Until the end, p.1
Until the End, page 1
Until
the
END
a love story by
J Hoffman
To my husband-
You still trigger butterflies in the pit of my stomach,
even after all these years.
Here’s to many more to come.
I love you.
1
Talia tore the corner of the envelope off and peeked inside. She could see the school's emblem in the corner, and her name at the top, but that was all. With a sigh, she tore it open the rest of the way and pulled out the enclosed letter.
Ms. Talia Turner,
We regret to inform-…
She crumpled the letter into a ball and tossed it into her wastebasket. It bounced off the edge of the can and rolled a few feet away. Of course, Talia rolled her eyes. She could feel her eyes starting to burn so she busied herself with a piece of charcoal.
Pressing it into the canvas sitting across from her, it crumbled under the pressure and produced a thick, dark line. She brought her hand back up to the top of the canvas and drew a thinner line next to it. Talia dragged her thumb along the larger line, smearing the charcoal toward the smaller one. She continued rubbing the charcoal until it lightened up to her desired shade of gray. She sat up straighter, reached for the top of the canvas. She began drawing short, thin lines until a large cluster formed. Talia ran the side of her thumb back and forth over the cluster until the entire top of the canvas was covered.
A small strand of light brown hair fell into her face and she tried to blow it away, but it fell right back into her line of sight. She reached up to brush it away and streaked her cheek with the charcoal on her thumb. After dusting her hands off on her pants, she opened her container of paint supplies and picked up a few bottles before finding the dark hunter green she was looking for. Talia squeezed paint on a small palette and grabbed a small, flat paintbrush. She started making small tally marks across the bottom of the canvas. Once she was satisfied, she leaned back and chewed the inside of her lip as she assessed her piece of art.
Before she could decide whether she liked it or not, her concentration was broken by a soft knock at the door. She turned the canvas away from her and cleared her throat, trying to push her thoughts aside. “Come in,” she croaked, and silently hoped her mother was bringing her some water.
“Hey Star,” Belle Turner poked her head around the door. Her goofy smile pulled Talia from her negativity and she smiled back.
“Hey, Mom, what’s up?”
“Do you have any plans this weekend?”
She rolled her eyes, “When’s the last time I had plans, Mom?”
Belle stepped into the room, and Talia’s eyes grew wide. Her mother was wearing a sheer tank top that stretched across her rotund torso. While her top was accented in neon green and turquoise, the metallic orange and purple athletic leggings were what sent Talia into a fit of giggles.
“Mom, why are you wearing that?”
“What?” Belle looked down at herself innocently. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“That’s just… Not how I’d do it, I guess,” Talia muttered.
“I think I look cute! This is what’s in!” Belle waved her hand at Talia nonchalantly while rolling her eyes, “Like you know anything about fashion, anyway.”
“Hey! You came into my room; might I remind you.”
Belle threw her head back and cackled, “You’re right, I’m sorry. I’m going to New York this weekend, I wanted to know if you would like to come?”
Talia took a deep breath, “What are you going to New York for?”
“I just want to see Ma for a bit. I think The Trio is wearing her out, she just sounds so exhausted every time I talk to her.”
“Yeah, I’ll pass on that, but send my love,” she stated bluntly and began cleaning up her painting supplies.
“Ooh,” Belle sang. “Were you painting? Let me see!” She lunged toward the canvas.
Talia shrieked and knocked it out of the way, “No!” The canvas fell from the easel and bounced to a halt, face down. Talia groaned, staring at the ceiling. “Seriously, Mom?”
“That was not my fault!”
“How was it not your fault?”
“I just wanted to see it,” Belle pouted.
“You know my rule. It’s not even dry yet so I know it’s smeared and in the carpet.”
She crossed her arms and sighed, “You know, I really wish you’d be more open with that stuff. I know you’re good, you’re just not confident.”
“I don’t have time for this right now.”
“You just said you never have any plans! You should reconsider this ‘rule’ of yours because it’s just asinine to spend so much time on something you never intend to release into the world. Your work deserves to be seen.”
Talia rolled her eyes indignantly, “You’ve told me this a hundred times and it’s not my thing. Drop it.”
“I’ll tell you a hundred more if it’ll get you to open up a little.”
“Well I won’t, so. Continue.”
“I already bought you a ticket to New York.”
“What?” Talia groaned.
“There’s no reason for you to stay in the house this much!”
“I like to stay at home!”
“And I like to see my daughter live her life!”
“Mother! I have no desire to see them. Gramma, sure, but the triplets? Not.”
Belle sat on the edge of Talia’s bed and patted the spot next to her. Talia plopped down, crossing her arms. She already knew she was going to lose this battle, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to try. “You have to get over that eventually.”
“I do not. My feelings are completely justified.”
“They absolutely are justified. However, this grudge you’re holding onto so tightly is not justified. They’re family, and family sticks together. Nobody was hurt, nobody died. You’ve obviously learned from it and now we move on. Okay?”
Talia rolled her eyes, “Do I have to go?”
“I would really like it if you did.”
She bit her lip and thought for a moment. She sighed, and let her head hang low, “Fine.”
“Yay!” Belle clapped her hands together happily. “We leave at three-thirty!”
“In the afternoon?”
“Oh,” she smiled and squeezed Talia’s knee. “No, dear.”
She let out a deep breath, “Alright then. I better get packing.” Belle licked her thumb and reached up to Talia’s cheek, scrubbing at the charcoal. Talia smacked her mother’s hand out of the way. “Gross, Mom! Don’t do that!”
“Oh stop, I did that all the time when you were little.”
“Yeah, it was probably gross then, too.”
Belle stood and headed toward the door. She stopped and picked up the waded-up ball of paper on the floor, “What’s this? Another drawing?” She grinned and pulled it open as fast as she could, flattening it out against her thigh.
“No, just a rejection letter from my number one art school. No big deal.” She tossed her supplies into the box and locked it up.
She heaved a sigh and turned back to Talia, her eyes brimming with tears, “Screw those schools, Star. You’re so much better than they say you are.”
“It’s because my art grades were so low.”
“Well, screw those teachers, too. They couldn’t tell a Picasso from a Bob Ross.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they could.”
“You’re a great artist. Someone will see that one day.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Talia rolled her eyes again.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Belle backed out of the room, closing the door.
“Yep. Three-thirty.” She pulled open her dresser drawer and grabbed a few paint-stained articles of clothing and shoved them into her duffel bag angrily.
2
Talia stretched her feet out in front of her, resting them on the bar of the stool next to her. She knew she couldn’t spend the entire weekend sulking; her mother’s goofy grin had already grown three times its size. She stared at a faded and cracked mural of the skyline on the wall across from her. It was a gray wash, which she appreciated, but she could tell by wavy lines and incomplete windows that the artist was a bit rushed. She wondered if anyone else noticed these details the way she did, but a quick glance at the patrons surrounding her told her that she was probably the only one to even notice the mural at all.
She took a sip from her straw but her empty cup just gurgled back in response. She sighed and sat it back down on the table in front of her. Her breakfast burrito was bland, and the hash browns were cold. The only thing the saving the cheap fast food joint she was sitting at was the lack of other nearby options. Two convenient stores where everything was highly overpriced, a hot dog stand and a coffee shop with donuts that looked like they had been sitting under the warmer for much longer than they should’ve been. A quick thud on her back brought her attention back to the fast-food joint. She could hear snickering behind her, and she rolled her eyes, sighing heavily.
“Wow, you don’t even bother to turn around?” Her cousin Tony loomed over her.
“Can’t even say ‘hi’?” His brother Nick stood next to her, crossing his arms.
“She bought us breakfast though!” Their brother Danny stepped in front of her, knocking her feet off the stool they were resting on. He grabbed what was left of her hash browns and started shoving them in his mouth one by one.
“You’re absolutely disgusting,” she snarled.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Ease up, Princess,” Tony grabbed her shoulders. He dug his thumbs into her muscles, making her cringe.
Before Talia could respond, her mother’s booming voice sounded from a few feet away, “My favorite nephews!” She pulled the three of them into a group hug the best she could. The three of them resisted, but Talia appreciated Tony releasing her shoulders.
“We’re your only nephews, Aunt Belle,” he protested.
“Oh, but if you weren’t, you’d still be my favorites!”
“That’s flattering, really. You should tell your favorite daughter to talk to her favorite cousins,” Nick leaned over and thumped her on the back, causing the air in her lungs to dissipate.
Belle looked at Talia lovingly before lowering her voice, “She’s still upset about ‘The Incident’.” She used her index fingers to make air quotations. After taking a deep breath, she smiled at the triplets in front of her and spoke up. “I have a cab waiting for me. You boys are taking Talia to Grandma’s, right?”
“Yes ma’am, we’ll meet you there.”
Once Belle had turned the corner, the triplets took off running in the opposite direction, laughing along the way. Talia sighed heavily, staring at the remains of her breakfast. She crumpled up the wrappers. As she was standing, the small hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and made her feel as if someone was watching her. Expecting to see one of her cousins lingering, she turned around quickly and shot them a nasty look.
She was shocked when a guy who looked to be around her age held his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you mad or something.”
Talia gaped, “N-no! I thought you were someone else! I’m so sorry.”
“One of the Trio?”
She tilted her head in confusion, “How do you know them by that name?”
“They’re a few of my closest friends.” He stepped forward, dusting his hands off on his pants, and he held one hand out to her. “I’m Damien, and I know where they’re parked.”
Talia nodded slowly, but didn’t take his hand, “I’m Talia.”
He looked from his empty, outstretched hand to her and let his hand fall back to his side. “Do you need to go to the baggage claim?”
“Yeah, I only have one bag though.” She threw the wrappers from her food away and nodded to him, “Do you know where it is?”
He nodded, too. “Yeah, I was just there a week ago.”
“Oh?” She questioned. “Did you go on vacation?”
“You could say that,” he shrugged.
She rolled her eyes, stepping behind him as he directed her to the baggage claim. “I didn’t come here for the mystery.”
“What was that?” He glanced back at her as he stepped around a small toddler throwing a tantrum to the dismay of his clearly overworked mother.
“Nothing,” she shouted over the toddler’s wails. Damien directed her toward the long line forming around various suitcases. Talia groaned, crossing her arms. “This is going to take forever.”
He shrugged, “Well I can stand in line while you wander around the parking lot looking for your cousins, or, you can ease up and try not to look so dismal.”
She heaved a deep breath, “I don’t want to be here.”
Damien nodded, “That’s funny because I want to be here, but I don’t want to be miserable while I’m here.”
“This was not what I had planned for the weekend.”
“Well, what did you have planned, Miss Talia?”
She chewed the inside of her cheek and peered out from under her eyelashes, “Not coming to New York, obviously.”
“Well,” he offered. “I came here on my own free-will, trying to get away from a bunch of stress in Ohio.”
“Ohio?” She questioned curiously.
“Yeah, Cleveland.”
“I’m from Boardman.”
“No way! They never said that.”
“They don’t really care.”
“I’ve been to Boardman before.”
“I can’t imagine why.”
“They have one of the best tattoo shops in Ohio. I did a few internships there,” excitement bubbled from him.
“Oh, I wouldn’t know about that.”
“No?”
“No,” she shook her head, moving forward with the long line. “I go to Cleveland sometimes.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“Any particular reason?”
“My dad lives up there.”
“Oh, nice. What part?”
“Eastside.”
He nodded as the moved forward, “Me too! That’s pretty cool. Small world.”
She nodded, too, “Yeah, sure is.”
“So, do you have any?”
“Any what?”
“Tattoos?”
“Oh, absolutely not,” Talia waved her hand to disregard him completely.
“Well if you’re ever feeling rebellious and in the Cleveland area, you should hit me up,” Talia wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw him wink at her.
Her cheeks flushed, “I highly doubt that’ll happen.”
He shrugged, crossing his arms, “You never know, I tend to bring out the craziness in people.” He grinned slyly.
“Is that good or bad?”
He smirked, “It could be good, for you.” He let his words trail quietly.
She knew he was flirting but couldn’t figure out how to respond. His hair was jet black and a little shaggy. It was obvious he hadn’t had a haircut in a while. But it wasn’t his hair that caught her attention the most, it was his incredibly defined jawline. Stealing glances at him, her mind drifted to her art supplies. He would be so simple to draw. His jawline would be sharp, his eyes would be a deep pool of milk chocolate and his nose would be crooked in the most bodacious of ways. As they moved through the line, Talia became anxious to get to her grandmothers’ house.
“So,” he interrupted her thoughts. “I just got my body art license a few months ago.”
“Oh yeah?” She cleared her throat, trying to seem interested.
“Yeah, I’m opening my own shop next month.”
“Wow, congratulations.”
“Thanks! My best friend is actually doing some work on it now.”
“What a nice friend you have.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty great. I don’t know where I’d be without him.”
“I used to have a friend like that.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she nodded, her throat growing dry.
“What happened?”
“We just don’t talk anymore.”
“That sucks. I’m sorry.” They stepped up to the round conveyor belt. “What color is your bag?”
“Black, it’s a duffle.”
After finding her bag in a sea of black duffle bags, Damien led her to the exit. He seemed a bit overwhelmed as they pushed through the crowd, all heading for the doors. The Trio managed to maneuver their large SUV through the rows of taxicabs and family vans. With an impatient Tony in the driver’s seat and an obnoxious Danny in the passenger's seat, fidgeting with the radio, Talia dove for the third row, trying to avoid Nick entirely.
He moved to the far side of the middle row, “Sorry for leaving you with her. I’m sure it was awful.”
Damien eyed him strangely, the early morning sun catching the brown in his eyes and causing them to burn in a light amber color.
From chocolate to honey, Talia thought to herself, smiling.
“It was actually quite pleasant, but thanks for your concern, man.” Damien pulled himself into the vehicle and fell into the seat next to Talia.
Nick shrugged and threw his leg up onto the bench seat, “Whatever, dude. More room for me.”
3
Regardless of how Talia felt about coming to New York, she already knew to see her grandmother was going to be the highlight of her trip. As they pulled up to the familiar Victorian style home, Talia was flooded with memories of her childhood. Every year, the weekend after school let out for summer, Talia’s mom drove her the six-hour trip to her grandparents. The two of them would spend the weekend there together, and then Talia’s mom would take the six-hour trip home alone. Talia would stay until the weekend before school was scheduled to start again. Her mother would visit intermittently throughout the summer months, but most of the time, Talia was there with her grandmother and her cousins.
