Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 03:45:48 -0800 (PST) From: Star Child Subject: Second Time Lucky Disclamer: I do not know any of the celebs who might be mentioned in this story. It is a work of fiction. Also, if it is illegal for you to read this where you live or you dont like same sex relationships, please leave now. Second Time Lucky "So this is what it's come to?" I asked of my boyfriend, a slight sneer playing on my face. "We stand around hurling insults at each other until one of us is so hurt that breaks down in tears?" I could see that he was perplexed at the turn our fight had taken. This was something out of the ordinary. We were actually talking about our problems instead of screaming at the top of our lungs till we were both exhausted. Actually I was doing most of the talking and he was doing the standing around looking confused part. "I can't handle this anymore" I said bluntly. "We will end up hating each other if we keep doing this". He looked at me with an expression of utter fear. I might as well have pulled a gun on him. "No!! You can't.. You don't mean this!" He practically screamed at me. "After all we've had and all that we've been through, you would end it just like that?" I tried to keep a cold and unfeeling exterior, but it was getting harder. I knew that if he kept up the pleading any longer then I would cave in and let this continue. I turned around and did the only thing I could do. I got out of there. As I left I told him with out turning to look at him that I would be staying at a friend's house and that he could take as long as he wanted, but that I thought it would be for the best if he left. I closed the door behind me hearing him softly crying. I know that that might not have been the best way to handle the break up of our relationship, but I knew that we wouldn't get any better. The problems we had were beyond fixing. We had been fighting for so long that I almost couldn't remember the last time I smiled at the world. That isn't the way life should be. My name is Blaze by the way. Yeah I know. Before you even say anything let me just explain that my parents had a fire-fighter friend and that's how I got it. Don't even think about doing any wise-cracks. I have a pretty nice body if I do say so my self, but then going to the gym almost every day for years can do that to a person. I'm about 6'2'' in height and weigh in at about 185 pounds. I have ice blue eyes and my hair is a shade of dark brown that people have described as sable. There... That's the basics out of the way. Now on to the story. Getting of the elevator it finally hit me. My boyfriend was no longer my boyfriend. He was someone I once used to date. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I was free. No more accusing stares if I came home a little bit late, no more phone calls if I was out travelling to ask where I was and what I was doing, which to me amounted more to checking up on me. I thought it was funny when we first got together. I believed it showed how much he cared, but after a while it turned nasty. He would call me at 3 am and ask who was in the bed with me and if I was happy with him. If I said anything other than that I was alone or that I was only thinking of him then he would start calling me names and saying that I didn't love him anymore. Then he would usually break down in tears and go into a diatribe about how much he loved me and that he would change his ways and not be so controlling. Most times I believed him. But this time I had had enough. I couldn't keep playing his game and get through this with my sanity. It had come down to a choice. It was a hard one, but the only possible option seemed to end it. I couldn't keep fooling myself into believing that things would get better and foolishly hoping that I could change him. So this time when I got home, I did what I had been thinking of for weeks. I told him that this is the end. I don't think that I have ever made the trip over to my friend Alicia's building as quickly as I did that night. I had a thousand things on my mind and I needed someone to talk to. She knew me better than anyone and I valued her advice. And strangely she had a knack for always knowing what to say in any particular situation. At any rate, I passed right through security at her building, giving the doorman a passing wave. On the elevator up I went through in my head what I was going to tell Alicia, but I knew a ll too well that if I didn't tell her everything all at once, she would know I was holding back and somehow coax it out of me. I decided that the truth was probably the best option and resolved that I wouldn't hold back if she asked, but I wouldn't volunteer any information that she didn't need to know. As she opened the door I gasped. She looked gorgeous. She was wearing a dress that looked like it was made of leather, ripped and very short. I thought it looked very sexy on her. That coupled with a new hair colour made it obvious why she was such a big star. The single that she had out had gone straight to number one and, as far as I know, was selling thousands every day. I was so happy for her. I guess that she and I must have been, till now, the two most successful kids to graduate our year from high-school. Oh, I forgot to tell you that during school I had gotten into modelling and after school finished I had started to model professionally. During my short career I managed to get quite a few of the big contracts and I had been one of the biggest names in the industry for a while. Armani, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Gaultier, Yves St Laurent? I had done them all. And gotten some really nice money out of it as well. Now, at 25, I wanted to get my life in order. I used part of the money that I had earned and bought myself a nice apartment in NYC. Anyway, I stepped into Alicia's apartment (which is huge, professionally decorated and filled with every amenity you can imagine) and immediately got an accusing stare. "Blaze!! Now I know that look, and don't you go telling me that nothing is the matter! I know you far to well." She looked at me like she was some sort of investigator, trying to illicit a confession from a suspect. "Damn!" I gasped. "Will it ever be possible to get anything past you?" She shook her head. "You know you won't. Now spill!" I sighed heavily. I knew that I would get a thrashing from her when I finished telling her what had happened, but in true Alicia style, she turned a complete 180 and did something I never would have expected. She applauded. "I was wondering when you would get `round to getting that deadbeat lo' life out of your life." I just looked at her in amazement. She was the one that had pushed for me to get together with Dean (my recent ex). Though I had told her how he was acting, she had always said that I shouldn't give up too easily, but fight for happiness. But when I have to fight for it every day and never get a chance to just enjoy it, believe me, it gets old real quick. "Well, as I see it", she continued, "You had to learn that lesson for yourself. He was not THE ONE, but you tried, you learned and you moved on. I'm proud of you." She gave me one of those smiles that you can be sure some music business exec is well on his way to patenting. "But now, I have this humungous favour to ask you. My record company says that I need to do some publicity shoots for the new single. They have this really drab photographer picked out, and I just can't stand that guy." She was babbling and she knew it. "So what I wanted to ask was:" Here it comes, I thought. "Sooo, do you think that you could, possibly, no pressure of any kind, consider doing the shoot?" TBC?? What do you think? Should I continue? yes? No? Please email me at frithjofr@yahoo.com