From Sunrise To Sunset

Fall 1

Nicholas

I didn't expect her to surrender easily, but I also didn't expect her to be this adamant, especially now that we've realized that we both share a mutual dream.

I stand in defeat as she walks away from me once more. It takes all the parts of me to not run after her and beg her to not give up on what we could have.

As she runs up the steps to her house, I promise myself that this will be the very last time that I let her walk or run away from me. If she needs time to think this through, then I'll give her that, I'll stay away for a week at most, but then I'll continue to fight for her.

I wait until she climbs the steps and disappears from my sight, then I walk to the parking lot. After what just happened, I need to vent to someone, so I decide to call Noah.

"Hey man," Noah says through the phone.

"Hey, wanna get a drink?"

"Uh... sure."

"Great, meet me at Benny's in five."

I remove my black leather jacket from the storage under my bike seat, put it on, and then walk over to Benny's.

Benny's is a small bar along the beach. Noah and I usually get drinks there when I'm in Santa Monica.

I enter the bar and sit on one of the stools lining the counter. The night is young, so the bar isn't crowded yet. A young couple is sitting in one of the booths at the back, and a middle-aged man sits alone at the table closest to the door nursing a bottle of beer.

"Nick....right?" asks the dark middle-aged man who stands behind the counter.

"Yeah, that's right, Benny," I confirm.

"I never forget a face....or a name," he says, clearly proud that he remembers who I am. "So what can I get you?" he asks, putting his hands down on the counter.

"I'll have a whiskey on the rocks."

"Coming right up."

I reach into my jacket pocket, removing two sheets of paper. I unfold and look at them for a few seconds, then place them back inside my pocket.

The door jingles, I shift my gaze toward it and see Noah entering the bar.

"Hey, Nick," he says, joining me at the counter.

"Hey man," I say, looking at him

"A dry martini, please," he says to Benny as he takes a seat on the stool next to me on the left. "So, what's this about?" he asks, looking at me. "You didn't sound like yourself on the phone."

I reach into my jacket pocket and then hand him the two sheets of paper.

He looks at me puzzled.

"Unfold them," I say, looking at him briefly and then straight ahead as I tap my fingers on the table.

He unfolds and looks at the sheets of paper in total shock, then looks at me and back at the papers again. He sets them on the counter, taking in all the details.

"Is this them?... The couple you've been dreaming about?" He asks.

"Yes, it is," I respond, shifting my gaze to the papers on the counter. "They were real people."

"Wow," he shakes his head and blinks a few times as if he's trying to make sense of the contents on the sheets of paper. "This is some weird shit... seems unnatural...and the resemblance is... frightening!.. I mean, they're like carbon copies of you and Cassandra... Like an old-school version of you guys." He looks at me, then back at the sheets of paper.