the boy and the girl

Let me tell you a real quick story about a boy and a girl.

The boy got off of work last Friday and drove to a building in the industrial part of North Hollywood. He pulled out an instrument case from his car and entered the building, playing music with some people he met for a few hours.

When that was done, he decided to drive over to a friend's house, on the other side of the city. He could've gone home, but then he'd be alone and it would remind him that the girl was out on the town with her friends that night. She was having fun most likely.

So the boy drove out to his friend's house and stayed until midnight. Even though it was Friday and he wasn't the least bit tired, he bid his friends farewell and drove home.

When he arrived, there was a message on his phone, from the girl. He knew instantly because the Caller ID box showed her number. He called her back without even bothering to listen to the message-- she had just called ten minutes before he got home.

She was fresh from a night out with the girls, and she said that it didn't take very long for her to get bored. She explained that her phone message was an invitation to the boy, for him to stop by on the way home from his rehearsal. He asked her if the invitation still stood or if it was too late, and she told him that it wasn't too late.

The boy showed up with orange juice, breakfast eggs and artificial bacon, or "veggie bacon". The bacon really belonged to the girl but had been left in the boy's refrigerator a week earlier. The girl didn't eat meat-- she was a vegetarian.

The girl made breakfast at one in the morning for the boy, who hadn't eaten all day. Then, after they ate the two of them sat down on her bed and watched a horror movie. And the boy laughed to himself, realizing how funny it all seemed: the two of them trying to go out and do other things, only to end up wanting to be with each other, sitting on the bed, watching a DVD-- any DVD, it doesn't matter which --smoking cigarettes and not saying a word because even beautiful words would spoil the sanctity of a moment like that...

...and the next morning they woke up and fumbled around in the bed for a few hours, lazily gauging the day's respective plans, kissing and caressing and dressing and undressing and dressing again, this boy and this girl, the best of friends.

So the boy and the girl decided to get up, get some errands done together, and spend the rest of the weekend eating food and smoking out of pipes and laying around being lazy, sometimes alone, sometimes with good friends in nice settings while drinking wine with feasts spread out on dining tables.

And the boy and the girl were happy, but the reason why they were happy had nothing to do with the usual reasons why people get happy. The boy and the girl were happy because there was no need to spell it out, no necessity to make a big production about it.

It was enough that they wanted to spend their time together. Neither of them felt like they were obligated to be there with the other.

There was a palatable balance.

And that's the end of the story, but it's not the end of their story, and it's certainly not the end of the boy and the girl. In fact, you could say that it is a beginning of sorts, but not the usual type of beginning. There is no name, word or label for the type of beginning this boy and this girl are experiencing.

It almost seems pointless to try. But the boy knew that he could at least give other people a small impression of what it felt like. Then, they could decide for themselves what the boy and the girl felt, and whether it was a good or bad ending to this story.

The boy and the girl don't want their story to end. One day it will, but not now, and hopefully not any time soon. But if it should ever end, then it will be due to the passage of time, and nothing else. Because once a story is set into motion, nothing short of an act of God can derail its momentum, and that's assuming that God exists.

There is no question that there exists, however, a story about a boy and a girl. And that's all that matters to them right now.

Will they live happily ever after?

Sure. Why not?