-Chapter 3-
Five years ago...
(9:13 PM of February 17, 2010)
"Come see me at midnight, Cly. At the front of the house, three blocks from here." her voice came out like a whisper on the walkie-talkie, and I was smiling like a lunatic at how crazy we are right now.
"Are you sure about this?" I said grinning, still not believing we can do the sneaking-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing, praying to god we won't get caught for this. She giggled at my reply and sighed.
"You're the one who said you wanted to be different, right?" she tells me, and I can't really deny that. "I'm just helping you out here."
***
(11:52 PM of February 17, 2010)
Now as I tread the way out of the house, tip-toeing through the stairs, keeping very quiet as I can so I won't wake mom, dad or Eric who were all sleeping already, I began to have this giddy feeling inside my chest...
This is awesome, this was different.
I'm already having so many mixed, blended, and whirled emotions suddenly, which only then turns out to be a very wonderful experience for me. I don't really have much knowledge for being reckless or sneaky but when Andy suggested it this time, I was really on for it. I am really going for it.
And soon, after all those guilty swerve of conscience and the unnerving fear of getting caught eerily building inside me, I finally exhaled in relief the second I stepped out onto the cemented floor of the back porch, passed the back door of the kitchen, towards the bushes at the backyard of our house. This is final... I'm really doing it.
I was grinning widely, as I hug my new sweatshirt, which was quite bigger than my natural size, and tried to cover my body in a warmth that still absorbed shivers from the breezing cold wind of the night of February. It was a beautiful night... This is my birthday. The first night of my Fourteenth year in the earth...
yeah, just so dramatic.
Andy told me a while ago that she wanted to show me a life-changing gift, but I never thought this was what she was referring to. This was just so great, a different kind of gift actually... And I don't know why but this all just so suddenly best for me. I wonder what she had prepared for this...
Three blocks from ours, I kept playing her words in my mind, as I walked the distance with hope inside me, thinking that whatever it is that I am about to find there, at that place she told me, would definitely be something that would blow the hell out of my fourteen years.
Midnight, just a few minutes more. And I walked faster through the street of our neighborhood, into the house we had agreed of... Two more blocks, and I am feeling very thrilled. This is getting weirder and better and exciting than I could even expect and as I hugged myself more, shielding from the cold, I was smiling with a feeling of anxiousness and curiosity of what Andy has planned for my first birthday with her.
One more block, faster.
Few more meters and...
There...
I stopped. I am already at the house. There were no lights, no signs of someone inside. No one was here but I trust Andy. She told me this was it. She told me three blocks... Where is she?
"Andy?!" I shout in a whisper, looking around me with doubts in my head, was this all a prank? Is she just fooling around about sneaking out this night?
"Andy?" I say again, looking everywhere but still, there was no sign of her presence.
"Happy birthday to you..." A voice appears from somewhere at the back of the house, just loud enough for me to hear it.
"Happy birthday to you..." Someone with a familiar voice was singing and I followed the direction from where it was, and I was very sure this was Andy.
"Happy birthday, happy birthday..." I saw her standing at the edge of a pool full with dirt and mud; a tray of cupcakes on her hands. I was smiling as I approach her, and she lights the three candles she stuck at each cupcake.
"Happy birthday to you." She ends, and I was standing before her, our eyes smiling at each other and I blow all the candles, grinning wider. She was giggling and she sighs, "Happy birthday, Cly."
I glanced at the clock, still four minutes before midnight... Before the end of my birthday. "Just in time." I tell her and she grins back.
"Ready for your birthday party?" she asks me gleefully and I nodded.
"Then, here," she holds out a cupcake to me, "Eat that first and I'd show you what I had in store for your bestest party ever!"
"Okay," I smiled cheekily at her, taking the cupcake and bite at it. It was vanilla-flavored, just the best one for me. And I watch her remove her purse from her shoulder and put it down on the bushes. She removes her jacket, smiling at me mischievously and tells me, "Remove that sweatshirt now, you need that off."
"What?" I gulped and looked at her with wide eyes, completely not getting what she was going to make me do, "Why?" I ask.
"Just take it off," she says and she removes her ponytail. Brown locks fell down her shoulders, smoothing perfectly against her back down to her waist. They were curled and thick... It was a beautiful view from where I stood.
"This is my favorite sweatshirt," I told her, finishing off the cupcake in my hand.
"That's why you must take it off," she tells me, turning her face towards me with a playful grin, "So it won't get ruined..." I looked at her warily, still not sure where she was getting at.
".. Once we do this!" she continued, and I watch her in horror when she jumps up and directly dives down to the dirty pool.
"Oh, god!" I said, rushing to the edge of the pool, looking down for Andy, "Andy? Andy? Andy!" I was frantically shouting down at her, never sure if she was still sane to do this. This was not fairly what I had expected for my birthday... Just not fairly enough for a friend dying on me. Oh, damn!
Her head pops out in an instant in a wide splashing sound, and she squealed in delight as she laughs out loud and looks at me, "Take that sweatshirt off now, Cly! And join me here, it feels amazing."
I exhaled in relief when I saw her and scowled, still mad about getting me worried and making me do what is totally against my ground rules. "Are you insane?!" I tell her and she giggled at my reaction.
"C'mon, Cly," she says, "Don't be such a baby and get to the pool."
"I'm not gonna swim down this mud and dirt all over, Andy," I say, standing up and dusting off my hands on my denim pants. "You're nuts!" I scowled harder.
"What?" she asks, feigning innocence from all of these crazy stuffs she just pulled out on me, "You said you wanted something different for your birthday? I'm just giving you what you wished for."
"And they say, 'be careful for what you wish for'..." I look down at her with my arms crossed in front of me, "Now I'm freaking out that I just had got it." I glanced on my wrist watch and winced because it was already past midnight... Now the ground rules are breaking in on me slowly, turning me back to the usual goody old Clyde.
"Cly, c'mon..." Andy tries to prey me in, "It won't hurt you a little."
"Andy, it's dirty."
"So?" her raised eyebrow made me smile at her and I can't help it but I chuckled. "C'mon," she giggled, "Let's have some fun for a while. You're fourteen."
"And I'm not eighteen, Andy," I say, all just concerning about this trouble we're getting in, "This is totally unjustifiable."
"Ugh!" she grunts audibly and scowls back to me, "You talking serious deep again made me want to puke all over here. C'mon, Cly!! Just get down here with me and I'll make sure you'll have the best mornight of your life." She was waving her arms on the water, definitely enjoying it, despite the fact that it's probably full of floating germs and god-knows-what else is swimming down there.
"You're really crazy," I muttered softly, shaking my head slowly and grinned down at her. Then suddenly, with all the ground rules forgotten now, I took off my sweatshirt, still with nervousness creeping inside me. I wasn't sure but hell, I would try this. If Andy enjoys it, I must enjoy the insane-ness of it too... It's my freaking birthday, for god's sake.
"Now, now... You're learning!" Andy says in delight as I put the sweatshirt down beside her purse on the bushes and took off my shoes too. "Quick, Cly! Before the water begins to drown away of tiredness for waiting on you." I laughed at her words and settled myself as I sat by the edge of the pool, still conscious of it.
"Come here," Andy holds her hand out to me with a look on her face that makes me trust her with all my dear life and I took it but was quickly shocked by the wave of splashed water on my face.
"You just didn't do that!" I say, freaking out as I closed my eyes and breathe deeply from the surprise.
"Happy birthday!" she shouts and laughs with me as I went down the pool with her and we began splashing dirty and muddy water at each other. And it was so fun and exciting and great that I completely forgot that the water's not really safe. I was just enjoying this moment, with the stupid ground rules away... Andy's all here, with me and we were just happy... Just very happy. That's all I really need...
***
"You do realize we stink, right?" she says this to me, her eyes staring up on the sky, and I was glad it was still dark and the stars were still up there... It was just so perfect. We were lying on our backs down the bushes as we dry ourselves after goofing around the pool. I laughed softly at her words and nodded to myself.
"Yeah, it's so badly getting on my nerves now..." I said back, "but I'm already too tired to care."
"Me too," she sighs and it was a sweet sound, I was looking at her without even realizing it.
"Oh, now that I remembered it," her eyes gleamed with a thoughtful look on her face and I was awed all of a sudden by the beauty it portrayed in an instant. "I actually had a literal gift for you..." she shuffles away, reaching for her purse and I sat up, watching her take away something from below it. I didn't notice it before but there was a rectangular, wrapped up thing there, and she was holding it out to me with a goofy smile and a silly excitement shining in her eyes. I accepted it and smiled down.
"I thought you wanted me to have something different," I told her as I began to unwrap the whole thing, careful not to tear it completely. "This is..."
"Ugh!" she grunts again, cutting me off, and snatches away the gift from me. She then tears the whole wrap off and I almost grabbed her to stop.
"Just get over it already! That's the use of this thing, Cly. You don't need to be so silly about this." She says as she throws off the now ruined wrapper away which I was now dreading to keep for myself.
"Fine," I muttered in dismay, and took the gift again from her. And as I opened the box, with all the wrapper gone, I looked down with so much sudden gratitude and happiness when I finally saw what was inside.
"I thought about it for so long," she tells me this, watching me as I grinned at the thing lying down on my lap, "I love that you love writing so I bought something for you to use that talent, Cly."
I looked back to her, suddenly speechless and thankful that she saw all through me, how and what I love about it. She gave me a journal.
I grinned wider, she knew I love writing. I grinned more wider now... And now with all these mixed emotions inside of me, trying to come out—trying to release and spoof out. I leaned in to her, taking every strength I had and courage that I could muster to do it... And I did it.
I kissed her. Softly...
Not hard, just barely touching her lips with mine. And I was surprised with the impulse and she was so shocked about it, but there was nothing else said after what happened...
I was completely smitten and she was completely clueless but I gained all my thoughts again and tried to erase the awkwardness between us by smiling at her but now, with all my intentions failing me to drown the surprised feelings away...
"Thank you," I finally tells her, gently tucking the hair pressed on her cheek behind her ear and sighs, "You're the best bestfriend ever... And I'm going to cherish this journal for all my life, Andy."
I knew I was blushing and I could see that she's blushing. She was still shocked but she finally smiles back to me, holding my hand between hers and says, "I know... And you'll gonna write every memory we had on that journal, Cly..."
I look at her and I almost kissed her again but forcefully restrained myself for the stupid urge...
"Yes..." I nod.
"Promise?"
"Yes," I say again. "It will be our book of all things together. I promise."
And we grin at each other, the stars above us, still glimmered; and the soft breeze of the wind, still whispered on our skins and I just didn't care. This was the best fun night I had, for now.
And I am going to cherish every second of it... With Andy... Of course.
Always, with her. Naturally.
*******************************************************************************
So I guess, it has been pretty long since I last updated and I am apologizing for the late notice... I was just so busy with all the school works left on me and all. And also, I hope you still stay tuned for this and I am going to update again as soon as I can...
So, did you like this chapter? I hope you did... Let me know if you and any suggestions. I will gladly accept any of it and will guarantee a good reply for you. Thank you for reading, too. And hope you had fun!
@thisisjameskend