Sometimes....Life Isn't Easy

Part 1

A lone bench stood in the pouring rain. It was old and rickety with peeling paint. It was nearly impossible to tell what color it was. It could have been blue, it could have been green. Hell, it could have been hot pink.

As a lone man sat on the wet bench, equally as wet himself, he couldn’t help but think that this bench was quite a lot like people. You never really knew their true colors.

The man looked around until he noticed a tiny sign that marked this spot as a bus stop. He could hardly believe it was any such thing. If he had been an idle passerby he never would have guessed what it was. It was nothing like the bus stops in the city. But he was fairly certain the sign wasn’t a lie. So it was there, among the puddles and the peeling paint on the bench that he sat, waiting.

As was a habit of his, he began to think. Waiting, he had found over the years, was an ideal time for some good old-fashioned thoughts. Not enough young people around his age had thoughts these days. It was sad. He didn’t want to be like that.

So there he sat-cold, wet, alone, and bored, bored being the most prominent-and he wrote a little story. He often wrote fictional stories. But this one was more fact than fiction. And while the man had not paper nor a pen to write with, it didn’t make much difference.

This story was all in his head, written neatly and coherently for later use, if he ever did find someone who might care to hear it. But, running his fingers through his wet curls, he began to tell it to just himself for now. It went something like this:



Once upon a time there was a boy. He was a young thing, just nineteen years of age. Despite his limited years, he had already experienced more pain than any one person should ever have to experience in their entire lifetime. Nothing had ever come easy to him.

His family life had been hard, unimaginably so. He had no good experiences to speak of, like most children do. It had been one misery after another for him. That being said, it is no huge surprise that he left it all behind the day he turned eighteen.

And three months after that, he graduated high school. Up until then he had been living with a friend. But now that college was looming in the fall, he felt he should find a place of his own.

And yes, he did intend on going to college. Partially because he wanted to learn new things and meet new people. And partially because his mother never thought he could or would. He tried not to focus on the latter too much, though.

Instead he tried to make his college experience as great as he possibly could. Of course, it wasn’t easy. He was used to that. There were heavy books and harsh professors and seemingly endless examinations. But ironically, the thing that made finishing college the hardest might have been the easiest thing the young man had ever done.

Falling in love. If there was one thing in life the man could say was simple to accomplish, it would certainly be that. He fell so hard and so fast he barely knew what hit him.

It came about in this way: he found an apartment. It was small, but it was suitable for his needs. He moved into said apartment. His first week there, he was running up the stairs, two at a time, books in hand, lots of studying to do, and it was already past midnight. So surely you could understand the man’s rush.

Unfortunately, his feet couldn’t keep up with his schedule, and he missed a step and went sprawling onto the third floor landing. His books were spread out everywhere. And there was a horrible pain in his knee where it had collided with one of the steps.

And then there was a hand, not his own, who picked those books up. The hand stacked them all neatly in a pile by the man’s head.

The pathetic boy looked up and his big, blue, gullible eyes took in the sights of the most beautiful man he had ever seen. He was tall with a good build. And he had the kindest eyes in the world. They were green and they sparkled like diamonds.

Especially when he cocked his head to the right to grin at the man on the ground.
“Need any help?” he asked with a chuckle. Even his voice was kind. It was soft and sweet and sounded almost like a lullaby to the poor man’s ears.

“No…no…it’s alright.” The young man picked himself up quickly, ignoring the pain in his knee and trying to stop himself from blushing.

He didn’t think it was working too well, because the beautiful man then said “There’s no reason to be embarrassed. Those stairs are the devil. I’ve tripped up and down them countless times.”

The man smiled a sweet little innocent boy’s smile and reached down to grab his pile of books. But the beautiful man stopped him. This time the bumbling idiot of a man noticed another glint, coming from the man’s other hand. This glint was from a ring. A wedding ring. A perfectly fitting golden band wrapped possessively around his finger.

The poor boy, barely yet a man, felt his heart break. All his wild and crazy fantasies were shattered. He hardly heard the man’s beautiful voice introduce himself. Luckily he still caught the name “Jonny”. But he didn’t catch the question that followed. The man called Jonny had to repeat that.

“I said…..what do you go by?”

“Um…Chris,” the skinny young man managed to stammer out.

“Well Chris, let me help you by taking your books up to your room.”

Chris nodded and tried to remember to breathe. He could have sworn Jonny had just winked at him. All the way up to his room he tried to convince himself otherwise.

Taking the key out of his pocket, he opened the door and Jonny strode into the humble place and set the books down on a table near the door. Chris expected he would leave after that. But he just stood there, arms crossed. Chris got the feeling he was being watched, and he felt his face flush.

“So…..” he said stupidly.

“So….physics?” Jonny asked, gesturing towards the top book on the pile.

“Yeah….I kinda have a big exam I need to be studying for. I meant to do it earlier….but I just never got around to it. Until now, at least.”

He rubbed his head nervously. He had never been in a room alone with a man so beautiful and he had no idea how to act. Especially considering the fact that he was a married man.

“Well I know a thing or two about physics. Why don’t I help you?”

“Um…I don’t know…I’m sure I can manage…”

“Listen, Chris. I was a physics major in college. I really think you could benefit from my level of knowledge.” Again Chris could swear the man winked at him. He blinked a few times.

“Okay….if you are sure.”

“Excellent!” Jonny exclaimed. “Now…where would be the most comfortable place to get a serious study session on?”

Chris blushed in spite of himself but mustered up the courage to respond “my bedroom.” He was betting on the chance that he was being flirted with. It was a risky bet. But in the end Chris won the jackpot.

Jonny winked again, and this time Chris was sure it was for real. Then he followed Chris into the bedroom. Neither of them carried any books.



Part 2

Jonny had been right. He was full of knowledge. Chris had been with guys before, but not like this, and he had never gone all the way. But on that unforgettable day, as a young man of nineteen, he did just that.

And it was wonderful. It was the most amazing experience of his life. And when it ended when the sun came up, he cursed the star for all it was worth.

But Jonny made a promise. “Until next time,” he said to Chris, as he slipped on his shoes and left to return to his married life.

And he kept his word. Once a week, if not more, Jonny would show up at Chris’s door. Apparently his wife went on a lot of business meetings, and thus their relationship wasn’t going so well.

Jonny told Chris how lonely he got, sitting alone in his apartment. He whispered to Chris between kisses of how the young man filled that void. Jonny filled a void in Chris as well. The part of him that needed love and affection from someone, anyone. He had never received it at home. So, naturally, he searched for it in Jonny. And he found it, and much more.

Jonny was everything to him. His entire world. Whenever he ate, slept, and breathed, Jonny occupied his thoughts. Jonny told him that he was planning on leaving his wife. Chris felt his heart swell and he almost began to cry right there. Finally, someone that loved him enough to give up anything for him.

Until that fateful day when Jonny arrived at Chris’s door wearing a completely impassive expression. Without a word of explanation, Jonny told Chris that the relationship was over. When Chris asked why, Jonny acted as though it were obvious. “I have a wife,” he said.

“But…I thought…” the man broke off, tears forming in his eyes. He had yet to the value of not showing outwardly how badly someone was hurting him.

Jonny laughed. “Goodbye Chris. Don’t you tell anybody about this now, you hear?” he called out as he walked away. That was the last time Chris ever saw him. Jonny needn’t have worried about Chris telling anyone. At least not for a while. He was too ashamed.

He moved out of that apartment complex the next day. He moved to a new place, temporarily, until he could finish college. College. It quickly became torture. Every day was a struggle. Countless times he wanted to just give up and cry himself to sleep at night. There was indeed a lot of crying. But he never did give up.

He couldn’t. He still had something to prove. He wanted to have a diploma to wave in the face of his horrible mother. Unfortunately though, he never got that chance.

A few months before his graduation, his mom died. He drove out to the funeral and cried. But not for his mother. No, he cried only because she would never live to see him blow away all her expectations of him.

Feeling lower than ever, the poor man returned and graduated college. No one was there to cheer for him. Funny, he had once thought Jonny would be there with arms outstretched to congratulate him on this day. He shuddered to think how gullible and stupid he had been. Jonny was nothing but a tool.

A few days later, he packed a small suitcase, stuck some money in his back pocket, and left the city behind him. He took the first bus going south. He planned to stop at the next city over. But he fell asleep, and ended up at the bus’s final stop. A little bus station in the middle of nowhere with nothing but an old bench and a small sign to its name.



And that’s where the story left off. Because the rest had yet to happen. Chris heaved a sigh, and using his suitcase as a pillow, lay down across the bench. It was nearly dark.

He wondered when the next bus would come. Probably not until morning. Just as he closed his eyes in a vain attempt at sleep, he was startled by the sound of a loud horn.

His head shot up. His curls dripped water down his face. Stopped in front of Chris was an old red pickup truck. It was pulled to the side of the road. In it were two men. One rolled down the window and leaned out.

“Need a lift?” he asked, smirking at the image of a thin man, soaking wet, trying to turn a wooden bench and a suitcase into a bed. Chris nodded his now twenty-two year old head and climbed in the truck.

“I’m Will,” the man continued, “and this is Guy. He doesn’t say much. But he’s one of the nicest men you’ll ever meet.”

“I’m Chris,” he replied, suddenly feeling chipper. Though he had barely met the two men, he could already sense that someday it would be them who would hear his story.

“Are you alright?” asked Guy, averting his eyes form the road for just a moment to flash a kind look in Chris’s direction.

“Yeah,” Chris said. “As a matter of fact, I am more alright than I have been in a long time.”

He smiled despite all that he had experienced. It was true, sometimes life wasn’t easy. And in his case, it was certainly more often difficult than not. But sometimes, even if only very rarely, it actually was easy.




THE END