The Public Eye

Chapter 7

Rebecca's POV

I wake up next to the hotel's window and Lola keeps sleeping behind me resting her arm in mine. I get up slowly from the bed trying not to wake her up, grab a coat I have over there and go out to the balcony to look at the green landscape. While I look at the beautiful forest, I reflect about myself, I think about how tired I am of being afraid to demonstrate that I love a woman publicly. I feel a lump in my throat, wanting to cry but I'm going to try not to do it. I'm having a nice week with my first girlfriend and I don't want to ruin our first (mini) vacation because of a problem of mine. I deep breathe twice, turn around and Lola is opening the balcony door asking me why I am here and I respond that I was looking at nature and enjoying the silence outside. She hugs me from behind, gives me a kiss on my cold cheek asking me if I'm cold outside and I shake my head.

We had breakfast at the hotel and then we went for a walk in the woods with a sports outfit, which is good for me to burn a few calories. We talked a little about our lives before college and work. Lola begins to tell me about her life after leaving her native country, Argentina.

– When I started elementary in California, everyone from my school mocked me because I didn't know any English, but luckily there was an Hispanic teacher who studied English teaching in her Hispanic country and she taught Spanish to the Americans but she taught me English in another classroom away from my classmates. Luckily I learned the language quickly and I really enjoyed learning English. And so it was for the rest of my years in school, all the American students were taught Spanish and I was taken to an English class alone with the teacher.

– Wasn't there another Latin American in the schools you went to?

– Not in elementary school, in middle school there were only three as far as I can remember and in high school I was the only foreigner in school.

– Wow... the only one in school, and what about in high school? Did you get teased there too or not?

– No, by the time I got into high school, I could pronounce English well, but I didn't talk much there. Actually, in these twelve years of school, I hardly ever spoke because I was afraid of mispronouncing English and being made fun of by my classmates but in high school I had a group of friends who formed a rock band that sang AC/DC songs at the parties the school organized. Everyone in high school said that I was weird because in class I was very quiet but on stage I was a different person. I remember a history teacher, who was a fan of rock and I adored him so much, that loved seeing me on stage singing that music genre.

– You had a rock band ? That's crazy, I didn't imagine that you sang rock in school and you were generally quiet.

– Yeah haha, I was an introvert at school. I didn't like being there but the only motivation to go was for the band. We got together at every break-time to organize to sing at school or just hang-out at the drummer's house to sing.

– What a pretty adolescence you had. I wish I had one like that but my shyness didn't allow it.

– Too bad, I had a bad time during a part of my teenage years anyways because the girls at school bothered me for not speaking and they bothered me even more when I started singing at parties.

– Surely they were envious of you for having talent and they had no talent at all.

– Yeah, I don't know. Maybe my adolescence wasn't typical of going out to parties with people because I wasn't interested in doing that kind of thing. What I did was listen to music, play with the band, write songs, produce music and plan a... secret project that I had been planning since I was 16 years old. I spent more time in the basement doing these things than in my room. When I was doing those things about making music, I didn't tell anyone, least of all my dad, who is the one I trust the most.