Eric and Aly Ch. 03 - Melancholy

"Your biosketch gives conflicting information. You wouldn't think it should matter. A story should stand on its own. But somehow a story from a first-person female narrator who shows herself to be a bit shy, a bit vulnerable, who is so genuinely pleased that a guy finds her attractive, comes across a lot more charmingly when the reader can imagine that it is somewhat autobiographical. The girl in this story has an inner life with wry observations, insecurities, desires not unlike my own, the reader thinks, and there must really be girls like this, because the story was written by a female author. On the other hand, if the author was a male, then how can the reader have any confidence that he knows what the inner life of the heroine is like? Maybe he just made it all up.

"I liked Aly's persona and her tone of voice. But Eric is puzzling. Why was he so patient and shy during the first three dates and so forward on the fourth?"

Hey Anon, thanks for the feedback. Next time you comment without the benefit of an account, leave an email so I can get back to you sooner!

For the first part of your comment, apologies for the confusion, my bio was an attempt at humor, albeit poor. I am male. I welcome a comment that questions the sincerity of any story, especially my own as it pushes me to think deeply and not just make this PWP.

Both of these characters and those to come share facets of my personality, as every author will say, but Alison definitely comes from uncertainty and you can be assured her feelings are awfully similar to mine. Aly feels that she is an unattractive young person with an unknown place in the world, an unquantifiable blip in a sea of things much more interesting than her. Worse still, she feels she had the potential to be extraordinary, and somehow failed herself. These are certainly not unique feelings in the teenage population of America, but they are still deeply personal and hard to fake, I think.

The sincerity might be questionable to you. And that's fine. I considered replying with a much less direct answer to your question of my gender, to "keep the magic alive," as it were. But I don't feel the need to. Alison may not share my genitals, but we certainly share a perspective that hopefully, just might feel sincere. I hope my storytelling is as authentic and realistic as I can make it. "If you can't write for 52% of the general population, you are a bad writer."

To the second part of your question, well, hopefully you've managed to find the following chapters in the story and Eric's personality is becoming a bit less muddy. For Eric, the feeling of rejection is quite crippling. He waited, made his intentions clear, made himself endearing, and got to know her personality before they went further. If he didn't think they had potential to go further, he would've ended the date by dropping her off and never calling her back. Clearly, he felt a spark.

Who said BDSM stories can't have emotional stakes?!

~Fin