thelyricalmuses. Prompt 29. "Shut Up and Kiss Me."
Song: "Shut Up and Kiss Me" by Paul McDermott and Fiona Horne
Character: Randy Bosch
Rating: PG
Pairing: None
Fandom: Untitled Hal Sparks Project
Author's Note: Randy has obviously seen The Object of My Affection one too many times. Or maybe just one time and a little too recently. Even if he can't remember the title. Also, this prompt is dedicated to Alexa's mun, because Randy's had Alexa on his mind lately.
I was watching this movie on TV the other day. Something with Nigel Hawthorne and Jennifer Aniston in it. You know, I keep forgetting Nigel Hawthorne is dead.
"Who's at your table then?" he says to her. "Don't fix your life so that you're left alone right when you come to the middle of it."
And I thought to myself:
Oh, God.
Because if you think about it, I'm a thirty-two-year-old man, in the middle of my life, single, sitting on my couch with a pint of Rocky Road ice cream, watching a movie obviously not intended for my gender on some cable network. I sort of accidentally epitomized that statement.
It didn't always use to be that way.
I remember Sarah. Mostly because she called a couple of years ago, and that's the kind of odd fact that sticks in my head. She was a nice girl. I don't mean that in the way everybody says it, but that she was honestly nice. She was always looking at you and listening when you were talking to her. She would remember things I had said long after I'd forgot them myself. She always made me feel like I mattered. I cared about her, and she cared about me, and there we were.
You can sense the 'but' coming now, I bet.
Well, the truth is, I'm pretty laid-back about my relationships. I'm serious about them, but I don't go into them saying 'This is the person I'm going to marry.' I let things go where they may. What happens, happens, and what doesn't, doesn't. Sarah and I lasted eight months. We'd never discussed living together, much less getting married. Which was good, because then she was going to Cleveland, and all of a sudden she was asking me to go with her.
I remember that conversation. Standing on a street corner outside some restaurant. She just said it, and I just stared at her. We hadn't even lived together and she wanted me to move across the country with her. I knew then that she loved me a whole lot more than she had ever shown. But I just couldn't pull the trigger.
I had always wanted to live in L.A. I don't know why; gut instinct, really. And I had just gotten there maybe a year earlier. My work wasn't done. And to be honest, I don't think I loved her that same way. I don't think I was ready for that. So I told her that I couldn't go. She got that. We broke up that night. I don't regret it, because I'm fairly sure it wouldn't have worked out. She wasn't the one.
So this is where I've ended up. Still relatively young, and sometimes, I think, still trying to figure myself out. Brendan is young in the personality -- he likes doing crazy things, and he lives his life with a smile and a willingness to do anything once. Haley is really young, literally. Tara's young in the experience, still a rookie. And me, I think I'm emotionally young. I think there are a lot of things I've got left to learn. None of us are really totally grown up yet. Is that bad?
We're getting there.
Brendan has Deanna, or at least I guess a start with her. Lieutenant Cassaday's doing her own thing. That leaves me and Tara to be the two who are sitting around on couches watching movies we can't remember the names of.
Sometimes I wonder about my friends. I don't really admit it, but I'm almost always thinking about them. I spent a lot of time thinking about Brendan when I thought that he might be gone. And I think about Alexa. I wish that I could show her how wonderful she is, and how much that I care about her, but I never can seem to get the words to come out right. And beyond that, she makes me think about what it's like to be me. What would it be like to live forever? Would I be able to do any good, or would I just continue to be wandering through my life, trying to figure it out?
Would I be the same person after the people I love have gone before me?
The answer is no. Not in a million years. These people are the people who make me who I am. I am my father's work ethic. My mother's protective attitude. My sister's spirit. Brendan's creativity. Tara's intelligence. Brenda's integrity. I am what these people have allowed me to be. As long as I've got them at my table, I'm never going to be really alone.
Randy Bosch
Original Character
780 Words
Character: Randy Bosch
Rating: PG
Pairing: None
Fandom: Untitled Hal Sparks Project
Author's Note: Randy has obviously seen The Object of My Affection one too many times. Or maybe just one time and a little too recently. Even if he can't remember the title. Also, this prompt is dedicated to Alexa's mun, because Randy's had Alexa on his mind lately.
I was watching this movie on TV the other day. Something with Nigel Hawthorne and Jennifer Aniston in it. You know, I keep forgetting Nigel Hawthorne is dead.
"Who's at your table then?" he says to her. "Don't fix your life so that you're left alone right when you come to the middle of it."
And I thought to myself:
Oh, God.
Because if you think about it, I'm a thirty-two-year-old man, in the middle of my life, single, sitting on my couch with a pint of Rocky Road ice cream, watching a movie obviously not intended for my gender on some cable network. I sort of accidentally epitomized that statement.
It didn't always use to be that way.
I remember Sarah. Mostly because she called a couple of years ago, and that's the kind of odd fact that sticks in my head. She was a nice girl. I don't mean that in the way everybody says it, but that she was honestly nice. She was always looking at you and listening when you were talking to her. She would remember things I had said long after I'd forgot them myself. She always made me feel like I mattered. I cared about her, and she cared about me, and there we were.
You can sense the 'but' coming now, I bet.
Well, the truth is, I'm pretty laid-back about my relationships. I'm serious about them, but I don't go into them saying 'This is the person I'm going to marry.' I let things go where they may. What happens, happens, and what doesn't, doesn't. Sarah and I lasted eight months. We'd never discussed living together, much less getting married. Which was good, because then she was going to Cleveland, and all of a sudden she was asking me to go with her.
I remember that conversation. Standing on a street corner outside some restaurant. She just said it, and I just stared at her. We hadn't even lived together and she wanted me to move across the country with her. I knew then that she loved me a whole lot more than she had ever shown. But I just couldn't pull the trigger.
I had always wanted to live in L.A. I don't know why; gut instinct, really. And I had just gotten there maybe a year earlier. My work wasn't done. And to be honest, I don't think I loved her that same way. I don't think I was ready for that. So I told her that I couldn't go. She got that. We broke up that night. I don't regret it, because I'm fairly sure it wouldn't have worked out. She wasn't the one.
So this is where I've ended up. Still relatively young, and sometimes, I think, still trying to figure myself out. Brendan is young in the personality -- he likes doing crazy things, and he lives his life with a smile and a willingness to do anything once. Haley is really young, literally. Tara's young in the experience, still a rookie. And me, I think I'm emotionally young. I think there are a lot of things I've got left to learn. None of us are really totally grown up yet. Is that bad?
We're getting there.
Brendan has Deanna, or at least I guess a start with her. Lieutenant Cassaday's doing her own thing. That leaves me and Tara to be the two who are sitting around on couches watching movies we can't remember the names of.
Sometimes I wonder about my friends. I don't really admit it, but I'm almost always thinking about them. I spent a lot of time thinking about Brendan when I thought that he might be gone. And I think about Alexa. I wish that I could show her how wonderful she is, and how much that I care about her, but I never can seem to get the words to come out right. And beyond that, she makes me think about what it's like to be me. What would it be like to live forever? Would I be able to do any good, or would I just continue to be wandering through my life, trying to figure it out?
Would I be the same person after the people I love have gone before me?
The answer is no. Not in a million years. These people are the people who make me who I am. I am my father's work ethic. My mother's protective attitude. My sister's spirit. Brendan's creativity. Tara's intelligence. Brenda's integrity. I am what these people have allowed me to be. As long as I've got them at my table, I'm never going to be really alone.
Randy Bosch
Original Character
780 Words