Read The Tragedy of Loving Jamie Clarke for Free Online Page B

pedestrians that separate us as they pass by. “I like to write and I do a lot of reading. Nothing too exciting. I’m no Hemingway that’s for sure.”
              The sun is beginning to settle beneath the horizon with a mixture of red and orange that blinks off the water as the waves crash along the shore. It’s the perfect setting for some romantic movie where the two protagonists realize they’ve been in love for years. They would stand along the ocean shore and kiss as the waves crash around them and the whole world would stop to give them a moment of bliss. But in those movies bumbling idiots like myself who fall into bushes and envision throwing up on their dates don’t exist. Only I am capable of such ridiculous things.
    “What type of writing do you do?”
    “Creative. Poetry and prose. I guess. The truth is I haven’t written a poem since I was eight and that poem was entitled, Snowy shoe foot . Clearly it wasn’t one of my best. ”
    “That’s so cool,” Jamie says gleefully. “I must know more about this Snowy shoe foot.”
    “Oh no, that was the first poem I ever wrote and it was awful. I don’t even remember how it begins and that’s probably for the best.”
    “Okay well, have you published anything?”
    “Yeah right,” I don’t mean to laugh at him but getting published isn’t something someone like me will be able to accomplish. “No way any publisher is going to take me seriously.”
    “You never know. If it’s something you really want to do then I think if you buckle down and push yourself you can do anything. Life’s too short to doubt yourself when you find something you truly love.” Amber and my parents have said pretty much the same thing to me but coming from Jamie it just sounds more convincing.  “What’s your book about?”
    I shake my head. Writing oneself into a story and as a superhero with powers of invisibility is kind of obnoxious and I don’t want Jamie to think I’m conceited.
    “I’d rather not say.”
    “Okay,” Jamie sings. “Does it have a lot of vampires and werewolves?”
    “Why do guys think that all girls are into vampires?”
    Full disclosure, Amber and I saw Twilight four times when it was in theaters but, since everyone who admitted to liking it were ridiculed for it, we decided to play it cool and pretend we hated the whole vampire/werewolf concept.
    “One word, Robert Pattinson.”
    I stick my finger down my throat, pretending to be disgusted. “Sorry, but I prefer my vampires without glitter.” I reply, walking around a family dressed like they’re heading for the theater. “Besides, vampire books aren’t marketable anymore. I want to write something that going to spark an interest with an agent not something they’ve seen a thousand times before.”
    “Well, I bet whatever you’re working on is going to be fantastic.”
    I shrug. “It could be, I guess, if I could get passed the first paragraph.”
    “I’m sure you’ll get there eventually,” Jamie flashes me a smile and winks. “I always admire people who have the discipline to sit down and really write. I met an author once at a bookstore in Boston and he had these incredible stories about how he got into writing. I’m sure yours are just as fascinating.”
    At this I roar with laughter. It’s true, most authors have these great stories about how they got into writing. Not me. I didn’t have some wild epiphany or dream that sparked an idea. When I first starting wearing a brace and saw how I looked I locked myself in my room and read and when that got boring I started jotting ideas down, sort of mindlessly. After a day or two of me staying hold up in my room my parents called Dr. Klein and blamed him for their daughter becoming a recluse.
    Dr. Raymond Klein has been my family’s chiropractor for years and I’ve been going to see him for adjustments since I was 8-years-old. My appointments had always been the same, a few twists here, a couple of leg