A Simple Song for Lori
supermarket thunder.

Nov. 08
Heya. This story originally had eight chapters, until I decided I didn't like the last three, so I rewrote them. Just a heads up - and thanks for clicking this link. ( :

“Milk… orange juice… mayonnaise…”

Lori read through the list of items her mother had told her to buy, picking out each required item from an aisle as she passed by. She was already halfway through her Fall term in college, and she was enjoying the freedom and the long breaks college gave her. Of course, her mother took this as time for her to do random errands now that she had a car. She hummed with the familiar song playing on the supermarket’s speakers as she picked up a carton of eggs.

“Alright, we have a new song for you from a fairly new artist,” the radio DJ’s obnoxious voice announced on the speakers.

Lori turned her cart for the canned goods aisle, picking out the different kinds her mom had written down… which was a lot of SPAM.

“It’s our artist’s first single, released only last July, and after only a few weeks, the song started climbing – no, racing up the Billboard Hot 100,” the radio DJ continued. “It’s still in the number one spot, for the fourth week in a row.”

“Play the song, already,” Lori muttered. She hated it when radio DJs just went on and on because they liked the sound of their own voices.

As if reading her mind, the radio DJ cut his useless ramble short. “Alright, here’s what you’ve all been waiting for! A Simple Song for Lori!”

Lori stopped at the sound of her name and almost immediately, she felt a smile etch on her lips. It was so cool to share a name in a famous song; it added a personal touch to it and it was a lot easier to relate to. If she felt like it, she could imagine the singer writing it just for her – it was a plus if the singer was cute. She made sure to look up on some images on Google once she got home.

There was short silence until a guitar started to play a soft, simple melody, then it was joined by a slow piano riff. Seconds after, a boy’s mellow, tender voice joined the song, perfectly matching the piano’s soft notes… a voice she found strangely familiar, yet at the same time, so distant.

It didn’t take that long,
for me to write this song,
because I only realized after I left her,
after the last glance I had taken,
after the steps I had wanted to fill but never did,
that I had it written all along.

It feels like I’m miles away,
but I’ve always been beside you,
for so long, right beside you,
waiting for the best chance to say,
just how pretty you look today.

Lori smiled to herself, listening to the song as that warm, gushy feeling started blossoming in her empty stomach. This song was pulling something in her heart. It was just too sweet; the kind of song you’d want a guy to write for you.

Or maybe that gushing feeling meant something else… maybe she needed to eat something. Yeah, that was probably it. She raced for the check out lane while the song finished.

Because I have a simple song for Lori,
and although she’ll never understand me,
and all the things I want to say,
I’d still like for her to hear it,
and hope to take her breath away.

The song ended with the guitar and slowly faded away until the radio DJ was back. “Now, wasn’t that a sweet song? Not only do I have a ton of messages asking me to replay it, but I hear this song has gotten a Grammy nod! Congrats to its artist, Nicholas Arden!”

SCRREEEEECCCH!!

There was the unmistakable noise of a shopping cart slamming into a metal aisle, and the thunder of cereal boxes falling off the shelves and scattering across the floor. There was a collective wince from everyone in the supermarket as they waited for any signs of life beneath the pile of Cheerios, Froot Loops, and Rice Krispies.

Lori poked her head out from under a box of Honey Nut Cheerios. “Nicholas?!”

author note. (August 18, 2007)

I knowwww. What am I doing? I already have two stories in progress and I already started a new one?!

Like most of the female population, I got addicted to the song Hey There Delilah, and well, after listening to it over and over again, the idea for this story popped up! Wouldn’t you just love it if a famous singer dedicated a song to you? I know I would! I wrote the lyrics up there by myself, drawing inspiration from the song I just mentioned, John Mayer, and Matt Costa. ( :

ANNOUNCEMENT (August 22, 2009)

There's no doubt I've been MIA for over a half a year now. I checked my email for the first time in months two days ago, and I'm very surprised I still have people alerting and fave-ing this story! I've been busy with university, working really hard the past couple of terms to meet the requirements for a term abroad. And well, on a very happy, accomplished note, after numerous calls and application forms and what not, all I have to do now is decide whether to go to Seoul National University in Korea or Technischen Universität München in Germany. Ohoh, time to brush up on my German (Das ist meine Apfel! haha).

On a sad note, that means I'll barely be on Fictionpress for the next couple of months or ever again. So to those that may actually still want to read this story, I'm sort of 'giving' it to the closest friend I have hear on fictionpress, the milk bottle, who convinced me that I shouldn't put the idea to waste. We've known each other since high school, when our schools would compete in fencing. Of course, I never played against her because I'm a sabreuse and she's a foilist, haha! But anyway, she's in this strange writing stage right now so I'm giving the story to her and I'm helping her write it. She's a great writer by the way, so trust in her! Haha! It's sad because when I first thought of the story, I was so excited, but then my interest in writing sort of died out. Sigh. Well, we've reused and edited some scenes, removed and added new characters, and sort of changed people's personalities, because to be honest, I couldn't relate with the characters anymore. I first wrote this story back in high school and now that I'm in university, I'd like to think it could be a lot better than what it originally was. Hahaha!

You've probably noticed that I've left the first parts of each chapter in tact. That's for copyright purposes in case anything were to happen. Yikes. So yes, please go over to the milk bottle's profile to check the story out! We're going to be posting the first chapter in a while, which could be in a couple of minutes or an hour or so. :)

www(.)fictionpress(.)com/~themilkbottle

Thank you for all the support you've given this story!
Hopefully you guys will check out the new version.

Note: Since this isn't a chapter, please do not review this or leave a comment. Thanks!