Worlds Apart (Completed)

Chapter 31: We Never Touched (Flash Back)

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask her.

"How come you get to be with that guy all the time even when your father is so strict about hanging out with the opposite sex!" She glares at me and before I get to speak, she waves me off. "Oh, I know! Because he's the oh-so-adorable son of his best friend who he considers his own son! But culturally, it's wrong! Why in the world you get to hang out with a young boy almost your age when most of us are so shy and forbidden to do BECAUSE OF OUR CULTURE HERE!" She speaks, waving her hands in the air dramatically. "Just look at you, you've... Grown so much!" She points a finger at me while she eyes my whole figure from top to bottom and I cover myself, conscious of her eye-harassing me. "You've long wavy hairs that reach your hips now, your eyelashes are thicker and longer, you've groomed into a... beautiful girl! OH ALMIGHTY WE BOTH HAVE HIT PUBERTY!" She heaves a long exasperated sigh.

"I am glad you noticed it pretty soon-"

"Hush!!" She eye's me again with a finger on her lips. "I'm not done yet!" And I purse my lips to let her continue to whatever she is blabbering about.

"I feel jealous sometimes. I too want someone around me of the opposite sex."

"You should get married soon then," I say, tilting my head to one side and forming an innocent smile on my face.

"If it were my plan I wouldn't have taken admission here in the first place." She scoffs. "Besides I'm in no hurry to get engaged just like Maraca with no love story behind," she says, dryly.

Thinking of Maraca who is our friend back then from grade school, after she graduated with us, she started working with her father who is a well-known tailor in the town. One day a man came to her father's shop while she was dusting off things and when the man saw her, he remained star struck by her beauty and thus the man asked her hand in marriage from her father. Maraca agreed for the guy's proposal and so his father announced their engagement before making some checks on the guy.

"Is it necessary to have a love story before marriage? People also fall in love after marriage just like my parents did."

"It's like taking the biggest risk of your life! How can they do that?" She says almost in disbelief.

"Even knowing the person before, some marriage's still don't work out," I say, shrugging and she nods slowly to my words before thinking.

"Would you marry the person of your parent's choice?" She asks me.

"Probably before meeting the person myself." I continue before thinking. "If I find him like... Nice and caring then he'll be worth marrying."

"I see, it's mostly all girls do here, it's in our culture but about.... would you really consider marrying someone else? I mean haven't anyone, in particular, come in your mind when you think of marriage?" She asks me, hesitantly.

"Uhh... no?"

"Okay, Umm... if the BRAT marries someone how you would feel?" She asks me, emphasizing the word 'brat'.

"Probably glad for him?" I say in a 'duh' tone and a little confused at her question. Where is she taking everything?

"Wouldn't you feel even a little bit of pain in your heart when he wouldn't be with you most of the time but with some other person more valuable in his life?"

"I've never thought about it but..." I say, smiling and looking down at my hands, thinking of the possibility of the future, what it might bring us. It is something inevitable that I never thought about before but somehow I don't want to think about it and instead, I want to cherish each day. "If he'd be happy, I'll be happy for him too."

"There was a pause in your answer." She says, eyeing me and pointing at my direction.

"Ummm... so?" I ask, eyeing her back.

"You are confused!" She pauses. "Did you ever feel something whenever he touches you or talks to you or something?" Curiosity evident in her tone.

"We never touched! I mean we touched when we were young but it's not the same now." I say, rolling my eyes.

"You didn't answer my question." She crosses her hands against her chest and tilts her head to one side. "I asked, did you feel something towards him?"

"At times like this I really doubt you, how come you are a love guru when you, yourself haven't experienced a single thing at all?"

"C'mon! I thought you were smart enough to notice that." She says, rolling her eyes. "I live with a big family! Uncle's, aunts and kids everywhere. I'm more of an adult than anyone of my age." She waves her hand in the air. "Beside's you still didn't answer me" She eyes me.

What should I answer her to the question that I'm avoiding since longer than 'long enough'.

I really don't know, we have been with each other since childhood like brother and sister and that's what our relationship is right? This girl is making me think ridiculous things about our relation, making it impure.

I'm sorry brat for thinking this way even for a tiny second.

"He's my brother Sally," I answer her.

"OH, Almighty! You aren't answering my question!" She shouts at me then huffs out a breath and speaks slowly. "I know you're confused right now but you have to sort out those feelings before your father finds a guy for you and I'm having a feeling he has found one."

"Oh no, he already did. Yesterday he told me about a proposal." I roll my eyes.

"Say what?!" Her mouth hangs open.

"But of course I rejected him. I'm in no mood for marriage right now and knowing my father, he won't persuade me either, he loves me too much." I say, waving my hands dismissively.

"It's the third proposal you're rejecting already, don't expect your father to stay calm for long." She says, nonchalantly. She pauses for a while "Listen, just like Ronald and Nicole I've seen you guys together from afar and when you two are together the world doesn't exist to both of you, hell I'm always neglected when you two are together and it saddens me." She mocks, wiping her unfallen tears. "But in case of Ronald and Nicole, they were both opposites. Ronald was too bold to make such move on a country girl like us while Nicole was too shy to accept the fact about her feelings but you guys can make things work your own way, think about it."

I just look at her when she finishes and before I could move my lips to speak the bell rings and the people start dispersing through the hall. I move my legs towards my class without saying a word to Sally while she does the same.

Sally has always been saying such things about our relation, making me think more and more about the possibility but I feel afraid, confused, happy and sad all at the same time. Happy that I'm actually thinking about someone in some other way, sad if I'm the only one that's thinking, afraid if I might lose him on the way, confused if I'm mixing up my own feelings. It's hard to decide what I actually feel towards him but I let my fate decide what's going to happen next because I'm just fine being this way and too lazy to care about the future that lay ahead.