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Sweethearts Chapter 3

An American Telenovela

By Chas C. SmithPublished 7 years ago 11 min read
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Chapter 3

With Zaz having been stabbed, Rebecca's nights had become restless. The worst part is she didn't know why...

Rebecca stood at the beachside, staring off into the sunset. The waves were coming softly and the breeze was just ever so gentle.

"It looks great, doesn't it?" Rebecca looked to her left and there stood Zaz, wearing only swim trunks. His hair was wet and his body glistened as if he had just come out of the ocean. He smiled. God, his pearly white teeth would have been enough to make a girl melt.

"What are you doing here?" Rebecca asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

He chuckled. "Relax, Rebecca. It's just a dream. I'm not really here. Just a figment of your imagination."

Rebecca relaxed but only a little. "Oh."

Zaz stepped towards her and put his hands stretched out. "But I suppose you want to know why I'm here." He put one hand out to her and another behind his back as he bowed. "Milady."

Rebecca took his hand and suddenly they were back 5 years ago to when Zaz took her out on a date. They had just stepped out of the office building and started walking down Q St. The trees were dropping their red, yellow and orange leaves and the streets were decorated with them. The wind blew gently, making her hair flow in the wind. Rebecca stood across the street from where Zaz and herself were currently walking.

"We are cute together, aren't we?" said "Dream" Zaz. Rebecca looked to him. He was now dressed in a Superman t-shirt with dark blue jeans. Just like he was that night. She looked down at herself and found she was also dressed in the same clothes from that night. She had on blue jeans and a Beatles T-shirt.

"Look, we aren't good together. That's what this night proved," she said pointedly.

"Did it?" he asked in boredom.

"Yeah, you kept talking because you were so nervous. I barely got a word in edgewise."

"I don't remember it that way," he said. "C'mon. Let's keep up." He pointed to the other version of them that was now a whole block ahead of them.

They started walking at a brisk pace. Rebecca had to walk almost twice as fast to keep up with his long legs. She started to remember how this day was one of the unusually warm days in October. She felt the cool breeze brush up against her.

"What do you mean you don't remember it that way? What other way could it be remembered?"

He ran his hand through his "grown out" buzz cut. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Rather not talk about it? I'm afraid we are too late for that."

Their doubles turned left on Connecticut. They were still about half a block behind them. "Let's just watch. That'll be the best way to see." He then started running up to the end of the block and turned left.

Rebecca sighed in exasperation then ran after him.

They caught up with their doubles just as they were cutting through DuPont Circle. The fountain at the middle was turned off but you could still enjoy the splendor of the sculptures that were part of the fountain. The stone man held onto a sail with one hand and a conch shell in another. He looked like he was trying to keep the sail from flying away.

Zaz caught Rebecca staring at it. "Did you know he is supposed to represent the wind?"

She looked at him and then grabbed one of her hair ties off her wrist and put her hair up in a ponytail. They continued walking. "No. So we are talking again?"

He smiled gingerly. "Yeah, sorry about that. It's just a sore subject. I've had a lot of people tell me that I'm wrong about that night. Yourself included. I still don't think I was."

Rebecca recalled exactly when Zaz had come to ask her on a second date. She had rejected him. She told him that there was no connection between them and that there would never would be. But that was only because I...

"It's no matter now, though," Zaz stated. He pointed to the "them" on the date. "Listen."

They were just about to cross the street and head to the Metro Station. Zaz put out his hand and motioned for Rebecca to grab it. "You've got to hold my hand if we're going to cross the street."

Rebecca smiled cutely. "What about the other times we crossed the street?"

"They didn't count."

Rebecca laughed. Zaz beamed at her but then put on his "serious" face. "So are you going to take my hand or not?"

Rebecca took his hand and placed her fingers with his and they walked across the street.

The "Dream" Zaz gestured to their doubles as if saying, "do you see my point?"

Rebecca remembered how she felt at that exact instant. There was a bliss to the air. She hadn't really known Zaz at all at that point and if things had stayed that way, she probably would've been married to him already. But things hadn't stayed that way...

"You can't judge how successful a relationship would be based off of one occurrence. There are other factors that could be a deal breaker. They're just not known yet."

Zaz grimaced. "You can't overthink things. Sometimes you've just got to jump in and find out afterwards."

Rebecca pointed towards him. "You see? Just another reason we wouldn't work well together!"

They followed the "other" couple in silence as they approached the Metro station. The way to get to the Metro Station is an escalator down to the station. This escalator is located nearby a Krispy Kreme and a Panera. Those places are right across from each other but are part of the same building so it makes a sort of tunnel between them. By the corner of the Panera nearest the row of potted plants stood two hoodlums. That's pretty much all you could call them. One of them wore blue sneakers and barely had his jeans covering any of his butt. The jeans were torn at the knees. He had on purple boxers that were "peeking" out from his jeans. He wore a black T-shirt that said "I didn't choose the Thug Life. The Thug Life chose me!" The other one was dressed similarly except his sneakers were bright green and his T-shirt was just a wife beater. He also had a gold tooth in place of his left incisor. Rebecca and Zaz didn't go near them but as they were about to get onto the escalator they were intercepted by the hoodlums.

Rebecca (the real one) could see what was happening from a distance. The hoodlums had pulled knives on them and were now rerouting them to further down the street.

"I don't remember this happening!"

Zaz then started typing into a holographic keyboard in front of him. A "screen" popped up in front of him. It had a series of dots, lines, and numbers.

"It seems that something is interfering with the dream from the outside. Hold on, I think I can broadcast it."

Then as if God turned on his radio or if they were in a movie, a song turned on in the background, completely engulfing them in sound. "Is it a crime, to fight, for what is mine? Everybody's dyin'. Tell me, what's the use of tryin'? I've been trapped since birth, cautious, cause I'm cursed. And fantasies of my family, in a hearse."

"Is that 2Pac?!" Zaz asked.

Rebecca blushed. "Yeah. That's my alarm. You got a problem with that?"

Zaz put his hands up. "No problem here. Just surprised. That's all. I didn't figure you for that type of girl."

Rebecca glared at him.

"The type of girl to listen to gangster rap." He continued. "Just one more thing before you wake up." Zaz walked over to her and put his hands to her face then kissed her.

It took Rebecca a good solid minute for her to become awake enough to realize that the pillow she was kissing was not Zaz and in fact a pillow. She pushed herself away and sat up abruptly. Her hair was frazzled. She was wearing her Disney Princess pajamas that had Jasmine, Ariel, Snow White and Cinderella on the shirt and pink rose patterned pants. Her blue comforter, which was just pushed aside, had a little head peeking out of it.

"Meow."

Whiskers climbed out from under the comforter and sauntered over to Rebecca and immediately started nuzzling her. It was just then that her cell phone started to ring. The ringtone was Tessa Sparks's new song, "Steampunk Romance."

Oh, Emma. You changed the ringtone again. She thought with a quirky smile on her face. Emma would always get into her phone every once in awhile and change the ringtone in her phone to the latest song they liked. And she would rename different contacts her own nickname for them. It could be annoying but most of the time it was hilarious. One time she had nicknamed Rebecca's boss, Mr. Archibald Twinkle. Rebecca had told Emma of the time her boss confessed to her that he was a ballet dancer when he was younger. Rebecca almost couldn't hold in her laughter when he called her the first time.

She picked up her phone off the nightstand and answered it. "Heyy!"

Emma's enthusiastic voice came through. "Hey, cutie! What are you up to?"

"I just woke up. I'm going to shower and then go eat at the diner if you want to join me."

"Sure, I'll meet you there. Bye!"

"Bye!"

Rebecca hung up the phone then walked out of her bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen. Whiskers followed, mewling the whole time. Rebecca got the cat food out and then poured it into Whisker's bowl. Whiskers happily started eating.

Rebecca wandered back down the hall towards the bathroom. That's when she heard her phone ring again. This time it was "I'm Too Sexy" By Right Said Fred. Rebecca chuckled. Who the hell did Emma put this ringtone too? She walked over to her phone and the contact name read "Super Hot Hunk." There was no picture shown. Rebecca, curious enough, answered the phone. She guessed who it was just a split moment before he said anything.

"Rebecca, we need to talk."

"Zaz? What's up?" She asked, cheeks blushing a furious red. She tried to hide any embarrassment out of her voice.

"Can you meet me at the diner? I have something to talk to you about but it has to be in person."

"Sure, I was heading there anyway but what is this about?"

"I'd rather not talk about it until we meet in person. "

Rebecca said OK and hung up the phone. She then made a call.

"Emma, you're a horrible person! Zaz just called. I'm going to kill you!"

Emma laughed hard and long. After she caught her breath, she asked a question. "Sooooo, what did he say?"

Rebecca's cheeks flushed again. "He asked me to meet him at the cafe."

"OH MY GOD! You're going on a date!"

"Oh, it's not a date." Rebecca said, knowing that this was coming. "It sounded urgent." Rebecca thought to the undertone of worry in his voice.

"It's definitely a date, girl. Don't worry. I'm on my way. You'll be smokin' for your date." Emma said cheerily.

"Wait! No—"

It was too late. Emma had already hung up.

____________________

Zaz put his phone back in his pocket and continued to examine the crime scene photos and the sketch of the Smiley Face Murderer. Jack sat on the other side of his desk. He held in his hand a photo of an almost identical man, Felix Williams, a man that Zaz had seen only once before. At the Tessa Sparks concert.

Jack seemed to be trying to peer right into Zaz's soul. "It could be all some sort of mistake."

Zaz was quiet for a moment. He pondered the possibilities. He tried to see if there was possibly some other way. "No, there's no doubt in my mind. Felix is the Smiley Face Murderer and he is also Rebecca's father."

Jack sighed. "If that's the case then we should be the ones to talk to Rebecca."

Zaz looked Jack in the eye. "That may be true but you can't ask me to not follow a lead when I have one."

Jack frowned. "You're not cop, Zaz. You're not a P.I. I only let you in on a few things because you're my friend and I know how I'd feel if I was in your position. You can't go talk to Rebecca about this."

"Why did you let me call Rebecca in the first place then?"

Jack laughed a hearty laugh. "No, it wasn't so you could confront her on it. It's so you can take that girl out on a proper date. She'll need it if her father is really the Smiley Face Murderer."

Zaz guffawed. "What?"

"When is the last time you relaxed, man? Let us do our job and you go have fun. Live a little! And I promise you that I will solve your father's murder."

Zaz was silent for awhile. He thought of the crime scene data in his room. He knew Jack didn't know about it. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I need to extrovert."

"Yeah! Go have some fun. Relax!"

Zaz got up to leave and nodded to Jack as he left. He pulled out his phone to check the time and started heading to the cafe. He had no intention of having fun.

science fiction
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About the Creator

Chas C. Smith

I'm the author of Sweethearts: An American Telenovela. I've always loved creating that feeling of intrigue in readers. I work to make everything I do enjoyable. Twitter:@ChasCSmith FB: https://www.facebook.com/Chas-C-Smith-1747050455592558/

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