Oily Evil Lotus

The beginning

Being in love is one of the best and worst things you can feel. The feeling of loving someone so much that it scares you, that it clenches your heart.

If only love was enough.

I was going on a camping trip to Del Wood, news that was broken to me just the night before our departure. As much as I love surprises, this one wasn't explicitly well-liked by me. My mind couldn't process. Not the fact that I had to spend 10 days in camp; away from home, away from my bed, away from an unlimited supply of coffee but settle upon the fact that I had to spend 10 whole days coexisting with Oliver Green.

My friends were unaware that I was going on that trip. It was supposed to be my birthday present. Under normal circumstances, this would have been the perfect gift, for I love nothing more than traveling. It allows me to escape and see the world beyond the four-walled room called my daily life.

However, what my mother very easily looked over was that the opportunity to escape has some terms and conditions applied to it - my ex, with whom I have had a very messy past, to not be on that trip topping the list.

I remember taunting my mother about not being able to manage everything in such a short time span, considering it was almost midnight and the bus left at the crack of dawn. Like the Messiah she is, my mother told me she had packed my belongings already and that all I needed to do was pick up my walkman, earphones and a book before leaving home tomorrow.

I thanked her and decided to go to bed earlier than usual to get a good night's sleep before the long journey. But opposite to what I intended, I tossed and turned the entire night thinking about million different ways being around him could blow up in my face.

Deep inside my heart, I knew how pathetically in love I was and how I longed to turn back time to when we were together. Even after all the ugly fights and him moving on, I was stuck with a never-ending hope and irrevocable love.

~

Time flew by. After answering hundreds of questions about my sudden appearance on the trip, I found myself sitting next to Grace on the bus. We sat on the last seat of the bus that consisted of five joined seats. I was on the window seat on the right and towards the left were Grace, Liza, Alex, and Oliver. Isaac and the others were sitting in the seats right in front of us.

My friendship with grace was one that had been running a long time. Ever since I knew her, our dynamic had been just right. Her rationality balanced my sentimentality. I was telling Grace about mom's surprise when she told me that Kiara canceled her plans at the last moment and I had gotten the free slot.

I was quick to ask a few questions about the situation.

"They have been fighting ever since they got together."

"Huh? I thought their relationship was going really well." I remarked.

"God no..." she laughed. "I'll explain it to you. You know they are going out together but do you know how they actually started talking?"

"Trust me I don't have the slightest clue," I answered with an innocent yet sarcastic undertone.

"You," she said nonchalantly.

"Are you kidding me?" I exclaimed.

"No, I am not, Asmara. I won't dwell upon it because we all know how sad you get whenever anyone talks about your break up with him. I'll tell you what you really need to know." She insisted.

"Okay."

"To cut a long story short, when you abruptly broke up, he was lost. Everything happened so quickly and unexpectedly. No one heard from him for days. The next time we saw him, he was determined to find answers. He reached out to Kiara in order to get them. She started talking to him and inevitably fell for him all over again. Though it wasn't surprising to us, everybody knows how hard she had been crushing on him since the 7th grade."

"Wait a minute! I didn't know. Had I known she liked him I would have backed off. She never told me."

"Obviously she didn't. Oliver and you were madly in love with each other for almost a year before he finally asked you out. Everyone knew except you two." She laughed at that thought.

I remembered those times when Oliver and I weren't in a relationship, yet we used to spend hours talking. I had started to like him and he started to feel the same way but just like any other love story, we were simply too unsure and scared to risk everything.

"I don't blame Oliver for reaching out to someone after everything that happened between you and him."

'Everything that happened between you two.' Grace's attempt at summarizing our story in a 6-word sentence got me remembering the time I was in a relationship with him. With that, I was also reminded of the doubts that lived rent-free in my mind and the questions that overpowered my heart's voice.

Before I got a chance to reply to her further, we were interrupted by a girl. Her looks and the sentences that she used gave it all away; she was an introvert trying to awkwardly socialize on the trip and had come to Grace to seek the comfort of knowing someone in a room full of strangers.

"Ahana," she told me her name and smiled while shaking my hand.

"Asmara, nice to meet you," I replied with a smile too.

"I know who you are" she laughed, "You just don't know me."

"I am sorry, have we met before? Please don't be offended, I am truly very bad at names." I shot a glance at Grace, seeking help.

"Trust me she is. I have been in the same class as her for four years and she still struggles with remembering my name sometimes. She is like that everywhere she goes. We have gotten used to it now." She laughed along with everyone else nearby.

Soon, our awkward small talk turned into one filled with excitement and bursting happiness. We realized that we watched and crazed over the TV show and that it wasn't just a show to us.

"Please tell me you're not kidding!" I exclaimed the moment I heard her making a Grey's Anatomy reference to someone.

She shot me one of those confused glares.

"Come on, seriously?"

"Oh!" I could see the epiphany in her eyes.

"Seriously!" We both exclaimed in the same tone and burst out laughing. Everyone else was clueless and passing judgmental glares at us.