soap opera story

[Pirengle]

So there's this girl named Liza. Pretty smart, pretty nice. Kinda resembles a tallfellow. Big into writing, books, fantasy/sci-fi, and gaming. Vampire enthusiast. Jewelry designer. Has an anime obsession and a car named Ziggy. Also mildly computer literate.

She met a guy named Tom from a gaming forum, over a game which they shared a mutual obsession. They knew each other in passing for about a year, and over time, things got a little more serious. Phone calls. A letter or two. Liza and Tom find each other interesting. Liza, bisexual, rarely dates. She can never find anyone good enough. Tom, unwaveringly straight, flirts constantly. He blames his libido on the fact he's a Scorpio.

She asks another friend from the same forum, a guy named Chris, for advice. Liza's only known Chris for about half as long as she's known Tom, but shares with Chris the same kind of good friendship she has--or had--with Tom. When asked for advice, Chris gives her some, and while Liza's figuring out what to do about Tom, she falls for Chris.

Liza breaks off the maybe-but-not-quite relationship with Tom and pursues one with Chris. They meet on mutual ground and fall for each other. After they get together and puzzle out a long-distance relationship, he loses his job, and his Internet access, key to the relationship.

Over the next year, Chris bounces from job to job, fails to pay rent one month on his apartment and is reduced to living with friends in a similar situation, and finally moves closer to his parents in hopes of a better job. Meanwhile, Tom prods both Liza and Chris about their failing relationship. Liza confronts Tom about his prodding and the motives behind the prodding, and Tom can't give her a straight answer. From what Tom says when Liza and Chris can't hear, it sounds like Tom is trying to break them up. But when Liza asks Tom about it, he says it's not the reason.

Liza breaks off from the gaming community where she met the two guys and has spent the past month or so trying to figure out her life. Unlike Chris, Liza plans to finish college and has a grasp--tentative may it be--on her future, and has no problems making and accomplishing goals. Unlike Tom, Liza refuses to bed every person she meets.

Her long-distance relationship with Chris is dying. It's very hard for Liza and Chris to see each other. They live four states away and Liza works and schools. However, Liza remembers that when they started out, Chris made promises about the future. Not only have the promises not come true, but one year later, Chris still makes promises that usually don't come true, mostly on the order of "I'll be there for the school dance" or "you'll see me soon."

Liza's parents declare the soured relationship as the product of their online meeting, and that she should have known things would turn out this way. Liza's school friends think Chris' groovy-ness is worth waiting for him to get his act together. Liza's online friends are either tired of the whole damn mess (because they belong to the forum where the whole damn mess began) or give bizarre advice (like she should pursue a fling with Tom to get over Chris and go find someone else).

Liza doesn't need all of her problems to magically go away. She doesn't need tongue-clucking or sympathy. She hopes that somewhere out there is empathy, and that someone can nod their head and say "yeah, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, this is how my whole damn mess went down, maybe it'll help you out."

Liza spends her Saturday nights writing at a local coffeeshop, wondering where all the people like her go when they are lonely.

[Finn]

Interesting tale...Dare I ask, is it based on a "true story"? Perhaps semi-autobiographical? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Here's to the further adventures of Liza. [img]graemlins/cheers.gif[/img]

[Gabrielles blades]

sad story
reminds me of some of my other online friends romantic troubles.
one has been trying to meet up with his girlfriend for like a year now but she keeps geting delayed