Colorblind

Ending & Beginning

George POV

It's been a little over a month since Alma broke up with me. I no longer walk to school and risk the chance of seeing her. Instead, I drive myself there and back home. I committed to Notre Dame, so my parents; more so my dad is absolutely thrilled. However I barely speak to him, because as always he gets exactly what he wants. He wanted football at Notre Dame for as long as I can remember and he wanted Alma out of my life. In a way, I hate him for it. Not that he had anything to do with Alma breaking up with me. I'm convinced she decided to do that on her own.

Since the end of us, I feel like I am playing a role in a life that I didn't ask for. At school, I am the cool, unobtainable jock who is destined for greatness. At home, I play the good son by showing love to my mom, spending time with my sister, grin and baring my father. But truthfully I am sad and heartbroken. And no matter how hard I try I can't stop playing that night over and over again in my head. It's like a nightmare I can't wake up from. I will never unsee the way she fell more and more out of love with me as each word spilled from her lips, nor will I be able to unfeel the way our last kiss felt. The only way I can describe it is, I felt a one-sided love. A give without the take. I wish I never kissed her; that way I could have remembered the beauty of the last kiss shared between two people who loved each other. Now everything is tainted and my heart is broken beyond repair because all I want is her and all she wants is a future that needs to be one without me.

"George!" My mom yells from downstairs, taking me out of my thoughts.

I sigh deeply and roll off the bed. Tonight I promised my best friend James to go hang out with him.

"George, your ride is here." My mom says.

I nod and grab my varsity jacket off of the coat hanger by the front door.

"Now you boys have a good time but don't go about making any trouble." She says as she wags her pointer finger at me with a smile.

"It's only me and James ma. We should be back by dinner." I say.

"Oh, it's just you and James tonight? Like old times? Well if you make it back in time for dinner he can join us. If not I'll leave a spare plate of leftovers for the both of you to have." She says.

"Ok, mom." I say.

I gently place a kiss on her cheek then head out the front door and climb into Jame's car.

"Hey man, I feel like we haven't hung out in ages. You have been dodging me and well everyone lately. Everything ok?" He asks me with a smile on his face.

I go to answer with words, but instead, the emotions that I have left bottled up inside me seem to uncork themselves causing an eruption of emotions. Suddenly I can't seem to stop the tears from flowing and even find myself gasping for air in between sobs. My heart is broken and no one can fix it but Alma.

"Oh George." James says.

He gives my back a light tap, throws the car into reverse and says "Let's go somewhere quiet to talk about this."

James POV

I reach into the trunk of my car and pull out a small container of booze I stole from my dad's liquor cabinet. I turn around and watch the way George shakes like a leaf on a tree being blown by the wind. My friend; my best friend what has happened to him? In all of our years of friendship, I have never seen him so broken and sad before. He wasn't even like this when his grandpa died. In fact, he didn't shed more than a few tears at his funeral and I know they were so close. But now as I sit down next to him I see a man who is broken, with tousled hair, dark circles under his eyes and lacking any luster for life.