Alice Avery
The first page. That was all it took. I had never been so captivated by anything in my entire life. The texture of the pages, the love laced in the writing, the black and white photos I was so lucky to see, it all felt so close to me. The story was indescribable, it was a love letter, telling the story of two people who were everything to one another; friends, lovers, soulmates. I idolized them for all the few hours I read the story and once I finished it, it was somehow the only thing I thought about. The book had been well read with a broken spine and ruffled pages. Ricky wrote notes in the margins and that was the part I adored the most. His messy handwriting read words that shocked me, it proved that he knew the book like the back of his hand. He loved the book and I wish he had shared it with me sooner because I too had fallen in love with it. Some of the thoughtful notes Ricky had written involved me, he underlined a few sentences or a few words and he'd simply write 'Alice', like those words were mine and they belonged to me.
When nearing the end of the book I heard Ricky's car pull up, he came down to the dock and sat down beside me. We didn't talk, I just leaned against him as I read. The final few paragraphs were hurtful and I let myself cry a few tears. I looked through the photos at the end of the book and closed it shut. On the cover at the back of the book was one of my favorite pictures. Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith shared a kiss that I admired deeply.
"What did you think?" Ricky asks me.
I smiled to myself, still looking at the picture. "They remind me of us."
"Yeah, I thought so too."
I turned around to face him. "Let's just hope our ending is happier."
"It will be." He promised, wrapping his arm around me and planting a kiss on my forehead. "So you loved it?"
I nodded, "I really did."
"Good, it's yours now."
I shook my head, "It's your favorite book." I said and tried to hand it back to him.
"I can get another one if I really want to. I want you to have it, Ali."
"Are you sure?" I was hesitant to take something he loved.
"It's not like I'm never gonna see it again. Take it."
"Fine." I agreed with a grin and looked back down to it. I took the bookmark in my hand, the polaroid's from the photobooth at Donna's, I nudged it between two pages, saving it for later. "So, how'd it go?"
Ricky didn't look at me. "I'm just gonna have to keep trying."
"It didn't go well?" My disappointment was rather hard to hide.
"You should've seen the way Razzle looked at me."
"He'll come around," I assured Ricky and rubbed his back.
"I don't know. Fuck sake Theo and I are on better terms and he's your family. I thought he'd hate me the most."
"You're my family." I say to him immediately. "You're my family, and so is Razzle, Mandy, and Nico. We're all a family, Ricky."
"Yeah I know that but-"
"But nothing," I cut him off. "This isn't gonna go on forever, you know that right?"
He looked up to me with a smile, "I think your shrink is working."
My brows furrowed, "why do you say that?"
"You're positive and happy. It's a new look on you and it's a good one."
"That doesn't mean my shrink is working." I appreciated his hope but I wasn't fixed.
