Assignment 2- The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

          Maria was lounging in the warm sun next to a beautiful heart-shaped pool with a paperback copy of “A Magnetic Attraction.” She realized that she could see herself; she knew it was her relaxing by the pool, but she wasn’t seeing out of her own eyes. She noticed that the lounge chair next to her was occupied by a man. The man looked familiar to Maria, but she couldn’t place him. He was on his stomach so all Maria could see was his back. He had light hair and was fit, with exceptionally defined muscles. All she knew was he was definitely not her fiancé.

          Maria put the book down and sat up in the chair. “Let’s go for a swim,” said the man. Maria thought back to the last time she went swimming. It was her first year of college. Her roommate and a bunch of her dorm mates walked up to the Student Union to jump in the pool. They spent hours swimming and chatting. She missed freshmen year; she missed all her girlfriends. Sophomore year was when she met Joseph and she ended up drifting away from all her friends. By senior year, she was living with Joseph and only saw them occasionally in the halls or between classes.
          Her memories of college seemed to fade into a scene of herself in the middle of a hot and heavy make out session with the mystery man. This shocked Maria. She had only kissed one other boy besides her fiancé and that was a grade school friend at a party.

           She recalled that night fondly. Several pre-teens were hanging out in the basement at one of the neighborhood houses. Someone finished drinking a bottle of soda and put it in the middle of the floor and said “Who wants to play spin the bottle?” After an awkward silence, another person agreed and they started playing. They took a few turns and Maria avoided getting selected. She remembered how nervous she felt. She was both hoping it would and hoping it wouldn’t land on her at the same time. She had never kissed anyone before and didn’t know if she would be any good at it. Maria was slyly observing the others as they kissed each other, hoping it would give her some insight.

          “We’re too old for this” someone declared, “We should be playing seven minutes in heaven.” Afraid to look like children, they all hesitantly agreed. The host emptied out a closet and someone explained the rules. “The person who spins and the person who the bottle lands on go into the closet together. They can do anything they want in there, but they can’t turn on the light and at the seven minute mark, we open the door.”
The first person to spin was a boy who she considered to be her best friend. He grew up a few houses down from her, and they used to play together every day as kids. As they started to get older, they would just hang out together. They spent most of their childhood together. She was completely in shock when the spin landed on her. Both of their eyes went very wide and they sat there, not sure of what to say or do. Somebody pulled them up and pushed them into the closet.  It was more than a minute before either of them said anything. The young boy said, “You know we don’t have to do anything, they’ll never know either way. I don’t want you to feel pressured into doing anything you don’t want to do.”

          Maria didn’t know how to respond. She hesitated at first and said “Well, I’ve never kissed a boy before; you might as well be my first.” They exchanged a bit of technical small talk; trying to figure out if you were supposed to close your eyes and who was going to lean into whom. Even though Maria knew it was coming, she fell into instant bliss the second his lips touched her own. She felt instantly attached to him, much more so than before, which she didn’t know was possible. At that moment, the door swung open and it was over. While the next pair was in the closet, the host’s mother came downstairs with refreshment. It didn’t take her long to figure out what was going on and throw everyone out of the house. Well... almost everyone. She opened up the closet door to find her daughter’s tongue down the throat of some neighborhood boy. That didn’t end well
          The next day was one of the worst days of Maria’s life. The boy who she had just shared her first kiss with came over to visit her first thing in the morning. He was carrying a single pink rose! That was the day he told her he was moving. His father got a job in Champs Les Sims and they were moving there. Not only were they moving, but they were moving that night! Back then, they didn’t have the type of long distant phone call capabilities they do now. She was losing her best friend! They both cried. The boy confessed that he had had romantic feelings for her for some time, but didn’t know how to express them. He told her the kiss last night was the best moment of his young life. She told him it was also hers and she felt so close to him; she didn’t want to let him go.  He stayed with her so long his mother had to come get him. Maria’s mother called up to them and let them know she was there and it was time for him to go home. He wiped away both their tears and held Maria close. He closed his eyes and leaned in to give her a kiss goodbye. Maria would never forget the emptiness she felt that day, but for the life of her, she just couldn’t remember his name.

          Maria realized she was watching herself again. She was playing the “who can hold your breath longer?” game with the mystery man, which she hadn’t done since she was a kid. She still couldn’t see his face. Maria won the game and they both laughed and embraced.

          All of a sudden, the copy of “A Magnetic Attraction” started to violently vibrate and a simbot sprang from it. It charged toward the pool and suddenly had Joseph’s head. This seemed oddly familiar to Maria. The simbot Joseph jumped into the pool and started making a ringing noise, like those that come from her cell phone. Maria reached for her cellphone and put it to her ear. “Maria, are you okay!” said a panicked voice.

          Maria realized it was Joseph and groggily muttered “Yeah I’m fine. What’s wrong?”
         “Why aren’t you at work? I went to pick you up for lunch and they said you never made it in this morning.” Panicked, Maria realized she slept through her alarm. She knew she couldn’t miss a day of work without getting fired; she was so scared. “I’m on my way to pick you up. I’ll be there in five minutes. Be ready,” said Joseph, hanging up the phone. Maria jumped out of bed and got ready as quickly as she could. She threw on some clothes and brushed her hair and was about to head downstairs when she heard a knock at her door.

           She couldn’t imagine why Joseph would come up! She flung the door open and stood in shock. Her mouth dropped when she saw the incredibly handsome young man standing there, he looked very familiar. “Maria” he said with a smile “Do you remember me?” She was staring at the single pink rose in his hand as she barely whispered his name “Markie.”