan who sitting to his left, a young girl beside him that he was laughing and talking to, and two other floaters up in the back corner.

A clap of thunder sounded outside sounded, startling Brian and directing his attention to a nearby window. He could tell it was windy out by the way the tree’s swayed back and forth. He could see the cloudy, overcast sky reflect on the pavement of the school parking lot. The whether had taken a toll from the sunny Tuesday before.

When Brian turned his attention back inside, he saw Ashlynn heading for the coat rack. She wore a white long sleeved dress with brown beaded sandals and a few bangles hanging from her wrist. As she approached the rack, she sung her umbrella over the handle and dropped the book that was tucked under her arm. She pushed a strand of sandy blond hair behind her ear as she bent down to pick it up. There was a faint marking, a bruise perhaps, on left side of her face. Brian watched as her hair fell freely from her ear, covering any trace of the marking and causing Brian to forget of its existence.

His eyes met with Ashlynn’s. She made her way towards the front row of seats. They were the same crystal grey colour as yesterday, but rimmed with white eye shadow and the smallest amount of eyeliner. Brian swore he saw the corner of her lips tucked up into a smile, and he had to admit, his did the same.

“Brian, man!” Dan interrupted his trance before he could wave Ashlynn over. The seat to his right was still vacant and he hoped Ashlynn would be his company. He turned to face his friend and found him and the girl staring at him. “How about it, are you in for Drew’s Brew this afternoon?”

Drew’s Brew was a small coffee and cake shop Brian had only been to once before. When he moved to Huntington Beach last month, it was a place his sister was dying to try after hearing good reviews from their neighbour. Brian nodded his head in agreement. “Oh yeah, no problem, I’ll be there.”

Ashlynn found herself sitting in the front of the classroom. When she had entered, she caught sight of Brian in the back. He had given her a welcoming smile, although she wasn’t quite sure why. Their initial meet yesterday left a good impression of Brian, but afterwards she was reluctant and found him strange. She wondered what made him want to talk to her, and more so, why she wanted to talk to him. Nonetheless, she was grateful for the company. She’d forgotten what that was like.

She sat with her back against the wall and placed her legs on the chair beside her. There was still another ten minutes until the start of class, so Ashlynn made herself comfortable and opened her copy of [i]’Mercy’[/i] by [i]Jodi Picoult[/i]. Right from the beginning, the book explored all aspects of love. Although she wrote and read about love many times before, she had never experience it for herself. The novel told a story about a man who was so deeply in love with his wife that he murdered her to stop her feeling pain. As she read about their love and passion for one another, she wondered if love even existed. She couldn’t quite understand how one person could ask another to kill them, nor could she understand how love could bring them to say yes.

It wouldn’t be the first time love had driven the sane into doing the unthinkable. If your true love had asked you kill them, would you? Could you bear to live without them? What if it meant they would have to suffer to keep you happy? Had they suffered enough? Was it time you suffered for them? It all came down to whom loved who more. [i]Sixty-forty[/i] as the protagonist would say questioned over his love for his wife.

Ashlynn wondered when she found love; would she be the one to love more? She couldn’t see herself being in a relationship where she would love the other less then they loved her. As she thought about it, she began to understand [i]Mercy[/i] a lot more. She imagined that if her love asked her to kill him, she would, but if the roles were reversed, she imagined that she would never ask her love to kill her in the first place. Her pain would be worth her partner not suffering her loss. That is loving at sixty percent while the other loved at forty.

She flipped the page and finished the chapter but decided not to start the next. Class was due to start shortly and the room was starting to fill. There was one seat next to Ashlynn before the row cut off to make way for the isle. It was her favourite seat in the room. She didn’t have to worry about someone reading over her shoulder as she scribbled into her notepad and she didn’t have to worry about someone sitting next to her. It was the way things had always been until she looked up and saw Brian standing there.

Brian found himself standing next to Ashlynn with no faith or reassurance. He had made a wager with himself as he watched her read. If she finished her book before the beginning of class, he would grow a pair and talk to the girl. So here he was, about to test his luck and see if he left a good impression on her yesterday.

Reluctantly, Brian nudged the chair next to the isle with his foot and stared down at his feel. As the chair shifted slightly, Ashlynn shifted too. Her crystal grey eyes showed nothing but confusion as she straightened up and glared at the pair of piercing brown eyes that began to make contact with hers.

“Is this seat taken?” Brian asked with not as much confidence as he would of liked.

Ashlynn shook her head, closed her eyes, and recollected her thoughts. It was obvious she wasn’t sure about Brian and this put him on edge. He tried his best to look relaxed as he sat awkwardly next to the girl he wished would be his friend.

“How was your class yesterday afternoon?” Ashlynn offered the ice-breaker that they both needed.

“Different. Fun. Daunting.” Brian sighed and Ashlynn urged him to continue. “I don’t know whether I’m excited about the material or petrified of the work load. I’m more of a performer so I think it’s going to be hard for me to find the motivation to complete it all.”

“It’s not as bad as it seems. Is Mr Douglas your lecturer?” Brian nodded. “He is pretty great. You’ll like him. I took Popular Music last year.”

“Maybe you can give me a hand?”

“Maybe I can.”

Conversation began to flow between the two and all nerves were forgotten when class started. Brian was finding it hard to focus on his lecturer and quickly found himself lost. The only notes that made sense were the ones he copied from Ashlynn. She wrote in cursive; never dotting her i’s but always looping her l’s.

When class ended, Ashlynn closed up her notebook in a hurry and grabbed her umbrella before Brian could even stand from his seat. “Brian, I have to go.” With that, she left, leaving Brian alone.

Notes