P E N A L T Y | c. ѕaιnz jr.

17| Chilli Peppers

C. Sainz Jr.

Is it bad to think that everything just seems to be going my way. Salomé is comfortable in my arms as we lay in her bed while she peruses her favourite book for her favourite parts. Por dios santo, even when she cries she's pretty. Does she know that? How can someone just naturally cry pretty.

"Aha!," she exclaimed, "Here's my first favourite part."

—-
"But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever."
__

"Now this I understand," I said with a sheepish smile, "Normally it takes me ages to even go through a single paragraph in the book you lended me because of all the old English words but THIS I understand." Sal laughed, and dios mio I could drown in that laugh of hers.

"Okay then, what makes you think people change all the time?," she asked and I simply answered, "It's just part of getting older. As we experience more, we kind of tweak things a little until we find something just right, and even when we find that just right...sometimes life throws something your way and now we've changed again."

"Wow, maybe they should add to your résumé that you're a philosopher," she teased and I just rolled my eyes. But that only made her laugh more and snuggle closer into my embrace. ¡Plegue a dios! Make this last forever. "You're right though," she added, "Circumstances change people so it's almost like getting to know them from scratch or getting to know new parts of them."

"Okay," I challenged, "Do you think you've changed a lot since I first met you all those years ago?"

"Definitely," she answered but there was a sad look on her eyes. I decided to steer the conversation away by saying, "Well of course you changed, first time I met you, your hair was short and now it's long. Do you ever think of getting short hair again?"

"No, I've grown to like the long hair," she admitted as she played with the ends of her hair, "It kind of like memories. Every length it's been mean everything I've survived." My heart ached. It seemed that she'd been through a lot but all the media could say about her was that she was a party girl and that she went through boys faster than addicts go through cigarettes. Still, I could never look at her like that.

Somewhere in there is the Sal I saw 10 years ago. I watched as she perused further into her book and suddenly she came upon another quote. She gave me a half-smile then said, "Here's another one."

__

"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation, and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life."

__

"That seems like a bleak line to like, but then yet again...my English comprehension for these things are not very good," I confessed and she nodded and explained, "I like it because it's true. The less you know about someone, the better you like them. I think it's better to know little about someone you're going to marry so you don't end up hating them for the dark, ugly, and nasty parts about them."

I raised my brow in surprise. Is that why she didn't mind being in an arranged marriage? Is she scared that someone might hate her if they come to know all the parts that make her...her. "That's not true," I said and she dragged her line of sight away from her book and looked at me then asked, "What do you mean?"