Handwritten Love // Short Stories

1.0 - Shy Smiles

It was a lovely evening outside, I noticed. The sun wasn't too hot or too cold, there weren't many clouds and the wind wasn't very strong. I smiled and closed my dark brown eyes as I enjoyed the breeze. I started thinking about random things, it was just something I did often, first I thought of the feeling of my cat's fur and the way he purred, when I caressed the pet. Then the thought of music came up and I remembered how I would sing to myself while doing my little writing, my friends weren't to forget, our laughs and the jokes we had together and then, suddenly the boy's image, showed up in my mind, making a little gasp come out of my thin lips. I shook my head. Why am I thinking about him, I asked myself, I didn't knew him. Well not like in a way you normally know a person. We did see each other often. But we never spoke, we would look at one another, and when our eyes met, we looked away and smile shyly and then glance at each other again and wave. But then he would take off, and we would never find out each others name's.
This had been the same thing for the last week, everyday at the same park, around the same time, whether we were alone or with friends, we would never get to speak to each other.
He seemed like a nice guy. He's was about as the same height as me, if not a bit taller. His eyes were in a tone of a sweet light brown, and so was his hair. He would be always smiling or laughing, never grumpy or in a mad mood, at least that was what I saw. A cute and happy boy that happened to wave at me every time we saw each other. Not anything more than that.
"M?" Cath called "Are you coming?"
"Oh yeah. Go ahead and get in the car, I'm just gonna get my bag." I explained as I ran upstairs.
Today we were having a night out. The whole squad was going to be there, from my unsocial cousin to the quirky Cath and the unintentionally funny Leah. I couldn't call that a girl's night out, we all had in mind the fact that Leah was bringing boys along with her. Ivo was going for sure, I thought, he always comes.
After a few minutes, I got on the back seat of Cath's car. Sarah, the unsocial cousin, was on the front with her. And Ivo was in the back with me.
"Why the hell do I have to stay back here?!" Ivo whined as the ride to the party begin.
"Well, Sarah wanted the front seat, and you don't want to fight with Sarah. So hang in there." Cath said as I laughed.
"And why are you laughing?" Sarah glared at me "You aren't mad for going in the back?"
"No." I shrugged "I mean, aren't you the ones that say that I'm the baby? I'm used to it."
"You're 16." Ivo stated.
"She's still our little baby." Cath sang from the driver sit.
I rolled my eyes as I laughed with Cath.
The car ride was not at all quite, even with the radio on, when we were together, a topic would always pop up, whether was something super random about how security number 2 or something serious about politics and civil rights.
After a 20 minutes car ride we had arrived to the party.
Leah was already there, probably already getting drunk without us.
"Beah and Vicky are coming later..." Cath announced as she looked trough her phone "oh wait no, they're already here."
"Okay, where?" Sarah asked inpatient.
"By the river side. Leah's already there with her friends."
"Already? On time? That's a shocker." Sarah said.
As we got there, Bea and Vicky were the only ones waiting.
"Hey Chen!" I called out as I ran to Bea.
"Hey Mary" she laughed with me.
"Hey babe" I hugged Vicky.
"Hello!"
"Where's Leah?" Ivo asked looking around.
"She went to pick up the guys, they didn't know where we were."
We sat down talking and waiting for Leah, and when she came back with 2 other boys i almost fainted to the sight of one of them.
It was him, the park guy. Well, fuck.
I never talked about the park guy to any of them, well I did but I never got to point out who it was. I was nervous, I became pale and started to get nervous so I grabbed Vicky's hand. We all sat down again, and soon started talking, well they did.
Since I was the only one that didn't knew them all Leah did was, as usual, say "hey guys, this is Mary", nothing more.
Now he knew my name, but I didn't knew his, I felt at disadvantedge. Why? Don't ask me, I just did.
Luckily Leah had brought drinks for all of us, that would help.
The alcohol made me loosen up a bit. I could feel his gaze burning my tanned skin. But when I looked back he would look away and never glance back.
For some reason, that made me feel uneasy and troubled. I pushed back that to the back of my mind and started to talk more about rapist dogs, once again, don't ask.
When we came across the time it was already night, Leah was already drunk, everyone else sober and very happy.
Out of no where Leah jumped up, almost falling to the water.
"Let's dance!" She demanded pulling Sarah along with her. A slow dance started playing and before anyone could say no she was already pairing people up.
"Hey Leah, I don't mind if we dance but can we like rearrange the pairing." Cath said with a smirk. Leah shrugged and joined Sarah not wanting to give up on her.
The pairing went by heights.
Sarah and Leah, Cath and Bea, Ivo and Vicky and that would leave me and the boys that Leah brought. Someone had to get out, and that person would be be, unless Cath kept her mouth shut, what didn't happened.
"Ike, do you want to dance or..." She made that smirk again.
"I don't think I'm good for dancing, besides the alcohol is turning me upside down."
She smiled as she looked at me.
"C'mon." She nudged making me chock with my dancing partner.
"Oh God, I'm sorry" I apologized.
"It's okay." He spoke up.
My inside melted by listening to his voice for the first time, making me smile.
And so I was left to slow dance with the park guy.
His hands slowly approached my waist. "Can I?" He asked. I nodded slowly as he placed his cold hands on my waist. I looked at his hands and then looked up again, locking my harms behind his head, his body came closer but not too much.
We moved along the song, and without realizing, the words quietly escaped my mouth. Then the music stopped and everyone started to pull apart.
Everything went silent for a minute, the music didn't exist, and the others didn't spoke.
My eyes were closed, my head was against his shoulder and all I was was relaxed.
Until someone coughed and I got hold of me and so did he. We let go of each other and awkwardly joined the rest of them.
Minutes passed and we were talking again.
"You like him, don't you?" Cath, who was beside me, whispered in my ear.
I smiled and looked away feeling nervous.
"He's the guy from the park, Catch"I felt her squeeze my hand and then heard her smile.
"Hey, let's get more drinks." Bea suggested.
"Mary can't come, they know she's underage." Sarah said.
"But one person can't handle all the drinks." Vicky explained.
"And I'm not leaving tini tyni Mary alone." Leah drunkly mumbled.
"You don't need to worry about me." I explained.
Cath was about to go on about how many dangerous things could happen if I was alone, until he spoke up "I can stay with her."
I faced the floor trying to contain my smile but it was all for nothing. When I faced him again, now both of us alone, I was still slightly smiling.
He sat next to me.
"I like your voice." He said smiling to me, making me shiver.
"Thank you." I replied.
After seconds of silence he spoke again "We finally meet uh?! So many-"
"First of all, what's your name?" I asked directly making him ask. I looked at him confused.
"My name's Ely." He smiled making wrinkles appear next to his eyes. "And who are you?"
"You already know my name. I'm Mar-"
"No, who are you? What are the things that make you, you?"
I looked shocked which made him smile more. Ely got up, helping me out right after to do the same.
"What are we doing?" "Going away from this loud place. I'll send a text to Leah."
And before I could refuse he took me to a roof top of a free access building.
I sat down, and so did he.
Carefully I watched the way the sky was displayed for us.
"So who are you?" He asked me again.
"Who am I... A teenage girl that you basically kidnapped to a rooftop." I said half-kidding.
"Apart from that, are you something else?" He laughed "Like a undercover cop ready to arrest me because I kidnapped you?" I laughed with him.
"I don't know." I answered honestly "Who am I?"
He smiled as he watched the sky too.
"You want to know why I always smiled at you for the last week?" "Is this the part where you tell me that for the past 4 years you've been stalking me and you finally got the confidence to step in and make a move. Because 4 years ago I was 12, and that's just weird."
He laughed again, and so did I.
"Well, it wasn't for 4 years, I'm not that of a coward, or a creep for the matter." He looked at me and I looked at him "I did notice you before, you were always alone in a bench reading a book or only looking at the view. You were so relaxing. To be honest I really don't have a good reason why I started to make you notice me. I just did."
I smiled "I was kinda confused when you first smiled at me, but then I got used to it, and by the end of yesterday I wanted to say Hi and learn your name. I started to imagine how soft was your voice and how cold could your hands be."
He grabbed my hand giving me once again the shivering feeling of his cold touch.
"How cold is it?" He asked softly.
I brought our hands to my pink cheek and smiled. "How hot is it?"
Slowly our hands strayed from other.
The silence came, all you could hear was the sounds of the night like the faded wind and the song of the crickets.
Our bodies were almost touching, and when our shoulders collided, and he didn't say a word, I let my head rest on the left side of his body.
"I kinda like this, the way the stars shine, and how dark the sky can get, and how the bugs try to tell each other stories. I kinda like the way the music fades as we get more and more far away but you could ear it clearly. And I kinda like being here at this rooftop, with you. I kinda like this a lot."
"And I kinda like you."
He grabbed my had, and for hours he didn't let go, for hours we talked, and tried to know who I was, and who was he. And we promised to find out who we were together. At a certain point of the night a swift and calm song started playing, and, without letting go of my touch, he got both of us up. We started dancing, my head on his shoulder, his hands linked to my waits, and my arms linked to his. As the night took off, so did we. And that's how I found my guy.