What looked to be a beautiful day in a down-town park, turned out to be disgusting. The nice weather predicted days before had been an overcast. In the middle of the park, was a large maple tree. The wind blew through the branches quite easily. The rain falling from the sky was caught in the leaves.

Under that tree, was a young man holding a rose in one hand. At his feet was a picnic blanket. It was getting wet from all of the rain, yet he was still patiently standing at the foot of the tall maple monster, holding the rose.

Minutes have passed by, and even longer... still the boy stood with his rose. It must be love, anything else would be foolish. It is funny how different people act when they are in love. It often brings out the best of people. It is said that when you are in love you act more like an animal than a human being, loyal to your master.

Soon an hour and a half passed by. The boy looked at his watch, and than at the rose. He held the rose to the sky whilst observing closely the texture of the flower itself. At first he grasped the stem like a hammer, with every finger. One by one, he let his fingers go. As he got to just his index finger and thumb holding onto the rose, the wind picked it up. The boy stood back and watched as his love floated away from him. He could see the petals falling off and joining the flight. “She loves me not.” The boy said to himself in a depressing manner, “That is always the final answer. For once I want to know what love really is. Would love stand in a rainstorm, waiting for you? Apparently not.” He said as he walked away.

It is a long walk from the town park, to the boy’s house. After all the boy lived on the very outskirts of the town. By the time he got there, you could practically see through his white t-shirt. He threw open the door of his house and ran inside. Without even changing, he sat down in the chair beside the phone.

He looked to be hungry, or thirsty, or a mixture of both, yet it didn’t seem to bother him much. The only thing going in his mouth now were either the tears from his eyes which were not apparent if it was not for the sobbing, for the tears mixed in well with the rain droplets falling from his face.

For many an hour he waited there, staring at the wall... waiting for the phone to ring. The boy waited, and waited. He took phone call, after phone call, but none were his phone call. Alas, the call came that he was looking for. He smiled as he picked up the receiver, before she had the chance to say hello, or sorry, whatever it was... The boy said, “Come over... please.”

As he hung up the receiver, the boy heard a blast of thunder in the distance. This must mean that the storm was getting closer to him, with every second. He could feel his heart racing to get away from the storm. His head knew however, that it was not as simple. He knew deep down inside what needed to be done.

A knock on the door came with one of the thunderous booms, which by now was very close to the house. He did not answer the door, no he stayed put in his chair and waited for her to come to him as he has been doing all day. The door opened, and with a large grin, he listened for the girl, his girl. “Hello...” the sound bellowed, but now that wasn’t the only sound. The thunder, his heart beat, and her footsteps were all marching to the beat of the same drum. She was now in the kitchen and was ready to walk up the hall when a sound caught her by surprise. “Here, sit down.” The boy said. He got up and walked to the girl, guided her to the sofa across from his chair. Once she sat down, he did as well.

“We need to talk darling. They said it was never to happen, you and me. Just because you lived to far away. They doubted us, but I didn’t doubt us. If it is alright with you, I am going to skip past the formalities and straight into why you are here. You see, not too long ago I tried to commit suicide. I know, why? That is what your question was going to be right? It was all over a girl and it was more than just the one time, it twice. They hurt me too much, you understand don’t you? I would never attempt such a thing without a good reason. It was all the same, and it will always be the same: I love you, I will never hurt you, I am not like the others... you know that old routine. Not you though, you are special. I don’t even feel the least bit bad, having this conversation with you now. I had trouble with the others.”

The storm was on the house now, but the two young teen’s did not flinch. They stayed still in their designated seats. “It is funny how love works. When you are single it takes a lot of time to find who you really want to be with, or who you think you really want to be with. When you are taken, it’s like you are a magnet, everybody wants to be with you... that’s the way it usually is, that’s how we got together. I don’t know, something is just so trivial about certain ironies such as this. In the words of my favorite movie character, ‘Believe me, nothing is trivial’.”

Just than the birds began to chirp. “Oh, it is over.” the boy said surprisingly, as he watched the sun cast a rather bright red gleam into the living room. The boy stood up and walked to the window, a rainbow was just before the horizon, he turned around. “You are a very good listener, that would be one of the reasons why your mine. Now, people always feel that something is wrong when you are silent. However, in law it is almost the opposite... silence is construed as acceptance. Those lawyers, and their million dollar know how. How witty are they, to get what they want from silence. Why waste your breath on a ‘yes’, when you could be silent. That way it is known that you are not lying. With that being said I have something to pitch to you. I am writing a short story, loosely based on a true story of coarse. I wanted to know what you thought of this line: “He took another draw from the bottle, this one twice as long as the last. Harsh, Bitter, Warm, Familiar, Welcome, An analogy of love... An analogy of addiction.”...Silence? Good... I will take that as a compliment. Yeah, I was thinking about calling it, One Down, One to Go... or maybe Last Man Standing. Whatever it is, I will make sure the main character lives happily ever after.” The boy walks over to the girl. He checks her eyes, they are closed. Her body falls over. “You must be tired...Goodnight my love.”...and he never loved again.

TBC...

Triivia about Chapter 3:

If any of you are familiar to this story, you probably already know what happened. If you are not and have no clue... read the first two and come back before continuing on....

The sound when the girl was walking was not the boy’s voice, but the sound of a gun. The entire story she has been bleeding to death while listening to the boy ramble.

If you couldn’t tell, the boy’s conscience has withered away like the rose. This time around their was no suicidal ending, just a murder.

The storm is in homage to a classic book: “Lord of The Flies” Where the boys are surrounding a boy, killing him during a storm and after the killing, the sun comes out.

The next chapter will come out shortly and will be the last chapter. Expect it to be a little loner than the chapters of the past.

A short film is being prepared based on these stories, by myself and a friend. It will not be entitled One Down, One To Go... rather: ‘In Love, and Hate’