Rhythm of Love

Nora’s Point of View

Upon entering the bar and restaurant with Cynthia skipping ahead with my parents and Damien’s and Damien dragging me behind him, the last thing that crossed my mind was who owned the little restaurant and bar. I mean really, who questions the ownership of a random place anyway? Damien nodded to a table for three near the wall and I nodded back, claiming the table as Damien’s, Cyn’s, and mine. The last thing I expected, after hearing Beech’s adorable voice, was that I’d be face to face with him. Alex.

It wasn’t my idea to come to the restaurant and bar in the first place. In all honesty, I was much too busy speaking with a friend of mine that I met in Paris, Nicolette, over Skype. She was a chirper brunette with strong facial features and olive skin I couldn’t help but be jealous of. Her clothing usually consisted of fancy, cute dresses accompanied by with peep-toe shoes or flowery, vintage-looking skirts and blouses. Whenever I looked at her, my mind instantly would flash to that of a doll. However, right now as she cried and yelled in her French dialect, her doll-like appearance dwindled.

“Nora!” she had cried out, pulling at her mess of curls. Her eyes were red from rubbing them and trails of black mascara lined her face like a roadmap. “I want you back here with me right now! We’re best friends and we’re supposed to comfort each other when boyfriends are being stupid idiot bad people!” Nicolette wasn’t always as she sounded there, if anything she was a moderately relaxed person. However, her boy of two years, Clément, she caught cheating on her with some girl who was in the grade below us. To make matters worse, this girl was one Nicolette had a dance class with at a theater and was forced to see every day. “I just don’t get it at all!” Nicolette had continued to cry, holding her head in her hands.

The only good news from our video chatting was that the dance group she’s part of raised enough money to come to the United States for awhile. One of their stops is an area near here so she and her mother are most likely going to drop by, which excited us both. However, before the conversation was able to continue on its path of happiness, Damien burst into my room and told us that I was leaving to go out to eat for lunch with my family and his. This starting a whole new round of hysterics in Paris, however she calmed down enough for us to exchange goodbyes.

And that’s how I ended up here with a shocked expression, staring at him.

Before anything further could occur out of my control, I grinned down at Beech and called, “Hey Beech!” before averting my eyes to the now interesting brick wall. There were little stick figures drawings in blues and greens decorating the bricks. After awhile of intently staring off at the crude drawings, two figures plopped down in the seats next to me. My eyes flickered to Damien who held a beer bottle between his pointer and middle finger, swinging it back and forth. Scrunching my nose, I mumbled in a low voice, “Yuck, Damien.” He grinned and took a swig of it.

“Nora!” Cynthia squealed and my attention focused on her features. A grin spread on my own lips as I ruffled her curls.

“Yeah, Cyn?”

“That guy over there is really nice!” She pointed to a table in the corner of the room and I had to hold back a grimace. Conner, Ivan, Xander, and Alex were sitting around the table, talking and laughing. Ivan pointed in our general direction and then a chorus of chuckles from the group of them. My face turned bright red and when I peered at Damien he had a cold stare set at their backs. His eyes flickered to mine and I knew we were thinking the same thing. I hate them, even if one of them… My thoughts were interrupted by Damien getting up from his seat and motioning me to do the same.

He led the way as we exited the bar and restaurant and once we reached his car, Damien let out an exasperated sigh. He peered at me and said, “Wanna go for a ride?” I shook my head before jumping up on the hood of his car and laying down. A few seconds later, he did the same.

“I think they’re jealous,” he noted with a smile and I sent him a sideward glance.

“Of what?” I questioned back.

“Of me, of course.” His grin grew as I laughed loud enough for all who was inside to hear.

“Why, dare I ask, are they jealous of you?” I laughed, my hand on my chest. “Because you can drink?”

“That,” he chuckled before his expression changed from joking to completely serious. “And because they don’t have a naïve, little blonde girl happily bouncing around them, making them laugh even when we’re all fighting.”

“If Cyn heard you talking about her like that, she’d be so excited,” I said, though I knew he wasn’t talking about the ten year old who was now outside with Beech. My cheeks began to heat up and I felt heat growing behind my eyes as a few tears ran down, making streaks like on Nicolette’s doll-like face. Damien stroked my hair as I covered my face with my hands. “She’d be so happy… because she’d feel so important.” I continued to speak in a shaky voice until our parents walked out, talking excitedly.

“Like I said,” he whispered in my ear, “they’re just jealous.” I watched as he leapt off his car before wiping away stray tears and heading into the passenger seat. We waved at the parents as Cynthia hopped into Damien’s car in the seat behind me. “So, where are we headed?”

“Let’s go to the amusement park!” Cynthia shouted and I laughed, shaking my head.

“Actually,” I said as Damien pulled out of the parking lot. “I need to go home. But Cyn, if Damien wants to take you to the amusement park, you can go ” Damien nodded as Cynthia squealed, and we headed in the direction of our house.

Unknown to them, I was going to the amusement too. Just not with them.



Being a guy, when I went to pick up Eli at my old high school he embarrassedly asked if he could drive. “You know…” he said, his cheeks tinted a light pink color. I laughed and hopped into the passenger seat as he jumped into the driver’s side. Just as the car behind honked the cars horn, we were speeding down the road with all the windows down. I couldn’t help but let a little “woohoo!” escape my lips as the wind played with my hair, causing Eli the laugh and copy me. With a grin, I poked his shoulder.

“We going to the amusement park?” I questioned, as he drove down the busy rode. He nodded, making a sharp turn right and causing me to squeal.

He laughed, “Sorry about that! I almost missed the turn.” I shook my head before joining in with his laughter.

By the time we reached the park, it was as busy as expected. In the background, I could hear Bad by Romance playing from inside the amusement park, to my distaste. Suddenly, Eli grabbed my hand and the two of us ran through the crowds like ninja, trying to sneak closer to the front of the line instead of at the end that at this point was a block away. It was amazing enough we found parking. Lucky for us, I spotted a distracted couple and the two of us exchanged grins before jumping in front of them. It was sheer luck that our muffled laughter didn’t give away our sneaking in front of him. A few minutes passed and soon we were strolling around the park, laughing at our sneakiness. It was only until we stopped at the corkscrew did I realize he was still holding my hand. My cheeks flushed bright pink and I could help but widen my grin but my chest began to hurt a bit; it felt like it was tightening.

Would it be selfish to say that this whole time. he was still on my mind?