Remember Me

The Date (part 1)

When I arrived home I began to get to work on filling out the book and found it frustrating yet fun. It was like trying to unlock something, and gave me that mysterious joy we find from earning something, or conquering something not many can do. I toiled away at this for hours burning through the first 8 pages in 2 hours, occasionally taking a break by doing homework. My phone kept buzzing and buzzing with notifications of friends text messages, and of missed calls from girls who became nobodies but I didn’t care, this was my seclusion and my own.

                When Monday came I had finished 25 pages of the 200 in the book and this would be the silver lining in my cloud for the weekend. I felt focused and reassured that when I saw her she would be impressed, so impressed that she would reveal who she was. As I approached the spark where I had last ran into her I saw her sitting by herself. A black overcoat covering what looked like to be a beige turtle neck tucked away beneath it. Her face was being blanketed with warm steam clouds from her morning drink, and her bangs fell just before her eye lashes.

                “Hey I have a present for you this time.” I reached into my bag and pulled out a Sudoku book to give her and she a slight smile shot up to her cheek. I saw her warm palm grab the booklets as fingers excitedly turned the pages, as her eyes followed closely and she puckered her lips as if savoring the moment.

“Thank you for this but it looks like you already started filling this one in.” I felt like an idiot at first but it was here that I could make her proud or at least make her smile again.

“Yeah I was planning on showing you that I could do this stupid game too, but here I did get you one to replace the dirty one.” I reached into my bag again and handed her the one that either one of our pencils had yet to touch.

“Thank you this is very kind of you, but I already replaced it.” She removed her hot drink from her books to reveal another Sudoku book. It was about the same two hundred page length and then she opened it. As she flipped through the pages I couldn’t help but notice that she had filled all of them in already, and not just that but that she had done so in pen.

“How could you do that so quickly and without error?” I spoke in a voice that was both filled with admiration of the deed and disgust at how well it was carried out.

“It actually isn’t that hard to do if you want I can show you some time.” She took back the completed book I was now coveting and had tucked it away back to its place, all the while smiling.

“Thanks I would love that, I don’t have class after 1pm today if you would like to hangout?”

I was nervous God why was I nervous, and why was I happy about being nervous?

“Thank you very much I would like that a lot but I can’t I have practice later today and work.” She pressed her cold dark eyes and hid them away from me into one of her books. I felt like I had been rejected and grew a bit timid.

“However Tuesday mornings I normally go to Barnes and Nobles and read in between the isles, your welcome to come join me then.” I was happily back in the game, what game I was in I didn’t know. We exchanged numbers and I left class with a smile on my face.

Tuesday morning came and while on my way to Barnes and Nobles I ran into a familiar stranger and had a brief rendezvous. I made my way to Barnes and Nobles only a few minutes late, after finding pleasure in a nostalgic figure. At first sight I could not I could not find her and walked the isles and briefly spotted her. She was nestled between two book shelves wetting her fingers with the moisture of her lips to turn the pages.

“You should know that doing that ruins the pages.” Her eyes briefly revealed themselves from behind her curtain of bangs. They were cold and dark still with a slight glimmer of the outside lighting caught in them.

“Thanks for the info but you’re still fifteen minutes late.” Her words were not cold and soaked with emotional frigidity, but filled with indifference. Her tone plain and simply lacked care, as if I wasn’t even there.

“I’m sorry I bumped into someone on my way here. What are you reading?” She hid herself behind the book lifting up the cover to show me my answer. It was Dr. Seuss’ All the Things You’ll See. She motioned for me to come sit next to her so I did. As I placed myself next to her she began to read the story to me. She made whimsical voices for the narrator and was sure to show me the pages.

I never felt more connected and intimate with a female then at this moment. Part of me so desperately wanted to grab her hand, as if holding onto it would bring me happiness if only briefly. My fingers crawled little by little to grab hers. Before I could grab it she lifted her hands to moisten them again to turn the pages again, and I envied them both for being able to touch. We continued like this for half an hour, until we had both grown sore from sitting and decided to leave.

“If you’re bored” She said at first in a quiet voice, “If you’re bored we should watch a movie together.” I didn’t say anything I just nodded and that was it. She wanted to take her car so we departed in the direction of the closest theatre, The Maya.

Only a few blocks before we approached the theatre and she made a sharp turn into a neighborhood. “Where are we going?” I asked as her small foot became heavy on the gas petal and her hands daftly switched the gears of her car.

“I forgot my wallet at home. I’m just going to pick it up real quick; I don’t live to far away from the theatre.” This was weird I had never let a women aside from my mom drive me anywhere, and she was definitely in control here.

“No I don’t mind if you let me use your bathroom when we get there.” This was a simple trick I had learned for women to let me inside their houses and now I would have to see if it worked here.

“Sure you can come inside just don’t piss all over the toilet seat.” She smiled and like that she shot me down without knowing it again.

 To read the completed and edited version of this story and many others, please buy my book. 10% of all online purchases will be donated to cancer research. http://www.amazon.com/Identity-Shades-Shamir-Kali-Griffin/dp/1484126653