Day 100 and something...Eliza and the Scooter

I thought i would continue from last week and see how it goes.  I will have to do a special Post for Halloween.  Happy Reading.  Please feel free to tell me your thoughts.

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Eliza walked back into the dorm feeling a bit worn.  She reached her hand up to her head and felt around; it really didn’t even seem worth it to run her fingers through the rat’s nest that at one point had been her silky straight hair. 

“Oh, wow. Okay so I was apparently correct that he doesn’t have a car?”

“Uh, yeah.  You were right.  It was a scooter.  A scooter of death really. I am not cut out for a motorized contraption that small.  I thought we were going to die.”

“Oh dear.  I’m sorry.  You think that he would have planned better, or at least had a helmet or something for you.  The windblown look isn’t a good look.”

Eliza shook out her hair, and then looked in the mirror on the back of their door.  “He did.”

“Oh, well.  Maybe its not that bad?  He’s still cute right?” asked Julianne.

Eliza paused in thought before answering.  “How cute is cute enough to have to look like this each date?”  Eliza gestured to her hair.

“Maybe you two can walk everywhere?”

“Yeah sure.  That leaves us with Hooters, McDonnell’s, the Library Bar and Subway.  Romantic choices. But good news I can get a variety of food and enough liquor that I might be able to drown out any expectations that might creep in.”

“Okay, so he has a scooter.  The good news he seems mentally sane.  That must be  an improvement from nut number two that you dated for four days before he introduced you to his  ‘special friend’ Brad right?” asked Julianne, who was very obviously grasping at straws.

Eliza sighed.  “Yes, I am still unsure if I was actually dating him or if he was just trying to use me to show to his parents.  I am fairly positive he had some issues with who he was and what his parents would accept and so on.  He wasn’t crazy, but I sort of felt like the third wheel on my own dates.  I have horrible taste in men.  On a positive note I made a good friend once we ironed out that I was not the girl for him, now we have the best coffee dates ever.”

“Okay but if you pick one more head case I’m buying you a plant.  You seem to nurture everything; or you at least try to fix everything.  So if that’s your goal a plant should do the trick, maybe help you with the need to take care of everything.  You have yet to pick a fully functional guy.”

“Like your taste is much better,” was all Eliza could say.  Julianne stared at her intently.

“Uh huh.  No pointing fingers at the moment.  Lets recap, there was the guy who was gay,” Julianne said, before Eliza could interupt.

“In my defense he wasn’t out and he was super hot.”

“Right, whatever.  Then there was the momma’s boy, he couldn’t even leave the house without calling home and his mother only lives ten minutes away.  Then there was Lord of the Rings guy.”

“Okay, but in his defense he was the Elf and everyone knows how hot Orlando Bloom was.  Besides it was Halloween when we met, who knew he actually wore the pointy ears all the time.”

“My point is, you have horrible taste.  It’s like you need a fairy godmother or a guardian angel.”

“Jules, what do you think you are?  I mean definitely not the angel but you could be sort of the fairy godmother.”  Eliza smiled at her best friend and couldn’t help but laugh.

“I find that assessment a little off.  I’m an angel, I’ve just fallen.”  That last statement made by Julianne was followed by the two girls laughing contently as Julianne picked up a brush and started to untangle Eliza’s hair. 

Lucky in love wasn’t a phrase she’d be using any time soon as she winced at the tug the brush made.  Each stroke pulled make Eliza’s eyes tear up, perhaps men liked bald woman?  It would certainly fix the whole helmet and scooter dilemma.  Trying to be thankful for something Eliza was certain the one constant in her life would be Julianne, she prayed at the same time that steady stream of bad dates and weird men would not be.

Day 100 and something …Eliza and Elvis

Eliza is a character that has a full story – but until that story can be told to everyone through publication here is who she was in her college years.

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“You have a beautiful mind.”

Eliza looked dubiously at Julianne, her best friend for the last few years.  “Right, uh huh.  When was the last time those words were uttered by a man,”  Eliza paused and held her hand out to stop Julianne, “a real man, a human one.  Not one of those men from your books or the ones on stage in your acting classes?”

“Look do you want help or not?  You asked me to help you figure out what to talk about on your first date and my vision of him was this.”  Julianne waved her hand in the air gesturing to herself clad in a top hat and overcoat, a little paper mustache taped to her nose.

“Maybe we aren’t talking about the same guy?  I mean he isn’t Abe Lincoln and I realize he is a friend of yours so we can give him the benefit of the doubt that he is an odd duckling but he looked normal enough at the last party you dragged me to,”  Eliza said, sizing up Julianne.  Eliza smiled.  “In fact the way I remember him, he is a hot odd duckling, something between that doctor on that doctor show and the hottie in that movie we saw last week.”

A smile touched the edges of Julianne’s mouth.  “Gee with those descriptions how could I not know who you are talking about.”  Julianne laughed for a minute her fake tantrum thwarted. “Oh fine.  Lets pretend he’s boring, whatever.”  Julianne defeated, flopped down onto the twin size bed that was crammed into their small college room. 

“Well at least we know you have the right major, Miss Flair for the Dramatic.”  Eliza dropped down next to Julianne and situated herself so they were facing. “Okay, so when I said help I guess I was really thinking tell me something about him since I have yet to get past the making out stage with him.  I don’t even know his last name.”

Julianne perked up and smiled.  “His name is Theodore Elvis Fitzgerald.  He’s from Connecticut, he’s majoring in Theater with a minor in…”  Julianne pursed her lips in thought, raised her eyebrows and declared, “well actually I can’t remember the minor but who cares.  He loves anything cinema and Broadway related.”

“Well gee, lets state the obvious, well except the name, who names their kid Elvis?  His middle name is Elvis, really?”  The two girls burst into laughter.  “Remember your last fish, his name was Elvis.  All I can think of now is the goldfish with massive white eyes that used to creep up on us in the dark.  Dang thing scared the crap out of me.”

Julianne smiled, mostly likely at the untimely demise of Elvis the fish, who had been exceptionally huge at the time of his death.  “Well who knew that goldfish grow to the size of the tank.”

“No Jules who knew that you would buy, no wait, who knew we could fit a twenty gallon fish tank in our room.  The sucker got as big as a pop can, and his big bug eyes.”  A shudder ran through Eliza before she could finish her thought.  “Well anyway creepy fish.  I still don’t think the university has forgiven us, I didn’t realize he would clog the toilet.”

“Yeah well who cares.  I still laugh at the memory of you and the fish, who would think to sing, or hum, or whatever, the Jaws theme song.  It was brilliant.  Really captured the essence of Elvis as he approached the walls of the tank.”  Julianne sighed.  “Good times.”

Both girls stopped as the phone rang.  “It’s him, answer it,” whispered Julianne.

Eliza looked at the phone as if it were an alien coming for her. 

“Okay, seriously El, answer the phone, it isn’t going to bite.”

“But what if he isn’t what I think he is.  I’m so tired of bad dates and right  now he is a great make out friend.”

Julianne gave her a disapproving look and shook her head.  Still unsure Eliza lifted the receiver. “Hello?”  She paused, “okay, I’ll be right down.”  She hung up the phone.

“He’s here to pick me up, thanks for nothing on the talk points.  Oh well, too late now.  Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, have fun, but…”  Julianne paused, biting her lip.

“Jules what?  I’m on my way out.  You said this outfit was fine.”

“No it isn’t the outfit, it’s more about the picking you up part.”

“What? What do you mean.”  Eliza’s eyes said it all, they were little slits of suspicion. 

“Well.  It’s just, I don’t think he owns a car.”

“You what?  Well then, how, I mean what, oh for the love.  Well maybe he borrowed one?  I gotta go, I’ll let you know later.”  Eliza bounded down the stairs of their dorm hitting the ground running only to come to an abrupt stop.  There he was, the dreamy man with high cheek bones, pink lips, dreamy eyes and helmet hair.  She froze, behind him was a tiny little scooter.