MacArthur's Park [CW]

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Spring was never waiting for us, girl

It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance.

The city was alive, even at this very hour of night: LED lights glowed on every street block and every gigantic TV display on the skyscrapers; people flowed in and out of various establishments that still seemed to remain full, regardless of how many people exited; cars beeped along the way, riders and drivers rushing to get to places, or simply enjoying a joyride; and with the heartbeat of the city, music melded along with the unsilenceable chatterings of citizens and tourists everywhere in a beautiful, disconcerting cacophony of noises.

It was also the month of February, and for the month, the city was dressed in red and pink hearts and cut-outs of winged babies wielding bows and arrows. Almost every advertisment showed off a seductive new fragrance or an impossibly beautiful young woman flaunting yet another unreasonably expensive set of clothing or jewelry, promising to tug at the hearts of young men everywhere.

The frigid, cool kiss of winter ever did little to quench the passion of the season.

Amidst groups of friends or lonely singles looking to drown their sorrows by intoxication sat a young woman in a leather jacket, at a bar.
Elizabeth downed her glass of water and looked at the cabinet of wines, beers, and vodka behind the barista, who busied himself with mixing drinks for patrons. Smooth jazz music danced in the air and into her ears, which had set her into a calm, almost drunk state.
"What the heck am I doing in a bar," she thought, "when I hate alcohol?"
The barista, having run out of glasses to fill for the moment, looked down at her contemptuously, as she was half-slumped on the bar table.
"Look, lady, if you aren't going to order anything worth paying for, you should just scram. What am I running, a charity watering hole?"
Elizabeth looked up at the young man- looking to only be twenty- gruffly, and headed to the door, no longer feeling tipsy. It wasn't like she didn't have anything witty to say in retort; she just felt it undignified to trouble a kid trying to earn some pay. She was twenty-six; she should know better.

Mounting a shiny, black-and-white Harley that was waiting out on the sidewalk, Elizabeth took to the road, squeezing past cars stuck in traffic jam, without any particular destination in mind. Her inner autopilot took her past the entrance of Central Park.
For a few seconds, she stopped and peered through her helmet to see the inside of the park, before rolling her eyes and finally deciding to go on home.
"Nice one, brain. Central Park. At this time of year. Great choice, there," she mumbled irritably, to nobody but herself in particular.

Central Park melted away in the dark as Elizabeth drove to her home reluctantly, where she lived alone.

It was two in the morning when Elizabeth turned over and checked her phone for the nth time as she lay down underneath the covers of her bed. The husky hadn't stirred at all from his slumber next to her, and continued to breathe and dream in peace. He didn't move either when his owner kicked her feet up in the air, causing the blankets to sprawl out all over his body, and leave the darkened, moonlit room.

Elizabeth sat down in front of the fireplace, stabbing an oreo cheesecake with a fork and chewing small bites. Her long, naturally messy chestnut hair cascaded in waves all over her back and shoulders, and even stuck up at some uneven points. The firey red orange of the flames bounced off the short, yellow, cotton nightdress she wore- not that there was anybody to take note of how she looked, sitting on the carpet in front of the fireplace, as she was all by herself at home, save for her beloved dog.
She glanced at her phone again. It remained dormant, its screen void of any notifications or beeping lights.
"Sure, like ten years would change anything," she thought. She bit her lip and gave up on the cheesecake altogether, despite the fact that it was her favorite cake. It was tasteless in her mouth.
"So much can happen in a day... That's just crap, for me. It's been ten long years and still..."
She felt the familiar stinging sensation in her eyes and laughed.
"It's like the stupid stories that I hate so much. Bad break-ups, wounds that never heal... All that typical trash," she said to herself, hoarsely. Being a writer herself, she hated writing stories and poems that went the same way as most popular works.
"So why the hell is this still happening to me? Hell, why do I still even care?" She grabbed her phone again and tapped the button on it with unnecessary force, causing the screen to light up.
"Do I always have to text you first? To apologize first?" Elizabeth snapped at the phone, as if it could hear her.

For ten years, she'd spurned the advances of those who used to be her friends and those who admired her from afar alike. Along with that, her closest friends had all but become busy with their own lives, some even living lives similar that of those in the stories she disliked so much. Sure, she had the support of her family... Her family, whom she had to leave in order to chase her ambition and further develop her career.
The nonchalance she had in the beginning had begun to fall apart within a matter of minutes ten years ago, when she'd ended it.
That being said... She may have ended and severed the tie that kept her down, but it never ended. That is, her worrying and all that. She couldn't completely get past glancing at her phone all the time, or imagining something terrible happening, or even feeling like everything was her fault, or...
Feeling the exhilaration one gets from feeling and knowing that they were loved. Feeling a gentle, warm hand in or holding hers. Being held tightly.
Not being alone.

As much as she hated being tied down, she hated being alone... But instead of cancelling each other out, they'd just made her feel worse.

And after all the loves of my life
Oh, after all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you- and wondering why.

Funny how it was her first... But damn, it hurt so badly that even if she longed to be rid of the emptiness, she just couldn't move on without a pang of pain from her conscience- she felt like the entire schbang of emotions and pain would repeat in the same exact way, that she'd just end up tearing down a man instead of building him up once more. She'd had enough of that; she never even intended for it to go that way.
And she knew very well that there was no more continuation for that first romance, unlike in most stories. Heck, the reason she'd ended it in the first place... Was to put a stop to the pain and burden that she felt she had become.

For the tenth time in a row, since that hurtful day, when she thought she'd be free from worrying... Elizabeth sat alone in front of her fireplace, on Valentine's Day.
Because there's no rest for the wicked; physically, and apparently, mentally and emotionally.

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
Oh sweet green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
And I don't think that I can take it
Because it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again.
... Oh, no...