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    My words stroke hard enough to change her mood and to get her inspired. Although I didn’t know how to handle her, things came out right. It all started when I called her; around 9 pm. My sister picked up the phone and said ‘’hi’’ in a low, almost whispered, voice. Right then, I knew something was bothering her. Maybe it was about school because their final exam will be on the day after tomorrow. But she has been a consistent dean’s lister since the first semester. No, maybe these were the days when she and her boyfriend fought each other with non-sense problem at all. But I bet after few a weeks I will probably see them, holding hands, and inviting me to go on a double date with her best friend, and that what exactly happened. I kept insisting that I couldn’t and won’t go, most specially, with her because I am waiting for someone special. But no one knows it. Those days were considerably unexplainable and literally heaven.

    If my memory serves me right. It happened two years ago inside a grocery store. It was one humid Saturday, when we bumped each other, fell to the floor; we consciously picked up our own groceries, and accidentally held each others hand. It took me awhile to realize it’s not my item I was holding at. She looked miserably cautious at me and muttered two simple words that turned my cheeks from pale white to utterly red. ‘’my hand...’’
    I felt as if I was a criminal, a jerk, and a dumb. But why was my heart beating so fast? I was just looking at this stranger, in a purple dress and white stilettos. Her red soft lips shone as her thin brown eyes pleasantly looked at our hands. I had never believed in those romantic movies when the prince,

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    For the first time, saw her princess and fell in love. If that case does exist then why do most marriages shatter? First impression never lasts, tested and proven. I immediately pulled off my hands and abruptly stood up. My knees began to shake as I stepped back and muttered the word that seems to have left me ‘’S…so…sorry…’’. This purple dressed stranger got into her feet, dropped down the cans she picked up, and now stared hard at me. I felt much worse than before but all worries wiped off my head when I heard a silent giggling of a girl near my age.
    ‘’its okay’’ she said looking at me, wet eyed from an obviously prevented laugh. And then out of nowhere a tickling realization of what I looked like fell down my in tummy, I started laughing. We had few more conversations thereafter I finally got her name as well as her approval to go out on a date with me.




    This is the day. She came out in a grey white Mazda that stopped exactly at the shop where we first met. Looking at her makes me tremble with emotions. It left me fixing my hair and constructing words that will hopefully welcome our first day right. Walking towards me, she waved her hand saying ‘’Hi’’ in a red striped polo with a huge black belt hugging her waist. If I can remember it clearly, she was wearing leggings, exactly the same brand of my sister’s. Making no sound in every step, she walked in maroon sandals. Suddenly I saw the face that last night caused me to stay awake in wee hours.

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    I smelled her sweet perfume from the back of her neck and let my sight memorize every details of my dream. It was as if I was a little child who saw a ghost and couldn’t move or scream. She whispered ‘’let’s go’’, held my hand and pulled me into the mall. I didn’t know where my feet will take me or what restaurant shall suite her best, but all I know is, for the second time, I was holding her hands.



    1 o’clock, Sunday afternoon; we found ourselves choosing meals at the food court. It was a family day that explained why there were lots of different people all over the place. We settled on a free table at the front of the mall’s fountain. First I bumped a stranger at the grocery, next we exchange numbers, and now both of us were here, enjoying each other’s company. I started to ask her a casual question. But I could not look at her eyes then realized that the last time I acted like this was way back in grade 6, when I was seating beside my crush and confessing my so called love that turned to be just an infatuation. It took me almost four months to say it, but now here I am with this special girl and feeling in LOVE again. She looked at me straight in the eyes and grabbed my chin saying the words ‘’you know what? Just relax; I won’t bite you or something… okay?’’
    I inhaled deeply, blew all my worries away, and glanced back at her ‘’okay’’. After awhile, I finally got the right touch to fix my words. After all I just have to relax.

    ‘’How old are you?’’ I started to ask.
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    ‘’17, last Friday’’
    ‘’I am 18’’

    ‘’Do you think Patrick star and majinboo are relatives?’’
    ‘’Yeah they actually are brothers’’ I looked at her with a smile and thought that I was not the only one who was watching sponge bob and dragon ball at the same time.

    ‘’Which do you prefer, metal or acoustic?’’ she asked. Suddenly a love song played at the denim shop beside us.
    ‘’Acoustic…’’
    ‘’Why?’’
    ‘’Because you’ll need a raw talent to play acoustic, and I can express myself without saying a word… just playing a song…’’

    ‘’Do you have a past?’’
    ‘’Yeah, we… all do…’’ it took her awhile to find her words, not answering my question but changing the topic instead.



    From that simple lunch I noticed the bond we started earning, unconsciously opening our lives with each other, exchanging great and not so great experiences, and obviously slowing down to extend the moment.


    After one and a half hour of non stop talks, I took her to the fourth floor. The cinema area was not crowded compared to the food court. And now, we are standing at the front of a 10 foot
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    glass window that showed the hectic city outside the mall. Cars were exclaiming their horns as the traffic stuck dramatically heavy while people are doing their own stuff enduring the humid afternoon. I saw her looking down at them with weary eyes but positive breaths. I leaned backwards feeling the cold glass.
    ‘’This really is a busy world, isn’t?’’ I whispered reaching her hands, ‘’But my world stops… every time I am with you…’’ she glanced over her shoulder to look at me. Her black thin bangs traced from her forehead curved down to her left ear. She moved slowly considering her response. I knew, at any moment, my heart would pump out and could not take it any longer. Right then, she smiled at me and the afternoon sunlight suddenly glows her, illuminating the simplicity and calmness she possessed.

    It was just a simple smile; everyone can do that. But why was this smile melting my heart away? It hit me like a spell that stunned me to move, stopped me to breathe, and commanded me not to ask anymore. Being with her couldn’t be compared to those ruined blind dates and off airs I had gone through.




    Exactly 7 pm, we arrived at the front of their house. Blocking us is a black metal gate with a vertical steel set designing the entrance. ‘’It has been a great day… and thank you for everything…’’ she leaned forward. Her hands were moving from my elbow, to my shoulder, to my neck, and up to my face. She came closer and closer, slightly tilting her head
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    sideways and a kiss, an electric current that has flown from my lips moving at the back of my neck down to my spine. It lasted 5 seconds, but in a blink of an eye it has changed my whole life. I experienced acceptance, comfort, and all words that didn’t exist to explain what I felt like.

    The cold night spread everywhere as I found myself riding a bus on my way home. It has been a long day and I knew what was happening. With this date, casual dos and don’ts, and a great unexpected moment, nothing could go wrong. But why am I feeling this? Why do all of these seem to be so perfect and so fast? Where are my beliefs and my doubts? Are we on a relationship? Is it normal to take it that way? Or maybe I am just being paranoid. Maybe it is real and, honestly, I like it better this way.



    I woke up 6 am; facing my cellphone, trying my best to be poetic, and sending a message that would make her smile as soon as she gets up in bed.
    I waited 10 minutes; she didn’t reply. I tried again after 30 minutes; no answer. I flipped it open with questions running down my mind and saw her number. Pressing the green phone sign, I called her. But instead of the voice that yesterday I almost memorized, her voicemail started talking as it commanded me to leave a message after the beep.

    ‘’Hi, it’s me… hmmm… how are you? Can you call me after this? And I… missed you…’’. Dropping the call without a glimpse of
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    her presence made me worry even more. On the other hand, I just went on with my everyday life pretending this belongs to an early prank and thinking it was just one of the miss-me-more techniques that girls, most probably my sister, were doing.

    After an hour or so, I was ready for school and left our house fixing the lace of my black high cut chuck Taylor and brushing off the bread crumbs from my three stars and a sun t-shirt down to my dirty white cargo pants. Luckily my college course doesn’t require a uniform unlike in high school.

    ‘’is everything alright? It’s like you won in lotto or something.’’ My friend consciously teased me.
    ‘’dude, believe me it is more than that…’’
    ‘’no way… I thought? How could you?’’
    ‘’Yes way…’’ I answered him in a big smiled like I never did before.
    ‘’Dude you finally got a girl!’’ he shouted, tapping my back and shaking my shoulder because of excitement.
    We have been friends since first year high school. Back then we used to hang out inside the canteen. Every lunch we were glancing to those gorgeous juniors and seniors. And sometimes, even if we didn’t have something to eat, we literally become full. When we were in 2nd year, our friendship almost ended because of the same girl we fell in love with. But the start of 3rd year reconciled us. That girl left us continuing her study in a school exclusive for girls. She left us with torn hearts and waved goodbye exactly at the canteen where we first saw her. Until now, both of us are looking forward to have a girlfriend but my Monday morning news has changed our paths.