Title : hollow
Genre :Unrequited love/poetic drama
The hum of the engine is the only sound Mary hears.The streets are quite bathed in the soft glow of street lights .
Mary sits in the passenger sit,her fingers gently tracing the cover of a fantasy novel ,she barely reads.Her tired eyes flickering between the book and the dark road ahead .vick drives with one hand on the wheel,the other resting casually on the gearshift ,an undercurrent of tension between them.
Mary :(looking at Vick as she always does,reaches out to touch his his beards.He smiles)
You look adorable when you smile.
Vick :I could be pooing and you would Still say that,you always say that even when I look a mess.
Mary :True…well it happens when one is in love I guess….
Vick?
Vick :yes babe?
Mary :(voice barely a whisper ,eyes fixed on the book)
I wonder if I deserve love most times ,I’m always battling with guilt and fear ,I don’t think I’m enough for anyone .
For you.
Vicks gaze shifts to her for a moment ,softening but quickly returns it to the road
Vick :Babe you’re-
Mary (interrupting voice trembling): overthinking?
I am actually but it’s true ,you like me , you really do but you don’t love me.Not really,not the way I need you to .
She closes the book gently seeking comfort in a story she barely reads.
Mary (continued):I’ve made mistakes,things I can’t undo ,things that haunt me hence my anxiety.I know the second you’ll see them.. you’ll leave…you won’t even like me anymore or want me.
Vick :That’s not true Mary ..it’s not fair
Mary :isn’t it?
Get Okonkwo Somto’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
It is..
You only like the parts of me i show you
When my little uglies rare their heads you ignore me
You don’t see me Vick,the whole me, only the good one that is easy to love.
But never the part that I hide,the ones I can’t bear to remember with out feeling ashamed.
A tear slips down her cheeks,she quickly wipes it
Mary (continued):I can’t do this anymore
I wish I could make you love me but I can’t
And I’m tired of holding on to scraps of you .I’m exhausted .
I’d rather you remember me as the nice girl you dated than the one with a hideous past I guess…..
(She laughs awkwardly)
I must sound very dramatic
Vick :you don’t Mary ..I’m sorry I made you feel abandoned,we don’t have to end us
Mary :when’s my birthday?
Or our anniversary
Vick : …sometime in September? Fuck I’m sorry babe
Mary: it’s in… never mind I’m sorry too
I think I guilt tripped you into staying out of pity at a point
Vick :(almost a whisper)
I don’t want to hurt you,I really don’t
Mary:(with a fragile smile)
You didn’t hurt me Vick ,I hurt me .
Turning back to the road .she clutches her novel to her chest.A quiet ache in the space where the words once were.
