rose
last night, it was like the plot of an independent film. a while after midnight, i went to go meet up with a friend of sorts, when i arrived there, i called him, informed him i was there, and he told me that he went across the street to get a drink or something.
anyway. while i was standing there this beautiful woman, probably in her early thirties walks by and sits down at a table in front of an apartment next door. she invites me to have a seat with her, and i take her up on it.
she lights a parliament, and tells me her name is rose, she just moved here a couple weeks ago from alabama, and shes staying with her friend, heather, until she gets a job and a place of her own. my friend, scott, eventually comes back and we have this full blown conversation on gay rights.
rose, it turns out, was working at an internship last year as a campaign manager for john kerry in oregon, she ended up working on the gay rights campaign against the ban on gay marriage. she makes a suggestion that we go pick up some beer and have a good ole time. i obliged, and drove us to the gas station, she got a 6 pack of bass and more cigarettes. we went back to the apartment and talked more.
scott wandered off around 3, and he just talked about everything, life stories, drugs, jobs, friends, lovers.
she shared a story with me. about a guy she was totally in love with, she said he would treat her bad. once, when they were living in telluride, he kicked her out of the car a mile away from their house, and made her walk back home, barefoot in the snow, she was the only person to see this crazy side of him.
after they had been dating for two years she discovered that she was pregnant, she figured "ok, we've been dating for 2 years, i figured we'd have the baby and ya know..." when she told him that she was pregnant, he flipped out, and told her obviously, that she will abort it. her response was "i want to go back to my parents house for a bit and think some things through" he said ok. so they packed her things and started the drive to alabama. midway, he starts speeding up, weaving in and out of cars, over 100mph, yelling at her. "you're going to tell your fucking parents, you bitch. you whore." being a typical psycho. she's trying to be calm, tells him that she doesn't want to die, she didnt want to have to make a choice on whether she wants to live or die, at this moment, in this speeding car. he eventually calms down, and they pull up to a gas station.
he kicks her out of the car and throws every bit of her luggage out, and takes off leaving her stranded, in her own car, no less. she said it was that moment that she knew:
she would have an abortion, and he would never see a life he made through her eyes.
after that, rose looked at me and said "so that's my most fucked up story... what's yours?"
we talked and drank beers until almost 7 in the morning, the sun had risen, and our eyes were getting heavy. i gave her a hug and headed home.
i'll probably never see her again in my life, but it was nice. one of those nights i'll treasure.