Love Story: Chapter One
Like many other users on theSprout I have decided to do a weekly (or fortnightly) serial, depending on how school works to my favour. Possibly ending my other series Burning Embers, which didn’t have a definite plot, I hope to continue this for a couple of chapters. I have written a lot of one-off stories, but this is to see if I can manage a longer project.
The series itself is entitled “Love Story” But I hope it takes a slightly different take on the genre.
Enjoy!
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Venus
“Pfft!”
The skinny blonde made the same noise as she always did when we did this sort of thing.
“Please, Aphrodite. Work with me.” I pleaded patiently, tapping my fingers against the desk.
She raised a perfect eyebrow then let out a single, shrill laugh. “Can you honestly be serious?” she cried chucking the papers on the floor.
I sighed heavily. “You’re so awkward. It’s our job so just do it.” My voice was firm and strict but I was more than positive it wouldn’t lay a single effect on my partner.
“Venus, it's Cupid’s job.” She responded, turning a way as if to say she was bored.
“No, Cupid carries out the orders. We are supposed to be doing the difficult part here.” I took my piercing eyes off of her for a moment to return to the match ups.
Again, I sighed. This was it: our life. And please, don’t call us goddesses. Venus and Aphrodite, the matchmakers of love. We had done it together ever since we were old enough to talk and yet the harsh responsibility of it had never ceased to amaze me.
Imagine it, a world with no love.
What a hideous world it would be!
This job, no this lifestyle, was cruel and demanding and required us every second of every day for every living human on the earth. It was lucky I was passionate about, eh? I couldn’t understand anything other than love, anything better than helping others find their soul mates to spend the rest of their lives with... but Aphrodite could.
Aphrodite nibbled her lip, I opened my mouth to tell her to suck it up and get on with it but she got there first. “You know I’m sick of it, I was sick of it a long time ago...” she began, adverting her gaze from mine “Love is subjective”. Her cruel statement sliced through me like a knife. I choked back a gasp.
“No! No it’s not!” I started, unable to retain my outrage.
“Don’t you kick off, it’s my belief.” she mumbled.
“Then why the hell are doing this!”
Aphrodite didn’t look at me; instead she kept her eyes to the ground. “If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be doing this.” I creased my brow. Here we go again.
“Can we skip this, please? Just for today can we get on with it?” I looked down at the endless pictures before me. Times, places, dates, people... it all had to work, had to match up. It was destiny after all; there were set people who could meet and they would be soul mates. We just had to do the tricky part and figure which people and at which place et cetera, et cetera.
“I know how you work Venus, in there,” she paused and tapped my head “Destiny this, Fate that- I believe that destiny exists - but sometimes we could just let life take its course. You know, see how it pans out.” She got up, and like the perfect little doll she was, twitched her way around the room. “See how it pans out!?” Mortification was an understatement to how I felt. She had no clue! She didn’t know how important this was!
“But...” I began eagerly, wanting to get a word in.
She held up her porcelain hand and silenced me. “Yeah, Yeah. I’m being lazy; love is not subjective because it’s the truest single emotion in the universe.” Her imitation of my voice made me cringe but I managed to suppress my grimace as she reclaimed her seat opposite me.
“Thank you.” I whispered honestly, her cooperation was all I wanted. We were friends after all, and I counted her as a close friend. A best friend. But our differing views were becoming more and more of a challenge to overcome.
“This guy?” I asked, holding up a photo of an unhealthily skinny Australian with messy black hair. She cringed. I smirked slightly at her reaction and held up a photo of a brunette accountant from New Jersey “And her?” Aphrodite’s expression morphed and disfigured as her magic brain put every possibility of their relationship together from one glance. She was amazing at this, a natural born matchmaker.
She glanced down at the biography sheets only once. “He’s into extreme sports, which scares the hell out of her. She wants a quiet guy because apparently that’s all her friends are into. If she had it her ways she’d be with him like that!” She snapped her fingers, making me sit up right.
“And?” I asked eagerly.
“It’ll never happen.” She responded plainly. I furrowed my brow like an army general. that was definitely not a good enough answer. “But true l...”
“Yes, Yes! True love!” Aphrodite sat up from her slouch. Flicking her impossibly long hair over her shoulder she took the pictures from me. Scanning the list of life events with her massive sapphire eyes I noticed them suddenly widen.
“What ’dya know...” She mused, leaving endless possibilities in my mind.
“What!?” I asked, desperate to know.
Usually when Aphrodite was on to something, she was onto something big. She sighed unattractively. “Brunette had a conference in California about a major promotion. One little phone call to Ennis, our devious little friends of discord and strife, and we can get this guy’s leg broken in a skateboard competition on the same day in the same stupid city.” I frowned at her lack of attitude but my eyes urged her to carry on. She narrowed hers slightly but her perfect features didn’t even wrinkle as she continued to speak.
“Of course a push is necessary in our job so Ennis should be fine with that. Cupid is great with timing so as little Mr. Aussie is driven to hospital little Miss Brunette can conveniently be stopped by the traffic the ambulance causes. As she gets out of her car to see what’s going on, bam!” Aphrodite slammed the desk with her hands, making me jump as if I’d been shot. She laughed hysterically and carried on “She sees him and gets curious, and so begins her little adventure of lies and sneaking around on this short trip to California. I’m positive she’ll find a way to get to him, and he won’t let her out his life. Match made, they’ll be together for I don’t know? How long do our matched usually stay together?” She asked sarcastically.
“Forever.” I smiled wildly, showing my teeth as I soaked up her brilliance. She was fantastic at this.
“Not always, but count on it for these suckers.” I hoped out of my seat and ran to hug her. She immediately tried to pry me off but I refused to let go.
“Thank you! Thank you Aphrodite for doing this with me!” I heard her sigh.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome. Now go phone Cupid, we’ve done fifty - that should keep him busy.” I released her from my vice like grip and collected all the completed forms, including the half-filled one I had tried when Aphrodite was speaking.
“You’re free to do what you wish for the day - but tomorrow we’ve got to do some more!” I insisted and winked as I left the room. I heard Aphrodite stand up in a huff and mumble a primp “Ta.” As her response before I was completely out of ear shot.
Making my way to Cupid, I found a moment of glee.
Like hell was love subjective.
We had done it again!
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IMAGE: Flickr Mosaic: Belated Valentine 1.2 by krazydad / jbum
3 Comments – Post a comment
Tansi
Commented 19 months ago - 15th October 2010 - 16:10pm
haha Aphrodite - let me guess?....
House of Night?? and the same with Venus as they were bes friends once upon a time?
RoLouG
Commented 19 months ago - 15th October 2010 - 19:53pm
haha thats so good! looking forward to the next installment!
Sambow
Commented 19 months ago - 15th October 2010 - 19:57pm
I came up with this idea a while ago actually, but it's just been sitting on my computer unfinished :P I've always been a bit interested in mythology and wanted to do something with these characters. But yes, Aphrodite from the House of Night is very cool too! :D