Work Text
Rewrite The Stars
April 5th, 2009
Manhattan, New York
8:05 AM
It's April 5th, 2009. It's a bright, sunny morning at 8:05 AM. It was the type of weather that wasn't too hot or too cold. It was just right, like in that Goldilocks story. Some of the New Yorkers attitudes, however, did not match up with the weather. Seventeen-year-old Anne Wheeler, for example, was not having a good day. Thanks to the middle-aged white male who just spilled his hot coffee all over her because he wasn't paying attention to where he was walking. He held what was left of his coffee cup in one hand and his cell phone in the other. "Ugh! Excuse me, sir, but that was rude and disgusting!" Anne reprimanded the man. The middle-aged richboy sneered at Anne, as if the incident was her fault. "Well, why don't you run off and be the help, like your kind are supposed to, little girl." Anne felt red-hot anger burning through her. "Excuse me, but that's not how the world works anymore, here in the modern world! And anyway, it was wrong to treat 'my kind' that way, and it's still wrong today!" The man sneered again and opened his mouth to speak. But before he could respond to her, a voice interrupted: "Miss, are you in some kind of trouble?" Oh, great. The very rich, very popular playwright Phillip Carlyle was trying to come to her rescue. As if she wasn't already humiliated enough. "Look, it's none of your business, okay? If I need a guy on a white horse, I'll go to the circus." Raising his eyebrows, he tugged at his collar. "Glad we got that settled." Anne rolled her eyes behind his back as he turned to the other man. "Sir," Phillip spoke politely with a warning. "I'm gonna ask you only once to leave and never bother this woman again. Do I make myself clear?" The rude man rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He walked away without a glance back. Anne and Phillip didn't watch him leave. They were too busy gazing into each others' eyes. "May I please take you out to dinner tonight, Miss Wheeler?" Phillip asked with a teasing tone and a flirty grin. Anne rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. She lightly shrugged. "Eh, sure." They stood there, in the middle of a busy Manhattan sidewalk, gazing longingly and lovestruck at each other, laughing a little.