Chapter Four: A Moment

Chapter Four- A Moment

It wasn’t ‘til I walked away from him that one time that I realized how lonely I was. My whole entire country had abandoned me and the rest of the countries I called my Allies were not around to support me. Almost like they wanted me to be crushed. Of course they could take my land when I was gone so maybe that was what they wanted but I just didn’t want to believe it. I still want to believe they were my friends.

I was starting to doubt I was even alive at this point. I felt like I had already disappeared. I just wanted someone to come and find me. I wanted to know that someone out there cared or at least knew I existed. 

Maybe I shouldn’t have left the Brit back there but he seemed to just be yelling at me anyways. It always just made me feel worse when he was upset with me. I hated to hear him yell. I just wanted his smile to come back. Even if it was just a moment.

My mind was filled with so much doubt now I knew that wasn’t gonna happen. How could I even ask that after how much we’ve both been through? It was stupid of me to even ponder the idea. Why did it occur to me that that’s what I wanted though?

My pace had come to a complete halt and a small tear was now running down my cheek. Why are you crying you moron? I shoved back the rest of the tears and wiped away the one stain that was left on my cheek. What do I do now?

I knew the right thing was to just mind my own business and walk away but my heart thought differently. My heart wanted to run back to him and make him smile. The little beating told me to watch over him until the day I disappeared. Although what my heart told me was arguing what was going on in my head. My head knew it would bring pain to him when I disappeared.

My head and my heart were battling it out inside of me. I didn’t know which direction to turn. Then I realized there was one more feeling inside me I wasn’t listening to. My gut feeling was still there. I shoved out all other thoughts and feelings and allowed my body to move on it’s own.

My body ran into the direction it felt it needed to go. The direction led me straight into… a girl? I banged my head against hers and stumbled backward. Good thing I had a hard heard and it didn’t hurt. I grabbed her wrist and helped stand her up.

I realized I was running in the direction of the small café that was around here. Apparently my gut was telling me to drink some tea and eat. That seemed normal for my stomach. Guess I shouldn’t listen to it for advice on how to solve my problems. I sighed and looked down at my feet.

I then looked up at the girl now who I noticed had tears running down her cheeks. Her makeup had completely run off at this point into two black stripes of back. She almost looked like a clown. I forced myself not to chuckle which left a tickle in the back of my throat. I released my grip on her wrist and waited for her to say something.

“You, you think I’m pretty right? That people would desire me?” she asked in desperation.

I was scared to say what was on his mind. Then I realized it was that nurse from before. I remembered her face before and closed his eyes for a moment to picture it looking like that now. She was pretty, not the prettiest, but pretty. As for desirable how would he know? Girls were weird.

“You’re pretty. Depends on the person I guess.” I simply answered.

She seemed to smile at this and used a handkerchief to wipe off all the access makeup from her face. Now she looked like the nurse I remembered. Although as soon as I opened my eyes I saw that she had moved closer to me. She was almost close enough to touch me with her nose.

I took a step backward and my back landed straight into the wall. I stood as close to the wall as I could but that didn’t stop her from reaching out her hand. She touched my chin and ran her finger up and down my cheek. This tickled my face so I tried to swat her hand away but she just grabbed it.

“Look lady I didn’t say anything to you to make you think that I was into you. So why don’t you just back off?” I asked her in an angry tone.

“Such anger. I make sure that they never forget.” she continued.

She stood on her heels and leaned her head in closer to mine. I didn’t want to hit her cause with my strength it might break a few bones of her body. I didn’t want to hit a lady but it might be necessary if she moves in any closer. My fist was clenched and about to punch when her lips came closer, almost touching mine.

“Allie! Just what do you think you’re doing?!” I heard a man behind me yell.

She seemed to have recognized the voice and quickly backed away from me. She held her hands nervously in front of her as she looked to the man whom the voice came from. The man’s eyes were filled with anger as a bigger man stood beside him. The bigger man was standing with his arms crossed and the skinnier man was shouting loudly at the girl.

“Allie. You were flirting with one of our patients. That means your fired.” the big man said.

“But boss! He’s already out of the hospital so he’s not a patient anymore!” she yelled back.

“That rule no longer applies when the only reason you have this job is because you were dating the manager’s son.” the businessman continued.

“You can’t do that!” she yelled back.

I smiled at the irony at what had just happen. I honestly found this more entertaining than beating her up myself. I slowly and calmly slipped around the bend to find a shadow running in front of me. It was so dark I couldn’t make out the figure but if they had just seen that I didn’t want that picture of me to hit front page news. I ran after them as fast as my legs would take me.

Their legs managed to slow down and eventually were forced to stop. We both crouched and stopped for breaths. We stopped on a concrete sidewalk with the light post overhead. I slowly walked forward and they took a step backward in response. I tried to make out the face but it was covered by a shadow.

“Ok so if you saw any of that please don’t publish it as a news story. That would really ruin my reputation.” I pleaded.

“Why shouldn’t I? I mean I could make millions of a story like that. America caught making out with a nurse on a dark street. What has become of our hero? I mean it’s brilliant.” came the response.

“Now listen you!” I yelled.

I grabbed his color and lifted him up above my head. I was furious at his attitude. He wasn’t just gonna make fun of me like that. I was still a hero! I’m never gonna give up being one.

“Listen to more lies? Save it. I do not want to hear any excuses out of you. That really makes me look bad.” he replied.

I paused for a second. I now recognized the voice and the man I was talking to. His blonde hair seemed to illuminate in the moonlight. His eyebrows were pressed together in a frown and his cheeks looked like they had been tear stained. Had he been crying?

“When have I ever lied to you? And how come every time I see you your yelling at me? Do you hate me that much?” I yelled as I placed him on the ground.

“Because you’re a stupid moron! Why else? You just don’t understand do you?” he replied as he turned his face away.

“If you’re mad about what you think you saw, don’t be. I didn’t do anything, she came onto me.” I defended.

“That doesn’t matter! You still were using such… vulgar behavior!” he yelled back.

“Dude c’mon she didn’t even kiss me. Besides maybe I wanted a first kiss anyway. It’s only because of you that I never got one!” 

He seemed like he wanted to yell something else at my face but he didn’t. He kept his mouth shut and slowly walked over to me. For some reason his face was flushed and he looked like he was about to die. He stood right in front of me and stared at the ground.

“You  aren’t gonna cry are you? I’m sorry I didn’t mean to yell I just…” 

My sentence was cut short as I felt a pull on my jacket and warmth touch my lips. I looked down to see the lips of Britain pushed against mine. I didn’t know what to do. I stood there dumbstruck, trying to decide what to do.

I closed my eyes and kissed back. After a few seconds he pulled away and let out a deep exhale. I felt my face turn a deep red and my words caught in the back of my throat. Why did he have to go and do that? Now everything was even more confusing inside my head.

“Well, now you’ve had one.” he said.

I opened my mouth but closed it again. I couldn’t find the words to say. I couldn’t even hardly breath. I didn’t know what to think. Why now of all the times am I the one left without words?

“I have to leave now. I’ll see you around.” was all I heard from him.

In the next instant he was gone. He had that knack of running away from me when I needed to speak with him the most. That had to be a dream. There’s no way he would ever do that.

My head kept telling me that but my heart told me otherwise. It was honestly like another Tony inside of me the way it talked to me. I try to listen to it and hope for the best. Maybe one day it’ll turn out to work in my favor.