PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

In the middle of winter, Rodrigo is gazing all the Christmas lights in the plaza of the town, how it reflected with the water.  Rodrigo sat up and start walking with Alicia, she is pacing around, thinking. They had been together for 6 years, since high school. Rodrigo loves her very much, but Alicia has been acted really weird in the couple days.  Rodrigo is thinking that maybe, Alicia is cheating on him but he doesn’t have the guts to ask her. Trying to forget that thought, Rodrigo distracting himself with the noise from all the people laughing, skating in the middle of town.

Alicia is studying medicine in Harvard; she has been there for three years total. She is all stressed out for the finals, and hasn’t slept for days.  Rodrigo came to visit her, and tried to help her. Rodrigo could talk for hours; he is that kind of man.  He talks about silly things, that nobody has any interests. Alicia is a good listener, but she is too distracted. Rodrigo came with two lunches, one with mayonnaise and the other with no mayonnaise. Alicia hates mayonnaise; she says it has an awful taste of something rotten. He gave it to her, beside all her books and she just tossed it aside. She hasn’t eaten and she looks skinnier than before.  He sat up and dragged her out of the library; Alicia is trying to hold back. Rodrigo gave her the sandwich and forced her to eat it. She just looks up and groans, and takes the sandwich away from him. Sitting down the first filthy stairs. When she finished the sandwich, she tossed the napkins in his hand and came back inside the library.  She hasn’t talked to him, Rodrigo is beginning to worry or maybe he is paranoiac of his reaction; she is going to finals in a few days after all. So Rodrigo, stood up and puts his hand in his pockets with the napkins that Alicia left him.

Rodrigo hasn’t seen Alicia for one week, trying to give her space. He misses her a lot. Then Alicia calls him in one night. Telling him she just presented the last final exam. Alicia wants to talk with him and its important. They are going to meet in the coffee shop, that they always go since she was accepted to Harvard. He puts his filthy shoes from his closet, and goes running to the door, gasping for air. Rodrigo went running to the bus station, he has the hours of the bus memorized. He stomps his shoes on the side of the stairs of the bus, to clean the sole. He gives the ticket to the nice old man and smiles. There were not a lot of people in the bus; many went to their homes in Christmas days, Alicia were the last people to take the finals. He sat down and looked out of the window. When he was almost to arrive the coffee shop, he saw Alicia with another man, looking at each other with grins in their faces. The other man looks familiar for Rodrigo. The man has a grey beard and normal height, shorter than Rodrigo. Rodrigo heart is starting to get more faster than usual, and he begins to think the worst of all. The bus stops, and Rodrigo gets up and goes out of the door with a sad look of his face. He begins to walk in the opposite way of the coffee shop, where Alicia and the man were walking. Then Rodrigo sees them, Alicia noticed and stopped smiling. Rodrigo couldn’t say a word, he was muted and he felt the world is spinning all around him. He was thinking, he knew all along. The missed phone calls and coming late to the apartment. He isn’t paranoiac. Alicia came alone and sat him down in the public chairs. She talked about how much she has changed and that he’s still the same, she felt alone and the man over there is his teacher. He helped her and comforted her, Rodrigo began sobbing, Alicia gave him a hug and he rejected it. He stood up and look at her, he saw her. She looks different, it was true she changed a lot and he was denying it the whole time that the relationship was going to work. He smiled at her, and told her goodbye and walked away in the cold snowy day.

This story was written by Cristel Villarreal.