New York City. Whether it stood as a symbol for his yearn to escape from his life or as a destination in his favorites love songs, it was all he could think about sometimes. He’d lay awake for months dreaming of the blinding lights, and the chimerical music that seemed to heal his ever sin by just thinking of it. For awhile the days of eternal obsession turned too weeks; that is, until he met a new addiction. J.C had read tons of love stories, and seen all the corny love movies, and past girlfriends had convinced him of the beauty of Shakespeare and Frost poems, but until he met her, love was just a fairy tale left to the characters of books. Caroline was his escape.
An escape from his tortured life that he, for too long considered pointless. An escape from the screaming parents, and the crush of his struggling grades. An escape from the failed relationships that traumatized his ability to heal and move on. An escape from being alone and desperate. An escape from reality, his New York.
For awhile she was simply "Tall and Beautiful", than “Tall and Beautiful” began to become a face rather than a name. The more parties J.C went to, the more he’d see Caroline. The more time he spent on the beach watching the sunsets alone, the more time he’d spend watching her incomparable beauty instead. His parents screamed and yelled at him for his ignorance, dropping grades, and lack of, quote, “human competence,” but J.C was simply unable to not think about her, and her first words she blessed him with.
It was among the crazier sort of parties, and J.C and his best friend Corey were drinking the night away; both depressed, but nowhere close to letting the other one win the game. As the glasses filled the table, the people filled the room, and suddenly, the stupidity of J.C and Corey, became a splendor of human ability. How J.C even remembers the night, or more miraculously, Caroline, is still a mystery, but as the final glass fell with its opponent, she stepped close to his shattered body and whispered, “Talk about living in the moment.” Than whisked away, back into the jovial mist of the party, leaving her victim speechless, for more than one reason.
Slowly J.C convinced himself that she wanted to talk to him as much as he did to her, and eventually gathered enough courage to confront her. He found her on the beach as always, and simply asked her if he could share the sunset with her, even though he thought it suffered in comparison. Her smile was worth an army of “yeses,” and he sat next to her and her to him, talking the rest of the night.
They talked about the times like that night, and how money could never buy the perfect set of stars, or the perfect chill of wind. They talked about their lives, and how Caroline’s mother died in child birth, and how her father raised her till she was 16 due to his death. J.C told her how much he wished he didn’t have parents, and how lucky she was, but she immediately hit him, saying that he would never know how lucky he was to have parents, so, figuring he should talk about something else, J.C changed the subject to surfing. They talked about the incredible embrace of music, and its endless supply of shoulders to cry on. They talked about the simple things in life, and how beautiful life was, and how this was to easily forgotten. Right about this point in their conversation, J.C began to ramble on about life being unfair, and how he had never done anything to deserve the hell he lives, and just when he began to cry, Caroline kissed him and said “I would have never guessed you to be the crying, or giving up type James.” It was the first time since grade school anyone had ever called him James, and for a moment he wondered how she knew of his name, but quickly forgot his search and turned his mind back to the kiss. This is where he was taught to bend forward, and invite a second kiss, but for some reason he felt he didn’t have to, and for the first time in his life, he felt like he wasn’t expected to do or say anything. So, he continued the conversation, turning it to the ocean, and its plethora of power. They talked about school and its irony, sex and how it should take a back seat to nights like that night; and they talked about dying, and how it shouldn’t be something to fear, which in turn sent Caroline into her own tearful frenzy about how she loved life, and never wants to leave it, and it was about this time that J.C’s heart moved his lips to hers and back to say: “I would have never guessed you to be someone who lives in the past.” This time neither Caroline or J.C could muster the control to simply move the conversation on, instead they laid chest to chest in the sand, J.C’s lips to Caroline’s, and Caroline’s heart to J.C’s. The night progressed slowly as the two of them laid together on the sand ensconced in each other’s embrace, and lost in each other’s love. They both knew that eventually life would return to their lungs, and that the sun would finally rise with the new day, but for once in each of their lives, they didn’t need to fear it alone.
They laid chest to chest, lips to lips, and heart to heart till sunrise.