'Self-esteem comes from being able to define the world in your own terms and refusing to abide by the judgements of others.' - Oprah Winfrey

Marie - the main character from by book - has chosen an unconventional way to define her own world. She follows others and their world definitions until finding herself in a dead end street. She proceeds through the exclusion of wrong paths, instead of chosing directly the one that would have been right for her.

Along the way Marie comes to know what really matters in life - first of all: herself.

Please enjoy the following chapter no. 9. In case you missed no. 8 you may have a look at it here: That one person.

Chapter 9: The face I can´t forget

"Did you call me?"
"Sure! So what was more important than talking to me?"
She laughed. "Trying the new skateboard you sold me, man."
"Oh, that´s the only valid excuse, honey. Point for you! So how is it going with the board?"
"Really good..." She made a little pause. "Guess who else called me while I was outside?"
"Mmmh, no idea. Oh wait... If you ask me like that there is only one possibility."
"Yeah, you´re coming close."
"Lukas?"
"You hit the nail, honey."
"Oh no! Please don´t tell me you´ve called him back or sent any messages?"
Marie bit her lip. "No, I haven´t done anything. I just came in and haven´t even had the time to realize he called me."
"Listen, I think you need some good vibes. Don´t do anything, I´ll close the shop a bit earlier today and we can have some beers at Charlie´s. Does that sound like a plan?"
She smiled. "It sounds perfect to me. Thank you..."
"You shouldn´t thank me. You should marry me, Marie!"
They both started laughing and he added: "I know you won´t, cause I´m your best friend. Know that story already. You should change the mixtape, haha."
"I will consider it, Henry. Promised. Changing the tape I mean, haha. But now I´m going to take a shower. Talk to you later, okay?"
"Laters, baby... And think about me while taking that shower, haha!"

Henry hung up and Marie didn´t have any chance to answer him back. He was definitely her very best friend and would always be.

She opened the list of missed calls in her phone and looked once more at that number. Two months of silence and now he called her as if nothing ever happened. She knew that game already.

The way the warm water touched her tired and cold body felt incredibly good.

There was no such thing than a revitalizing shower after doing sports. She tipped her head back, closed her eyes, let all that water flow over her face and noticed how some teardrops started to mix up with the water-jet.

The call from Lukas had touched her tender spot and she unintentionally travelled back to that spot in her memory.

It was a wonderful late summer´s day in August, one of these days that were made to become something special. Marie was full of energy when she jumped out of her mom´s car. She quickly blowed her a kiss and ran away to meet her friends on the other side of the street.

The colors of their traditional costumes were glowing in the afternoon sun, the air was already filled by the smell of wine and barbecue as well as music and singing. Marie loved to immerse herself in this wild and jolly ambient.

The traditional parade had a religious background and only took place every three years. Then people from all of the surrounding countries came to join the spectacular party. Hundreds of decorated floats proceeded from the top of the hill until the village square. The procession started in the afternoon and finished around midnight.

A day full of joy. She still didn´t know that this time everything was going to be different.

Marie took a deep breath.

She opened the shampoo bottle and smiled. It was almost five years ago but she still remembered every single instant of that day.

"Pictures that don´t grow older." That was how Lukas would have called her memories. And there he was again, invading her thoughts. Lukas, her paperboy. That one person.

She hold her head under the shower´s water-jet again, wishing it would wash the imagination of his perfect face away - and finally leave her alone in the bathroom.

Until then Marie had never believed in love at first sight.
"That´s for the movies," she used to say. But when you least expect it, something great comes along.

The music played and they were dancing like they had never danced before.

Marie and her friends had to step aside since a huge float was driving down the road. Marie did some quick steps back and ran into somebody. She turned around and looked up. She looked up into a smiling bearded face that showed a mixture of surprise and pleasure.

There he was. Cole. He wore a Stetson that almost covered half of his face. He was the person that was supposed to do a three-sixty with her life.

She looked him into the eyes and she knew, and so he did.

It was as if the world around them had stopped and nothing else really mattered anymore. At that point of time everything felt so incredibly perfect.

She remembered that they were standing in the middle of the dancing crowd for an infinite time, unable to move, unable to speak and unable to think.

They just looked at each other.

It was the very beginning of something special.

The first page of their story. The story of two people that didn´t even know each other and accidentally felt in love.

They started a long distance relationship since they weren´t living in the same country.

During the times they couldn´t travel and see each other, there wasn´t one day they didn´t talk, sent pictures or videos or did a call.

They perfectly documented a wonderful love story, and not only one day felt as if they were truly seperated.

Marie wagged her head and some shampoo bubbles dropped on her tanned arms.

Her eyes started to burn a little. One of these bubbles must have found a way in while another teardrop left.

Every time she traveled back to these memories it happened exactly the same thing to her. She was still hurt and would need some more time to come over it and be able to completely forget about the pain.

They came to the point when long distance wasn´t enough anymore. They wanted to be together. They wanted everything.

The days when they couldn´t see each other became incredibly long and they truly suffered being separated.

After eight months of traveling, video chats and long distance love dedication she decided to do the key step: she moved.

But even in the movies there are no perfect love stories.

Only three months after Marie left her old live behind to start a new one together with Cole, their house of card collapsed.

She accidentally came to know that he was cheating her during their long distance relationship.

Five years had passed since then, but it still felt very close. The moment she discovered the truth was the worst experience she had ever lived so far.

It was as if something impeded her to breath. She got completely choked up and paralyzed. Every square centimeter of her body started to hurt.

Suddenly every second she had been in love with him felt like a lie to her. All these pictures, videos and love letters became false and useless. They tried to fix it, but there was no way to turn back time. Marie´s wounds were too deep. They broke up.

She needed a few months to fully understand what had really happened. There had still no words been invented to describe her sorrow. Her heart broke into uncountable tiny pieces.

Marie stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself into a towel.

She walked over to her bedroom, laid down on the bed, took here phone and looked at the display.

"Even if you were not thinking of me in the shower, I´d still go out with you tonight.
Love, H."

She laughed out loud and her teardrops started to dry. Oh how much did she love that crazy guy?! Maybe he was right and she should consider marry her best friend some day.

There was at least one thing clear: he wouldn´t ever make her cry.

Marie closed here eyes and let her memories go. She closed an agreement with herself to not look back anymore. From now on there was only person in her life worth thinking about: SHE.

'There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you´d better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you´ll never understand what it´s saying.' - Sarah Dessen

Thanks for your time, I hope you enjoyed the read.
I will leave you with one of my favourite songs: SHE from Elvis Costello.
Marly -

SHE - Elvis Costello

She may be the face I can't forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She may be the song that summer sings
Maybe the chill that autumn brings
Maybe a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O040xuq2FR0

Picture sources:
Title: http://s1.pxwalls.com/
Girl phone: http://jinjabobot.com/
Parade: https://cdn.shutterstock.com/
People dancing: https://il6.picdn.net/
Couple: http://www.drop-ball.com/
animated GIF: http://cdn2.teen.com/
Shakespeare quote: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/
Woman at airport: https://avoskinbeauty.com/
Woman lying on bed: https://thoughtcatalog.files.wordpress.com/

johnny12