normalsville – season 01

episode 02 – This is Where Our Story Begins.

act 01 – Waiting.

When she closes her eyes, she can remember it.

She feels the wind washing over her face, tossing her hair carelessly too and fro, brushing her face, whipping in the air...

She sees the long blades of grass bending all around her, rippling with every gust, dancing as if they have no cares...

She feels his hands on hers, his arms wrapping snugly around her, holding her gently from behind, making sure that she's safe and without troubles...

She breathes the sweet, untouched air, so crisp, so wonderful, so perfumed with the promises of nothing but freedom, nothing but a life free of tears...

When she closes her eyes... she can remember it. It's a memory very near and dear to her heart. It was the first time that she remembers being truly happy.

That was then.

Now.

Brrrriing...

The phone rings. Jessie Smyth stares at it with great apprehension. She knows who is on the other end of the line. Or at least she assumes she does. One can never really be sure, after all, but nonetheless. All the signs are there. Two months ago, she had told him that he didn't really love her. One month ago, she walked out to Wayde Hill in the darkness and began to wonder if she was living the life she wanted. Mere moments ago, the wind blew into her shop and brushed her ear.

It reminded her of him, and... she knew it was stupid, and she knows that it's stupid, but... she couldn't help but feel as if he was calling to her... the desperate cry of a fond memory.

And now, the phone is ringing.

Brrrriing...

She takes a deep breath and attempts to gather her wits. It doesn't work. Her mind is racing, her pulse is going wild and her heart feels as if it is ready to burst right out of her chest, it's beating so hard.

If it really is him, her whole life could change in a million ways in the next few moments. And not in little ways, oh no. That would be too simple and neat, and when it came to him... nothing was ever simple and neat. Everything seemed to be so big and sweeping and needlessly complicated. Why things had to be that way, God only knew but... the simple truth was, things were that way... and one way or another... she's going to have to deal with it...

Matters of love rarely disappear into the wind...

She picks up the phone.

And breathes.

"Hello?"

Her voice gets carried down the phone lines and filtered into Taylor Mathew's ear. He here's the pleasant melody through the distortion of the distance and the receiver, and immediately, he feels as if he's being crushed by a big giant invisible hand that has grabbed a hold of his lungs and heart, and is slowly squeezing them until he can no longer breathe.

"Hello?"

He quickly wonders if he's making a mistake. Two months ago, he was told that he didn't really love her. One month ago, he spent an entire day, staring at a wall, asking himself if the last five years he spent in the city was all just a waste. Moments ago, he had breathed his dreams into the wind and hoped against hope that his wasted heart wasn't believing in a memory that she didn't believe in anymore...

Seconds ago, he dialed.

"Hello?"

Her voice is so beautiful...

"Hi," he breathes.

Then.

He's never been so nervous. Or so he tells himself. He knows that in the future, there will probably be worse times, and he knows that in the past, there's probably been some times that make this moment pale in comparison, but he isn't really thinking about the future or the past. He's stuck in the moment, staring at the door of her apartment, his mind busily running through all the things he wants to say to her in a... hopefully romantic attempt to sweep her off her feet and begin the night off right.

"Hello... yeah, real original..."

"Hi there, you... uh... crap, no, that's no good..."

"Heeeeeeeyyyyyy..." he points a finger at the door, "...you. Pff..."

Obviously, things aren't coming together in his head, and if he waits a whole lot longer, he's going to be late. So it's time for him to suck it up, knock on the door and—

"—just need to grab something I left in your apartment," he hears her voice through the door, "I'll be there in a se-"

The door opens and her jaw drops.

"Oh God," she utters, throwing one arm up to cover her face while using the other one to quickly slam the door in his face.

He blinks, "It's, uh... nice to see you too."

"What are you doing here?" she asks, sounding quite frantic.

"I, uh... I thought I was supposed to be here at five."

"You're early!"

"It's one minute to."

"I'm not ready yet! I look hideous. Oh God, you didn't see me, did you?"

He smiles, content with the knowledge that she could never look hideous, no matter how hard she tries.

"No."

"Oh, thank God. Uh... Candice... could you... please..."

He hears some shuffling. Seconds later, her friend opens the door slightly, and she slides out, smiling as she pulls some strands of hair behind one ear.

"Yeah, um..." she points her thumb at the door, "Jessie isn't ready yet. I'm..." she moves her pointing hand to her stomach, "I'm Candice. Hi."

"Hi."

"So," she smiles a bit, "You're the famous Taylor. Jessie talks about you a lot."

He smiles a bit as his stomach does a happy little summersault.

"Really?"

"Yeah," she says. She points to her right, "Anyway, Jessie needs some lip gloss so..."

"Oh, I have some lip chap," he offers, beginning to rummage through a pocket.

"Oh," she smiles, "That's so sweet. You have so much to learn. Wait here."

"Oh... kay," he states as she makes her way down the hallway.

He sighs and stares at the door.

"Ssss-oohh..." he mutters, tapping his fingers nervously against the side of his pants, "Uh... hi Jessie. God, hi? What am I thinking..."

"Good morning."

"Bonjour."

"Guten tag. Heh."

"I'm standing right by the door," he hears her voice, "I can hear everything you're saying."

"Oh jeeze," his face suddenly burns a bright crimson, "Sorry, I was just—"

"Oh no, don't worry," her voice smiles, "It's kind of... sweet. In, you know, a crazy sorta way."

"Oh."

A few moments of awkward silence pass.

"Uh... I have lip chap," he states weakly.

"I'm sorry," her voice asks politely "What was that?"

"Nothing."

Stupid.

A few moments later, Candice comes back down the hallway. She holds up a small clear tube of some gloss-like substance and wiggles it slowly between her index finger and her thumb.

"Found it," she said, "Jessie should be ready in a few moments."

He smiles as Candice opens the door (again, very carefully) and slides inside. He notices that despite the slight discomfiture, he doesn't entirely mind the wait. Waiting, after all, means he hasn't screwed up yet. When she isn't waiting anymore... that's when he'll worry...

Two Months Ago.

Jessie always leaves the door open when she begins to close. Sure, it's after hours, and sure, if someone were to come in and demand service, she would tell them simply that the grills and the deep fryers and all the rest have been shut down for the night and possibly risk pissing off a potential customer, but she doesn't really mind. The only people stupid enough to some into The Joint after midnight and demand food were definitely not from town, so there were no repercussions to be had. And besides, in the hot summer, after having the hot grills and fryers going, the cool air and the breeze was nice.

Yet still... there are those times that Jessie wished she had foregone the open door and just left it closed. The wind, after all, had a history of bringing both good, and bad news...

"Morning," a voice says from the door.

Jessie stops wiping the table she's cleaning, taking a moment to make sure she heard the tone right, that it's not just Taylor's little prick of a brother Jason being an asshole again. She quickly realizes that she heard right, and sighs, returning to wiping down the table.

"So you're back," she says, not even looking at him.

"Yeah, I guess I am, for a little while," he says, "My brother told me that if I didn't stop buy sometime over the summer break, he'd skip school to go to the city and kick me in the nuts. Apparently with his leg. I guess he thought he didn't make that clear enough when he used the word 'kick', so..."

"Taylor, just... stop, okay?" Jessie mutters, "You obviously didn't come here to tell me about your brother, so why don't you cut to the part where you feed me the bullshit about how the first thing you did when you got here was come to see me because you missed me so much."

Taylor leaves his mouth open for a few moments as he searches for the words he so desperately needs to make her happy in this moment. A moment of perceived brilliance strikes him as he reaches in his pocket, and pulls something out.

"I bring a peace offering," he says, smiling hopefully.

She looks up and across the room to see what's in his outstretched hand.

A tube of chap stick.

She sighs.

He obviously remembers their first date. And truth be told... she does too.

But there's a funny thing about memories: they aren't actually real. And over time... they change as your hopes and your dreams and your whims turn them into fond moments of times gone by... or painful reminders of how things will never be the way they used to be...

"Taylor... you can't keep doing this," she says to him, fighting back the tears she can feel welling up in her own eyes, "You just... you can't keep coming here whenever you feel like it and tell me that you still care for me, because... If you really did care for me, like you keep on trying to tell me you do... you'd still be here. With me. Like you always said you would be."

His mouth gapes open once again before he says, "Jessie, you know what it's like for me here... I can't survive living here. I just can't do it, you know that."

She shakes her hear, voice quivering with pain, "No. No I don't know that, because you didn't even try, Taylor. You just gave up. You just shut off all your relationships and ran, and even though you come back here every now and then, you're still running, and... I'm done. I'm... I'm done with... with waiting for something that isn't going to happen, Taylor. I can't do it."

Taylor looks at her sullenly, words completely escaping him this time.

She sniffles a little, and feels a tear trying to work it's way out from under her lids.

She quickly wipes it away and says, "Just... could you go now? Please? I have to clean the store."

"..sure," he mutters quietly to himself.

He looks at the tube of lip chap in his hand, and then he places it on the one of the nearest tables, standing up on one end.

"Just in case you need it," he says.

And he walks out.

Taylor went straight home to the city after that. He didn't even stop to tell his brother that he was in town, even though he was sure Jason would hear about it eventually and hate him forever for coming and leaving just like that. But if Taylor stayed in Normalsville that night... he was almost certain that it would nearly kill him.

She wasn't waiting for him anymore...

He had to figure out what to do...

End of Act 01.