New directions. Diego Uribe

      Editorial Autores de Argentina

      Uribe, Diego

       New directions. How far are you willing to go for love? / Diego Uribe. - 1a ed . - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires : Autores de Argentina, 2019.

       Libro digital, EPUB

       Archivo Digital: online

       ISBN 978-987-87-0118-9

       1. Novela. 2. Narrativa Argentina Contemporánea. I. Título.

       CDD A863

      Editorial Autores de Argentina

      www.autoresdeargentina.com

      Mail: [email protected]

      Diseño de portada y maquetado: Maximiliano Nuttini

      Queda hecho el depósito que establece la LEY 11.723

      Impreso en Argentina – Printed in Argentina

      To Hugo Senn.

       Take your broken heart, make it into art.

      -CARRIE FISHER

       Preface

      I don't know exactly what it is that I am doing... where I am heading with all of this. But, well, it's 1:00 a.m. on July 21st, 2012. I'm sitting in front of my computer and I let my fingers slip through the keys; they know their way and they guide me... I trust they know what they're doing. I start writing these very words, this story, and a tear accidentally drops on the Enter key. I am crying, it's the third day in a row that I come home from college crying. I'm devastated, completely torn apart, I can't take it anymore. I don't know what's happening to me, why am I like this. Sometimes I think I'm going nuts! But no... it's not like that. Today I finally discovered and understood the reason why I am how I am. I'm in love. That's it! I've said it: I'm in love. And you would normally think that there's nothing wrong about that, but that's not everything... The craziest thing about all of this is that I'm in love with a guy.

       C.A.B.A., BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)

       Chapter 1: Introducing me

      Actually, I'd rather spare you from all those formalities about introducing myself and telling you who I am. However, I think it's necessary for you to know who the person writing behind his computer screen is and why he is doing it. Anyway, I'm going to leave out all the details about my past, the city where I was raised and who my parents were because I don't want to talk about it. You don't want to know all that stuff, trust me, that doesn't add up to this story. Although, I guess it does help to give you some context, so I'll share a little bit. My name is Dante, I'm 20 years old. I come from a very small town in the south of the Argentina, born and raised there. Went to high school there and finished my studies, but my future wasn't looking very promising in regards to work or even college. To me, it's a town in which nothing goes by, only time... even so, it was my hometown for many years and I love it because of that, I've grown fond of it. But I wasn't fitting there anymore, I wanted more and I needed to run away from there. As for my parents, they were the noblest people I've ever met: righteous, kind, patient and every other positive adjective that you can think of. But, as you may have noticed, I used the verb in the past tense form “were”. They are gone. And let's leave it at that... The city had nothing left for me, nothing to offer, nothing holding me back. That's why I came to Buenos Aires. I came here with a suitcase and a dream, no more than that. I knew I wanted to dive into the world of arts, I felt that I belonged there... and so I did, I signed up at an institute to do musical theater. And that's precisely what I wanted to tell you about, about something that happened in the institute almost a year and a half ago. It all started one day while I was feeling bad and, in that moment, I started writing this story. Because we all have bad days and we all have something to tell, something that we need to let out and express, we all have a story. Well, this is mine: the story of discovering and realizing who I am. A story that goes by in a place (here), in a moment (now), a story about a person (me), about a feeling (love) that also involves another person, a relationship, and how all of that is affected as time passes. Because love tends to do that... If it is the right person, it can turn your world upside down, making you do things that you never imagined, testing your limits and how far you are willing to go for it. This is my story, and it goes something like this...

       Chapter 2: I knew you were trouble

      It was Tuesday, mid-July. It was one of those days in which you reconsider your whole life, you wonder what you are doing, why you are there, but you know that, for some reason, your place is there and you decide to stay. And so it was... There were 10 minutes left of the music theory lesson. I was very distracted, looking carefully at the posters of some musicals that I had never heard of that were hanging on the wall, and I was thinking that if the clock's second hand was tapping a pulse of quarter notes, the fan on the ceiling would be tapping a pulse of eighth notes with every turn it made. It's not that I wasn't paying attention or that I wasn't interested in the lesson, it was just one of those moments in which your mind drifts away. Besides, I don't mean to show off, but the subject that we were learning about was a piece of cake. The professor noticed that I was pretty absent-minded, so he challenged me to read exercise 7 of the book out loud. It wasn't a problem for me at all and I did it correctly the first time.

      “Very well, Dante. But you have to pay more attention anyway...” he dared me.

      “I know, sorry professor” I said, feeling a bit guilty.

      He gave us some homework to do and with that, class was dismissed. When I left the classroom, I stopped by the water fountain and there I saw two guys that I had never seen before at the institute. The institute had 200 students at the most... I mean, I knew almost everyone in there. Drama class was next (my favorite), but the dean told us that the drama professor wasn't coming that day and that we would have class with him instead. We all entered the classroom, as did the two guys I had just seen when I was drinking water. The dean made us sit on the floor in a big circle. He gave us the lyrics of a popular song and made each one of us sing a stanza. As I was waiting for my turn to sing, I caught myself staring at the two guys I did not know. They were completely different: one was tall and skinny, his skin pale white like a ghost, his hair as dark as the night, and his clothing pretty basic. The other guy was shorter than him and had a more toned body, tanned skin and his hair was a bit messy on purpose; it suited him. He was well dressed. The pale guy realized that I was staring at them and he kept his coffee-brown eyes locked on mine. He wasn't staring at me with hatred or resentment, it was more like a friendly look that said “Hey, I'm...” and that's when I realized that I had no idea what his name was. I must have blushed because I suddenly felt warmer, especially my face. The guy smiled at me which made me feel much better. When his turn came up he sang very well; I was shocked. His voice was tender and high-pitched, which made me think he was a tenor. Although, I must say that the other guy did way better than him... His eyes met mine a couple of times more during the rest of the class and I still didn't know his name. He would smile at me gently and I would nervously laugh and try to look away. By the end of the lesson, I came to Malena (Male, for short), my best friend, to ask her something. I grabbed her arm and pulled her to a corner where we could talk more privately.

      “Heyyy!” she said.

      “Sorry...” I said, letting go of her. “Who were those two guys in class?”

      “Oh. Fran and Nico, from the morning shift.”

      Suddenly, this Fran/Nico showed up (the pale, tall guy) and Male hugged him.

      “Hello, friend. How are you?” he asked Male.