"Can I—"
I trailed off as I pointed my finger towards the card, aching to touch them but restrained myself, waiting for the consent to do so. Julian nods, suddenly realising, and thrust the cards into my hands, "oh yeah, of course," the white paper touches my palms, as the deck doesn't carry as much weight. It was pretty light. "There's about forty cards in them."
My eyes widen, "this been going on for a month?"
"Basically the beginning of school," he declares, nodding alongside. I didn't know what I expected, but I didn't think at the start of senior year would result in the reigniting of Miss Incomplete.
There wasn't much I expected from the copycat; however this was a slight surprise. The handwriting is different from my original — during the middle school years — however, my signature is almost forged completely. If I go back and rewrote the ending signature, it wouldn't be a surprise if people thought this current copycat and mine were the same.
Next, I didn't expect the person to give hints. Maybe they want to get it over with, confess their love for Julian with the credit of my old dedication. Whatever.
In conclusion, I have to remind myself to not get jealous over the fact that the copycat would be taking three years of my credit and get to with figuring out who this girl is.
"What do you think?" I turn and remembered I was currently at Julian's living room. A slight joke played in my head that I've gotten farther with Julian than the copycat ever would.
"Umm," I flip through the other notecards, picking up that they are giving more hints and aren't giving introduction. "Is this the first card?"
"I think so," Julian nods, "I tried to keep them in order but sometimes they're out of it because I review over them a lot."
"Okay," I nod, switching over to the next card.
"That's not a hint," I mumble, shaking my head at this girl's riddles. Her words are similar, it reminds me of my original, but there's something else I can't put my finger on. Something strangely familiar.
"Tell me about it," Julian was leaning close, trying to read the words off the note. "This girl probably has As in English or something, because I understand nothing."
"City of love. City of love." I mumble under my breath, ignoring Julian's attempt to make a joke. It was frustrating me, the idea that something so simple as a riddle could skip pass me and caused me to lose my train of thought. Who the hell is this girl?
"I thought she was just trying to be suave at that moment, so go to another note or something," Julian goes the end of the deck and pull out the last card. "I'm pretty sure this is the most recent."
"Yesterday?"
He nods, and I pick up the singular paper to examine.
Similar.
I have to give the girls some credit; the style of writing and the way she used her words, I would say seventh grade Francena would agree. Not to mention, the mastery of the signature.
But now, this girl is just playing mind games with Julian. There could be hundreds of ways to interrupt that meaning of the note. Especially this one. You could say, I've already given you the hint. What the hell does that even mean? That could mean so much more — she could've given us the hint in the previous card, she could've doubled hinted on the previous card or the hint is the hint itself.
I scratch the back of my ear, rereading the words, "confusing, right?"
I look up, seeing Julian staring at me, awaiting a clue or evidence. Something that would progress this cat-and-mouse game forward. I nod my head, "am I that obvious?"
"No—it's more like, I get where you're stuck at. I'm the same." He comes closer, pointing at the end hint, "Like, does this girl not know that it could mean millions of things. It's not a simple 'you could say, I've already given you the hint.' And go."
I chuckle, nodding, "yeah. I wouldn't say she's perfect with logic, but she does know how to make riddles."
"Have you gotten any clues?"
"Honestly?" I scratch the back of my head again, "I thought the cards were just going to be love letters and a signature. Nothing more, nothing less. I didn't expect hints."
"I mean, you've never seen them before so of course, you didn't," he declares, reminding me.
"Oh–yeah, you're right. I guess when I think of love letters, I think of a confession."
"She is declaring her love for me, though,"
"Don't get so cocky." I rolled my eyes, bumping shoulders with him as I scan my eyes back over to the scattered notes over my thighs. I sigh. "I'm not going to say it's impossible, because somewhere, somehow, there's going to be a slip-up. But this has been more difficult than I anticipated."
Julian nods, "agree. So, where should we start?"
"I'm thinking," pulling out my train of ideas, "the hints are the best clues we got right now. It gives us something, if not a good bit. It just goes down to solving her riddles. So, I'm thinking we should review the hints and think of possible suspects to match. If nothing turns out well, and we don't solve any clues by today, we could just create a list of girls you could potentially have crushes on you."
"Alright," Julian agrees, pulling himself comfortably on the coach. "Do we write down the suspect first?"
"Yes; like in forensics, they taught us."
"I don't pay attention in that class."
My brows furrowed to his direction, "then why take it?"
"Human Anatomy was full."
I chuckle, shaking my head as I let out a sigh. In the bottom pit of my stomach, this feels like it's going to be a long day.
"Let's get started."
—
Three hours passed and we gotten almost to nearly nowhere. Her 'hints' as the copycat likes to say; gives nothing more than backhanded riddles and confusion speech. I'm starting to think this girl doesn't want to be found, but rather want to play mind games with Julian.
I let out a frustrated groan, dropping the notecard from my hands for the fifth time today. I've probably reviewed the given notecards for more than five times. It was difficult, I'll admit, and I thought it would be — but who knew it was going to turn into a full on three-hour binge with little conclusion in our hands.
Julian dropped his notecard as well, as his lips tainted with a silver spoon between his teeth. He was eating on ice cream while he was reviewing with me — and lucky guess: it was strawberry.
"Do you see my dilemma here?"
I chuckle, but nodded nonetheless. The most we gotten was a maybe on the girl's favourite colour. She mentioned orange a couple times; through sunsets, and fruits, and drinks. It wasn't a total give — but it was at least something.
"At least we got something."
He nods, sighing as he put the ice cream down on the coffee table. "Yeah, a favourite colour. Like that can help a lot."
"Hey," I punch his shoulder, trying to bring up his spirit, "that could help a good bit. It may not have seen that way, but I expected it to be way harder to track down a secret admirer. It's a bit more easy-peasy than I expected."
"That was easy-peasy?" He points to the messy pile of scattered notes.
"Julian. Stop being so literal with me," I smack his hand away, allowing a chord of laughter to filled the air. Seeing Julian as the culprit, I stiffen a smile as I checked my phone for the time.
8:52PM
"Oh shit," I begin to pack up my things, which was little compared with just my car keys and phone. "I have to go." I begin to rush out of the family room and towards the direction of the front door, almost getting lost as I took the wrong step to the other hallway leading over to the garage.
"Francena!"
I stopped in front of his wooden door, turning around at the sound of Julian's voice. He quickly found his way behind me, slightly panting as he followed. "Where are you going?"
"Home; my family has this rule in our house that we must make it to dinner at nine. It's a tradition since my dad is working in the daytime, and Kenji and I have school. So, it's like a time we can talk and catch up on anything." I explained in one breath, quickly spewing words, "if I don't make it back, my dad will kill me."
"Your parents that strict?"
"It's not strict, I have a good amount of freedom. I'm allowed a guy friend to come over, I don't have a bedtime, my dad lets me buy things without needing to check on him first and he trusts me to know where I'm going and how safely I'm doing it. There's just these tiny things within my life that must be maintained so I'm allowed the other freedom. Not to mention, I love spending time with my family."
Julian hums in reply, but doesn't voice his answer. I took the cue and rip open the front door, "bye Julian. Sorry we didn't get to find out much but we'll do better next time, okay?" Julian nods, "See you later."
I exit out of the house like Cinderella leaving the palace before the strike of midnight. Unlike Cinderella, I didn't forget to leave anything and I dashed to my car in quick speed as I drove off. Hoping that I don't miss the nine o'clock timer.
I reached the house with two minutes to spare, and dashed into the front door. My grandma was finishing setting up the table as she saw my appearance at the doorway.
"Naze anata wa aegimasu ka? Arainagasu. [why are you panting? Go wash up.]" My grandma declared, and a small smile made its way to my lips as she unconsciously made a similar pop culture reference. I nod, nonetheless, and rush to the bathroom to clean up.
Once I finished with my hand washing, I found myself staring at my appearance. The slightly rough look I sported took me back to the park, and suddenly, Julian's confession rings in the back of my head.
I love Tasha most in the world, despite the fact that we broke up.
I sigh, not wanting that simple phrase to disappoint me. Feeling the need to be clean once more, I open the faucet, and splash water on my face.
"Reileen!" My grandma yells, causing me to jump as I shut off the faucet. I wipe my hands against the towel.
"Coming!"