What a question to ask a couple of teens | Beck.
When: December 16, 2023.
The wind was bitter, inviting all the familiar sting and scents of the coming holiday. Christmas was days away, and Beck found himself alone--a horrible thing to be. His mind hadn't been far from the store he spent much of the latter part of senior year in and out of, and a gift on his list had finally brought a need to return.
Seventeen-Eighteen. What a year to be making life-altering decisions. But when you know...when you have no doubts? The memory lost the sparkle the time actually held, as if his mind left the cloud he hadn't seen hovering in real time. The man--no, the kid--he envisioned possessed more foolishness, more naivete, more bliss-induced ignorance.
"You know, to get from Hart to Hartman, all you need is a man." It was perhaps the lamest of his jokes, but it made her laugh every time. She'd come back with a far better quip about him taking hers instead when they got married. When. Not If. They spoke in whens back then, as though speaking of inevitabilities. He had wondered in the last eight years how many times she'd said it knowing she wasn't going to stay with him, knowing she no longer believed they could beat anything. His dreams too big and her convinced hers weren't big enough.
Hand on the handle, he took a sharp, quick inhale and pushed. The chime rang through the store with its striking familiarity. The one place he'd avoided, he found it exactly as he'd last left it this same time in 2015. It was a time capsule, filled to the brim with nostalgia and old hopes.
"Mr. Hartman." Same store owner, same warmth in his greeting. He held an understanding in his eyes, in the wisdom of the lines that crinkled around them when he smiled.
As if pushing play on an old tape, his gaze traced over the crystal clear cases, rewinding through the years further and further in time. He was seventeen, in here for the first time to look for something to bridge the path from childhood sweethearts to adulthood: a symbol of the forever they continually promised one another. He found it in an oval halo cut diamond with gold band, simple yet elegant and set in a way that reminded Beck a bit of flowers. She was always happiest when he brought her flowers, so it seemed perfect to put one eternally on her finger.
Visit after visit spanned his memory, filled with the echoes of "is it still here?" He waited day after day with the kind of patience held by children awaiting Santa's visit. It would have to be his own money, an idea to this day he didn't know why he was so determined to uphold, but that path had enough 'what if's to drown him.
Then he was eighteen, coming full circle in the memory. She's gone. That was another odd thing, he never really said 'she left me'. She was just gone. Maybe that truth was easier to bear than a choice that was made, a surrender in a fight for them. In the end, it was all loss.
He still saved the money up as planned, came back, stood here. Why he did it would never have an answer, a sort of self-flogging that was undeserved. His only crime had been to dream bigger than reality allowed and miss the signs of his relationship failing.
Twenty-six. He could see the look given, and though he hadn't come for that, the words tumbled out before he could think better of them.
"Is it still here?"
And finally, in all his moments of asking, the answer changed. "No." The tone was quiet, empathetic, knowing. "I held onto it as long as I could for you, Beck. There are others like it, but it's not--"
"--The same, I know," Beck finished for him. Too much time had passed. "I was just curious. We're not there yet anyway." Anymore died a painful, burning death in the back of his throat. Maybe they had never been there at all, maybe it was something kids together as long as they were said. Maybe he was the only one who was ever standing here, saying he'd do it in a heartbeat. "It's Christmas, so I'm here to get her something else actually..."
---
After hiding the gift in his room, he took a moment at the marina. It was a long time ago. He'd already accepted the loss a thousand times over, but like a scab, it kept breaking open to bleed again. His heart had a bruising grip around it, pressure on his chest only fresh, ocean air might possibly release.
The optimist in him said dreams were made to inspire, to find the goals in them to mold them into reality. But maybe that's not what they were. Maybe they were simply visions of hope, something to keep lights shining, fires burning. Perhaps it was reality that had to be accepted as it came, taking the steps only as they were presented to you. Oh, but can a dreamer really stop dreaming?
The odds had always been against them, and the dream wasn't dead, not entirely. Maybe it was like the ring itself, it couldn't be the same but that didn't mean the one for them wasn't out there. It was now less of an inevitability and more of a maybe someday. The love would last forever either way. If standing on the beach in the middle of the End of Summer Bash had showed them anything, it was they'd always be in love. This was their real thing.
Beck didn't ask for much, for so long it was two things: to travel and to marry Shosh. Well, he got one. Even if it would have been the thing sacrificed if he'd been asked to choose between them. Whatever dreams were, this one needed to be put away for the foreseeable future. This was time she needed, and time was something he could give her.
And that was the story. That was the reality of it. The ring was gone, to somebody with hopefully a better story to tell, and maybe one day there would be another. His weight resting through his forearms onto the pier, Beck wasn't sure how to feel about that, maybe he'd never be. And that's just what it was.
Making his way to a secluded spot, he took the joint from his pocket he'd picked up when he dropped the gift off. A flicker of flame, inviting an end of this pain.
Is it still here?
No.
--
Where'd you go?
I was in New York.
--
Six months?
Seven months, thirteen days.
--
I was in New York…multiple times. Harley was up there too, and I went to visit him.
I know. Well, I assumed. Harley and I were together a lot in New York, he actually worked at the bar with me...
--
For what it’s worth, I wanted to tell you. But Shosh didn’t want you to know and it wasn’t my relationship so I didn’t feel like it was my place, you know?
--
You should leave.
--
I’m not the same anymore, Beck.
Rising from deep within his very soul, he released a guttural scream. The sound carried away by winds and waves into the depths of the ocean until his throat ached and weight lifted. Hitting his knees first, he collapsed back onto the sand as he flicked his lighter open again bringing it to the stick now pressed between his lips until the end began to simmer. Smoke entered his lungs like a warm blanket against the cold. Numbness followed, vanishing into an empty mind. The world seemed brighter again, or maybe that was the sun above him.
How rare it is to meet your soulmate when you’re only four years old, and how cruel when it's not as simple as such luck should be.
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