Still Searching

Short Story.

It is the second of March as Travis Forbes checks his Facebook page. As he skims through all of the birthday wishes he noticed one name that surprises him as it jumps off of the page. Rebecka Cataldo, a classmate of his from the fifth grade at their elementary school Dedham Country Day, now a freshman at Beaver Country Day. He remembers Rebecka as an awkward, somewhat annoying girl who was always somewhere around him but not exactly wanted.

As he looks at her Facebook page he noticed that she is not the same annoying twelve year old. They have the same interest in music, movies, and T.V. shows. He also noticed that her birthday was only two days after his on March fourth. Travis waits until it is Rebecka’s birthday and he writes a post on her Facebook that says, “Thank you and happy birthday to you also.” Rebecka replied by saying, “thank you, what has been going on with you since DCD?” With that they started catching up on everything that was going on in each other’s lives.

Travis and Rebecka had been talking for months now and had spent some time together at places like the mall. Over this time Travis had started to develop some strong romantic feelings about Rebecka. He loved that they always had something to talk about because they had the same interest. The exact same likes and dislikes. The one problem Travis had was that Rebecka had a boyfriend named Tom. Rebecka had grown a lot of trust in Travis and eventually got to the point where she could talk to him about the problems that she and Tom were having. She would always complain that Tom never paid any attention to her and that every conversation they had was about him. Even though she always complained about him, she did not break up with him, and every time she complained about him it tore Travis up. He thought they would never split up.

Finally after one weekend during the summer, Travis took a trip with his family up to New Hampshire. When he came back he found what he had been waiting nearly five months for. Rebecka had finally broken up with Tom. Travis was elated; there was nothing in the world that could bring him down at that moment. He knew it was only a matter of time before she would recognize that they were a perfect match for each other.

That time finally came one night at Travis’s house. He and Rebecka had spent the whole day together doing various things and had just started to watch a movie. She came out of nowhere and interrupted the movie by saying, “Travis can I ask you something?”

“Yeah sure, what’s up?” he replied.

“This is kind of awkward to say but whenever I talk to you I get nervous that I will say something stupid.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you are really intimidating to talk to.”

“Why, I am not really that big of a deal.” He says chuckling.

She laughs and says, “Well I think you are a big deal.”

Travis says, “Well I kind of feel the same way about you. Do you just want to make this official and go out?”

Rebecka replies, “Finally! I have been waiting for you to ask me out forever.”

With that Travis though he had what he had wanted all along, a relationship with Rebecka.

The next day Travis woke up as excited as he could possibly be. He even did a dance as he got out of bed. He called his best friend Donald to tell him the good news. Donald congratulated him because he knew how much Rebecka meant to Travis. She was all he could ever talk about when they hung out and it drove him crazy.

Later on that day as Travis was watching a baseball game on T.V. he got a call on his phone. He looked down at his phone and the caller ID read Becka. That name alone brought a smile to his face. He answered the phone almost laughing because he was so happy.

“Hey what’s up?” he said.

“Hey Travis, I have some really bad news.”

“What happened?”

“I told my parents about our relationship and they said they do not want us together.” Travis’s stomach just about hit the floor.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“They said we could not be together.”

“Why not?”

“Because of the incident that happened with you and Mr. Clausen back at DCD.”

“You have to be kidding me, they are holding that over me? That happened five years ago!”

“I know but there is nothing I can do about it.”

“So that’s just it? They are going to say that we can not be together and you are just going to listen?”

“I tried to get them to change their minds as best I could. I am sorry.”

“Alright well whatever, bye.”

In just those two minutes Travis went from feeling like the luckiest man in the world to feeling like the worst. He was so furious that the only thing he could do without destroying something was to go out and ride his skateboard.

A few weeks later Travis finally got over it and started talking to Rebecka again. It never was the same though. A few months later Rebecka started going out with another guy and that really hit Travis hard. He could only take it in stride if he ever wanted to get another shot with her. One night at a friend’s party, Travis got really drunk and left a text message on Rebecka’s phone saying how he truly felt about her. She just looked at it as a drunken mistake and laughed it off. All Travis can do now is wait for Rebecka to realize that they should be together.

A few years had passed and Travis finally could not take it anymore. One day he asked Rebecka point blank, was he waiting for anything, or was he just wasting his time. Her reply was a simple, I’m sorry. After he got back from the mall, where they had spent the day, Travis went straight to his room.

He turned the T.V. up so loud that he could not even hear his obnoxiously squeaky bed, that squeaked every time anything shifted its weight on it. He laid down on his bed, facing the wall in the corner of his room and cried. Travis never cried. Not when his Grandfather died. Not when his Grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. Not when his parents divorced. Not when his uncle had a stroke. Never. But this night, he cried. This night, he let out his emotions that he tries so hard to keep inside away from the entire outside world. This night he did not care what the rest of the world thought. This night he hurt.

~ by ajanni on February 23, 2009.