City of Stars

Chapter 1

The Wreak

There he was sitting in a local cafe with the most beautiful girl by his side. The longest yet hardest and most important journey of his life finally came to an end. He finally met his dream girl, the girl whose smile made all his troubles go away, for whom he was ready to give up on everything, even his family, for whom he thought that he'd never let anyone hurt her, was finally with him. This was the most beautiful and perfect human that he had ever met. Katherine was telling him of how her last night meal that she cooked for her family made everyone happy at the dinner table and there he was, listening to this simple random story like it was the most beautiful serenade ever. She was telling him of her dreams that how badly she wants to experience the northern lights with him somewhere in Yellowknife, Canada. This might be his next to do list as he thought.......

"Thunderstruck" started playing on the radio and he was snapped back to reality. Soft jazz always reminded him of her, he thought as he took another puff from the hard cigarettes that he was smoking these days and looked over the beautiful LA sunset from his terrace. He needed to let go of his past as there was nothing left but pain. "It was good while it lasted" he kept reminding himself every day because now he had to let go of the beautiful fantasy that he once lived. He went inside, laid on his couch and thought, was there any purpose left for him in this mortal world, the way everything went between him and Katherine as in the end, it was truly heartbreaking. He wanted a proper closure for all the beautiful moments that he had spent with her, experienced for the first time with her and all the dreams that they were going to work hard for. His daydreaming about Katherine was getting worse day by day. His zoning out of conversations that he once enjoyed, not too long before he hit his rock bottom was getting intense. He had no purpose left in his life anymore, everything that gave him pleasure was suddenly all plain now. He left doing things that he once enjoyed doing. He was losing his identity, the things that made him "Henry" didn't mean much to him right now, everything in his life that made him happy was leaving him alone with his miseries and he was drowning in a solitude that would last forever. The bell rang and Henry came to his senses, he got up leaving all the daydreaming thinking on his couch and went outside to see who needed another favor from the person that was dying in his own guilt. "Hey why do you smell like an ashtray" asked Gerald, who knew him for a very long time now. Both of them went inside and Henry picked his burning cigarette from the ashtray. "We need to move quickly, we don't have a lot of time, and she is gone now. You need to stop thinking about her, you can't heal here staying in the same environment that made you sick, I want you to meet this new girl who is my friend" said Gerald. "Alright at least let me take two last puffs and then we can leave", both of them got up and went to the same cafe where he once made memories with Katherine, seeing this new girl there sitting all alone with her back facing him, "come on now! She's been here for too long already" said Gerald. "Hey! Meet my friend Henry; he's the guy I was talking to you about". When she looked towards Henry, he was hit by the memories of past where he experienced everything for the first time, the way Katherine would turn her head and listen to his boring stories. Henry's being shocked by the beauty of this new girl felt like a betrayal to his first love, "Stop thinking about these things Henry and focus on where you are right now" he thought. "Hi! I am Mia" she said. "He's Henry, the guy I was talking to you about, meet him" introduced Gerald. Mia started talking about how her day went, and there Henry was listening to this unimportant conversation, still thinking why he was here and hating Gerald more with every passing second. He wanted to leave quickly, he wanted to light a cigarette so bad but his friend Gerald had told him not to because that would promote a bad image of him for some reason that he did not understand. His urge to smoke was now taking over him; it was getting out of control. Mia was talking continuously and Gerald was listening, for Henry it was the most unimportant thing that he ever was involved in. He pulled his cigarette's pack out and pulled a hard one from it. Whilst everything happening in the background, the conversation which now seemed like a TV's random ad that no one pays attention to, he lit his cigarette up, now during this few seconds gap between pulling his lighter out and lighting his cigarette up, Henry noticed that the expressions of Mia towards him had changed a lot. She was still talking but she stuttered in these few seconds but kept the conversation going, Henry at this point knew that he was not the nice guy anymore. After taking a few puffs and inhaling the soothing breath of tobacco, Henry was now at ease. The long story of a normal day of Mia, he noticed came to an end after he started smoking. She picked her purse up and Gerald went to see her off to the cafe's exit. "What exactly was this, why did you do this to yourself" said Gerald in anger. "I already told you before coming I was not interested in meeting anyone new, you should have listened" said Henry. "You know what! You should stay the way you are, I'm not helping you anymore, seems like you are happy in the filth that has been running in your veins over all these years". "Yea whatever" sighed Henry. Both of them got up and headed towards the cafe's exit. "Hey man you really need to think of what's becoming of you" said Gerald in a way that now seemed too soft and sympathetic.