I finish washing my hands and look up to see my reflection in the dirty mirror above my bathroom sink. The face I see in front of me is that of a man who has been through a lifetime of trauma in little less than a month. It’s ugly and scarred, sometimes I can still feel the blisters popping and my skin sizzling. If it weren’t for Steve I don’t think I would even still be alive today. The memories still haunt me, and my reflection is just a sick reminder of what happened. I should just get rid of the damned thing, but what use would that do? The story of how I got like this started two years ago in a small apartment I hope to never see again.  

Two years ago - Los Angeles

“Hey man, watch it!” a man angrily yells after I bumped into him coming off the metro. I pull my hood further onto my head as I keep walking trying to ignore the bustling crowds. I turn the corner and my building comes into view. I slip in and run up the two flights of stairs that it takes to get to my apartment. After I take off my shoes, I walk sluggishly to my compact kitchen and gingerly take my Hot Pocket out of the microwave. After walking to my living room, I sit in my worn Lazy Boy and turn on my prehistoric TV. As I’m flipping through the channels and, after a while,  settle on Wheel of Fortune. Game of Thrones is about to start but until then this will have to do.

As I watch the game show my mind begins to wander to other things, namely to the beautiful hostess of the show, Vanna White. If only I could meet her my life would be complete. Suddenly I have a stupid idea ‘What if her address is online?’ Then instead of leaving it alone I pull out my phone and look it up. When the page finally loads I see that she only lives a few miles from my apartment building. I know this is a stupid idea, but I just have to do it, so I put on my shoes and I’m on my way.

It only takes me half an hour to find my way to her massive mansion. When I get there she just so happens to be outside admiring her freshly planted garden. My heart starts racing as I realize how stupid of an idea this really was, but my feet won’t stop and suddenly I’m right in front of Ms. White. “Um, hello, how may I help you?” Vanna says in a concerned voice. Right at that moment everything that’s happening finally hits me and I pass out.

When I wake up I’m laying on a large couch with a cool rag on my forehead. “Uh, h-hello? Where am I?” I call out looking around in confusion.

I hear walking coming from upstairs and a few moments later Vanna walks into my line of sight. “Oh good, you’re awake. I made you some tea to help calm you down,” she says holding out the small mug containing the tea. I grab the tea from her and take a small sip. “Are you okay? You hit your head pretty hard when you fell.”

With that it all came back to me. I feel my cheeks burn bright as I begin talking “Yeah, thanks for taking care of me. How long was I out?” God, I hope she doesn’t know I came here to stalk her.

“Only about an hour, but you should probably stay here while you rest. Like I said, you hit your head pretty hard and you might have a concussion.”

“Okay, thank you, Miss.” And with that she left me so I can get some more rest.

I wake up the next morning with a plate of fresh fruit and a small note telling me that Vanna is in the back garden. I get up and after a short feeling of vertigo I begin to walk through her enormous home looking for a door to the back yard. After about a minute of looking, I finally find the door. “Oh good, you found your way,” Vanna said while smiling. “I actually don’t think I’ve formerly introduced myself yet, my name is Vanna, Vanna White. And you are?”

“Christopher Puppers ma’am, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” I sit down in the chair across from her and we begin talking. It feels so nice to talk to her, we spend the entire day talking together. We talk about our lives, our careers, and so much more. We had so much in common.  When the sun starts going down we both realize that we’ve wasted the entire day just sitting in her garden. “Well it’s been a pleasure to meet you Miss, but I should get going.” I say while smiling.

“Nonsense, you can just stay in a guest room for tonight, don’t try to say no, it’s just for  tonight.” And with that I was spending another night at Vanna’s. She shows me to a room that’s about the size of my living room and bedroom combined and tells me this is the guest bedroom. When I wake up there is a small platter of food and a note that says that she had to go to work, but I was free to stay as long as I wanted.

It’s at that moment that I decide I want to marry this woman, so I quickly rush to an expensive jewelry shop and buy a gorgeous ring. I get back to Vanna’s home and she still isn’t here so I sit on the same couch that I woke up on two days ago and wait. When she gets home she sees I’m still here and orders some food so that we can eat. After dinner I lead her out into the garden and we start talking some more. I suddenly get down on one knee, pull out the ring, and ask her the big question.

“Oh my goodness,” a wide eyed Vanna exclaims, “We barely know each other Christopher, and I’m still mourning my husband’s death. I’m sorry but I can’t marry you.”

“I understand, that was crazy. I’m sorry,” I say with my head hanging low. With that I walk away, through her house, and to the street. All of a sudden there’s a huge car speeding toward me and I can’t move in time. I feel a huge crash of pain and all of a sudden I’ve blacked out.  

I wake up two days later in a dingy hospital room. My entire body aches. I look around and finally spot button to page a nurse and press it. When the nurse gets to my room she tells me to lie back down and that the doctor will be with me shortly. After about ten minutes of waiting the doctor finally comes in and informs me that my left arm is broken and several of my ribs are bruised due to the crash. He then goes on to tell me that since I am awake and nothing is severely wrong I can go home tomorrow.

When I get home the next day I lay down in my bed and turn on my TV. Wheel of Fortune reruns are playing. All of a sudden something in me snaps and I get up and practically run all the way to Vanna’s house. Once I finally get to her home I stand at her door for a bit to build the courage to knock. After standing there for five minutes I finally reach up and knock. In a little less than a minute Vanna has opened the door and is looking at me. I know I must look crazy, but I love her and I had to see her.

After standing in front of me for a moment Vanna senses that I must not be stable and tries to shut the door. But before it closes my hand flies up and stops it. “Vanna wait, I love you. I just want to be with you,” I say in a pleading voice. Vanna suddenly bursts out in tears full of fear and starts to run. I follow her, just wanting to calm her down and talk. She runs up the stairs and stops when she gets to a room with a curtain that covers the entire room. When I finally reach her I try to calm her down by telling her that everything will be alright She smiles at me and motions for me to come to her. Once I am in arms reach of her, she suddenly she pushes me into the curtain. I’m fallin, it feels as if I’ve been falling for hours, but it must only be a couple seconds. When I hit the surface I realize what she pushed me into, acid.

All I can feel is white hot pain, it’s eating away at my skin, I can’t stand the pain. It’s killing me. I don’t know which way is up, I’m struggling, slowly getting weaker and weaker. Right at the moment I finally give in accept my fate someone jumps in after me and pulls me out of the horrendous liquid. I cling to the figure that saved me, wanting to show the unknown person gratitude but not knowing how. I look up to see who it is and I see the man I bumped into coming off the train the other day. I let out a weak “Thank you,” then I pass out once more this week. When I come to three weeks later I’m in a hospital room hooked up to a bunch of machines. When I start to stur I hear the man that saved my life loudly exclaim “Oh my god, you’re awake! I’m gonna go get the doctor, I’ll be back in a sec,” and with that he runs out of the small hospital room I’m in.

A few moments later the man walks in with a doctor. The doctor reassures me that I’m going to live, and then says “It’s a good thing your friend Steve here brought you to us. You know, he’s been here everyday to make sure you're alive and that you wake up.” At that the man, Steve, blushed and awkwardly coughed.

Then it’s like I’m seeing him for the first time. He’s absolutely stunning, he has chocolate curls and emerald green eyes. I try to get up, but I’m so weak that I can’t. So while still laying down I look up at him and say “Hi, I’m Chris, would you like to get coffee once I get outta here?” The man, Steve, blushes and nods his head yes.

Two weeks later once I’m finally released, I’m looking into Steve’s beautiful emerald eyes and talking with him about how we got where we were on that dreadful day neither of us will forget.

Present Day - Seattle

“Chris! We’re going to be late, we need to get going,” my husband yells. Suddenly I snap out of my daydream and dry my hands off. When I leave the bathroom I see him, my beautiful Steve, I give him a chaste kiss and tell him to relax. And we’re on our way.