Sunday came and went. The next time I woke up, it was already Monday. I didn’t catch my dad coming home at night and I didn’t see him leaving in the morning, either. The food I had cooked all went to the freezer, and would stay there until someone, who wasn’t me, realize it was there.
But I didn’t have time to ponder on much things since my school was always inaccessible due to the hundreds of cars that try to fit themselves in the puniest of roads during Monday mornings. I knew I had to be extra quick.
But despite my efforts, it was already a quarter to eight before the first school bell rang, signaling to first period, when I arrived at school. I only had fifteen minutes to reach the Junior Section A classroom. So I admit, I wasn’t near my usual self when somebody bumped into me on my way to first period. I really hate Mondays.
“He—eey!” I had to scream, because my stuffs were already rolling down the stairs from the second floor to the first, and I was so sure that my adviser wouldn’t hear of it as an excuse.
“Whoa, sorry.” I heard a man’s voice say. He surely wasn’t in a hurry, because he sounded like the calmest human being living on earth.
“Let me help you,” he added.
I wanted him to help me of course, but my pride had gotten in the way. It always did. “No, thanks, but I can manage.”
“I insist.”
It was when I looked up at the person who was causing me so much trouble. “Noah?”
“The last time I checked, yes, my name is Noah.”
It brought a smile to my face, my insides fluttering.
“So, you’re not angry at me anymore?” he asked.
I tried to screw up my face as if what he just said didn’t even exist in the dictionary.
“Last Saturday night, at Martin’s party,” he explained.
“Oh,” was all I could say. I didn’t have any idea why Noah’s presence always made me forget what I was supposed to be saying, or doing.
“Well, listen, about last Saturday night, I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
But before he could continue, I said, “Don’t say it. It’s no big deal.”
“No big deal?” He laughed. “You walked out on me, and you’re saying it’s no big deal? I don’t think so.”
“I didn’t walk out on you,” I tried to reason. “I just…. I had to go home.”
Suddenly, I felt my face heat up as I remembered the kiss.
“You’re blushing,” he noticed.
“What? No!” I quickly turned my face away.
“Right. And now you’re lying.”
I never blushed this way in front of Henry and never did I feel like someone cut my tongue. But still, I managed to look back at Noah. I looked at him straight in the eye. I knew it was a risk, but I had to try. “I’m not blushing,” I insisted.
“Really, Queen. You’re so hard to figure out,” he remarked, looking back at me with the same intensity. “You’re not like any girl I’ve met.”
“Are you serious? Tell me. What romantic movie have you been watching lately?” I said, a lame attempt for humor.
He made a face as if the idea didn’t cross his mind until I said it. “Are you really asking me that?”
It was when something within me flipped. Yes. At this moment I blushed, I grinned, I flipped all at once, and I didn’t care. It was hard to explain.
“I’ll only tell you what movie it was if you go out with me,” he decided, using his casual tone like he was telling me we only have eight minutes before the classes start.
My insides fluttered once more. I laughed. “Yeah, right.”
Looking suddenly serious, he said, “You know what, maybe it’s your eyes.”
I swallowed. “My eyes? And what are my eyes got to do with this?”
“You really have nice brown eyes,” he said, making a step towards me.
I swallowed and I couldn’t deny that my heart was beating really fast.
Then, he winked at me. This time, I had not a care in the world even if the entire student body went nuclear on me. But thanks to all the gods out there I didn’t close my eyes, because for a moment there I thought he was about to kiss me, again. Instead, he bent down to pick up a notebook just an inch away from my feet. I smiled, even though deep inside I was disappointed.
However, we were both smiling at each other as we picked up more of my stuffs that were scattered on the stairs leading down to the first floor. I didn’t know what it was, but something within me moved, and it felt good, really, really good.
A stranger might look at me now and easily figured I was seventeen. First, I had this look that only girls my age have. Second, there was this unbelievable twinkle in my eyes whenever I smiled. And third, I blushed almost all the time now. So when Noah suggested we go for a walk, my whole face and entire body turned red.
I asked the only question I could think of. “But what about our classes?”
He just smiled and shrugged at me in return. Noah wasn’t known to skip classes for nothing. He would only skip classes if he has an interview or photo shoot to attend.
And me? I used to skip, but not anymore though nobody would really care if I skipped classes or didn’t go to school, at all. Maybe my mom would care, or Molly, but never the others. The others I meant the entire student body. As if.
The hallways were silent as we walked. It was already half passed eight so we assumed that everyone was already busy inside the classrooms. We tried to hide ourselves from the windows and made sure we only walked in places where surely there wouldn’t be anybody else hanging around.
We stopped at the old school fountain. It was at the back of the newly built outdoor Olympic size swimming pool where nobody notices it anymore. It was really old with green moss all over it. The only water in it was the blackish water that was obviously rainwater where wiggly insects started to inhabit. And the smell was unappetizing. But it was the only place where Noah and I could hang out without being reprimanded or sent to the principal’s office.
“Sorry about this,” Noah said as soon as we sat on the only available breathing space in the area, which still didn’t look good.
I smiled. “At least it’s not a four-cornered room with little resemblance to normalcy and with no alien-talking forms that call themselves humanity.”
Okay, I really hate talking.
He laughed. The sound of it made everything inside me moved.
“Tell me. Are you really that always confident about yourself?” I asked out of curiosity.
He had made circles on the dirt using his feet.
I thought I had offended him when he didn’t answer right away.
He was just making his third circle, when he looked up to face me. “Not really confidence. I call it my social skills. I learned it from my dad,” he said. He sounded pretty confident despite himself.
I had to look away. Yeah. How I wished I had a dad who could teach me some social skills, too.
When my parents separated, I started keeping myself away from people, spending my six months in a mix of alcohol, smoke, earsplitting fights with cheerleaders, and several hours splurged at several restricted premises of Luna East Arts Academy—a school where my parents met, and ironically where my dad sent me to study.
A book launch was happening then at one of the halls of Luna East and the author was my dad’s best friend. When my dad was invited to grace the event, he thought he couldn’t possibly say no as it appeared it was his best friend’s first published book. Little did he know that it was going to change his life’s course forever. He sat at a table with a woman about two or three years younger than him. She was sitting right across him, and he enjoyed catching glimpses or her face more than listen to his best friend’s talk about his book. It was during the introduction that he was completely smitten by her. So after the event, my dad went into lengths of securing her phone number and address from his best friend, learning that she was a friend of him. And the rest was history.
But look where it brought them. After sixteen years of being in the cloud, they got a King and a Queen—my twelve-year-old brother and me—and a separation. Guess not all people who start with magic end with magic. Fairy dusts do ran out of stock.
Anyway, though, despite the separation, except for the occasional sips during low days, I wasn’t really a drinker. I wasn’t a smoker, either, but most of the people I used to be with do and I always ended up inhaling secondhand smoke. The outcasts became my comforters. They were not the hug-and-pat-my-shoulder kind, but whenever I looked at them I would feel calmed in a way. I knew it was selfish, but their hard-driven life was enough to give me comfort and assurance that it wasn’t the end of the world for me. And that there were lot bigger problems on earth than the ones I had.
And since Molly was into hauling me away from them, I came to realize that there was more to life than the dark and narrow alleyways called the other side. And now here was Noah. Being with him felt like the world that I once knew never existed at all.
“You look really serious, now. What are you thinking?” he noticed.
I turned my head to face him and was greeted with a raised eyebrow and a crooked smile.
“Nothing,” I said, not wanting to dwell on my parents, anymore, let alone talk about it with Noah.
“Nothing?” he asked. And I guess he looked doubtful.
He has a slightly wavy hair that moved with the wind and a small mole just below his lower lip that added to his male hotness. He was so gorgeous I just couldn’t believe my luck of having given a chance to have a time alone with him.
“Yeah, nothing,” I decided to say.
And I believed he somehow understood.
“Omigosh! You’d better tell me what is going on!” Molly shrieked from across me at our usual spot in the cafeteria, putting down her sandwich and orange juice with a splash on top of the stainless table.
A couple of heads turned to look at us. Even though the students were normally raucous at lunchtime, Molly’s voice could be heard loud and clear, devastating any other sound in the room, less to my liking.
“What do you mean?” I asked, feigning innocence.
There was the impatient look in her eyes, again. “Come on, I’m your best friend. Tell me about that little scene you created earlier at Mr. Hypoallergenic class.”
I laughed by what Molly called our math teacher despite myself. “I bumped with Noah on my way to first period,” I said, not knowing how else to explain it to my best friend without getting her excited, or worse thinking of too much possibilities.
“Oh yes, that long? And all the while I thought a car has already hit you and nobody has seen it? You didn’t even send me one text message to tell me where you were!”
“Sorry,” it was all I could say.
She looked at me with disappointment. “So anything else you want to tell me?”
“Well, as usual, I had another unfortunate trip to the principal’s office. He’s got the same old wooden table and desk. Nothing really new, I swear. He’s got the same—”
“Look, I don’t care if Mr. Principal doesn’t change his yellow curtains for years! You know fully well what I am talking about.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Is this about Noah?”
“Well? What else?” It was clear that she already ran out of patience and she would do everything to pry the details off me whatever it took.
I sighed. There was no point in hiding, especially from my best friend.
“We just went for a walk instead of running to catch up with the class. We stopped at the old school fountain, but Ms. Minchin caught us. Talk about luck,” I said, trying to sound like it was funny.
“And?” She was drumming her fingertips on the table—an obvious sign of impatience.
“And?” I repeated with much irritation that I could handle.
“That’s it? You won’t even tell me about a kiss?” She cried out with an incredulous laugh.
“We didn’t kiss,” I answered as nonchalantly as I could, hiding my irritation. “Ms. Minchin caught us remember?”
“But before that?” she persisted.
“We talked,” I answered, losing my patience, at last.
She stopped drumming her fingertips. “Seriously, I expected your time with him to be at least more—more, you know—passionate, given that he already kissed you at a party.”
“Sorry, but that’s not what happened,” I answered flatly.
“Next time, if a guy is not making a move at you, take the initiative to make the first move.”
“Really,” I said in disbelief.
“I just read it in a magazine.”
“Then stop reading it.”
I went home with Molly’s words still ringing in my ears. I was really dismayed she had to suggest it to me, of all people.