Dedicated to Ashi35893 coz there are some people without which this book is incomplete. You are one of them:)
#Introduction
"Sometimes silence speaks more than words ever could."--Pinterest.
Dear reader,
The night of Christmas. Outside, a picturesque town wrapped up in white snow, glistening with the silver moonlight drawing up a perfect imagination of mine that the snow looked like a thousand diamonds sparkling under the moonlit sky.
The night wasn't only dark but calm, the air crisp, cold and awakening. The trees stood stiff and frozen like, as if being the only one flawed to the nature's perfection. The stars for miles in the pure, perfectly landscaped sky. The snow now was a sight from a picture, so perfectly laid by nature, no imperfections except for my footsteps trodden on the snow a while before with my father when he took me up in his arms and we were catching snowflakes.
It was a Sunday evening when we were huddled in front of the warm fireplace, my arms engulfed in between my dads as we were joyfully singing the Christmas carols. My dad tapped his foot at terribly wrong timings making me forget the words but I could hear my mum's humming from the kitchen which had been my cue to catch every time. The smell of hot chocolate wafted in the air making me forget my words all the more and when I couldn't resist the urge anymore I called out to her and made her promise that my cup would contain the same amount of marshmallows as dad's.
As we finished with our song, Dad began narrating the story of how he met mum on the night of Christmas for the first time at a carnival in our town. We called it "The Christmas Story" and I had heard it too many times for me to memorise it by heart. I still listened nevertheless as the spark from my dad's eyes never faded away as he told the story. My mum would occasionally scold him for telling me some unnecessary details and we both could tell, she blushed hard even after seven years of marriage. I started wondering about how the feeling of love worked and every time my dad explained that it made butterflies flutter in your stomach and the rest of the world fade, well it pretty much didn't make any sense.
I enjoyed my time with them though. I wasn't much of a people person from the beginning and always liked to open up to people who meant something to me. I didn't have much friends at kindergarten except for Jamie not because I didn't make enough friends but because I thought everyone was weird. My parents somehow have been more than my parents in the course of time I have been able to live with them. And thinking about it now, I know, it wasn't long enough.
I always had this idea in my mind that God had given the best of the parents from the parents sections. They were one of a kind. My dad was cute, chubby and funny and I could always fall asleep in his arms and my mum was my superhero. And I was very grateful to God for them. I thanked Him sincerely, first thing every morning after I woke up.
Sounds like some perfect girl's life right?
Well, perfection is a mere perception.
A loud blasting noise woke us up from our revelry followed by a shrill cry of who seemed to be my mother. Panic struck us and I found my chin wobbling out of fear as I yearned to run to her and help her out. Blow air over her injuries and tell her "its going to be okay.", just like she told me when I scraped my knee or cut my finger accidentally while playing. But before I could do any of that, I was forged out of the house. My dad dragged me out of the place which seemed like a furnace, unbearably hot and claustrophobic. Black smokes clouded everything and we stumbled upon the furniture many a times. I was left out of the house with a few neighbors, all curious and nosy to find out what had happened. A few of them went after my father, his face sweaty and pale from the incident. Who could say now that a few moments before, he actually believed when he said "I'm happy!"
Fate's sarcasm? Maybe.
The people outside kept mumbling about how dangerous the gas cylinder leak in our kitchen was and everything turned charcoal black from the intensive heat but all I was stuck on what cylinder meant.
I kept pulling the arms of the useless audiences about what happened inside and why wasn't my mom and dad out of the house if it was so dangerous but all resulted in vain. Some of them merely patted my head and sighed but none of them spoke about it. Soon after I heard the siren and saw an ambulance coming up to our place. It was a cue for everyone to catch that I shouldn't be there to watch that so they cooed sweet words and fake promises in my ear and took me to a nearby park.
What felt like a hundred hours later, I saw a lanky figure walking towards us who resembled to my dad as he walked closer. He looked pale and extremely tired of everything and his eyes puffed up due to crying too much. I ran towards him into his warm hug from the cold clutch of the old woman who brought me there in the first place and he gripped my body tightly while I felt his cold wet cheeks touch mine. Little could I figure of what had happened though I prayed it better not be something bad.
Bad. Huh.
I pulled his head back out of sheer curiosity and asked him what cylinder meant to which he bursted out crying yet more. He controlled himself nonetheless or at least tried to and explained to me something which gave me the idea that mum was not going to come back. I closed my eyes for a moment, this ought to be a bad dream.
I consoled myself that I had seen plenty of bad dreams before. Like the one where my school English teacher had the head of a lock ness monster or when I dreamt that someone had taken away Carl, my teddy bear. This was also like one of them. It had to be. Only, this time people used words like cylinder and misfortune.
I couldn't eat or sleep properly for the next two weeks. I spoke to no one which everyone took to be because of what happened with us, only it wasn't what it seemed to be. One night when I tried calling out to dad for water, I realised I cannot. I opened my mouth and tried calling dad, only it felt like I whispered. Next day dad took me to the doctor and after several tests and medicines I was what they called "mute due to extreme shock." My father didn't gave up initially, tried consoling, cooing and even scolding me to speak. Not that I blamed him. Losing someone so close to you followed by what happened to me, he couldn't take it well. Only, it didn't help.
My struggle had just begun.
* * *
Ten Years Later
I had to admit Dexter was an attractive man, but he wasn't my kind of guy. Dexter was tall. Taller than the average man, but slightly shorter than her Russian target who stood a tall six foot two. He paced across the room in even strides, his feet gently pounding on the floor. Dexter Evans was a strong man whose muscular definition had slightly worn off due to his lack of training, but his white dress shirt still clung tightly to his skin, showing everyone that he was still in the game. His long fingers ran through his short and wavy brown hair which shifted back into place once his hand had gone past. The light coming from the windows made it shine to a shade of melting milk chocolate and his slightly tanned skin glowed, making his stubble covered chin seem darker. The man's high cheekbones, perfectly accentuated his face, and his full pink lips were pressed firmly together in a flustered expression. His eyes, which were normally a simple sepia colour, were now a golden honey hue and seemed to be screaming out his emotions. Jamie always thought that his beautiful eyes would give him away one day. Make him blow whatever cover he had. I too believed that.
He pulled out one of the chairs for him and keeping his coffee on the table, he seated himself giving me a friendly look, which I returned courteously. Dexter wasn't much of a people person, he was either among his books or at the school playground not playing football like normal guys but sitting on the grey bench watching everything around him with his big doe brown eyes. He looked like he was always a little lost, his mind a chaos of thoughts storming up his brain. Guys in our class thought he was a convict or something but we really knew that deep down he was a nice guy. He just didn't liked to show his nice side to everyone.
Said the girl whose social life is practically extinct.
Grace the newest member in our squad came to the table with a radiant smile on her face plastered on her face. She wasn't beautiful in the classical way, no flowing golden curls or ivory skin; no piercing eyes of green. She was shorter than average and certainly larger than a catwalk model, but in her ordinariness she was stunning. She was confident in who she was and that kind of did the magic. Something radiated from within that rendered her irresistible to both genders. Men desired her and women courted her friendship.
"Like my new stole?" She said dusting off imaginary dust from the floral scarf that banded around her neck.
"You look like Tutankhamen." George came fighting with the books he had hugged with his chest. Thumping them all over us, he grinned, proud of his joke, adjusting the harry potter glasses he wore.
Jamie stifled a laugh while I elbowed her, realising my friendly responsibilities towards Grace who seemed to feel the burn of the joke seconds later she finished updating her Snapchat.
But who was I kidding, George is by far the entertainer of our squad. I started grinning in no time.
"If I cared about your opinions I'd ask for it." Grace scolded.
"Okay, someone is in a good mood today." Jamie mocked taking the largest human bite possible from her double decker cheese chicken sandwich. My stomach rumbled just at the dripping sight of the cheese and I desperately found myself giving my best friend the puppy dog eyes for a bite.
She rolled her eyes and forwarded her once bitten sandwich at me, the chicken sheet moulded in cheese totally visible from the inside. Times when I thanked God for giving me such a best friend!
Goes without mention, the bite did to me what Ratatouille did to Anton Ego in the movie. It tasted the usual perfection if you're from our school but something so delicious that no one till date has ever said no to. Our canteen is one of many things to boast about St. Jameson. The canteen was always jam packed with students standing in long queues in front of the grand counters, some seated in circles engaged in their worldly matters and some staff working all around the canteen. The food in demand has always been the double decker cheese chicken sandwich, its something what we call legendary but there are all sorts of other items which would make you not bring lunch from home.
"Oh, I have every right to be. You guys know right, the band, McFly is in our town for a concert? Well my dad had promised to take me there since forever but now unfortunately can't, coz he has to attend some stupid board meeting!" She angrily crossed her arms and huffed.
"Well I know how to play bagpipes if that helps. I mean not really but um I watched it on TV a couple of times and it looks...well I can try! I heard Blossom plays piano marvelously so there you go, our very own band. We'd name it McSwim!!!"
Grace was about to rage but George continued, "No no, don't worry, its free for you. The first one is always free."
Her urge to wring his neck died as all of us but Dexter bursted into laughter. We had turned to the superlative version of ROFL with the exception of Dexter who smiled at us politely before concentrating back on his study notes.
During these fraction of seconds as George mentioned my name and I tried hard to fight away some memories before they overpowered my thoughts and ruined my entire day, my eyes accidentally landed upon Dexter's, who had been looking at me. I wasn't the school's most gorgeous looking girl, it was more Grace's department. My hair looked like a bird's nest blown by a hurricane all the time, my skin light and pale so every time someone looked at me, the first thing that came to my mind was whether there was something wrong with me. I ran my fingers through my hair drifting them away from my face as it occurred to me, he was still looking.
I sat straight on my chair and grew nervous with each passing nanosecond. It was something odd about the way he looked at me that made me wanna keep looking and look away at the same time. The golden honey hue of his eyes tingled something in my stomach and I felt the pounding of my heart steadily increasing. I looked away nervously only to look back again to see if he'd still been staring and I couldn't help myself from thinking whether he figured out why I grew awkward at the mention of my name from George or whether he was just unconsciously thinking about some formulae.
"Okay guys time out. Tell you what, my uncle is into these sorta things so let me go talk to him and see whether he could squeeze us in." Jamie said and I already knew that her uncle could adjust the five of us even the day before. He loved her like his own daughter and there hasn't been anything he has not given her ever since she was a child. Jamie stayed with her mom and her unmarried uncle and her father visited them occasionally from his business trips. He wasn't much of a family person from the beginning.
In no time we were all psyched to finally go to a concert for the first time. We had heard a thousand stories from our seniors what a concert in real life looks like and we had been waiting for a day like this. I may look like a shy introverted girl but then again you'd be wrong to judge a book by its cover. I'm much into English music, mostly rock and jazz, some bands like Mcfly and Beatles have been my all time favourites.
"You'd be an angel if you can!" Grace exclaimed.
"Sshh baby, everything has a price." Jamie wiped the end of her lips with a paper napkin as she finished her sandwich.
"Uh huh." Grace mumbled fearing Jamie's demands.
"Victoria's Secret."
After much bragging, the two girls agreed following a question from George.
"Who's Victoria and what's her secret?"
We were what you call crying and laughing at the same time so much that Grace had to tidy her smudged mascara.
"You're future girlfriend, if you have any, is to tell you that George." Jamie managed while trying to stop herself from laughing. A slight shade of pink on her cheeks didn't fail to escape my sight though.
"I don't think I'll be able to make it though guys, I got...um errands to run. I'll meet you guys tomorrow in school." Dexter's words silenced everyone. It wasn't the first time he didn't want to come, it would rather be unusual if he did come actually. Its been since grade three that we know each other but Dexter had attended barely any birthday parties, get together or even group studies. We met him only in school, to be honest I had no clue where he stayed. We got to know him through George initially, they have been chums ever since they wore diapers plus they were school toppers. It was only George that he talked majorly other than adding a few sentences to our constant conversations.
"Not again," Jamie grumbled.
"Yeah Dex, what's the issue here? Every time you do this and now its time for you to answer us. Are you ashamed of being with us? If not, then what's the problem? Every time we make a plan and you're the first person to ditch it. Its really annoying, to be honest,"
I kept my hand on Grace's shoulder to prevent her from turning this into something ugly.
"No Blossom, she is right actually. Its been many a times that we had to cancel our plans coz you had work to do Dex. We want to hang out together, there's no point going without one in our group, it just isn't fun that way. You may not think us as your friends but we do."
"Did I stop you guys from going out? I just don't want to! I don't understand what's your problem if I am not interested in going?"
Jamie and Dexter were giving each other death glares and George had to barge in between them.
"Dexter, she didn't mean it that way. It'd be fun if we could hang out once together as a squad. And Grace , Dexter isn't obviously ashamed of our group. Otherwise he wouldn't be with us for over five years.He has certain family issues that he had to take care of previously. But Dex, is it completely impossible for you to manage this one time? Its a big concert and the more of us, the better. You can come back if you don't enjoy yourself."
"Dude, he's not doing us a favor." Jamie mumbled and I shushed her.
He sighed. "Yeah, okay, I'll be there."
"Done deal then. Jamie, you talk to your uncle and the rest of us will meet you guys at the concert directly. Guys don't be late." Grace chirped, excitement oozing out of her as she responsibly reminded us to be there on time.
"Says the girl who takes at least hour and a half to decide which heels to wear."
"George, not again."
The bell rang notifying us that its again time for the golden rules of accounting. I was partly excited and partly nervous about tonight's concert. This was my first time I would be formally going out with my friends including Dexter. It had to be a tad bit awkward even though we had known each other for years. The five of us strolled towards our class talking excitedly about the concert and even though I doubted my dad's consent about it, some part of me knew tonight would be one of the nights to remember.
How do you think this concert idea is to mould up to? Would dad really allow me for a night out? Would Dexter open up a bit more to us? To me? Hope we get answers soon.
Until next time!
Love Blossom:)