This is a tale of love, passion, fury, hate, and a tale of finding one another. A story of healing and becoming whole. For love may not complete us, but it certainly can.
Alas, here begins our story, of tragic woe and of love of heart.
The Professor paused for a moment readjusting his glasses a little before glancing out at the window. Quite the fine day in New York City. The weeklong storm had washed every sidewalk and gutter clean and a tincture of freshness still lingered in the air, despite, of course, the traffic fumes. Yet the sound of the vibrant cars that habituated the concrete jungle was music for both eyes and soul, bringing a wave of sweet earthly joy.
"There is no better curse than love. Death will do us part but love, all forms of it, will keep us alive. A perfect blessing, and the most powerful of hexes. Don't close your heart, for love is a cruel mistress, and she will fight back."
The Professor sat down his copy of the book onto the table, the cover facing upwards as he got up from the table and began to speak
"Well class, here you have it. We've successfully finished the work that arguably, only Sappho herself could outmatch. This book has made a massive contribution to literature as a whole and is one of the main fragments of history that tells us a tale of mythology, love, and a bit more. " He dialogued, snatching a few looks at the clock to make sure he wouldn't miss out on any necessary information before he finished
"Which is precisely why," he continued "I want each of you to write a paper on love. It's a delicate topic, one that each of you should handle carefully. Just make the topic about love, I'll grade the rest. A little early but this your end-of-year assignment, and uh Ms. Olivia, please don't put your poetry on the same page as your paper, it's great stuff but not necessarily the most academic. " He said, a kind smile on his face as a laugh went round the class, with dear Olivia left a little embarrassed as she tried to hold back a smile as the class started to pack all their things up. Our Professor was an amusing sort. Whatever witty retort his students had, he had one better. But he wasn't cruel or mean or any of the sorts, he was a kind man, deeply passionate about the literature of the world, and not to mention, quite handsome as well.
"Class dismissed!" he shouted out from the infernal clanging of the school bell, taking a final sip of his mug as he watched his students leave before continuing "And no homework y'all, enjoy your weekend everyone!" which clearly was quite the popular move between everyone, seeing as few cheers of joy and all were exclaimed from a few of his more... jock students you could say.
But Dear Reader, I'm sure the story of the Professor and his class isn't the one you want to read. Well I think, I'm not sure. Either way, our story begins with Ash Corbin, quite the influential character in this little story. After all, she is one of the protagonists of our little tale.
She left the class, holding one strap of her bag by the back as she went off to her locker and grabbed the rest of her notebooks and all for the weekend. Her light brown corduroy jacket brushed against the door as she walked down the hall cluttered with her various colleagues.
Crowded with people, chaos in the hallway seemed so perfect, as if a movie where cliques would remain the same eternally. The truth was much different than you'd expect Dear Reader, for it was an imperfect place of nothing less than perfection. But that is, indeed, a story for a different time
Her jacket perfectly fit with both her mahogany skin, the hue of an English oak in spring rains, and as beautiful from the first rays of dawn to the serenade of every starlit night, along with an ivory Egyptian cotton poet blouse, hardly enough to protect her from the chill fall of New York City. But if anything, the cold never really bothered her anyway. Her cuffed ripped baby blue jeans dress coded her various times but in a public college in the so-called Land of Opportunity, did that ever matter?
She got up to her locker, a slightly bent locker from the incident that had happened later on in the year, and got out all her stuff.
"Fuck, what do I need?" she muttered to herself under her breath as stuck her hand in her mess of a locker, paper, and a lot more all around. Ash was generally a fairly organized person but good Lord, who knew what lied behind that mess.
Well, surprisingly, nothing too bad. Ash was a follower of the arts herself, aspiring musician and poet, she made her own poems of love and tragedy along with songs of misery and joy on the guitar her now-deceased father had given to her on her 15th birthday.
"Okay, I think that's it? Uh..." she thought to herself as she closed off her backpack, and in the corner of her eye, she glanced at the mixtape in the side of her locker a memory of a happier time. She thought over whether she should've just destroyed it a long time ago.
"I'll get it out another time. It isn't worth it." she thought to herself as she closed her locker door, being sure to lock it, and grabbed her backpack from the marble floor of the school hall. She hurried off to the main entrance, wanting to leave the building, and head off to her apartment. Walking. It wasn't too far away, although she always wished she could come back to someplace nicer, not the cramped little home she lived in.
"Ash wait up!!!!" she heard her name being shouted by a familiar voice as she headed her way home
"Oh, hey Sofi," Ash replied back nonchalantly, turning her head as she saw her friend Sofia behind her and paused a little to let her catch up.
"How was class?" Ash asked as her friend caught up to her and they performed their signature little handshake, it was one of the few things that managed to brighten up her day, and she showed it, with a grin that managed to make her hazel eyes rise up sparkle like a jewel in the sun.
"It was like AMAZING!! You know Astrophysics and Mechanical Engineering are just so awesome it's ridiculous. And the MATH too, I'll just tell you this, formulae and thermodynamics are a hell of a lot more important, it's so fun!" her friend geeked out as they walked together, feeling the cold against her neck as she readjusted her scarf. "What about you?"
"Yeah well sweetie, we can't all be geniuses like you." Ash teased as she caught Sofia rolling her eyes. "Either way class was fine, we finished our book! Turns out it's my favorite, cause lesbians, but like it's probably written by Sappho cause there's no way someone else could have written that, like come on, there is no better curse than love? That is just… so very deep" she laughed, fixing the backpack on her shoulder, putting her phone back in her pocket.
"I'll pretend I'm familiar with Sappho for your sake. But true, lesbians are a great reason to make a book your favorite." Sofia replied before continuing, her voice a little raspy from the cold outside as she tried to warm up her hands. "But I mean like maybe that's possible no? Like the Universe has all this weird and fascinating stuff! I mean come on; galactic cannibalism exists! It's not as if like Sappho has to write everything. Well I think, is she really that good?." she asked
Ash shot a sharp teasing look at her friend and rolled her eyes "Science girl really?" she smirked, not surprised to the least that her friend had much such a huge leap in comparisons. Galactic cannibalism was arguably less believable than Sappho being a time-traveling poet. Although, it wasn't exactly an impossible concept.
"Hey, I'm just saying! You never know!" she replied a little taken aback,
"Mhm sure." she sighed as she put her freezing hand into the warm wool of her coat. "Anyway, what are you doing later on? I was thinking you could head over to my place and do a movie marathon? Oh, and I could show you some of my new songs too!" Ash asked as she glanced over to her friend, deep into thought over mathematical terms... A mystery to most other people. Although Ash never tired of Sofi's somewhat more interesting quirks
"Hm? Oh yeah of course! I'd love to!" she replied, a grin on her face as she giggled a little excitedly
"Yes, yes, I'm sure you'll find a way to prove me wrong, after all, you're the mathematical genius aren't you?" she replied, doing her best to act a little exasperated as they stopped at her apartment door, a fairly clean and modern place from the outside, there wasn't much good to be said about the inside.
"So wanna hear upstairs now? We can get started on the marathon," she suggested, fidgeting around with the loose thread on her pants
"I gotta finish up my quantum mechanics project, so no. Sorry!!! But don't worry, I'll be here for the movie!" she replied, a little disappointed she wouldn't be able to hang out with her friend right about now.
"Honey it's fine, no problem! I have to clean up the place anyway, it's a mess," she replied, trying to soothe her friend make sure to let her know that it really wasn't a problem.
"You sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure, now go and work Science Girl!" she laughed and pulled Sofia into a hug, nothing too special, a friendly little hug of sorts as they tried to fight back against the blistering cold of New York City, if anything, it worked.
"Bye, love you!" Ash shouted as she opened the door to her condominium, trying to ignore the stench of what seemed to be something dead, which wasn't exactly very uncommon in the dump she lived in. The walls were dirty, the wallpaper was peeling off, it smelled like piss (very literally occasionally) most of the time, the floors had their wooden pattern faded from the ground long ago, a thin layer of dust on top as the landlord refused to do anything about it. The place has a general vibe of eeriness age discomfort that wasn't exactly pleasant to anyone.
But hey, it was a house!
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