Big City Delusional

A young girl meets the man of her dreams.

I met a really nice boy on my way to uni the other day; he ran over to me from across the street and told me he just had to have my number so he could call me sometime. He talked about my dress and the way that I walked, like Grace Kelly, he told me. He even used the words breath taking! It was like something out of a Douglas Sirk film, I was powerless to say no. Such romance!

We’ve seen each other every day since then. He smells of clove cigarettes and he dresses so well. What a handsome man he is, and he really is a man. Nothing like the other boys I’ve known, nothing like them at all. Such a strong jaw line, broad shoulders and arms I feel so secure in. oh, they hold me so tight!

I often wonder what he’s doing with a girl like me. It must be love, it has to be love. Why else would we spend so much time together? Today we went for a walk in the park. Sat in the grass, he told me about his family. The way he spoke of his mother and his father, his younger sister too, I felt as though I would cry.

“Francis, I feel like I’ve known you for months and months.”

I placed my hand over his.

“Oh, really? I imagine I’d feel the same, if I were real.”

I didn’t understand what he meant; I asked him why he would say something so strange. I asked him to explain exactly what he meant.

He stood up and I did the same. He held both my hands, looked right in to me with those eyes of his. So piercing and blue.

“I mean that I’m not real, Sarah. None of this is. It is all in your head, you’re unattractive and you haven’t been on a date in months. I could never be with you, I look like Marlon Brando and I compare you to classically beautiful, dead actresses. My name is Francis for god sakes, no one is called Francis! Really Sarah, how could any of this be real?”

He let go of my hands and I began to cry. How could he be so cruel, how could he say such callous things?
I asked him if he was intentionally trying to break my heart. He looked right through me once again. Couldn’t he see the tears in my eyes?

“Listen; really listen to me when I say this Sarah. Someone like me could never, ever, love someone like you.”

And then he was gone.