The Ceremony

Strangely enough, Simone awoke on Thursday November 11, 2010 Remembrance Day, feeling light and happy.  She began to giggle, about the stories she had written in her notebook and in her diary, the ones that had come directly from those True Story Magazines she had been reading as a young girl.  The ones she had made up about Sam, when she was barely 16 years old.  The ones Noel and her brother read together.  Simone thought she would have loved to have seen the expressions on their faces back then.  They had actually thought they were true!  Simone would love to read those stories now.

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Noel burst into her room, without knocking,  There was an angry but desperate and tortured look on his face, and under his arm, was her diary and her notebooks.  He tossed them on the bed.  Simone backed away, and half expected him to hit her, but instead, he fell to his knees at her feet, sobbing and crying and begging her to forgive him. 

Simone had no idea how to deal with this outburst, it had shocked her to the core, and suddenly she was feeling sorry for Noel, and tears filled her eyes.  She went to him and patted him on the head, as he continued sobbing. 

Noel finally stopped crying, and he wrapped his arms around her and tried to kiss her.  She felt herself stiffen, and she tried to push him away.  Simone was confused.  Noel began confessing his love for her, and Simone could hardly stand his desperation.  She felt sick.    Simone did not know what to do, or what to say.  He asked her to be his girlfriend again, and Simone said "ok" when every ounce of her was wanting to escape from him.  

A few days later, Noel demanded that Simone burn her diary and notebooks, and he made a ceremony of it.  They headed down to the river, gathered wood,  built a huge fire, and Noel made Simone toss her stories into the fire.  Simone felt as if she had tossed away a piece of her life that day.  She watched as they burned, and saw the satisfied look upon Noel's face.

He turned to her then, a smug look on his face.  "You are a bitch" he said coldly.  Simone looked away.  She did not want to tell him the stories were not true, she wanted him to believe the lies she had written there.  It gave her some sort of sick satisfaction.

Noel never let Simone forget what she had done.