An Endless Date

Chapter XIV

"Well, I have never seen you guys fighting at all, I think not even in my childhood"

"That's not true. See Will, everyone fights. Let them be teenage lovers or an old couple spending their 90s in a farmhouse, some scuffles and struggles are not avoidable now and then. It really isn't fighting; it's just how they communicate their opinions and show their possessiveness. It's also a way of telling the other person that they care, that they want them to themselves, that they want to be the perfect one that the other person is searching for their whole life.

Sometimes it won't come in a cute and sweet way. It can't be always shown in the way of gifts and the way of care, sometimes it will be by anger and harsh words that we can't take back. It will give the message but it also can burn bridges. The more you fight the more you understand the things they like and dislike, and the more you get to know each other favorites and preferences. Don't get me wrong but it's always to take the wisdom from a wiser man."
He said and winked at me

"Well, it means that you and mom fought"

"Yeah, it's just a good thing that you should not fight in front of your children. Why are you asking though?" said my dad as he continued enjoying his ice-cream

"Nothing, just adulting"

"By the way, are you going on a date with Anna on Sunday?"

I almost slipped my ice cream. I didn't expect it from my father. And, A date? Really? I don't know if I am still ready for that or not, but everyone thinks that I and Anna are dating. It was never my intention to go dating Anna or to imagine a future with her. But. Just like they say, We Can't Choose Who We Fall For.

"Sunday? And a date? Not at all." I said

"Well, it's valentine's day." He said finishing his ice-cream

"Dad! We are just friends"

"Not according to..."

"According to Max?" I said interrupting him

He continued to say "Well, according to what I heard from Lucas, mom, Ben, and of course Max"

"Leave it alone dad, Anna and me are just fine as how we are now"

"Sure," he said as a sign of lifting his hands and added "Come on, let's get home"

"Yeah, mom will be waiting, by the way, don't mention the ice cream," I said getting up from the table

My dad went to pay the bill and I came to the washroom in the while. I washed my hands and stood there looking in the mirror. I like to stare into the mirror. With all the philosophical perspectives I have and the recent things I am going through, I am slightly victimized by an existential crisis. I barely think of my physical presence. I am always getting blacked out into a fictional world or just forgetting myself as a social animal living between humankind. Trust me, it's a real thing.

I opened the tiny little box I had in my pocket that I bought from the store earlier and took a look. It's a shiny crescent moon ring. I slipped into memory with Anna which is the reason why I selected the ring.

###

It was just a few days before she went to the city for attending that wedding. We stayed in the park late into the night just to see how scary it looked with no lights on and no people around. Unexpectedly, it turns out to be beautiful. With no vehicles, night tuned out to be lit by the stars. The gloomy stars I always wanted to catch. We lay down on the grass and just gazed at the beauty upon us. Anna will be having some secrets, which she revealed to me one by one every day. That night, she whispered to me one. The one that defined me as a whole different person.

As we gazed the universe upon us, the stars that are lightyears away, she spoke:

"You know William, the world has never been good to me. It always showed me the darker side of it. When my father died, when my mother remarried, when I got my sibling who is 16 years younger than me, when my friends judged me over my attitude, the times when I am called a bitch, the day when I failed in my life by not going behind my dreams, It only made me weak. The world has never been good to me.

I never felt at home. I always have to run away from the places I found where my weakness spoke to me. No one cares. I find something incompleteness within this life. Whenever, my mom and my stepdad argue, I just go to the terrace of my home and lay down and cry for the life I am living and build my strength again to wipe that tears to build that mask again as a strong girl. To put that smile again on my lips to not show vulnerability.

I developed habits to keep me of reality. I am lost in fiction, I am addicted to adventures, and kept changing the places to feel that I am still alive. I wondered and wished and hoped that there will be a person to hold me. A person that would see the real me. To encourage me to take off that mask I've been putting on. I always waited and still waiting for that one person who will show me the brighter side of life and take me away from all these uncertainties and sorrows. As everyone says, I don't want a fairy-tale ending to my life, but I always waited and waited for that one person who will get that moon to me!"

Then and only then I wanted to stand by her, to show her that the world still has a brighter side, to make her believe in her dreams again. I decided and hoped to get that moon to her and put it on her finger.

###

I put that box inside my coat as I heard someone coming into the restroom. I made myself come into consciousness again and went out to the parking lot. My dad reversed the car and I got into it.

Before he started the car, he said "William, your mother and me, we had fights, we argued over little things, we spoke the words to each other that we regret, but we remembered that promise that we made at our wedding. As the vow I made, to stand with her in health and sickness, in wealth and poor, in life and death, I stood beside her. It doesn't matter what type of difficulties life throws at you, you should stand by her for the things that matter.

Once you love someone, truly. There is no remedy but to love more"