• I stand alone on this dark evening of mine under an old willow tree. Today was like no other day for me. Gray clouds filled the sky, while the fog was so dense it was almost opaque I could barely see my hands in front me. I watch many people through a small opening in the long vines of the willow mourning their eyes out over a small grave. Under the thick scattered soil is a woman, a beautiful, delicate woman. We knew each other for over six years. We were basically friends. Well, friends with benefits that is, but nobody ever knew that or even wondered that. I didn’t want people to know about us, since I knew her parents would hate me. I wasn’t the kind of guy you’d bring home to mom if you know what I mean. Her family was rich and high-class, while I had no family of my own. I was an orphan. The only place that I ever lived in was a run down orphanage I ran away at seven. I couldn’t take those strict, churlish nuns. Anyways, we both lived in two very different worlds. After I had ran away, I just went anywhere I wanted to go. For food, I just mooched off of people I would find anything in the dumpsters to eat. C’mon, when you’re hungry, anything tastes good! After about six months I met a boy named Tom. We soon became good friends. Tom wasn’t an orphan. He went to school, and he had a home with family. None of his parents ever saw me until one day he left his bag at home and he went to get it, while I came along with him. His mother was surprised, she couldn’t believe how dirty, and ragged my clothes had looked and how dirty my face was. Tom explained everything to her, and from then on I had a temporary home. By the time I was sixteen, me and Tom started to go our separate ways, and I had earned enough cash to get my own place, an apartment building, kind of run down, but hey, it’s better then nothing, right? Well anyways on Friday nights, I would be searching through the city for something to do. Usually I’d go to the old abandoned park and sit on a rusty, over used bench and look up at that amazing sky, gazing at the constellations, and just wonder about the world. On one Friday night I heard a rustling at a bush that was right beside the pathway. The rusty gate creaked. I quickly turned around and it was her. A young woman, about average height, with very beautiful wavy, brown hair. She wore a white miniskirt, along with a long tight peach shirt, and a thin white jacket. She couldn’t have been alone with her unique looks, and innocent face. She’s so vulnerable. My eyes couldn’t stop staring, until I heard.
    “Hello?” she said in a sweet, calming voice.
    “Oh hey, um… what are you doing here all alone?”
    “I just wanted to get out of the house, I just love coming out at night and gazing into the sky with its endless amount of stars.”
    “So do I. Would you like to sit with me?”
    Without taking a minute of thought, I suddenly found her sitting beside me.
    I was about to ask her something, until she began to lift her head up to gaze into the night sky. Right there I just looked at her until I had her attention.
    Stuttering as I tried to ask her, “ I-I never got your n-name?”
    She giggled softly, “my name’s Lola, and yours?”
    “Oh, uh, you can call me Kevin.”
    Soon, the days went by quickly, and Lola and I always met up with each other every Friday night, around 11:00 P.M. We learned of each others backgrounds, but we still grew fond of each other. Sometimes we would make special plans to see each other on the weekends. But that was rare, since her mother was always concerned about where she went, especially at night. As days soon became months, I wanted to make her my girl, I wanted to be her boyfriend. I never had a girlfriend before in my life, so I had no experience with the ladies, of course. As I eagerly walked into the park that night, I just picked a random, red, tulip, which was growing from the side of the fence. I awaited her arrival that night, minutes passed by and I still didn’t see her, not even walking close by. I was worried. By around 2:30 in the morning, I gave up, slowly leaving the tulip behind on the bench. I was very fatigue throughout the day, even after I took a nap. Tomorrow had come and it was early Sunday morning. The birds filled the sky with their chirping. I thought it was a good day to go and eat out, for breakfast. I didn’t have any good food at home anyways. I decided to go the diner. It wasn’t far, and just a few blocks that passed the old, park. After about an hour, I walked home, beginning to pass the old, park near by. Suddenly, I heard a pricking noise. It was her, it was Lola, and she was plucking flowers from over at the side of the fence. I just wanted to hug her so tightly and close to me. I missed her so much, and it was only just a couple days. I didn’t want to scare her with the creaking noise of the fence gate, so I watched her from outside, and tried to think of a conversation.
    “Hey, Lola!”
    Immediately, she jumped up and turned around as if she was scared, but when her eyes met mine, I could see a smile on her face. Eager to be with her, I opened the gate and walked to her, trying not to make it show. She apologized to be about Friday night. Her mother wouldn’t let her go out. This time her mother was suspicious about why it was every Friday, past 10:00 P.M. that she would decide to leave the house. She could come out from time to time, just not every Friday of every week. I felt as if my organs got pressed against the inside of my chest and just dropped. I was disappointed; I looked over at the rusty, old bench, and saw that my red tulip was still lying there. Holding the tulip, I turned around and faced Lola. I was really nervous. I feared her rejection to come at any moment. I sucked it up, and with my eyes partially closed, I said “Lola, would you be my girl?” I handed her tulip, looking up into her eyes. I saw them getting watery by the second.
    “Lola, what’s wrong. If you don’t want to be my girlfriend, you could’ve just told me?” I said a bit disappointedly.
    In a sobbing voice that I could understand she said, “No, I really wanted us to be together; I liked you a lot too. It’s just that my parents…” she stopped right there.
    “Your parents what? They don’t want you dating?”
    “They let me date, of course they do, they just want me to marry some rich guy, anybody else, and it’s a no. I really did want to be your girlfriend and I was waiting for you to ask that, but I can never hide this from my parents. Never! She got up from the bench and ran out back to her house. I had one last glimpse of her, which was her faced down, with tears streaming down her cheeks. I felt bad for her, yet I also felt bad that we could never be together, due to family issues. I was full of rage. Why couldn’t I be born in an upper, middle class, family; I could’ve been with her! It’s like there is an invisible boundary that just wants us away from each other. I calmed down and waited till Friday night. Once again I went to the park, and she wasn’t there. The next week came and on that Friday night. She still wasn’t there. I started to worry. What if something bad happened to her. I tried not to think of the many horrific things that could’ve been done to her. The next week had come, and still, no sign of her presence. As the last week of the month of May, came by, I went to the park once again. Something terrible had happened. The park had been vandalized. It’s like somebody came with a crowbar and started to tear every thing apart. The gate was beat up and dented, flowers torn up, patches of grass everywhere, and the bench was sawed down to pieces. You couldn’t have thought it was even a bench after that had happened. A bunch of people in thick, black attire, walked down the sidewalk, looking like they were in pain, as if they didn’t care about anything else. They all kept walking down the sidewalk, though I had nothing to do, I just followed, trying not to look suspicious. It was a long walk, but we finally got to the graveyard, which I never knew was close by, I watched slowly as many people were crowding that one grave, until I found a way to get a glimpse beside this old woman. A photo of Lola leaned so delicately against her gravestone. I must’ve arrived just in time because they were reading a letter that Lola wrote before she committed suicide. The old lady opened the letter and started reading out loud.
    “Mom, is this what you wanted for me?! To end up like this, you are just selfish people, you and dad. Why couldn’t you let me love who I wanted? Not just some rich, stuck up, selfish, snob, like both of you. I had a guy I fell in love with and his name was…Kevin. I loved him, but I knew I could never be with a great guy like him, so hence my slit bloody wrists, Goodbye…”
    I went under the old willow tree nearby, and here I am standing alone…