A Poetic Retelling of an Unfortunate Romance

”And so today, my world it smiles, your hand in mine, we walk the miles. Thanks to you it will be done, for you to me are the only one. Happiness, no more be sad, happiness . . . I'm glad. If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you. If the mountains should crumble to the sea, there would still be you and me . . .” sang James softly, his soulful deep voice filling the beat up Volkswagen bus in which Ella and he were currently laying.

The pair had stumbled into his bus in the late hours of the night. They had spent a fraction of their time talking, what remained of it was spent losing themselves in a passionate encounter which ended in the early hours of the morning, when neither party could continue the heated assault on one another’s bodies.

It was then that they fell into a dreamless sleep, James attempting to cling to Ella whom was busy fidgeting in her sleep. The fact that she didn’t stay still when she slept had annoyed James on several occasions but on that night it was a welcomed sight. He was glad to have her fidget as he tried to hold her.

It was just like old times.

James was the first to wake. He woke in a haze, believing that the events that had occurred the previous day had been nothing more than a vivid dream that his heart had concocted but when he heard Ella muttering in her sleep, a wide, foolish grin broke onto his face and he gazed at her much like a junkie would gaze at a syringe that was filled with their poison of choice.

He reached out to brush away a few stray strands of hair that were impairing his view of her face. His fingertips gently brushed against her flesh, moving the hair so that it blended onto the pile of dark brown curls that rested atop his freshly washed sheets in a messy mound. His hand found its home on her bare stomach and it lay there, he had begun to sing.

There was only one song which he was singing and it was Thank You by Led Zeppelin.

It was their song.

The song that they slow danced to when they were by themselves, the song that James serenaded her with whenever he was strumming on his guitar and it was the song which best described his feelings towards Ella.

James lay there for twenty minutes before he grew bored. He tried to occupy his mind by staring out the window. That, of course, failed. So he began thinking about what was going to happen, where the relationship was going to go and as he thought, he was struck with a brilliant idea. He was going to take Ella back to Venice for the rest of the weekend.

“Ella.” James shook her softly.

“Fuck off,” muttered Ella as she rolled onto her side.

James wasn’t taken aback by her curse words. He had expected them. “Gabriella, wake up.”

“Leave me alone.”

“Gabriella, wake up so we can go to Venice.”

“Venice?” her eyes snapped opened. “Did you say that we were going to go to Venice?”

“Yeah, we’ll go as soon as we get dressed.”

“But we need to shower, we stink.” Ella sat up, taking the opportunity to run a hand through her dark curls.

“Showering will take to long.”

“We can’t go to Venice smelling like this.”

“I love the way we smell after sex,” he lowered his nose to the nape of her neck. “I can smell myself on you.”

Ella shivered involuntarily. “You might dig smelling yourself on me, but other people don’t so let’s go shower so we can hit the road. Wait. Fuck.” Ella pursed her lips. “I don’t think we can go. I won’t have a way to get back up here.”

“I’ll get you a plane ticket.”

“I don’t feel comfortable with you buying me a plane ticket.”

“It’s not drug money,” he knew that she was afraid that the money that would be used to buy her ticket would have been tainted by drugs. “I have clean money, you know. Not all of it comes from drugs.”

“James.”

“I promise that it’s not drug money. My dad paid me yesterday and I have more than enough to get you a plane ticket.”

“But I don’t want you to buy it for me. I have eighty bucks in my bank account. I’ll just take the Greyhound up.”

“Fuck that. It’ll take ten hours for you to get back here and I'm going to spend that time worrying if something happened. You’re taking the plane. That’s that.”

“That’s that? You’re fucking crazy if you think that I'm going to let you spend your money buying me a plane ticket when you already drove up to see me.”

“I'm your boyfriend. I'm supposed to spend my money on you.”

“My boyfriend?” she shook her head slowly, a smile playing across her lips. “Last time I checked we didn’t get back together.”

“So my beating up some guy wasn’t us getting back together?”

“That was just you, defending my honor but it wasn’t you asking me to be your girlfriend again.”

“Fucking technicalities,” James cleared his throat. “Ella, want to be my girlfriend? Yes? Yes, moving on.”

“If that’s how you’re asking me then I say no.” Ella attempted to stand up but James wrapped his arms around her midsection, pulling her back onto the mattress. “Let me go! I have to shower.”

“Not until you agree to be my girlfriend again,” his warm breath tickled her ear.

“Ask me nicely and I might.”

“I already asked you nicely.”

“No, you didn’t.” Ella gently hit his chest. “Now let me go you ogre.”

“I’ll show you an ogre!”

James pounced upon Ella, causing her to let out a high pitched scream. He tickled her furiously, the entire time demanding that she apologize for having called him an ogre. Ella refused to apologize so James continued to tickle her and after a few minutes, he collapsed atop her, his naked body covering every inch of hers as he rested his head to the right of hers.

“Be my bird.”

Ella turned to face him. “You haven’t called me your bird in years.”

“Not since you were fifteen.”

“It’s nice to hear you call me that again.”

“If you become my girlfriend again I promise that I’ll call you my bird at least twice a day.”

“I’d be stupid to pass up such an offer.” Ella trailed her fingers up his back. “Let’s go shower so we can hit the road.”

James left hand traveled in between Ella’s legs, stopping only when they found her womanhood. “Forget about the shower.”

“James . . .” Ella grasped his hair when she felt his finger slip inside.

His finger was soon replaced with his throbbing member, which easily slid into her. They lost themselves in another fit of passion, stopping only when someone began pounding on the window. James’ eyes snapped towards the glass, he wanted to see who had interrupted him and when he saw Julius standing there with a smug smirk on his face, he knew that they weren’t going to be able to finish their session.

“What’s wrong James?” asked Ella as she propped herself up.

“Julius is right there,” James motioned to the window.

James expected Ella to react by screaming or by covering herself up with a blanket, but she didn’t do either. Instead she pushed James away, successfully removing his member from being and she crawled towards the window where Julius stood.

“Fucking pervert,” declared Ella as she opened the window.

“I'm not the one fucking in public.”

“But you are the one that’s staring into the bus where people are fucking and that makes you the bigger perv . . . James, what are you doing?” cried a baffled Ella when she felt James wrap an arm around her breasts.

“Covering you up,” replied James. “He shouldn’t see your parts.”

Julius tilted his head back, allowing a booming laugh to escape. “James,” he said when he finished laughing, “I’ve seen everything on her so don’t think you’re hiding anything from me.”

“He’s seen you naked?” James furrowed his brow.

Ella shrugged. “It was a, you show me yours and I’ll show you mine moment.”

“When was this?” James couldn’t believe that Ella had stripped in front of Julius.

“Last February,” answered Julius. “We were all drunk and decided that we wanted to see each other naked. Don’t worry; none of us were turned on by her, if anything our dicks wilted at the sight of her vagina.”

“What do you mean our dicks? Who else was there?”

“It was just Evan, Julius and Dorian and like Julius said, no one was turned on. They like men and my lack of penis kind of rules me out of that category.”

“I know, but I didn’t think you’d get naked in front of them. That’s just weird.”

“James this is Berkeley, nothing’s weird.” Ella reached out to grab her clothes. “Get dressed. We need to get ready to go. And you,” Ella spun around to look at Julius. “Don’t stare into cars, it’s rude.”

“You’re just mad that I caught your skanky ass in action, but its okay. I still love you even if you are skanky.” Julius blew her a kiss before walking away.

“I can’t believe you got naked,” muttered James.

“It wasn’t like I planned to get naked but they were curious because none of them had ever seen a naked woman before so they asked me if I would, I did and they were grossed out.”

“How can they be grossed out by this?” he placed his arms on her waist. “There’s nothing gross about this body.”

“The love handles and gut beg to differ but they were grossed out by the boobs and vag.”

James lifted her dress. “This stomach and these love handles are just the right size.”

“Don’t touch them!” Ella slapped away his hands.

“Awe come on, I love these,” James placed his hands on her sides, gently rubbing them. “They’re perfect.”

“Why are you so defensive about my body?”

“Because I don’t want you to get all lanky and weird,” he told her.

“Lanky and weird, really?” she shook her head, a soft, almost musical giggle leaving her lips. “I'm pretty sure that it’s genetically impossible for me to be lanky.”

“You were last time.” James was referring to the months that had followed the abortion in which Ella had lost a significant amount of weight, shrinking from a plump 194 lbs to a less full 153 lbs.

“I wasn’t thin. I was just less plump.”

“You were fucking tiny,” he argued. “And it didn’t look right.”

“Only you would think that 153lbs is tiny.” Ella grabbed her shoes and slid open the buses door.

James followed her out. “Because it was, so what’s the plan? Are we just showering and leaving?”

“You should shower first, I have some of your clothes in here so you can change into those.”

James stopped mid step. “I thought we were showering together.”

“That was the plan but I doubt that Julius is going to let me in the apartment without interrogating me so shower and when I'm done with him. I’ll join you if you’re still in there.”

Sure enough, Julius pounded on Ella the moment that she stepped through the door. He took her hand in his and took her to his bedroom where he locked the door and led her to his bed.

“Why didn’t you tell me he was coming up?!” hissed Julius is a hushed voice.

“Because I didn’t know until he showed up here last night.”

“He just showed up?”

“Yeah, I called him in the afternoon and he wanted to surprise me by driving up and now we’re going to drive down to Venice for the weekend.”

“You can’t go to Venice! We were supposed to go to the Castro tomorrow.”

“Fuck . . . I had completely forgotten about that.”

“How could you forget? I’ve spent the entire week reminding you.”

Ella buried her face in her hands. “I know you have. I just blanked out this morning. Don’t worry, I’ll tell James that I can’t go.”

“Then he’ll get mad at me.”

“He won’t get mad at you. I’ll tell him that I have an exam on Monday that I need to study for.”

“Have you forgotten that you’re the world’s worst liar?”

“Then I’ll tell him the truth. He’ll understand.”

Julius collapsed atop the bed. “Just forget it and run off to Venice but next week, you’re pampering me.”

Ella groaned overdramatically. “I'm tempted to stay just so I don’t have to pamper you.”

“I'm not that bad!”

“Yes you are. Remember last year when they took your appendix out and I had to take care of you? You almost made me cry because you were so fucking demanding.”

“That’s different, I was recovering from major surgery but this week I'm just going to be recovering from being so amazing.”

“Pinche (fucking) Julius,” cursed Ella.

“And I'm going to make sure to be extra amazing so that I’ll need even more pampering.” Julius began to take off his clothes. “You can leave now. I'm going to get my beauty sleep.”

“So you’re going to spend the next ten years sleeping?” Ella stood from her place on the bed.

“Fuck you bitch.” Julius kicked off his shoes.

Ella opened his bedroom door. “I love you too, boo.”

Ella slipped out of his bedroom and into hers where she grabbed a few towels along with a change of clothes for her and James. She considered packing clothes for the trip, but decided against it. She had enough clothes at her house. There was no point in taking more. The pair showered quickly, James tried to escalate the shower into something more but Ella stopped him, telling him that they had to get on the road before eight if they wanted to beat traffic.

A quarter before eight, they piled into his Volkswagen and began the drive down to Venice Beach. Most of the drive was spent in an easy silence, the only sound coming from his stereo system, which blared, a mix of blues and jazz. There were a few instances in which they spoke, but for the most part they were silent.

When they arrived in Venice, they made a stop at Ella’s house. Her parents were shocked to see her. They didn’t think that she’d be visiting until early November, but there she stood and instead of scolding her for not having told them that she was driving down, they ushered her and James in so that they could feed them a late lunch. The pair remained for a few hours, spending most of the afternoon with The Acosta family. It was nice to be home and when Olivia arrived, Ella rushed over to her to congratulate her on the baby.

It was around six o’clock when the pair left The Acosta house in order to head over to James’. Isabella and Giovanni leapt from their respective places on the couch when they saw Ella walk through the doors. They had a soft spot for her, believing her to be the best influence in James life and having her over guaranteed an enjoyable evening.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were bringing Gabriella over? I would’ve made her favorite!” spoke Isabella as she, power walked into the kitchen.

“It just sort of happened this morning.” James slipped off his jacket.

“James is right Mrs. Parker. We just woke up at seven and decided to drive down.” Ella grabbed hold of James’ younger brother, Tomas, and sat him on her lap.

“I'm just saying that one of you should’ve sent me a call.” Isabella poured fresh lemonade into two cups. “I put Splenda instead of sugar so I hope you like it. If not there’s cranberry juice in the fridge and I think there are a few sodas in the pantry.”

“I like Splenda,” Ella reassured. “My mom’s been using it like crazy lately so everyone in my house just sort of got used to the taste.”

Isabella sat across from them. “I’ve been using it for three weeks and they’re still complaining. Tomas keeps telling me that it taste funny.”

“It does taste funny,” chirped Tomas.

“No, it doesn’t. It tastes yummy.” Ella placed a kiss on Tomas’ cheek.

Tomas made a face. “Nuh uh, it tastes funny.”

“You’re the one that tastes funny,” Ella gently bit him and scrunched her nose. “You taste like you’ve been rolling in the mud all day.”

“Not mud, grass,” Tomas smiled brightly, allowing her to see that he was missing his front tooth.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you taste funny.” James commented. “Ella, do you want to go upstairs for a bit?”

“Yeah, bye Mr. and Mrs. Parker,” she set Tomas down on the couch and followed James up the stairs.

The pair lay in his bed for awhile. They spent their time watching old movies and when the clock struck nine, they left in search of a good time. In their search, they stumbled into a few bars, drank more than the advisable amount at each and then roamed the boardwalk. James held Ella’s hand tightly.

“I want water,” slurred Ella as she and James stumbled through the Boardwalk.

“Wait till we get to your house,” responded an even more intoxicated James.

“I want the water right now!”

“But it’s . . .”

“I’ll get my own damn water.” Ella freed herself from his hold and began storming towards a nearby convenience store, nearly falling several times.

“Wait up!” James grabbed her. “Stand right here and I’ll get it for you. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Ella didn’t stay there. She caught a whiff of marijuana and walked towards it. The smell was too delicious to ignore. She walked until she hit the source and when she saw the man standing there, she called his name out, “Roscoe!”

He turned slowly, his brow furrowing at the sight of her. “Gabriella?”

“It’s been ages,” she slowly approached him, stumbling slightly when she hit uneven pavement.

“Careful,” Roscoe caught her just before she fell. “You stink like Patron.”

“That’s because I’ve been drinking Patron.”

“Well you shouldn’t be wandering the street by yourself in this condition. Come on, I’ll walk you home.”

“But I'm not by myself,” argued Ella.

“Yeah you are and if some pervert finds you, he might take advantage so let’s get you home.”

“I don’t want to go home.” Ella grabbed his jacket. “Take me to the sand.”

“You can’t even walk a straight line.”

Ella giggled. “I can’t even walk a straight line when I'm sober.”

“That’s true but we should get you home. You look you’re going to pass out soon.”

“I'm not.”

“Sure, you’re not, come on,” Roscoe offered her his arm. “Let’s get you home.”

Ella swayed with the breeze as she stared at him. “Why are you being so nice to me? You’re supposed to hate me.”

“Why would I hate you?”

“Because I was a bitch to you,” Ella put it simply.

“No, you weren’t.”

“I was. I was a major bitch to you and you shouldn’t be nice to me. You should really fucking hate me, I would hate me.”

Roscoe stepped closer. “Well then it’s a good thing you’re not me.”

“Does that mean you don’t hate me?” Ella blinked in an attempt to better her vision.

“That’s exactly what that means.”

“Good,” she took his arm. “Because I wouldn’t like it if you hated me. You’re the bestest guy I know that isn’t gay or related to me.”

“You’re just rambling because you’re drunk.”

“Nah, you really are the bestest guy I know.”

“Then why’d you break up with me?”

“Because I was stupid,” Ella patted his chest. “But don’t worry I’ve paid for having fucked you over.”

“What do you . . . “

“What the fuck?” James emerged from the dimly lit street, carrying a large water bottle in his right hand. “Roscoe let go of her!”

“James calm down!” Ella let go of Roscoe.

“Did he try doing anything to you?” James sped up his steps.

She shook her head fiercely. “I found him because I smelled his weed and he offered to take me home so I wouldn’t get hurt since I'm drunk or something so calm down. Okay? Okay. Can we go now?”

“Ella,” James whispered her name softly.

“I thought we were starting new. Weren’t we starting this relationship new?”

“We are.”

“So then let’s not start it fighting, because if this starts fighting again, I'm out because I don’t want a fight, that’s all we ever did.”

“We’re not going to fight.”

“Then let’s go.” Ella held out her hand.

James stared at her outstretched hand. He stared at it, wondering if he should take it or not, if he should walk away or instigate a fight. He still hated Roscoe. He figured that he always would. A man can’t like someone that slept with their girlfriend, it’s impossible but James also knew that it wasn’t the time or place to rumble. It wasn’t the time.