William never was much of an adventurer. He was an observer. He was the one who wrote about the adventurers. Secretly he wished he was outgoing enough to be like his best friend Riley. Riley was the confidant one, the jock, the lady’s man … in other words, the hero…
William didn’t begrudge his best friend this. How could he? Riley was always trying to get William to crawl out of his shell. But William never had Riley’s confidence. So he spent his life thus far being a sidekick, if he even ranked that…
But no matter how different, they were best friends since they were kids. They even ended up in the same collage. They would go home for visits together. Usually William stayed at Riley’s house because his own parents were away on business. As his parents usually were…as they had been for most of the big days and holidays of his life. Riley also had a sister, Buffy. She was four years younger then William and Riley. Coming home to visit during collage he started to see changes in the girl he once knew. It was almost like while he was gone she blossomed a little more from his best friends little sister in to a beautiful and sophisticated young woman. Not that Riley or his sister knew of the change in his feelings. William was always good at hiding his feelings, never letting them out anywhere but on paper. You see on paper he had all the right words the confidence and the wit. But only on paper….
After graduating college Riley joined the military. He’d wanted to join just out of high school but agreed to attended collage first to make his parents happy. After graduation William fallowed his dream to be a writer. Deciding he needed for once in his life to be bold, he decided to turn down his parents’ offer of financial help and do it on his own. He worked as a research assistant one Mr. Rupert Giles, a professor at Stanford College. It was enough to pay the bills and still left room for his writing.
It didn’t take long for him to sell his first book. His novels usually took place long ago in the time a lords and ladies. They were always packed with the right blend of excitement, adventure, and romance. The hero always quick witted and debonair. William was a great writer. His titles would regularly make the Best Seller List. His publisher received bags and bags of fan mail on his behalf. Part of his appeal was the fact he was also a mystery. His book jackets never contained his photo, and he wrote under the pen name, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. Only a precious few knew who he truly was.
After a while although he still had a good amount of die hard fans his book sales dropped off. As the readers have started turning to more modern based novels. And so began the needling from his publisher to “give the people what they want”
William shied away from such writing because he wasn’t sure he could pull off that world. The time which he wrote about was chosen because the hero was expected to be debonair with a certain amount of decorum, fighting the good fight purely out of conviction and perhaps the love of a good woman. Modern heroes were tough and sarcastic. They had a devil may care attitudes. Your Basic ‘bad boys’ with hearts of gold. And although golden hearted, William hadn’t the first clue of how to be a bad boy. How could he possibly write about a world he knew nothing about?
And so our story begins…..
“I just don’t know Buffy, I want to do it, I guess, I mean a modern character would be interesting, but all the ideas I come up with they don‘t seem right. My publisher is pushing for someone like these action heroes in the movies, Bad asses… I‘m not sure I can pull that off, although my early period characters are considered roguish for the time period they would be considered very strait laced nowadays I can’t write what I don’t understand and a bad ass is something I never learned how to be…” William sighed.
It had been three years since Riley went off to the military, and although at first contact with his best friend was good, it started to get less and less, his letters just basic over views as he wasn’t able to talk much about what he was doing. He’d caught the eye of the right people and had been put in a Special Forces unit. Now it was rare his family heard from him outside the yearly holiday’s letter, much less William receiving anything. Somehow the lack of his best friend in his life had brought him closer to his best friend’s sister. Not that he ever thought they had any chance on any romantic level he was starting to consider her a good friend. Which meant he started to open up to her, finding she was much more receptive to his internal musing then her brother had been. William slumped back in his chair holding his cell phone to his ear.
“Common, Willy I’ve heard stories about you and my brother at college…” Buffy on the other end was kicked back on her bed in her dorm room. Her head hanging off the foot of the bed as her sock covered feet were crossed at the ankles near the head of the bed. She held her cell phone to her ear with her right hand as her left one dangled off the bed.
She ended up going to the same college William worked at as Professor Giles’s research assistant. Which meant her and William stayed in pretty good contact. Although they didn’t hang out or anything, they talked on the phone often, occasionally meeting for coffee on campus.
Although his book sales would allow him to quit his job and write full time, William still worked as a research assistant because he actually enjoyed the work. And secretly gave him a reason to stay near the collage, although he did trade his small apartment that was a half hour drive away for a nicer one just off campus.
“Buffy you know I hate that nickname… If you must shorten my name call me Will…” he preferred William but could live with Will, she’d called him Willy since she hit Jr. High and decided William was just too uncool a name, how Willy was any better was beyond him….
“I told you before I can’t call you Will… I call Willow, Will. It would get confusing….” she sounded pouty but she had a big grin on her face as she said it, knowing he couldn’t see it. She’d started calling him Willy as a joke, figuring he’d just maybe blush and shrug it off like he did with most things that bothered him. But he actually got defensive, after getting over the shock he spoke up she decided she liked the nickname and used it when ever she tried to get him riled up, “now stop changing the subject…”
“I’m not. College… well college was college. And going to a few keggers watching everyone get drunk and disorderly while I sat in the corner writing sipping on a wine cooler does not a bad ass make….” his voice laced with a bitter tone. Quick to cover that bit of insight his tone might have revealed he spoke again his voice controlled again, “Besides, although outgoing, I wouldn’t really classify your brother as a bad boy… He got his work done attended all his classes. And even when he did drink, he didn’t get smashed. And he never engaged in that stupid stuff most of the futurity guys did.”
“Oh, yeah, he’s a saint…” she said dryly. After a few moments she thought out loud, “Well, maybe you can get in the right mind set; I mean it’s not like your all naive or anything. I’m sure there was a time you at least thought about being naughty…” She always felt William could be so cool if he just got a little confidence in himself.
She’d hear him and her brother talk when he didn’t know she was there and his mask he showed the world was off, he was smart and witty and had an insight that most people lacked. Sometimes it annoyed her when her brother would make a witty comment that he’d heard from William. And instead of taking credit for it William would just let Riley bask in the lime light.
She loved her brother and knew he didn’t do it on purpose, but she felt bad for his friend that wanted so desperately to be seen and just didn’t know how to do it. She knew that part of what made him such a great writer was these qualities he hid from the world. Although she would never admit it, she read all his books. She kept them carefully hidden in the false bottom of her trunk. After a few moments she noticed the silence on the other end. “You still there?”
She heard him sigh again, “Yeah, I’m still here….” After the initial shock and blushing at the phrasing of her thought, he realized what she meant to say. He began to think but still didn’t see the solution, “You know how my parents raised me… besides, being friends with your brother is the closest I got to cool, and even he fell way short of being a bad ass… And let‘s face it, your mom would have known if he acted up even that far away from home. Your mom I swear, it’s like she has a built in B.S. detector…”
Buffy smiled at his obvious attempt to change the subject; at least it was obvious to her. She knew he hated talking about himself in the first place. So dwelling on the subject of him was definitely out.
That’s when she got an idea, “Well, maybe you could do a little research. There is a club me and Willow go to. It’s somewhere to start…”
“Buffy, clubs aren’t really my thing….” even in college Riley couldn’t get him to go clubbing. Being dragged to keggers was bad enough without paying $15 to confirm what a looser he was. He wasn’t much of a drinker, and those places were too dark for anything but dancing and making out. Also, he couldn’t dance other then formal. Having learned formal dancing because his mom insisted he take lessons as a kid. Riley had one of his many female admirers try to teach him once. The girl got frustrated every time she tried to get close like was popular in modern dancing he would take a step back. At first it was because he found the situation uncomfortable. But the girl was so annoyingly forward after a while it was just to piss her off, the best part was when she finally had him backed against a wall he stepped down on her foot, not hard enough to hurt her but hard enough for her to give up. Of course he faked innocents, but deep down he was sure Riley knew he was did it on purpose, because he never tried to set something like that up again. Besides, he never stepped on a foot accidentally even when learning formal dancing; he had a natural grace on the dance floor. Too bad no one ever got to see it. Cause even though he had a use for it at family functions like weddings and such he had a knack for blending in to the background. Developed for the strict purpose of avoiding such situations.
“Look, meet us at Bean Scene 8 o’clock Friday. If your not there I will go to your apartment and drag you out!” she said in her ‘I mean business’ voice.
“Ok, ok, I’ll be there….” they chatted a bit longer then hung up. Only then did he drop his head in his hands and wonder what the hell did he just agree to?
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!