I HEAR YOU

I: CALVIN

She's Asian and he's Western. They were from different sides of the world. They had shared love for 10 years and they knew it was love. They shared the same love when he left for home with a promise to come back but the letters stopped and he never came back.
My travel through memory lane was broken when I heard a laughter a few feet away from me. I turned my gaze to see where it came from and caught sight of a girl trying to play chase with the waves. I found it funny for she looked like a puppy on a leash trying to challenge a bigger dog.

"She lives beside my house," Carl said and broke me in my trance. When I turned to look at her, she was grinning from ear to ear and her face wrinkled in her effort.

"What?," I asked her confused by her action.
"You seemed to be so lost in that fantasy of yours," she answered still smiling but looking at the girl. I followed her gaze and asked again, "What?"

My eyebrows rose up and confusion etched on my face as I look at the girl. Carl just laughed heartily and answered, "You were smiling when you saw her like you saw something adorable and then you chuckled like you saw something funny. You were enchanted my boy."

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Alcantara Central School's bell rang at exactly 9:15 for recess and the children rushed to the canteen.

Me and my small group of friends, Aaron, Michael and Eric rushed out of the classroom and headed to the school's backyard garden. We sat in a hut we had made ourselves for a class project before graduating.

"Where will you go after this?," Michael asked. We all know that Alcantara does not have a highschool either private or even public. Some who finished their primary years of learning never left the island.

"I'm getting out, that's for sure," Eric said confidently.

"I'm going wherever ya'll idiots go," Aaron said patting Mike's shoulder.

"Dude we'll go to a highschool where all hot chicks flock," Eric exclaims grinning. They burst out laughing and playfully exchanging ideas how to woo their ladies. The conversation got louder but I could not hear it clearly for I had my eyes set on the girl I saw on the beach yesterday. She was wearing a fine ironed white blouse that seems too big for her. Her dark blue ironed and plated skirt reaches below her knees and her whole legs were covered with sock, a knee sock I assumed. I can see her hair more clearly than yesterday. It looks black like the nightsky and was tied in a loose bun. She was standing next to Miss Rosario carrying a sprinkler. Miss Rosario was the school's nutritioner and assigned to a large vegetable garden across our flower garden. The girl must have been picked to water the garden.

Then someone snapped their finger in front of eyes. I glared at the owner of the hand, Michael. Only then I realized everyone is staring at me.

"What?," I asked frowning at them. They look like Cheschire cats grinning. "Seriously! What?," I asked again raising my voice a little higher than usual. "Hey guys you're creeping me out," I slowly started looking from Mike to Aaron and then Eric.

"You're staring at her," Eric says grinning like a madman.

"Uh..........wha- who?," I stuttered. I looked at them nervously praying silently that they are not thinking who I'm thinking about because if they do, I'll never hear the end of it.

"Her name's Sofia Delacier. They just came here yesterday. Her father's the new town attorney and her mother's a teacher in kinder," Eric said still grinning at me. Aaron's wiggling his eyebrows and Michael is looking from Aaron and then to Eric conversing with their eyes.

"Awww..... little Calvin has a crush," Michael says mimicking a sickening sweet voice then the two burst out laughing like maniacs.

I heard a loud gulp to which I suddenly realized that was me. I could hear my heart beats like a drum at a marching band during Town fiestas. I suddenly thought if they could see the vibrations in my chest or if they could even hear it.

"I....uh.....I......haha....I don't know what you're talking about," I finally say to ease the creepy stares from these idiots for friends while laughing but I feel like it's forced. I am a nervous wreck right now.

"It's alright hun. Mama's so proud of you," says Mike then the laughter erupted again.
"Real mature Mike...real mature," I scoffed playfully while punching him lightly on his shoulders and then all of us laughed again.

"SOFIE AND CAL SITTING ON A TREE K---I---S---S---I----N----G!!!!!!," Eric suddenly sang while we were laughing and that my friends triggered a never-ending concert of the three idiots while I anxiously look at the garden across praying so hard she won't hear these three banshees but she was not there anymore. She must have left while I was a nervous wreck.

"Hey! What the heck guys! She looks like she's a fifth grader!," I exclaimed loudly to stop them their crazy antics. This is why I never wanted them to know the girls I'm interested in.

"So what? A year doesn't make you a pedophile!" Aaron reasoned loudly that it caught the teachers and other students' attention.

"Shut your trap Aaron! Do you really have to say that----that-----uh.....word, that loud? You make us look like criminals!," Eric whispers to Aaron.

"Nah.....We're minors," Mike says innocently that earned him a slap on the back from all of us. "Ow!," he glared at us. "It's true!," he added and we sent him looks to shut him up which indeed ------- shut him up.

"We're still so young," I say calmly while my stomach feels like it needs release. Is this what they call butterflies in the stomach? Ugh! I sound like a girl.

"Oh come on! Age does not matter in love," Eric stated while he was playing on his phone. We stared at him. We were all thinking the same thing. We witnessed a miracle. We are still virgins but when it comes to girls, Eric's the only flirt among us four. "What?," he looked at us frowning.

Before we could even answer and tease him, the bell rang. We retreated back to the classroom not saying a word while Eric kept on asking us what was wrong.