A dark, windy and rainy Friday night in the main of London. He walks down the street that is dimly lit by the streetlights. He opens the heavy, glass door that leads to an even darker room, soft jazz music playing in the background. The smell of cigarettes and cigars enter the openings of his nose as he sits down on one of the empty stools at the bar and orders a whisky coke. His left hand searches the pocket of his leather jacket for a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. The small glass of whisky and coke gets placed on a beer mat and the guy sinks down into his crossed arms, the cigarette sticking out of the pile of depressed mess, the white smoke curling up to the brown ceiling. Frankie sings his way in the background, while the pile of mess breathes heavily.
��Sup, mate?� The bartender asks politely, while drying beer glasses with a dirty stained cloth. Dark brown pools look up and dry lips take a long drag of the half gone up in smoke cigarette. The free hand slides over the bar towards the glass and he reaches it towards his mouth, where he carefully takes a sip from the whisky coke.
�Life just isn�t what it used to be, I guess.� Red circles with in the middle brown eyes, look up at the bartender, who is wiping the bar. The man shrugs and stops cleaning.
�Well, it never is.� The man says wisely, and continues cleaning, and putting some extra effort on the beer stains on the shiny bar.
�I can�t take it anymore, Matt!� A girl with long brown hair screamed, whilst waving her arms about in the air. �I don�t mind you going out with friends on a Friday and Saturday night, but keep your dirty claws off other girls!� The girl hissed and tied her hair up in a ponytail. �I hope you have a very nice life.� She added and opened the door, to slam it shut after she had stepped out.
�It�s because of a girl, isn�t it?� The bartender asks sympathetically and pats the guy on his shoulder, whilst sitting next to him on the other empty stool.
�Partly. I�m a male whore, according to my girlfriend.� The guy says, taking another drag from his cigarette. �Or should I say, ex-girlfriend? Because she walked out on me.� The guy drinks the last drips of whisky coke.
�Want another one?� The guy nods and takes out his wallet. �It�s on the house.� The bartender adds with a wink, and walks around the bar to get another whisky coke for the poor lad. The lad starts tapping with his foot on the floor and looks around the bar place.
�Mind if I play a bit of piano?� The lad asks, and looks at the bartender, searching for an answer. He nods and the guy stands up from the stool, and walks over to the big, black piano that�s up a little stage, surrounded by blood red curtains. The guy touches a few keys, an unknown tune comes forth out of the fingers that delicately move over the black and white keys of the piano. The bartender comes over with the whisky coke and puts it on the edge of the piano, and leans against the side of it.
�You a musician?� He asks, and turns the background music off with a button on a remote control. He looks into nothing and stares blankly at what�s in front of him, whilst carefully listening to the music that the guy is playing.
�Used to be.�
�Well, this is it. The end of your career.� A young man with sparkly blue eyes told an other guy who�s in front of him. �You shouldn�t have spent so much time in clubs, and getting drunk, Matt. You shouldn�t have wrecked so many hotel rooms.� The man rolled his eyes and crossed his arms when he noticed that the guy wasn�t listening. �Do you even care about your life, your career, your girlfriend, your friends?� The man said with an angry tone. �Thanks for ruining out lives, Matt. Now get out of here.�
�Got kicked out of my band, because I wasn�t behaving like the others.� The guy says, as he stops playing the piano.
�Don�t stop.� A girl�s voice begs, and walks over to the piano, to sit next to the guy. �Don�t stop.� She repeats herself, and takes the guy�s hands and places them back on the keyboard.
�This is Aimee. She performs here from time to time.� The guy gives a faint smile to the girl in a white, silky dress, her blonde hair carefully pinned up. The guy�s fingers start to touch the keys again, making a beautiful sound that fills the room.
�I�m gonna continue doing the washing up,� The bartender says, and leaves the boy and the girl on their own behind the piano, the boy playing an unknown song, the girl softly humming along with the tune. The girl�s hands lift up and onto the keyboard, playing the higher notes of the song. The corners of the girl�s mouth cheekily curl into a smile, her eyes closed, as if she�s reliving a moment that only she can remember.
�I remember this.� The girl softy whispers.
A white piano was in the middle of the room, a boy was sitting behind it, playing an unknown tune. A girl filled him in by playing the higher notes, then suddenly stopping and nuzzling the boy�s neck.
�Love you,� She whispered softly into his ear, a strain of hair falling down her face and onto the boy�s shoulder.
�Love you too,�
�You remember what?� The guy asks confused, and stops playing the piano. The girl turns to face the lad, who has a puzzled look on his face. She brings up her left hand and strokes his cheek, a faint smile across her face.
�Us two playing the piano, playing that tune over and over again, until we dropped dead.� The guy raises an eyebrow and takes the hand of the girl off of his cheek.
�I think you�re mistaking me for someone else, lady.� The guy says, and is about to stand up.
�You really don�t remember, do you?� The girl asks under her breath, followed by a deep sigh.
�Remember what?� The guy asks in reply, a tone of irritation and anger can be sensed in his voice.
�Me, us, our week.�
�Have to go now,� The boy said and stroked the girl�s cheek as a sign of affection. The girl looked down at her shoes, a lonely tear escaped from her eye. �Please don�t cry. I don�t want to either, but it�s the best for us both.�
�How can it be the best for us both, when we�re both getting hurt by doing this?� The girl asked, her voice had trembled.
�It just is,� The boy lifted her head, so he looked her in the eye. �Do you trust me?� The girl nodded, followed by a soft sniff. �Then trust me on this one. It�s the best for us both.�
�Get to your point, please. I�m seriously wasting my time here.� The bloke screams and throws up his arms in the air in mock surrender.
�You never used to scream at me.� The girl stands up, turns away from the lad and leans with her hands on the piano. �You never got drunk, you only used to hold me and nothing else in the world mattered. Where did that Matt go?� The girl turns to look at the guy, and plays with the silver ring that�s on a necklace around her neck. The guy narrows his eyes to slits and focuses on the thing that the girl is playing with. It looks familiar. As if he�d seen it before, as if it had been his before.
�I want you to have this, so you will remember me, forever and ever.� The boy fished something out of his pocket and pushed it into the girl�s hand. �Promise me you will remember me. Promise me.� The girl opened her hand and looked at what was in it. A plain silver ring was lying on the palm of her hand, the smooth surface catching the bright sunlight.
�I promise,� The girl whispered, and watched him walking down the driveway, around the corner and out of her life.
�I can�t believe you still have that thing.� The bloke mumbled and took a step closer to the girl, and took the ring out of her hands, to look at it himself once more.
�You made me promise-�
�I made you promise to never forget me.� The girl smiles and takes the free hand of the guy. His hand entwines with the girl�s. �I made you promise, I told you that it was the best for us both.� He pauses. �The playing on the piano for hours and hours, the relaxingly lying on the sofa and not saying a word for ages, the touching spoke for us.� His voice trails off. �Looking back on it now, it seems that it lasted for years.� He looks up at the girl and into her blue eyes.
�But it was only a week.� The girl finishes for him. Her smiles fades and her forehead wrinkles. �Why, Matt?�
�It was five years ago. I was young and stupid, not ready for a steady relationship yet. It did hurt to walk away.� He pauses to think. �The band was going really well on top of that. We just had a record deal, and everything was going really fast. That week was the best week of my entire life.� He strokes the hair out of her face. �I�m sorry.� He leans in and kisses the girl passionately.
They lay still on the couch, their touch speaking for the both of them. The girl played with the ring around her finger, the small diamond in the middle catching the dim light and making it sparkle with all the colours of the rainbow.
�Promise me you will stay with me forever. Promise me.� The low, heavy voice said, his arm sliding on top of her grown tummy.
�I promise.�