Forbidden Love

Forbidden Love

By: Chad Love

A few minutes later she heard a door open down the hallway, and footsteps heading towards the boys room; she panicked, she didn’t know how long she had been there; she must have dozed off laying there next to him; she went over to the window and jumped out into the bushes and the coolness of the dirt in the flower bed underneath his window brought her back to reality. 

The boy’s grandmother came in to check on him.  Penny watched from the bushes, the boy looked like a white ghost, lying in a field of fire, still burned and scarred. 

She jumped out of the bushes and ran across the road and went up to her room.  The corvette still lay there on her desk, missing the mirror and banged up from being thrown in the garbage.  She can’t help to remember what she saw right before the fire.  She walks over to the window and looks down at her name burned into the ground.

            “I don’t know what I was thinking, how can a relationship between me and this boy work?”

She shuts her eyes and all she can see is the boy on fire right next to her name by the tree.  She couldn’t help to think that it was all her fault.

Over the next few months Penny built several new model cars, each of which she threw into the garbage after she completed them.  She thought building another GTO would make her forget about what they had, but she couldn’t. 

She didn’t spend too much time with Jenny Prince anymore; she had canceled so many times that she didn’t even bother to ask Penny to go out with her anymore, so she was alienated all over again.  The only one who was there was her mom and the boy.  

The next day she went back to Wal-Mart and bought one more model car.  She found the same cherry red 73’ corvette.  It instantly brought back everything, every night she had spent with him, all the kisses they shared, and the feelings that came along with it.  So she bought it and took in back home and began to build it.  This time she still had the old Corvette, so she brought it out and put it next to the kit she was about to build for reference.  She stayed up all night finishing the Corvette.

 

The next morning was Saturday; she knew that the boys grandmother left every morning to run down to the gas station to pick up a paper and grab a few groceries; that would be the perfect time for her to see how he was doing.

 Before she left to head over there she took the corner of a piece of paper and wrote a small note for the boy placed it in the new Corvette and went to the boys house. 

The grandmother had left so she knew that she had approximately 20 minutes before she returned. 

She walked past the boy’s bedroom window on the way to the front door and saw that he was sitting there.  By this time he had lost all the bandages and was healed from the burns the only thing left behind was the scars from the fire.  He met at the front door and I showed him the Corvette.

“I made this for you.  When you have time later I would like to meet up and talk.”

            He agreed and said, “This doesn’t change anything between us?”

“I don’t want anything to change between us.”

She handed him the Corvette and began to walk away as the grandmother pulled up in the driveway and got out of the car.

“Penny…” she said, “what are you doing?”

“Oh I just stopped by to check in and see how he was doing. I brought him a get well soon gift.”

“I don’t think you should be here” she said.

“I know, I’m sorry; I have to go, have a good day.”

I headed back over to my house. When I got back I looked across and saw the boy in his window, looking at me, and then he walked away.

            The boy took the Corvette back to his room where he noticed something inside it.  The note that Penny had wrote to him. It read: “I know I normally put the car out under the tree when I want to meet, but this is for you and when you are ready put the car in your window and I will know you want to meet.  See you soon, Love Penny.”  As soon as he finished reading the note he quickly changed clothes and put the car in the window and headed down to the storage shed. 

10 minutes later Penny showed up.  Without any words she immediately threw herself in his arms and started kissing him.  The boy didn’t know how to react, but he was so aroused by the idea, words didn’t matter at this point.  After a few minutes they pulled apart from each other’s arms; out of breath and sweating Penny says:

“Sorry I didn’t mean for that to just happen”

“I know,” he says.

“I’m really glad you wanted to meet”

“Penny I love you, and I want us to be together. I don’t care what everyone thinks.”

I was shocked by his reaction and I didn’t know what to say back.  I jumped back into his arms and kissed him.  All I could think was I am going to make this work, even though there is going to be a rough road ahead of us, it doesn’t matter. I pulled myself off of him and said: “I love you too.”

We lay there next to the storage shed and made a small fire beside us to bring warmth. “Crackle.” I ran my hands over his scars and all I could think about was the night after he returned from the hospital and he showed me the sparks flying underneath that blanket and I turned to him and said, “Watch this.” “Crackle.” I took the old corvette out of my purse and tossed it into the fire, “Crackle, crackle,” which sent sparks and embers flying into the night sky.  It was beautiful.

I turned to him and said, “We will make this work.” Silence followed and we lay next to the fire and watched it burn and all I could think now was not how hard the road ahead of us would be but, how we will have each other to travel it together and that was it.