Truly, I truly am.
I can not stress this enough that I really am one individual in one very big world. The world moves too fast for me sometimes, and at times the sand in the glass falls too slowly. As I sit in a cardboard box with my legs crossed in the middle of a crowded city street, I can hear the footsteps of people walking past in a hurry, looking at their cellphones, dragging their briefcases and children around, the wails of crying infants being pushed in strollers in the smog drowned air. My eyes see the forced grins of mothers, the maniac laughs of teenagers and the innocence of little babies wrapped up in blankets being rocked back and forth with the melodies of long forgotten lullabies.
I wish I could.
Who am I? Just an individual, observing everyone's lives. There are times when I wish I could be the birds in the sky, because they're truly free to do as they please. They eat whatever they want, go wherever they want, leave their business out for others to tend to without a care in the world, don't care about their appearance and even when they are singled out or by themselves, they will always be able to merge with another set of birds or find a new flock.
How difficult is it when you've been put upon display at a museum and people stop and stare at you? The Mona Lisa, she must have only half-way smiled because she knew that it was impossible to be grinning as bright as the sun every day at tourists. When all the other paintings in the same category are much, much brighter, and the only thing that it can do is continue to wear a mask that no one knows of. Even when the Mona Lisa is finally smiling and it's not for show, it doesn't last forever. Soon, she will be back to putting on a show because everyone expects that half worked smile of hers.
People often forget how long it took to create the Mona Lisa: 4 years, 1460 days before she could be displayed. But people don't see that. People are not there to see how much paint was sacrificed to create such a piece of art. How many sleepless nights were wasted, paint thrown at the canvas, blood and tears protruding from broken fingers mixed with the smell of hard work and dented paint brushes. The meticulous details are what people seem to miss from the Mona Lisa and other paintings - the journey is not what people see, but often the end product. DaVinci may not even look at the Mona Lisa and immediately think, "Ah, this is my greatest piece of art." Instead, he may look at her and think, "I spent four grueling years of hard work on this piece, so many sleepless nights. I remember the frustration, the anger at not getting things right. In fact, I can still see the corner of her face that I'm not particularly happy with. I don't like the tone of the area as much as I thought I did either." No one will know exactly how DaVinci feels about the piece except for Mona Lisa herself who was worked on, and the original artist. But it doesn't stop the fact that people regard it as his greatest piece and, for some, a masterpiece.
People may even go up to this piece and marvel at it, but after they leave, they leave. It's hard to say when things are permanent. There are other art pieces that people will always look at, and they will never know DaVinci's true feelings on it, and how the Mona Lisa feels herself because she's so complicated and has been so analyzed that she has become a mystery. She is a fragment, a painting lost in meaning.
College is very much the same way. Being put on a pedestal so high and being asked to do your very best in a classroom full of individuals who have higher qualifications than you do yourself. You're at risk of losing scholarship offers and valuable time if you don't put forth your absolute best. You fail, and then what? Your family might be disappointed, but I'm sure you'll be much more difficult to yourself. Why did you answer that wrong, everyone else got it right, you tell yourself after sinking back into the shadows and swearing that you'll do better next time.
Snow and Happiness are equally the same thing. Happiness falls out of nowhere, and when it touches hands, people can feel from it: the coldness, wetness, the sight of an individual snowflake. But it soon melts into a puddle of water, just like all of the other snowflakes in the sky. The water is cold, it loses its individuality. It can't help itself because that is what is supposed to happen. It has no control over things like that.
That is why the human heart is so fickle and so odd. Like the snow, my feelings are so conflicted. No matter how many times I try to reach that happiness, it melts as fast as it comes. I explain my feelings, I get more water. More. More. More.
And because of that, I don't try to tell people my true feelings anymore, because I'm afraid people are crass because I've repeated so many of my issues over and over again. It's hard to relay your feelings that you have already relayed several thousand times because you know people will get tired of them, and you can tell that it wears them out, so you can only keep it to yourself and pray that it will die by itself. The puddles of snow can fill a bucket now, be dumped into a lake, and be salty enough to raise salt water fish in them, I'm sure.
Sitting at the table with a pack of cards, flipping them over and over again with a crowd of people, holding a poker face because that is all an individual has to do to get by in this world. But how much longer can that person hold a poker face before they're found out?
Slowly, it kills you because there is literally nothing you can do because those familiar faces that played poker with you at the table, the spectators of that painting, have all become unfamiliar faces who walk past you with their crying infants and shopping bags, rushing off to buy Christmas presents for their loved ones or trying to make their job interviews in the next town over. The world moves too fast, and nobody seems to understand why you're so slow in such a fast paced world.
Why can't you be happy? Because nothing can be certain in this world. Instead of relying on others and being faced with disappointment, maybe it's time you stopped being so reliant on others and forcing others to try and understand you. Even if it's hard, you must endure it because relying on others and trying to get them to try and walk in your footsteps is hard. So sit back down in that cardboard box. Sit. Back. Down.
It can't help what it feels. And it can't help that that button just wants to be fitted right on that shirt, to be sewn with more care so that it won't fall off. But the button will fall off again and have to be re-sewn on again. The shirt will find a new button, or the owner of the shirt will toss the shirt out - who sews buttons back on shirts nowadays anyway?
So I'll continue to sit in the cardboard box because it's better to be sitting and watching other people rush by than try to join them. Because I can't reach the expectations that I want to despite my best efforts, because I'm afraid of failure for the time being. Because wearing a mask is difficult and it's too embarrassing to relay your problems to other people because you've done it so many damn times, and you can tell others are frustrated with you because they don't understand why you can't pull yourself up. So I hold my hand up and shake my other hand, because disappointing myself is somewhat bittersweet; but if I only depend on myself, then I'll never have to be disappointed in myself for allowing me to do things to other people, for causing them their own stress. Is it fair for people to blame your doubts on yourself? Maybe the plate has been dropped so many times and glued back together that it's physically hard for them to overcome it soon. It's slowly being glued back together, but if the impatience of others affects the broken hands trying to glue it back together, it can be easily dropped and reassembly will have to start over, only with more shards and pieces this time.
So to quote Epik High's song, Encore:
"I didn’t realize that the show was over.
No, I didn’t realize that the show was over."
One individual who can not rid of these thoughts, despite trying so very hard, closes hers eyes to sit back into the cardboard box and eventually folds up the flaps of the box because she is tired.
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Saturday, 1 August 2015
Afternoon Tea with Anxiety
I don't have the words to describe anxiety as it is a completely different experience for every human being. But I know very well what my anxiety feels like, and I hate it.
It is the equivalent of having a 2-ton frog sit upon your chest; every time you inhale, the frog gains a few pounds. It feels like you're being sucked and squeezed into a very minuscule tube that doesn't allow for any oxygen. There is pressure pushing the top of your head downwards, and the bottoms of the soles of your feet upwards. Your face feels burning hot, your heart beat rises, you feel like death. You feel like a bunch of hot air, and if anyone touches you, you're going to burst into tears. You're too scared to go and talk to anyone because during this attack, you're afraid that someone will say something totally irrelevant in a joking manner, per say, and you're afraid that you will take it personally or blow it out of proportion ("Hey, what's up with you today?") and then -pop!- you'll explode into a fit of tears destined to fill up one of the Great Lakes in Michigan. And then the shame. The guilt. The worries start again here. ("Oh no, what if they think I'm a crybaby? What if they don't understand? What if they ...etc).
I've felt this type of burning sensation all too this much these past six months. I've imagined that happening to me many many times before (but it hasn't actually). Yet those thoughts are very real, very scary, and very daunting to me.
How do I explain anxiety? I don't. I can't explain why it happened so much all of a sudden, or why it's so prevalent now. I do believe that anxiety has always existed, of course. Human beings need anxiety to function - it alerts when you something is wrong, when something is off balance. It's the friend that always reminds you to do things or 'else' things will happen. But anxiety has been the busybody these past few months in my life, and it's gotten so much to the point where I haven't felt completely like myself.
Here is the exact process of my anxiety:
1) encounter the problem
2) think about it a little bit
3) over analyze
4) dread
5) pray for a new problem so I can forget the old one
6) find a new problem
REPEAT.
The core of the problem here is that it is an extremely vicious cycle, and it stops for no one and nothing. 80% of the time, the problem isn't even truly a problem, it is an observation with no real evidence to back to it up. (i.e. "He gave me a really weird look after and shrugged afterwards. Does that mean that he thinks that I'm too lavish? Does he think that I'm acting too good for him? Maybe he doesn't like me as much now. But there's no evidence to back that up! He's never said that before...but then why do I get such a bad feeling in my stomach...What if I worry about this for the rest of the day...") I over analyze small interactions so much that I can't focus. I vaguely remember my nutrition teacher saying to me in a very mellow voice after asking her a question on a paper once "I don't understand what you're saying" and stressing about that one line for two weeks straight. To this day, I really do believe that if I didn't have such major anxiety, I would have scored that 5 instead of a 4 on the AP literature exam last May.... the 5 that everyone in my graduating class was absolutely certain I would get. But I think I pushed really well in that needy time that I was still able to pass the exam during that period of hardship, so I am thankful.
An extremely bad habit that I developed after this happened was that I would often times get up and pace around (to get the thoughts straight in my head, because I couldn't ignore them), and I believe that I have spent minutes and hours at one time, walking around the dimensions of my laundry room, or the upstairs bathroom just pacing. Those places are so connected to thinking about anxiety and pacing now, that every time I'm in there (not to get my thoughts straight but to do other things), I am reminded of those very sad times and it brings back many low memories. Even when friends or company come over, I sometimes have to excuse myself to go stand in the bathroom and tell myself to not analyze things and to calm down. It's a second nature for me now, unfortunately, and I hate it. I hate myself for it.
I remember during my AP art studio class that there was a small stock room in the back where all of the art supplies were. The art teacher allowed us to go in there and get whatever we needed to finish our AP portfolios. I stayed in there longer than usual, and sometimes snuck in there sometimes during work time to calm down and pretend to be looking for art supplies when really, I was just trying to collect my thoughts and breathe. Sad, really. Kind of pathetic. But at the time, I think I really needed to do it.
The only time I can catch any sort of "break" is when I head off to bed.
When a situation gets too stressful, I oftentimes hope and wish that a new one will come into play so that I can focus on something else. Even if it's something totally irrelevant, I will take it and expand it so that the one that I was dealing with before is not as important anymore. And that only continues the cycle, I know. But it's as if my mind doesn't know what peace is. It probably feels like I have been so accustomed to stress and anxiety that it must be prevalent 24/7 for me to function. I don't remember the last time I didn't have anxiety and that is a horrible feeling to have. I wouldn't wish this type of anxiety on anyone, but I do wish that some of the people who just don't understand could walk a whole day in my shoes and have all the irrational nonsensical thoughts follow them for a whole day and see how they deal with it. I want them to experience it for themselves before trying to judge you on how you live your life...which brings me to this:
"Telling someone with anxiety to 'just stop worrying' or someone with depression to 'stop being sad' is the same as stabbing yourself and saying 'just stop bleeding'." Furthermore, I don't remember where I found that quote, but it was similar to it.
Another quote that describes anxiety quite well and the best description that I have ever read about anxiety was this:
"If you miss a step on the stairs and your stomach lurches - it feels like that, but lasts much, much longer."
The worst part is undeniably knowing that you're freaking out about nothing, and there's nothing to be freaked out about, but you lack the ability to shut the emotion down. All of my problems at this very minute, this very present will be nothing next week, next month, next year, ten years. etc. But it is very real at this very moment, and I am always so tired by it. Even now, I look back to three months and think, "I thought that? I was stressed out about that?" It was so faraway...but I can't blame myself for thinking about it like that then.
If you told me back in January that I was going to have these small, yet large obstacles blocking my way towards peace and happiness, I don't know how I would have handled it. I don't know what I would have done.
But six months later and here I am...I feel so hopeful about my progress and how far I have come. It's most definitely difficult...but I can't completely and flatout say that I resent my anxiety that much yet.
Do not get me wrong, I detest my anxiety. But I do feel like I have made many improvements. I don't pace as much as I used to, and I have started to try and shut down any irrational thoughts. What-ifs are a brutal killer. What-ifs are the questions that question almost everything in this world and make things confused and unbalanced. I don't have many panic or anxiety attacks as often, but when I do (once in a while), I feel like a take ten steps back when I just took that one step towards progress.
If I am thankful for any one thing that my anxiety has done for me these past six months...it would be the revaluation of friends. I didn't realize how horrible and how cruel a couple of them had been to me until I had met my anxiety. I thought too less in the past about them, so I didn't realize how heartless they were, but now that I have analyzed the situation well, I see them in a completely different light. I thank my anxiety for that, for letting me see that I need to let them go because of how awful and immature they were to me these past few years. Even though they have no idea I have let them go, I am hoping that distance will play a big part in it. As for the payoff...I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it evens it out.
If five months ago, you told me that I would still be fighting this battle with myself, I would probably have rather died than face it. To top it off, I've always been the type who has been a little impatient with progress, so it probably kills me a little bit inside that I'm not fully "better" yet.
But this time, I am ready. I know that it's not over yet, but I am getting better everyday. I know this because I am sitting here right now, about to burst into tears if someone pricks me, pouring my heart out to interwebs, yet feeling a lot better than I did six months ago at the end of January, totally in pieces over everything. I will just do my best to keep my head up over the currents.
This ends my Afternoon Tea with Anxiety.
How do I explain anxiety? I don't. I can't explain why it happened so much all of a sudden, or why it's so prevalent now. I do believe that anxiety has always existed, of course. Human beings need anxiety to function - it alerts when you something is wrong, when something is off balance. It's the friend that always reminds you to do things or 'else' things will happen. But anxiety has been the busybody these past few months in my life, and it's gotten so much to the point where I haven't felt completely like myself.
Here is the exact process of my anxiety:
1) encounter the problem
2) think about it a little bit
3) over analyze
4) dread
5) pray for a new problem so I can forget the old one
6) find a new problem
REPEAT.
The core of the problem here is that it is an extremely vicious cycle, and it stops for no one and nothing. 80% of the time, the problem isn't even truly a problem, it is an observation with no real evidence to back to it up. (i.e. "He gave me a really weird look after and shrugged afterwards. Does that mean that he thinks that I'm too lavish? Does he think that I'm acting too good for him? Maybe he doesn't like me as much now. But there's no evidence to back that up! He's never said that before...but then why do I get such a bad feeling in my stomach...What if I worry about this for the rest of the day...") I over analyze small interactions so much that I can't focus. I vaguely remember my nutrition teacher saying to me in a very mellow voice after asking her a question on a paper once "I don't understand what you're saying" and stressing about that one line for two weeks straight. To this day, I really do believe that if I didn't have such major anxiety, I would have scored that 5 instead of a 4 on the AP literature exam last May.... the 5 that everyone in my graduating class was absolutely certain I would get. But I think I pushed really well in that needy time that I was still able to pass the exam during that period of hardship, so I am thankful.
An extremely bad habit that I developed after this happened was that I would often times get up and pace around (to get the thoughts straight in my head, because I couldn't ignore them), and I believe that I have spent minutes and hours at one time, walking around the dimensions of my laundry room, or the upstairs bathroom just pacing. Those places are so connected to thinking about anxiety and pacing now, that every time I'm in there (not to get my thoughts straight but to do other things), I am reminded of those very sad times and it brings back many low memories. Even when friends or company come over, I sometimes have to excuse myself to go stand in the bathroom and tell myself to not analyze things and to calm down. It's a second nature for me now, unfortunately, and I hate it. I hate myself for it.
I remember during my AP art studio class that there was a small stock room in the back where all of the art supplies were. The art teacher allowed us to go in there and get whatever we needed to finish our AP portfolios. I stayed in there longer than usual, and sometimes snuck in there sometimes during work time to calm down and pretend to be looking for art supplies when really, I was just trying to collect my thoughts and breathe. Sad, really. Kind of pathetic. But at the time, I think I really needed to do it.
The only time I can catch any sort of "break" is when I head off to bed.
When a situation gets too stressful, I oftentimes hope and wish that a new one will come into play so that I can focus on something else. Even if it's something totally irrelevant, I will take it and expand it so that the one that I was dealing with before is not as important anymore. And that only continues the cycle, I know. But it's as if my mind doesn't know what peace is. It probably feels like I have been so accustomed to stress and anxiety that it must be prevalent 24/7 for me to function. I don't remember the last time I didn't have anxiety and that is a horrible feeling to have. I wouldn't wish this type of anxiety on anyone, but I do wish that some of the people who just don't understand could walk a whole day in my shoes and have all the irrational nonsensical thoughts follow them for a whole day and see how they deal with it. I want them to experience it for themselves before trying to judge you on how you live your life...which brings me to this:
"Telling someone with anxiety to 'just stop worrying' or someone with depression to 'stop being sad' is the same as stabbing yourself and saying 'just stop bleeding'." Furthermore, I don't remember where I found that quote, but it was similar to it.
Another quote that describes anxiety quite well and the best description that I have ever read about anxiety was this:
"If you miss a step on the stairs and your stomach lurches - it feels like that, but lasts much, much longer."
The worst part is undeniably knowing that you're freaking out about nothing, and there's nothing to be freaked out about, but you lack the ability to shut the emotion down. All of my problems at this very minute, this very present will be nothing next week, next month, next year, ten years. etc. But it is very real at this very moment, and I am always so tired by it. Even now, I look back to three months and think, "I thought that? I was stressed out about that?" It was so faraway...but I can't blame myself for thinking about it like that then.
If you told me back in January that I was going to have these small, yet large obstacles blocking my way towards peace and happiness, I don't know how I would have handled it. I don't know what I would have done.
But six months later and here I am...I feel so hopeful about my progress and how far I have come. It's most definitely difficult...but I can't completely and flatout say that I resent my anxiety that much yet.
Do not get me wrong, I detest my anxiety. But I do feel like I have made many improvements. I don't pace as much as I used to, and I have started to try and shut down any irrational thoughts. What-ifs are a brutal killer. What-ifs are the questions that question almost everything in this world and make things confused and unbalanced. I don't have many panic or anxiety attacks as often, but when I do (once in a while), I feel like a take ten steps back when I just took that one step towards progress.
If I am thankful for any one thing that my anxiety has done for me these past six months...it would be the revaluation of friends. I didn't realize how horrible and how cruel a couple of them had been to me until I had met my anxiety. I thought too less in the past about them, so I didn't realize how heartless they were, but now that I have analyzed the situation well, I see them in a completely different light. I thank my anxiety for that, for letting me see that I need to let them go because of how awful and immature they were to me these past few years. Even though they have no idea I have let them go, I am hoping that distance will play a big part in it. As for the payoff...I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it evens it out.
If five months ago, you told me that I would still be fighting this battle with myself, I would probably have rather died than face it. To top it off, I've always been the type who has been a little impatient with progress, so it probably kills me a little bit inside that I'm not fully "better" yet.
But this time, I am ready. I know that it's not over yet, but I am getting better everyday. I know this because I am sitting here right now, about to burst into tears if someone pricks me, pouring my heart out to interwebs, yet feeling a lot better than I did six months ago at the end of January, totally in pieces over everything. I will just do my best to keep my head up over the currents.
This ends my Afternoon Tea with Anxiety.
---
Hello!` After a long and thoughtful night, I have gathered my thoughts in a more logical way that expresses how I feel about the situation at hand. (I have already prepared a calm mind for a possibility that you will only read and not respond, but I really do hope that you will respond in some way)
In exaggerated examples, I could compare the debacle to two friends agreeing to go sight-seeing together somewhere ("Friend, let's go to Disneyland one day!"), and then the one friend deciding while the other one was away to go by themselves. The one friend that went earlier tells the other one that did not go that it was "fun" and "exciting" and "worth your time", and encourages the other friend to go. Of course the friend is still going to want to go, but the only thing that that friend can think of during the whole lapse of the trip is that her friend went without her first.
With that being said, the overall meaning that I'm trying to convey is just that: Disneyland isn't the problem, Healer isn't the problem, but the perception is the problem. The drama, of course, is as good as it was meant to be; It was good when it came out last year in 2014, and it's still good in 2015. I'm sure that it will continue to be a good drama even as the years go on. It is undoubtedly the same with the Disneyland comparison : hundreds and thousands of people say that it was wonderful back then and its majestic quality is still flaunted even today - I'm sure its legacy will continue on. What I am trying to get to, is that the problem is not that you watched Healer, but that we had plans to watch it together, and then you went and did it for yourself. Tons of people have watched Healer, tons of people have went to Disneyland, and it doesn't effect Healer or Disneyland themselves (they are still great, no matter who or what goes to them, etc), but I suppose I was a bit caught off guard that you did it, and I felt kind of angry and betrayed about it.
The reason why such a small thing erupted such a big reaction from me is because both Lindsay and Micaela had agreements with me (several times throughout our six year long friendship) to do things WITH me, but then they bailed and only did it themselves. They didn't think to include me, and were not considerate of my feelings. They forgot their promises, they forgot their sincerity, and in that process, I lost them in the dust when I realized what kind of people they turned out to be. It happened far too often that I just forgot them; I'm not part of their inclusive little trio, I'm just a third wheeler in their immature and careless game. Whether or not they know this now is none of my concern, because in giving them up, I've allowed myself to not be bound by their restrictions. I thought that as friends, they would be better to me. I thought that friends didn't do that. But sometimes, you don't know people at all. Needless to say, the whole [Healer/H] issue is only as big as it is because it is bad deja vu for me. A part of me thought that this was unfair and unjust treatment and I was undeserving, but a part of me is afraid of others seeing me as sensitive and a weak, frail thing with no backbone whatsoever. This experience just reminded me of all the snide and hurtful things that Micaela and Lindsay did to me, so I apologize in part that this happened, because it's really not your fault. You did it without realizing it would effect me this way, and I know that your intent is not to hurt me or make my life a total living hell (unlike the other two, whom I do not know how to address at this point because I don't want to).
So it's not that I DON'T want to watch Healer, I really do want to. But right now, I don't think I have the strength to. I know that it's a wonderful drama because the ratings (and people) say so, but I can't do it right now because of the association of the experience to [H]. Just like how peoples' perceptions of said [insert things I like] sometimes ruins my happiness with things, association and correlation of bad experiences to things like this makes it hard for me to focus. It's not easy. I really wish that I could just fully concentrate on this wonderful, written, popular, korean drama, but I can not - I know my thoughts will wander from 'betrayal' to 'apology' to 'but past friends' to ' past friends did this also' to 'i wish i could forget but i can't yet' . Right now, I can not do it. One day, I will. I wish that I could have a switch to flip on and off when I wanted to forget my anxiety, but I can not. Irrational thoughts follow me everywhere.
There are a few things I believe I should namely address before it gets too foggy :
1) I think that it's safe to say that you would have watched the last three episodes regardless or not if I knew that you had started watching Healer, right? Therefore, I don't think what I say or think has any legitimate effect anyway on the direct outcome of either case. Due to traumatic and linking events, I do not have any future plans at the moment to start it until everything blows over. So you can either wait (which I doubt will happen at the turn of events by this point) or you can just finish it. Earlier, you asked why it was so hard/damaging for me, and this is the following answer: it's disheartening, it reminds me of things, I can't focus because of the links, I have lost my enjoyment of it, and too many unanswered irrational thoughts.
2) I do have to honestly give you credit for telling me that you DID watch it, because I know that in the long run it will be for the better. I know firsthand that confrontation is scary, but I prefer dealing with situations like this NOW and having myself free later. I am thankful that you were truthful and admitted what you did because two questions come into play if you had not said anything:
a) If you had decided not to say anything at all, then when would you have planned to say something? Would it be while we were watching sometime later and you are "pretending" to have no idea to what was going on when you really do? This type of trickery is the worst type of dishonesty in my book. It's not protecting anyone, and it most definitely isn't protecting anyone's case...(this reminds me of a time when Micaela egged Lindsay on about lying about breaking something and....I'll get into that someday, it makes me so furious to this day)
Anyway, I commend you for being patient with me and being understanding enough yet respectful enough to try and solve and get a better understanding of my issues, especially these past six months. I can only hope that this continues on into a brighter legacy ! With that being said, please continue to share things, because it gives me more chances to approach things different and grow. But at the same time, please keep in consideration of my situation. So even though I don't say it much, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will do my best no matter what and confide in as many people as I can to help me. Thank you.
In exaggerated examples, I could compare the debacle to two friends agreeing to go sight-seeing together somewhere ("Friend, let's go to Disneyland one day!"), and then the one friend deciding while the other one was away to go by themselves. The one friend that went earlier tells the other one that did not go that it was "fun" and "exciting" and "worth your time", and encourages the other friend to go. Of course the friend is still going to want to go, but the only thing that that friend can think of during the whole lapse of the trip is that her friend went without her first.
With that being said, the overall meaning that I'm trying to convey is just that: Disneyland isn't the problem, Healer isn't the problem, but the perception is the problem. The drama, of course, is as good as it was meant to be; It was good when it came out last year in 2014, and it's still good in 2015. I'm sure that it will continue to be a good drama even as the years go on. It is undoubtedly the same with the Disneyland comparison : hundreds and thousands of people say that it was wonderful back then and its majestic quality is still flaunted even today - I'm sure its legacy will continue on. What I am trying to get to, is that the problem is not that you watched Healer, but that we had plans to watch it together, and then you went and did it for yourself. Tons of people have watched Healer, tons of people have went to Disneyland, and it doesn't effect Healer or Disneyland themselves (they are still great, no matter who or what goes to them, etc), but I suppose I was a bit caught off guard that you did it, and I felt kind of angry and betrayed about it.
The reason why such a small thing erupted such a big reaction from me is because both Lindsay and Micaela had agreements with me (several times throughout our six year long friendship) to do things WITH me, but then they bailed and only did it themselves. They didn't think to include me, and were not considerate of my feelings. They forgot their promises, they forgot their sincerity, and in that process, I lost them in the dust when I realized what kind of people they turned out to be. It happened far too often that I just forgot them; I'm not part of their inclusive little trio, I'm just a third wheeler in their immature and careless game. Whether or not they know this now is none of my concern, because in giving them up, I've allowed myself to not be bound by their restrictions. I thought that as friends, they would be better to me. I thought that friends didn't do that. But sometimes, you don't know people at all. Needless to say, the whole [Healer/H] issue is only as big as it is because it is bad deja vu for me. A part of me thought that this was unfair and unjust treatment and I was undeserving, but a part of me is afraid of others seeing me as sensitive and a weak, frail thing with no backbone whatsoever. This experience just reminded me of all the snide and hurtful things that Micaela and Lindsay did to me, so I apologize in part that this happened, because it's really not your fault. You did it without realizing it would effect me this way, and I know that your intent is not to hurt me or make my life a total living hell (unlike the other two, whom I do not know how to address at this point because I don't want to).
So it's not that I DON'T want to watch Healer, I really do want to. But right now, I don't think I have the strength to. I know that it's a wonderful drama because the ratings (and people) say so, but I can't do it right now because of the association of the experience to [H]. Just like how peoples' perceptions of said [insert things I like] sometimes ruins my happiness with things, association and correlation of bad experiences to things like this makes it hard for me to focus. It's not easy. I really wish that I could just fully concentrate on this wonderful, written, popular, korean drama, but I can not - I know my thoughts will wander from 'betrayal' to 'apology' to 'but past friends' to ' past friends did this also' to 'i wish i could forget but i can't yet' . Right now, I can not do it. One day, I will. I wish that I could have a switch to flip on and off when I wanted to forget my anxiety, but I can not. Irrational thoughts follow me everywhere.
There are a few things I believe I should namely address before it gets too foggy :
1) I think that it's safe to say that you would have watched the last three episodes regardless or not if I knew that you had started watching Healer, right? Therefore, I don't think what I say or think has any legitimate effect anyway on the direct outcome of either case. Due to traumatic and linking events, I do not have any future plans at the moment to start it until everything blows over. So you can either wait (which I doubt will happen at the turn of events by this point) or you can just finish it. Earlier, you asked why it was so hard/damaging for me, and this is the following answer: it's disheartening, it reminds me of things, I can't focus because of the links, I have lost my enjoyment of it, and too many unanswered irrational thoughts.
2) I do have to honestly give you credit for telling me that you DID watch it, because I know that in the long run it will be for the better. I know firsthand that confrontation is scary, but I prefer dealing with situations like this NOW and having myself free later. I am thankful that you were truthful and admitted what you did because two questions come into play if you had not said anything:
a) If you had decided not to say anything at all, then when would you have planned to say something? Would it be while we were watching sometime later and you are "pretending" to have no idea to what was going on when you really do? This type of trickery is the worst type of dishonesty in my book. It's not protecting anyone, and it most definitely isn't protecting anyone's case...(this reminds me of a time when Micaela egged Lindsay on about lying about breaking something and....I'll get into that someday, it makes me so furious to this day)
Anyway, I commend you for being patient with me and being understanding enough yet respectful enough to try and solve and get a better understanding of my issues, especially these past six months. I can only hope that this continues on into a brighter legacy ! With that being said, please continue to share things, because it gives me more chances to approach things different and grow. But at the same time, please keep in consideration of my situation. So even though I don't say it much, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will do my best no matter what and confide in as many people as I can to help me. Thank you.
Saturday, 11 July 2015
The Love Letters 「P7」
「Saturday」
She stood outside of his front door, feeling brave and confident. She pounded at Asia Buckyfield's door and hollered, "OPEN UP! OPEN UP YOU JERK!"
Within moments, the door flung open and Asia stood there in his trademark bathrobe and sleepy demeanor. As soon as he saw Talia, he did the unthinkable to anyone; he came forward and wrapped her in a tight hug. Talia froze, the box in between her chest and Asia crushing her. "Hey, you - !" She pushed him back and glared, even more furious than she had been. Her hands were shaking now and she wasn't sure what she wanted to say, but she knew that if any of her friends were here, they would tell her to fight back.
"Talia! You came back," Asia said, with a relieved look on his face. "I'm so happy you came back. Thank God! I thought something had happened to you after you left that day..." he put his hand on her cheek which resulted in Talia raising her eyes and hand to slap it away.
"Don't touch me!"
Asia stopped and stared. And then he seemed to remember. "Oh, that's right. I was being a total jerk that day, wasn't I?" He laughed it off and then said gently, "But I was wrong. I'm so sorry. Will you please forgive me?"
Talia's throat became dry, but she said quite defiantly merely seconds later, "No, I will not!" she glared at him as her hands clutched onto her box of Asia's stuff with an iron grip.
"Just give me another chance, babe!" Asia said, stepping forward.
Talia instinctively winced and took a step back herself and Asia noticed. He stopped and seem to give her a sad look. "I know what I did was wrong, Talia. And that bimbo, she's gone...she's gone now!"
"Are all the girls you play with just your toys? You know what, just....just forget it," Talia said, remembering all the things that Rick had said to her this past week. "Here," she shoved the box into his arms and he stumbled backwards, surprised at what was happening. "This is your stuff. I thought that I'd return it." And then she turned from Asia to begin walking away...only to have him grab her wrist to stop her.
"Talia! Wait!" he suddenly glared at her. "Did you...did you find somebody...else?"
When she didn't answer, he became more persistent. "Answer me! You found somebody else, didn't you?" his grip on her became tighter and Talia flinched at how much of a grip he had. "Who is it, Talia? Who is it? It's not that...." he suddenly became red. "It's not him, isn't it? That Rick kid who's friends with Selena, isn't it? It's that pathetic little - "
"OW! LET GO! It hurts!" With a swooping pull, Talia pulled free from his grasp. "It's none of your business," she said angrily at her ex-boyfriend, who seemed even more surprised by her sudden confidence. For him, it was like she did a total 180 and completely changed.
Without bothering to look back, Talia left Asia and the dumbfounded look on his face, as he called back for her. For once in her life, Talia knew that she had done the right thing.
And she knew Rick would be proud.
"Let me see it!" Selena said, grabbing the letter out of Talia's hands and preceding to read it. "I think he's an absolute god," Selena said, giving it back to her friend who smoothed the letter out with pride. "And you obviously like it," she stretched. "Go on. Read it. I know you want to."
Talia turned red and read the seventh letter for the first time.
「Unless
I die and leave this world before you, I don't think I could quite let you go. You've become too attached to my thoughts, words, and feelings and I'm not quite sure what I would do if you suddenly disappeared from my life. I mean for this last letter to you to be almost as meaningful as before if not more. This whole week in Rome, you have not left my thoughts. Even if I am having a tough time here, it's alright, as long as you're not having one. I would rather take the pain for you and suffer instead in place of you. With that being said, you're not just any girl to me...you are someone who I can see laughing and smiling with me every day until I'm not around. Of course, if you decline....I won't argue with it. Because if you're not happy, then I won't be happy. But if you accept me, I promise that I will work furiously and endlessly so that we can be together...happily without conflict. I want to protect you, cherish you, and be with you until our lives have stopped and ceased to exist. I'm sorry this last letter is so loaded...but I feel that through letters I can express myself better. I'm sure Zico has been laughing at me for how unmanly this all is. But to each his own. I just want to do what my heart wants, so use that awesome brain you have and figure out the mystery I have prepared for you....this puzzle...I will...wait for your answer.
Please wait for my return.
「Reminiscing,
Rick
Talia was almost on the verge of tears and she snuffled.
"What?" Selena said, alarmed. "What is it?"
"H-h-how could h-h-he say that t-t-t-to me?" she cried as her friend threw a few tissues at her to stop the waterworks. "He obviously l-l-likes me a lot and I...I haven't d-d-done anything f-f-for him!"
"That's a good thing then, isn't?" Selena rolled her eyes. "God, Zico was right. You guys totally fit each other..."
"Of course it's a good thing!" Talia blew her nose quite loudly. "I've never been more happy in my life..."
Selena cleared her throat. "Well....why don't we figure it out then?"
"Figure what out?"
"The puzzle, you idiot!"
"Oh, r-right!"
Selena took the box of letters and set them down on the living room floor. She and Talia took the rest of the afternoon to try and figure it out. Talia, thinking that there was some type of inscription on the back of them, kept turning them over and folding them in odd places to see if something would show up. Selena, on the other hand, threw her hands up in the air and sat back to think as her friend hastily ran through ideas and then tried to test them out. In the end, she, too, was defeated.
"I don't get it! What's the mystery?" Talia said, wringing her hands up in the air. "Rick isn't the complicated type of person....he's so amazing and all...him and his wording...but not that complex."
"Wait..." Selena closed her eyes for a second with her hand on her forehead, "Say that again."
"Wait, what?" Talia slumped back down onto the couch. "All I'm saying is that he's really not that complicated and..."
Selena sat straight up and dove for the letters. "That's right, Rick isn't the complicated type at all, right?" She looked at each of the letters in hand and then laughed. "But he sure is a genius though, isn't he?" She slid the very first two letters towards Talia. "Do you see anything weird about them?"
Talia squinted her eyes at the letters. "No...not really."
"What about the format of the letters? You don't find anything weird...at all?"
"What is there to find weird?"
Selena groaned. "Okay, just look," she pointed at the first word in the first letter that had an indentation to it. "Besides how great it is, don't you notice how weird the first words always are?" She pointed specifically at the first word. "It's just an 'I', and then he starts off at a new line."
"Okay....so?"
Selena rolled her eyes. "The second letter, first word again, and then starts off on another line. Why not finish what he was saying or start it off with a 'dear Talia' or something? Don't tell me you don't find that weird at all, or I swear, I will strangle you..."
Talia thought for a second and then compared all the words in his letters. "I, little, one, very, every, you, of, unless..." she scratched her head. "Yeah, it's a bit weird, but I just thought it was his writing style..."
The two of them sat in silence for a few more minutes until Selena muttered under her breath, "It's I love you."
"What?" Talia said, turning to look at her friend.
"It says 'I love you'."
"W-what??"
"ERRRGGH! Right here, you idiot! It clearly says ' I LOVE YOU ' !" Selena shoved the letters into her friend's face and pointed out exactly where it said so. "It's the first letter of each word on each letter, you idiot! 'I, Little, One, Very, Every, You, Of, Unless' spells I Love You!"
And upon further notice, Talia realized it was true.
「I
「Little
「One
「Very
「Every
「You
「Of
「Unless
"Oh my....goodness," Talia said, sitting back and turning a bright red. "Does it really....say that? Are my eyes wrong?" She placed her hand on her pounding heart and felt her face start to burn. "That...has to be a mistake. My brain is clearly misreading all of this.."
"Yeah, you have to be," Selena said frustrated. "There's definitely something wrong with your brain to have missed all of this. The last letter of each signature too. Read it."
"The signature?" Talia said, regaining herself to sit up and see what she was talking about.
"For the first letter, he ended with 'From with an indentation again...the second letter ended with an 'Overjoyed, the third was a 'Remember...the fourth..."
Talia zoned out of what her friend was saying and read the signatures to herself quietly. "If it's the same format as the first thing...then it says....it says...." her hands shook as she held the last letter in her hands. The seventh letter.
"What, what does it say?"
"It says...it says FOREVER!"
Selena took the letters and set them down on top of each other to see if it was true. "It does..."
「From
「Overjoyed
「Remember
「Eternally
「Very
「Exceptionally
「Reminiscing
"Oh my god, that is a work of art," Selena said. "And really not that complicated at all," Selena smiled. "I'm sure you'll say yes and accept him though, won't you? I mean of course you wouldn't dare to turn a guy like that down after - hey. What's wrong with you? Stop CRYING!"
Talia had burst into tears. "This...this has never happened before! He's such a jerk! How...how could he make me cry like this?!" and then she grabbed Selena and shook her. "HE'S SUCH A JERK! I love him so much that I...."
Selena sighed and patted her friend's shoulder. "Okay, okay...it's okay..."
DING DONG!
"Is someone coming over?" Selena asked, confused as she detached herself from Talia who now lay on the floor in a mess.
"N-n-no...but sometimes I get more mail..."
"Er...why don't you stay here and clean up your face, Talia. I'll go get the door - seriously! Get your act together, kid!"
As Selena left to go get the door, Talia couldn't help but notice that even Selena had adopted a bit of Zico's language. She sat straight up, and used the tissues next to her to clean up her sopping wet face. She blew her nose a few times and then took a deep breath.
"Talia?" She heard her friend say from down the stairs. "I think you might want to see this."
"What? Is somebody here for me?"
"No, nobody's here, but - "
Talia ran down the stairs to see what the commotion was about, and her heart nearly stopped when she saw it. Sitting right at the front of her door was a gigantic box with an elegant bow on the top of it. Selena was standing next to it, and the box itself nearly came to her shoulder. "There's this thing, too...." Selena detached a large card that was tied to the box and handed it to Talia. The inside of it, had the letters that she and Selena had been analyzing for the past few minutes blown up in size...indentations in all.
「I 「L「O「V「E 「Y「O「U
「F「O「R「E「V「E「R
"At least we were right..." Selena said, checking out the box. Then she stopped. "Talia....come here..." As she said this, Zico came out of nowhere and nearly pounced on her.
"HEY!"
"AUUGGHH!!" Selena kicked Zico in the shin. "What the hell are you trying to pull?!"
"C'mere for a second," he whispered to Selena as he dragged her off to the side, limping because she had kicked him.
"What? What is it..."
Talia went over to the box, not expecting anything. It was a pretty sea blue, and the ribbon was extremely elegant looking. She realized then that nothing had to be untied to get the box to open. It was a giant lid, so she placed her fingers under the slot of the box and used all of her strength to push it upwards, and as soon as the lid was pushed off and out of the way...
Somebody stood up from the inside of the box, his arms out, nearly giving Talia a heart attack.
"Surprise!"
He stood there, with his sweet demeanor, his physical attractiveness shining through with his semi-dirty blonde hair that had an essence of sandy like color which was swept upwards. He sent Talia the charming grin that he always had, and she melted. In that very spot, possibly for the fifth or sixth time today, she burst into tears.
Rick looked alarmed, and Selena and Zico exchanged looks of surprise in the corner as Talia ran forward and hid her face in his chest, using her fists to gently, but angrily pound him. "Y-y-you j-j-jerk! H-h-how could y-you do this t-t-to me?!" The tears streamed down her face and she felt the fabric of his shirt start to get wet. "Rick," she bawled. "Rick!"
He put his arms around her and gave her a tight squeeze. "You're so silly....what are you crying for? I thought you would be happy to see me. Should I just leave?"
"No, I - I am!" She looked up at him as she separated her face from his chest that smelled just like Italian Strawberry Soda. "I was just...I missed you....a lot..." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "Why are you back so early?"
"I know it was sudden," he said with much thought. "But I couldn't wait to see you, so I flew in early," he paused. "Unless you want me to fly back right now...I technically could..." he pretended to check his watch until Talia wrapped her arms around him again and clung to him like a vulture.
"No....P-please don't leave me again..."
Zico and Selena came forward. "So you got what you wanted, looks like," Zico said, his hand in Selena's. "Your prince came for you after all."
"And mine did too," Selena said, putting her head on Zico's shoulder. "I was dying in there, Zico....I thought you guys would never come!"
Talia froze and then detached herself from Rick. "Wait. You guys KNEW?!"
Zico rolled his eyes. "Of course we did," he laughed. "If it wasn't for us, do you think that this so-called man over here would have been able to pull this off?"
Talia looked over at her best friend, who had somehow managed to fool her as well. "You knew too? An hour ago, you knew how to solve it?"
"Well, of course! I only said something so that you would know the right direction to go! If I hadn't said anything, you would still be in there right now trying to dissect information that couldn't process in your brain!"
Zico snickered. "Yup, that's my girl."
Talia looked back at Rick who merely shrugged. "It's true! They knew beforehand that I had planned all this. And my Uncle too..." he pouted at Talia. "If it wasn't for us, my Uncle wouldn't have gotten into an accident, so you better be grateful."
Talia put two and two together. "That was your UNCLE?!"
"The mail man? Yup, that was him alright."
Now it all made sense...the uncanny resemblance, his gentle appreciation of Italian soda, his silent agreement on his nephew being with her....
"Is he alright though?" Talia said to Rick. "I was concerned before I found out, but now that I know that he's your Uncle I'm even more concerned - "
"He's fine," Rick said, brushing the hair out of her eyes. "I saw him earlier today, and he's recovering well. He wished me luck, and..." he looked over at his two other friends who gave him a thumbs up. "But why are you asking so many questions? Don't you think I should get an answer too?"
"An answer?" Talia said. "An answer...to what? I already solved your puzzle, and I got the answer right...it was written in the card and...." Talia looked over at Selena and Zico who had both facepalmed in unison. When she looked back at Rick, he was no longer there, but instead, down on one knee with his hand holding one of her hands. In his left hand sat a small box that was already open, a beautiful diamond ring gleaming in the sunlight, just begging to be accepted. "R-Rick!"
"Talia....you know how I feel about you. Will you marry me?"
"Say yes," Selena whispered to herself, feeling so happy for her friend.
"Aw, not you too," Zico said, pouting at Selena before she smiled at him and pecked him on the cheek. He turned back to look at his two other friends. "But what the hell. Go for it."
The sky was pink and amorous as the birds sat in the next tree over, singing a lovely tune in the backdrop of the surroundings. A light breeze blew past and a wonderful silence filled the air, a silence that had been waiting and waiting for an answer.
"Yes," Talia said, beaming as tears of happiness rolled down her face. "I'll say yes right now, and yes forever."
And then Rick slid the beautiful ring onto Talia's finger, stood up, wiped the tears off of her face, leaned forward, and gave her a much deserving kiss.
°°°°°「P7 END」•••••
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥The Love Letters END♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
(and the end of this saga and characters until further notice)
She stood outside of his front door, feeling brave and confident. She pounded at Asia Buckyfield's door and hollered, "OPEN UP! OPEN UP YOU JERK!"
Within moments, the door flung open and Asia stood there in his trademark bathrobe and sleepy demeanor. As soon as he saw Talia, he did the unthinkable to anyone; he came forward and wrapped her in a tight hug. Talia froze, the box in between her chest and Asia crushing her. "Hey, you - !" She pushed him back and glared, even more furious than she had been. Her hands were shaking now and she wasn't sure what she wanted to say, but she knew that if any of her friends were here, they would tell her to fight back.
"Talia! You came back," Asia said, with a relieved look on his face. "I'm so happy you came back. Thank God! I thought something had happened to you after you left that day..." he put his hand on her cheek which resulted in Talia raising her eyes and hand to slap it away.
"Don't touch me!"
Asia stopped and stared. And then he seemed to remember. "Oh, that's right. I was being a total jerk that day, wasn't I?" He laughed it off and then said gently, "But I was wrong. I'm so sorry. Will you please forgive me?"
Talia's throat became dry, but she said quite defiantly merely seconds later, "No, I will not!" she glared at him as her hands clutched onto her box of Asia's stuff with an iron grip.
"Just give me another chance, babe!" Asia said, stepping forward.
Talia instinctively winced and took a step back herself and Asia noticed. He stopped and seem to give her a sad look. "I know what I did was wrong, Talia. And that bimbo, she's gone...she's gone now!"
"Are all the girls you play with just your toys? You know what, just....just forget it," Talia said, remembering all the things that Rick had said to her this past week. "Here," she shoved the box into his arms and he stumbled backwards, surprised at what was happening. "This is your stuff. I thought that I'd return it." And then she turned from Asia to begin walking away...only to have him grab her wrist to stop her.
"Talia! Wait!" he suddenly glared at her. "Did you...did you find somebody...else?"
When she didn't answer, he became more persistent. "Answer me! You found somebody else, didn't you?" his grip on her became tighter and Talia flinched at how much of a grip he had. "Who is it, Talia? Who is it? It's not that...." he suddenly became red. "It's not him, isn't it? That Rick kid who's friends with Selena, isn't it? It's that pathetic little - "
"OW! LET GO! It hurts!" With a swooping pull, Talia pulled free from his grasp. "It's none of your business," she said angrily at her ex-boyfriend, who seemed even more surprised by her sudden confidence. For him, it was like she did a total 180 and completely changed.
Without bothering to look back, Talia left Asia and the dumbfounded look on his face, as he called back for her. For once in her life, Talia knew that she had done the right thing.
And she knew Rick would be proud.
"Let me see it!" Selena said, grabbing the letter out of Talia's hands and preceding to read it. "I think he's an absolute god," Selena said, giving it back to her friend who smoothed the letter out with pride. "And you obviously like it," she stretched. "Go on. Read it. I know you want to."
Talia turned red and read the seventh letter for the first time.
「Unless
I die and leave this world before you, I don't think I could quite let you go. You've become too attached to my thoughts, words, and feelings and I'm not quite sure what I would do if you suddenly disappeared from my life. I mean for this last letter to you to be almost as meaningful as before if not more. This whole week in Rome, you have not left my thoughts. Even if I am having a tough time here, it's alright, as long as you're not having one. I would rather take the pain for you and suffer instead in place of you. With that being said, you're not just any girl to me...you are someone who I can see laughing and smiling with me every day until I'm not around. Of course, if you decline....I won't argue with it. Because if you're not happy, then I won't be happy. But if you accept me, I promise that I will work furiously and endlessly so that we can be together...happily without conflict. I want to protect you, cherish you, and be with you until our lives have stopped and ceased to exist. I'm sorry this last letter is so loaded...but I feel that through letters I can express myself better. I'm sure Zico has been laughing at me for how unmanly this all is. But to each his own. I just want to do what my heart wants, so use that awesome brain you have and figure out the mystery I have prepared for you....this puzzle...I will...wait for your answer.
Please wait for my return.
「Reminiscing,
Rick
Talia was almost on the verge of tears and she snuffled.
"What?" Selena said, alarmed. "What is it?"
"H-h-how could h-h-he say that t-t-t-to me?" she cried as her friend threw a few tissues at her to stop the waterworks. "He obviously l-l-likes me a lot and I...I haven't d-d-done anything f-f-for him!"
"That's a good thing then, isn't?" Selena rolled her eyes. "God, Zico was right. You guys totally fit each other..."
"Of course it's a good thing!" Talia blew her nose quite loudly. "I've never been more happy in my life..."
Selena cleared her throat. "Well....why don't we figure it out then?"
"Figure what out?"
"The puzzle, you idiot!"
"Oh, r-right!"
Selena took the box of letters and set them down on the living room floor. She and Talia took the rest of the afternoon to try and figure it out. Talia, thinking that there was some type of inscription on the back of them, kept turning them over and folding them in odd places to see if something would show up. Selena, on the other hand, threw her hands up in the air and sat back to think as her friend hastily ran through ideas and then tried to test them out. In the end, she, too, was defeated.
"I don't get it! What's the mystery?" Talia said, wringing her hands up in the air. "Rick isn't the complicated type of person....he's so amazing and all...him and his wording...but not that complex."
"Wait..." Selena closed her eyes for a second with her hand on her forehead, "Say that again."
"Wait, what?" Talia slumped back down onto the couch. "All I'm saying is that he's really not that complicated and..."
Selena sat straight up and dove for the letters. "That's right, Rick isn't the complicated type at all, right?" She looked at each of the letters in hand and then laughed. "But he sure is a genius though, isn't he?" She slid the very first two letters towards Talia. "Do you see anything weird about them?"
Talia squinted her eyes at the letters. "No...not really."
"What about the format of the letters? You don't find anything weird...at all?"
"What is there to find weird?"
Selena groaned. "Okay, just look," she pointed at the first word in the first letter that had an indentation to it. "Besides how great it is, don't you notice how weird the first words always are?" She pointed specifically at the first word. "It's just an 'I', and then he starts off at a new line."
"Okay....so?"
Selena rolled her eyes. "The second letter, first word again, and then starts off on another line. Why not finish what he was saying or start it off with a 'dear Talia' or something? Don't tell me you don't find that weird at all, or I swear, I will strangle you..."
Talia thought for a second and then compared all the words in his letters. "I, little, one, very, every, you, of, unless..." she scratched her head. "Yeah, it's a bit weird, but I just thought it was his writing style..."
The two of them sat in silence for a few more minutes until Selena muttered under her breath, "It's I love you."
"What?" Talia said, turning to look at her friend.
"It says 'I love you'."
"W-what??"
"ERRRGGH! Right here, you idiot! It clearly says ' I LOVE YOU ' !" Selena shoved the letters into her friend's face and pointed out exactly where it said so. "It's the first letter of each word on each letter, you idiot! 'I, Little, One, Very, Every, You, Of, Unless' spells I Love You!"
And upon further notice, Talia realized it was true.
「I
「Little
「One
「Very
「Every
「You
「Of
「Unless
"Oh my....goodness," Talia said, sitting back and turning a bright red. "Does it really....say that? Are my eyes wrong?" She placed her hand on her pounding heart and felt her face start to burn. "That...has to be a mistake. My brain is clearly misreading all of this.."
"Yeah, you have to be," Selena said frustrated. "There's definitely something wrong with your brain to have missed all of this. The last letter of each signature too. Read it."
"The signature?" Talia said, regaining herself to sit up and see what she was talking about.
"For the first letter, he ended with 'From with an indentation again...the second letter ended with an 'Overjoyed, the third was a 'Remember...the fourth..."
Talia zoned out of what her friend was saying and read the signatures to herself quietly. "If it's the same format as the first thing...then it says....it says...." her hands shook as she held the last letter in her hands. The seventh letter.
"What, what does it say?"
"It says...it says FOREVER!"
Selena took the letters and set them down on top of each other to see if it was true. "It does..."
「From
「Overjoyed
「Remember
「Eternally
「Very
「Exceptionally
「Reminiscing
"Oh my god, that is a work of art," Selena said. "And really not that complicated at all," Selena smiled. "I'm sure you'll say yes and accept him though, won't you? I mean of course you wouldn't dare to turn a guy like that down after - hey. What's wrong with you? Stop CRYING!"
Talia had burst into tears. "This...this has never happened before! He's such a jerk! How...how could he make me cry like this?!" and then she grabbed Selena and shook her. "HE'S SUCH A JERK! I love him so much that I...."
Selena sighed and patted her friend's shoulder. "Okay, okay...it's okay..."
DING DONG!
"Is someone coming over?" Selena asked, confused as she detached herself from Talia who now lay on the floor in a mess.
"N-n-no...but sometimes I get more mail..."
"Er...why don't you stay here and clean up your face, Talia. I'll go get the door - seriously! Get your act together, kid!"
As Selena left to go get the door, Talia couldn't help but notice that even Selena had adopted a bit of Zico's language. She sat straight up, and used the tissues next to her to clean up her sopping wet face. She blew her nose a few times and then took a deep breath.
"Talia?" She heard her friend say from down the stairs. "I think you might want to see this."
"What? Is somebody here for me?"
"No, nobody's here, but - "
Talia ran down the stairs to see what the commotion was about, and her heart nearly stopped when she saw it. Sitting right at the front of her door was a gigantic box with an elegant bow on the top of it. Selena was standing next to it, and the box itself nearly came to her shoulder. "There's this thing, too...." Selena detached a large card that was tied to the box and handed it to Talia. The inside of it, had the letters that she and Selena had been analyzing for the past few minutes blown up in size...indentations in all.
「I 「L「O「V「E 「Y「O「U
「F「O「R「E「V「E「R
"At least we were right..." Selena said, checking out the box. Then she stopped. "Talia....come here..." As she said this, Zico came out of nowhere and nearly pounced on her.
"HEY!"
"AUUGGHH!!" Selena kicked Zico in the shin. "What the hell are you trying to pull?!"
"C'mere for a second," he whispered to Selena as he dragged her off to the side, limping because she had kicked him.
"What? What is it..."
Talia went over to the box, not expecting anything. It was a pretty sea blue, and the ribbon was extremely elegant looking. She realized then that nothing had to be untied to get the box to open. It was a giant lid, so she placed her fingers under the slot of the box and used all of her strength to push it upwards, and as soon as the lid was pushed off and out of the way...
Somebody stood up from the inside of the box, his arms out, nearly giving Talia a heart attack.
"Surprise!"
He stood there, with his sweet demeanor, his physical attractiveness shining through with his semi-dirty blonde hair that had an essence of sandy like color which was swept upwards. He sent Talia the charming grin that he always had, and she melted. In that very spot, possibly for the fifth or sixth time today, she burst into tears.
Rick looked alarmed, and Selena and Zico exchanged looks of surprise in the corner as Talia ran forward and hid her face in his chest, using her fists to gently, but angrily pound him. "Y-y-you j-j-jerk! H-h-how could y-you do this t-t-to me?!" The tears streamed down her face and she felt the fabric of his shirt start to get wet. "Rick," she bawled. "Rick!"
He put his arms around her and gave her a tight squeeze. "You're so silly....what are you crying for? I thought you would be happy to see me. Should I just leave?"
"No, I - I am!" She looked up at him as she separated her face from his chest that smelled just like Italian Strawberry Soda. "I was just...I missed you....a lot..." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "Why are you back so early?"
"I know it was sudden," he said with much thought. "But I couldn't wait to see you, so I flew in early," he paused. "Unless you want me to fly back right now...I technically could..." he pretended to check his watch until Talia wrapped her arms around him again and clung to him like a vulture.
"No....P-please don't leave me again..."
Zico and Selena came forward. "So you got what you wanted, looks like," Zico said, his hand in Selena's. "Your prince came for you after all."
"And mine did too," Selena said, putting her head on Zico's shoulder. "I was dying in there, Zico....I thought you guys would never come!"
Talia froze and then detached herself from Rick. "Wait. You guys KNEW?!"
Zico rolled his eyes. "Of course we did," he laughed. "If it wasn't for us, do you think that this so-called man over here would have been able to pull this off?"
Talia looked over at her best friend, who had somehow managed to fool her as well. "You knew too? An hour ago, you knew how to solve it?"
"Well, of course! I only said something so that you would know the right direction to go! If I hadn't said anything, you would still be in there right now trying to dissect information that couldn't process in your brain!"
Zico snickered. "Yup, that's my girl."
Talia looked back at Rick who merely shrugged. "It's true! They knew beforehand that I had planned all this. And my Uncle too..." he pouted at Talia. "If it wasn't for us, my Uncle wouldn't have gotten into an accident, so you better be grateful."
Talia put two and two together. "That was your UNCLE?!"
"The mail man? Yup, that was him alright."
Now it all made sense...the uncanny resemblance, his gentle appreciation of Italian soda, his silent agreement on his nephew being with her....
"Is he alright though?" Talia said to Rick. "I was concerned before I found out, but now that I know that he's your Uncle I'm even more concerned - "
"He's fine," Rick said, brushing the hair out of her eyes. "I saw him earlier today, and he's recovering well. He wished me luck, and..." he looked over at his two other friends who gave him a thumbs up. "But why are you asking so many questions? Don't you think I should get an answer too?"
"An answer?" Talia said. "An answer...to what? I already solved your puzzle, and I got the answer right...it was written in the card and...." Talia looked over at Selena and Zico who had both facepalmed in unison. When she looked back at Rick, he was no longer there, but instead, down on one knee with his hand holding one of her hands. In his left hand sat a small box that was already open, a beautiful diamond ring gleaming in the sunlight, just begging to be accepted. "R-Rick!"
"Talia....you know how I feel about you. Will you marry me?"
"Say yes," Selena whispered to herself, feeling so happy for her friend.
"Aw, not you too," Zico said, pouting at Selena before she smiled at him and pecked him on the cheek. He turned back to look at his two other friends. "But what the hell. Go for it."
The sky was pink and amorous as the birds sat in the next tree over, singing a lovely tune in the backdrop of the surroundings. A light breeze blew past and a wonderful silence filled the air, a silence that had been waiting and waiting for an answer.
"Yes," Talia said, beaming as tears of happiness rolled down her face. "I'll say yes right now, and yes forever."
And then Rick slid the beautiful ring onto Talia's finger, stood up, wiped the tears off of her face, leaned forward, and gave her a much deserving kiss.
°°°°°「P7 END」•••••
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥The Love Letters END♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
(and the end of this saga and characters until further notice)
Friday, 10 July 2015
The Love Letters 「P6」
「Friday」
It was a dusty looking Friday afternoon, and Talia waited outside of a Japanese sweets shop for her order to finish up. The sky was already a tinted pink and she watched it quietly as she tapped her foot against the ground. When the worker came out with the box of sweets, Talia took out her wallet and promptly paid the worker before heading downtown towards the flower shop where her friends worked part-time. It was surprisingly a lot busier than she had expected it to be, and a few customers bustled in and out of the shop, leaving with bouquets or baskets of flowers.
When Talia entered the shop, she saw Selena up at the cash register taking care of orders. Zico was sweeping up the floor as usual and rearranging bunches of flowers near the middle aisles.
Selena had just finished up ringing the last customer in the store when Talia went over to the cash register and gave a little wave. "Hey, I came!" She placed the box onto the counter top and slid it towards her friend who was finally able to sit down. "Busy day, huh?"
"Really busy," Selena said, as she motioned for Zico to come over. He set his broom down and then strolled over to where the two girls were. "How was your day?"
"Nice. Nothing's happened yet," Talia smiled as she said this last part. "Here, I brought you guys some dessert."
"Sweet, I'm starving," Zico reached his hand over to the box, ready to untie the string, but Selena slapped his hand. "Go wash up first," she snapped at him, with her eyebrows raised. "And...." she pointed to her own cheek, which was supposed to mirror his own. "Wash up!"
He rolled his eyes, brushed the black hair out of his eyes, and walked over to a nearby sink.
"He really needs a haircut soon," Selena muttered to herself.
"What was that you said about me?" Zico barked.
Selena ignored him and continued to open the box.
"Still mad?" Talia whispered over to Selena as Zico came over.
"I heard that," Zico said to Talia this time. "And no...not really," he smiled mischievously and then moved over to where Selena was so that he could share the only chair they had. "We're good."
"Get your own damn chair," Selena muttered with a smile on her face.
"Don't need to."
It seemed that this childish couple, Talia realized, knew how to fix things their own way.
After Talia visited with her friends during their work break, she headed home.
"Be careful on your way home," Selena said, waving to her from the store door.
"Yeah, thanks for the food. We owe you one," Zico added by her side.
"You owe her one. Did you see how much you ate?"
"A man needs to eat so that he can have enough energy to protect his woman, y'know," he responded as Selena covered her face so that it couldn't be seen. "Go home quick so you can get that letter of yours!"
Talia laughed and waved. "Good bye!"
A mail carrier arrived to her house merely minutes after she went inside. When she opened the door to receive the parcel, it surprised her to find a completely different mail man other than the one she had been used to seeing. Then she remembered the events of yesterday, and it seemed to make much better sense then.
The parcel was the same as the previous ones. This would be her sixth letter of the week. Without hesitation, she ripped it open to find another letter awaiting for her read.
「Of
The most memorable times I remember spending with you, I remember when we shared that strawberry Italian ice cream that one time. I always remember that moment even now because here in Rome...I have no one to share with but myself. I wish you could see how pretty and fantastic this place is. I saw a guy parading around with a bunch of girls on his beck and call, and it reminded me of that stupid guy Asia you used to really like. I really hope that while I'm gone you're not too lonely and go off finding him...please don't do that. It would break my heart because he's such an awful guy...So instead of looking for him if you're lonely, please go find Selena and Zico for company. Their company, I can promise you, is a thousand times better than that stupid waste of space...Hopefully I didn't offend you with what I said. I just want what is the best for you, and I hate feeling helpless, knowing that I can't do anything for you when I'm stuck here all the way across the world. As usual, take good care of yourself not just for me, but for yourself. I miss you like crazy over here...but it truly is incredible over here as well!
Please wait for my return.
「Exceptionally Yours,
Rick
Talia sunk back into her couch and closed her eyes. Rick truly did care about her well being, and she knew that she owed it to him to at least dedicate a little bit of time for him. She got up from the couch, and spent the rest of the evening taking good care of herself; she bathed, she relaxed, she ate a healthy and good meal, she put on a face mask, and did some reading. She got a full night's rest that night ... the best that she had ever had in weeks.
And then that next morning, she did something unthinkable.
Talia went through her house, found all of Asia's old things, threw them into a dusty old box that she had found in the basement, and crossed him out of her heart for old time's sake.
°°°°°「P6 END」•••••
It was a dusty looking Friday afternoon, and Talia waited outside of a Japanese sweets shop for her order to finish up. The sky was already a tinted pink and she watched it quietly as she tapped her foot against the ground. When the worker came out with the box of sweets, Talia took out her wallet and promptly paid the worker before heading downtown towards the flower shop where her friends worked part-time. It was surprisingly a lot busier than she had expected it to be, and a few customers bustled in and out of the shop, leaving with bouquets or baskets of flowers.
When Talia entered the shop, she saw Selena up at the cash register taking care of orders. Zico was sweeping up the floor as usual and rearranging bunches of flowers near the middle aisles.
Selena had just finished up ringing the last customer in the store when Talia went over to the cash register and gave a little wave. "Hey, I came!" She placed the box onto the counter top and slid it towards her friend who was finally able to sit down. "Busy day, huh?"
"Really busy," Selena said, as she motioned for Zico to come over. He set his broom down and then strolled over to where the two girls were. "How was your day?"
"Nice. Nothing's happened yet," Talia smiled as she said this last part. "Here, I brought you guys some dessert."
"Sweet, I'm starving," Zico reached his hand over to the box, ready to untie the string, but Selena slapped his hand. "Go wash up first," she snapped at him, with her eyebrows raised. "And...." she pointed to her own cheek, which was supposed to mirror his own. "Wash up!"
He rolled his eyes, brushed the black hair out of his eyes, and walked over to a nearby sink.
"He really needs a haircut soon," Selena muttered to herself.
"What was that you said about me?" Zico barked.
Selena ignored him and continued to open the box.
"Still mad?" Talia whispered over to Selena as Zico came over.
"I heard that," Zico said to Talia this time. "And no...not really," he smiled mischievously and then moved over to where Selena was so that he could share the only chair they had. "We're good."
"Get your own damn chair," Selena muttered with a smile on her face.
"Don't need to."
It seemed that this childish couple, Talia realized, knew how to fix things their own way.
After Talia visited with her friends during their work break, she headed home.
"Be careful on your way home," Selena said, waving to her from the store door.
"Yeah, thanks for the food. We owe you one," Zico added by her side.
"You owe her one. Did you see how much you ate?"
"A man needs to eat so that he can have enough energy to protect his woman, y'know," he responded as Selena covered her face so that it couldn't be seen. "Go home quick so you can get that letter of yours!"
Talia laughed and waved. "Good bye!"
A mail carrier arrived to her house merely minutes after she went inside. When she opened the door to receive the parcel, it surprised her to find a completely different mail man other than the one she had been used to seeing. Then she remembered the events of yesterday, and it seemed to make much better sense then.
The parcel was the same as the previous ones. This would be her sixth letter of the week. Without hesitation, she ripped it open to find another letter awaiting for her read.
「Of
The most memorable times I remember spending with you, I remember when we shared that strawberry Italian ice cream that one time. I always remember that moment even now because here in Rome...I have no one to share with but myself. I wish you could see how pretty and fantastic this place is. I saw a guy parading around with a bunch of girls on his beck and call, and it reminded me of that stupid guy Asia you used to really like. I really hope that while I'm gone you're not too lonely and go off finding him...please don't do that. It would break my heart because he's such an awful guy...So instead of looking for him if you're lonely, please go find Selena and Zico for company. Their company, I can promise you, is a thousand times better than that stupid waste of space...Hopefully I didn't offend you with what I said. I just want what is the best for you, and I hate feeling helpless, knowing that I can't do anything for you when I'm stuck here all the way across the world. As usual, take good care of yourself not just for me, but for yourself. I miss you like crazy over here...but it truly is incredible over here as well!
Please wait for my return.
「Exceptionally Yours,
Rick
Talia sunk back into her couch and closed her eyes. Rick truly did care about her well being, and she knew that she owed it to him to at least dedicate a little bit of time for him. She got up from the couch, and spent the rest of the evening taking good care of herself; she bathed, she relaxed, she ate a healthy and good meal, she put on a face mask, and did some reading. She got a full night's rest that night ... the best that she had ever had in weeks.
And then that next morning, she did something unthinkable.
Talia went through her house, found all of Asia's old things, threw them into a dusty old box that she had found in the basement, and crossed him out of her heart for old time's sake.
°°°°°「P6 END」•••••
Thursday, 9 July 2015
The Love Letters 「P5」
「Thursday」
Talia swung her feet back and forth as she sat on her patio swing, her box in her lap with the lid shut on it quite snugly. She was waiting for Rick's letter with much enthusiasm and just knew that it would get here soon like it had every day for the past four days. She wondered what Rick had done yesterday, what he had seen, what he wished for her, and what he longed for. She was expecting the identical, smooth, crisp folds of the letter in the exact same spot that they always were and the familiar handwriting that always conveyed a feeling of thoughtfulness and caring in them. She knew it took time out of Rick's day (and vacation), so she had decided to try and devote as much time as possible reading and cherishing them for an equal amount of time.
As the sun started to move from the center of the clear blue sky and into the middle of it, Talia felt a lump form in her throat and she swallowed it, telling herself to remain calm.
As the day dragged on, she started to get worried....the post man was not here. He was not here at all. She balled her fist and chewed her lip. That package was really really important to her! And she knew that Rick would never leave her hanging like that. The post man was clearly out of his mind. Or he lost it. The last thought made her infinitely angry and she shut her mind clear of thoughts, a storm brewing in the back of her mind, immaturely pointing daggers at a man whose only job was to deliver mail.
By evening, the sun had started to set, the yellow yolk of the bright ball starting to hide behind the horizon line as the trees acted as small shields to aid in its burial. Talia sighed and decided that maybe Rick forgot today....or he had gotten busy.
She stood up from the porch swing, still hugging the box tightly to her chest, turned and headed for the front door.
"Excuse me, miss!"
Talia slowly turned to see the familiar looking mail man running up the steps.
"Sorry, miss!" the post man said with a grief-stricken look on his face. "I got into a car accident today...so I couldn't make my shifts..." Talia looked down at the man's arm and noticed that it was in a sling. She covered her mouth with her free hand and felt immensely guilty.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" Talia asked, finally removing her hand to only gape at the poor worker who gave her a bright smile.
"Yes, I'm fine. It was minor...it was nothing."
Talia felt obliged to offer the poor man something, especially after all the internal accusations she had against the guy about an hour ago."Would you like something to drink? Tea, perhaps? I'll go get some - "
"Ah, no! That's quite alright," the post man said. "Were you waiting for me to show up?"
Talia paused. "Yes...yes, I was." But she hurried on. "But I feel really bad now, seeing as that it's not your fault that what I was waiting for never got here! Please don't worry about it. If anything, I should be sorry for thinking selfishly like that..."
"Oh, yes, that's right..." the post man reached into the bag he had slung over his shoulder and he presented her with an identical looking package to the four she had received earlier this week. "I did get into an accident, but I knew you were waiting for this. I know how important it is to you so even though I'm off shift, I came to bring this to you."
Talia took the package from the post man gratefully and then said, "Please wait here!" She ran straight back into the house with her box and package to drop them onto the kitchen table, and then opened the fridge for some Italian soda that she had purchased the other day. When she got back outside, she closed the front door after herself, and then handed the post man the beverage. "Please take this, for all your troubles. And get some rest. I wish you a speedy and fast recovery!"
"Ah, Strawberry Italian soda. One of the best flavors and....you're giving it to me?" The post man seemed surprised at her kindness and said a bit quietly, "I see that our Rick chose a really nice girl this time, Maria..."
Talia blinked twice. "Sir, you know Rick?"
The post man seemed caught off guard. "Huh? Oh, no! Not at all...I'm quite tired so I'm just mumbling nonsense now, you see," he smiled at Talia quite serenely this time, and it was a smile that was similar to Rick's. "Thank you for this, Talia." And then he left.
Talia shut the door behind her after bidding the mail carrier good bye one last time. As she made her way into the living room, she couldn't help but feel a bit confused about something. Nonetheless, she brought her letter box and the new package into the living room and opened it, expecting nothing more and nothing less.
「Every
Minute spent here is so bittersweet for me. I can't even begin to explain how I feel every time I stumble upon something strawberry related! The smell and essence of the berries here remind me of you. But the sweetness of them can't be matched to you. The Strawberry Italian Soda here, even though this is Rome and not Italy, is a lot better than the soda that we usually drink in Little Italy, New York. I really want to send some to you, but then I wouldn't be able to see your face as you tasted it. One day, if you don't mind, Talia....I would like to invite you to meet my Aunt and Uncle. They have similar tastes to us and....well, I suppose I'll tell you about it later. Wait a few more days and we'll finally be able to meet again! As usual, take good care of yourself for me and eat and sleep until your heart and mind are full.
Please wait for my return.
「Very Homesick,
Rick
Talia, struggling to fight back the tears, squeezed her eyes shut, folded up the letter, and kissed the letter. As her lips met it, an aroma of ripe strawberries wafted up into her senses. "Rick, I miss you," she whispered to herself. She then smiled and gently placed the letter inside of the box.
°°°°°「P5 END」•••••
Talia swung her feet back and forth as she sat on her patio swing, her box in her lap with the lid shut on it quite snugly. She was waiting for Rick's letter with much enthusiasm and just knew that it would get here soon like it had every day for the past four days. She wondered what Rick had done yesterday, what he had seen, what he wished for her, and what he longed for. She was expecting the identical, smooth, crisp folds of the letter in the exact same spot that they always were and the familiar handwriting that always conveyed a feeling of thoughtfulness and caring in them. She knew it took time out of Rick's day (and vacation), so she had decided to try and devote as much time as possible reading and cherishing them for an equal amount of time.
As the sun started to move from the center of the clear blue sky and into the middle of it, Talia felt a lump form in her throat and she swallowed it, telling herself to remain calm.
As the day dragged on, she started to get worried....the post man was not here. He was not here at all. She balled her fist and chewed her lip. That package was really really important to her! And she knew that Rick would never leave her hanging like that. The post man was clearly out of his mind. Or he lost it. The last thought made her infinitely angry and she shut her mind clear of thoughts, a storm brewing in the back of her mind, immaturely pointing daggers at a man whose only job was to deliver mail.
By evening, the sun had started to set, the yellow yolk of the bright ball starting to hide behind the horizon line as the trees acted as small shields to aid in its burial. Talia sighed and decided that maybe Rick forgot today....or he had gotten busy.
She stood up from the porch swing, still hugging the box tightly to her chest, turned and headed for the front door.
"Excuse me, miss!"
Talia slowly turned to see the familiar looking mail man running up the steps.
"Sorry, miss!" the post man said with a grief-stricken look on his face. "I got into a car accident today...so I couldn't make my shifts..." Talia looked down at the man's arm and noticed that it was in a sling. She covered her mouth with her free hand and felt immensely guilty.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" Talia asked, finally removing her hand to only gape at the poor worker who gave her a bright smile.
"Yes, I'm fine. It was minor...it was nothing."
Talia felt obliged to offer the poor man something, especially after all the internal accusations she had against the guy about an hour ago."Would you like something to drink? Tea, perhaps? I'll go get some - "
"Ah, no! That's quite alright," the post man said. "Were you waiting for me to show up?"
Talia paused. "Yes...yes, I was." But she hurried on. "But I feel really bad now, seeing as that it's not your fault that what I was waiting for never got here! Please don't worry about it. If anything, I should be sorry for thinking selfishly like that..."
"Oh, yes, that's right..." the post man reached into the bag he had slung over his shoulder and he presented her with an identical looking package to the four she had received earlier this week. "I did get into an accident, but I knew you were waiting for this. I know how important it is to you so even though I'm off shift, I came to bring this to you."
Talia took the package from the post man gratefully and then said, "Please wait here!" She ran straight back into the house with her box and package to drop them onto the kitchen table, and then opened the fridge for some Italian soda that she had purchased the other day. When she got back outside, she closed the front door after herself, and then handed the post man the beverage. "Please take this, for all your troubles. And get some rest. I wish you a speedy and fast recovery!"
"Ah, Strawberry Italian soda. One of the best flavors and....you're giving it to me?" The post man seemed surprised at her kindness and said a bit quietly, "I see that our Rick chose a really nice girl this time, Maria..."
Talia blinked twice. "Sir, you know Rick?"
The post man seemed caught off guard. "Huh? Oh, no! Not at all...I'm quite tired so I'm just mumbling nonsense now, you see," he smiled at Talia quite serenely this time, and it was a smile that was similar to Rick's. "Thank you for this, Talia." And then he left.
Talia shut the door behind her after bidding the mail carrier good bye one last time. As she made her way into the living room, she couldn't help but feel a bit confused about something. Nonetheless, she brought her letter box and the new package into the living room and opened it, expecting nothing more and nothing less.
「Every
Minute spent here is so bittersweet for me. I can't even begin to explain how I feel every time I stumble upon something strawberry related! The smell and essence of the berries here remind me of you. But the sweetness of them can't be matched to you. The Strawberry Italian Soda here, even though this is Rome and not Italy, is a lot better than the soda that we usually drink in Little Italy, New York. I really want to send some to you, but then I wouldn't be able to see your face as you tasted it. One day, if you don't mind, Talia....I would like to invite you to meet my Aunt and Uncle. They have similar tastes to us and....well, I suppose I'll tell you about it later. Wait a few more days and we'll finally be able to meet again! As usual, take good care of yourself for me and eat and sleep until your heart and mind are full.
Please wait for my return.
「Very Homesick,
Rick
Talia, struggling to fight back the tears, squeezed her eyes shut, folded up the letter, and kissed the letter. As her lips met it, an aroma of ripe strawberries wafted up into her senses. "Rick, I miss you," she whispered to herself. She then smiled and gently placed the letter inside of the box.
°°°°°「P5 END」•••••
Wednesday, 8 July 2015
The Love Letters 「P4」
「Wednesday」
She met with Rick, standing on top of a bridge. He smiled at her sweetly and held his hand out to her. Talia, heart pounding and face beginning to feel quite hot, took his hand slowly, and his fingers closed around hers.
"Let's go over here," he said gently as he led her onto the middle of the bridge. Underneath the structure stood a vast lake, more beautiful and serene than she had ever seen. The lilies shone brightly under the peaceful moonlight, and the tint of the flowers was a majestic and dark pink. Rick's hand in hers, she felt completely at peace and felt like her face was burning up. They stopped in the middle of the bridge and Talia held her breath as they peered down and saw their happy reflections in the pool of water.
"It's pretty, isn't it?" he asked her, turning to look at her,
"Absolutely breathtaking," she muttered, still looking down at the water.
"What's your favorite thing about it?"
"Everything," Talia answered immediately. "It's so peaceful and vast and I just feel so happy when I stand on top of it - "
"No, silly," Rick said, laughing at her answer. "Not the lake. You."
Talia turned red and pointed to herself. "Me? You...you were talking about me?"
"Well, yeah!" He grinned again. "I don't see anybody else here, do you?" he asked, pretending to look over her shoulder. "As far as I'm concerned, the lake here is ranked number two in comparison to you..."
And then Rick reached forward to brush her hair and his face came closer. There was a familiar scent in the air and as his face come closer and closer to hers. Talia squeezed her eyes shut, her heart pounding in her chest, her palms sweaty and her mind completely blank. Just as his lips was inches away from hers -
DING DONG! DING DONG! DING DONG!
Talia jolted up from the couch, her eyes wide open now.
Talia had laid sprawled out on her couch, her eyes closed. She felt a type of exhaustion that could not be explained; she was not exhausted physically, but mentally. She still had a long way to go before Rick would get back and she was dying to meet with him again. Because of the warm weather, her endeavors, and her exhaustion, she had fallen into a deep slumber and almost had...another kiss. She slapped her cheeks several times to get herself to wake up and then sprung up from the couch immediately.
DING DONG! DING DONG! DING DONG!
Talia flung open the door to meet a very impatient mail man who immediately looked relieved after she had opened it. "There you are," he said, handing her the package and the stylus that needed to be used to sign for it. "I almost thought that you almost didn't want this."
"Ah, never," Talia said with a laugh after she had signed and given it back to the mail carrier.
"You sure are getting these a lot this week," the mail man said, putting the stylus back into his bag. "Must be from someone special, huh?" he sighed. "To be young and in love..."
Talia smiled. "Yes, someone really special to me."
The letter was as sweet as Talia expected it to be.
「Very
True to my word, I thought of you so much yesterday that you appeared in my dreams. We were boating in a lake and there were plenty of macaroons and cakes to go around! In the dream, I was almost able to ...oh, never mind. It's not very important. But how I wish you were really here with me. Lots of girls here give me looks...maybe I look weird to them? They say the girls in Europe are really pretty, but they're not quite up to your par. Take care of yourself for me and I can't wait to see you again really soon!
Please wait for my return.
「Eternally Yours,
Rick
Talia beamed the darkest shade of red and kissed the letter several times. She couldn't help but feel the utmost type of security and happiness knowing that even when there were several female fatales in his presence that she still remained his number one. She tucked the letter inside of the box and sighed before she closed the lid.
°°°°°「P4 END」•••••
She met with Rick, standing on top of a bridge. He smiled at her sweetly and held his hand out to her. Talia, heart pounding and face beginning to feel quite hot, took his hand slowly, and his fingers closed around hers.
"Let's go over here," he said gently as he led her onto the middle of the bridge. Underneath the structure stood a vast lake, more beautiful and serene than she had ever seen. The lilies shone brightly under the peaceful moonlight, and the tint of the flowers was a majestic and dark pink. Rick's hand in hers, she felt completely at peace and felt like her face was burning up. They stopped in the middle of the bridge and Talia held her breath as they peered down and saw their happy reflections in the pool of water.
"It's pretty, isn't it?" he asked her, turning to look at her,
"Absolutely breathtaking," she muttered, still looking down at the water.
"What's your favorite thing about it?"
"Everything," Talia answered immediately. "It's so peaceful and vast and I just feel so happy when I stand on top of it - "
"No, silly," Rick said, laughing at her answer. "Not the lake. You."
Talia turned red and pointed to herself. "Me? You...you were talking about me?"
"Well, yeah!" He grinned again. "I don't see anybody else here, do you?" he asked, pretending to look over her shoulder. "As far as I'm concerned, the lake here is ranked number two in comparison to you..."
And then Rick reached forward to brush her hair and his face came closer. There was a familiar scent in the air and as his face come closer and closer to hers. Talia squeezed her eyes shut, her heart pounding in her chest, her palms sweaty and her mind completely blank. Just as his lips was inches away from hers -
DING DONG! DING DONG! DING DONG!
Talia jolted up from the couch, her eyes wide open now.
Talia had laid sprawled out on her couch, her eyes closed. She felt a type of exhaustion that could not be explained; she was not exhausted physically, but mentally. She still had a long way to go before Rick would get back and she was dying to meet with him again. Because of the warm weather, her endeavors, and her exhaustion, she had fallen into a deep slumber and almost had...another kiss. She slapped her cheeks several times to get herself to wake up and then sprung up from the couch immediately.
DING DONG! DING DONG! DING DONG!
Talia flung open the door to meet a very impatient mail man who immediately looked relieved after she had opened it. "There you are," he said, handing her the package and the stylus that needed to be used to sign for it. "I almost thought that you almost didn't want this."
"Ah, never," Talia said with a laugh after she had signed and given it back to the mail carrier.
"You sure are getting these a lot this week," the mail man said, putting the stylus back into his bag. "Must be from someone special, huh?" he sighed. "To be young and in love..."
Talia smiled. "Yes, someone really special to me."
The letter was as sweet as Talia expected it to be.
「Very
True to my word, I thought of you so much yesterday that you appeared in my dreams. We were boating in a lake and there were plenty of macaroons and cakes to go around! In the dream, I was almost able to ...oh, never mind. It's not very important. But how I wish you were really here with me. Lots of girls here give me looks...maybe I look weird to them? They say the girls in Europe are really pretty, but they're not quite up to your par. Take care of yourself for me and I can't wait to see you again really soon!
Please wait for my return.
「Eternally Yours,
Rick
Talia beamed the darkest shade of red and kissed the letter several times. She couldn't help but feel the utmost type of security and happiness knowing that even when there were several female fatales in his presence that she still remained his number one. She tucked the letter inside of the box and sighed before she closed the lid.
°°°°°「P4 END」•••••
Tuesday, 7 July 2015
The Love Letters 「P3」
「Tuesday」
"Damn, that's sure romantic," Zico said, his arms folded across his chest with an amused expression on his face as Selena skimmed the letters rather quickly. He read them over her shoulder and then laughed. "Kid sure knows how to use words, I'll give him that." Zico gave Selena many agitated looks as she finished reading the letters and gave them back to Talia who only beamed and held them close to her heart.
Fleur de Doux wasn't particularly busy today and Talia had decided to come and show Selena and Zico the two handwritten letters she had received from Rick.
"With the way this is going, you guys are gonna get married soon," Selena said. "And I predict three, no maybe four babies headed your way."
Talia turned red. "I don't know what you're talking about..."
"Still, I admit it's pretty cute," Selena said. "He's a keeper. You'll probably end up getting married."
"You don't find this...cheesy?" Zico butted in, peering over at Selena with disbelieving eyes.
"What?"
"Cheesy, love-filled, handwritten letters?" He paused as he and Talia both looked at Selena who had decided to stare off outside.
"Well, it's the thought that counts, right?" Selena stared back. "What, you don't think it's a nice gesture?"
"It's not manly. Not manly at all," Zico said, grabbing a nearby broom to begin his chores. "I think it makes us men look weak and petty..."
Talia turned red again and clutched her letters in surprise. "Huh?! I...uh..."
And then Zico raised his eyebrows, stuck his thumb out and jerked it towards the door. "Get out of here already. I'm sure you'll miss another one of those letters and you're making this stupid place have more amour than it already needs." And then he stomped off to the back of the store.
"Wh- what was that all about?" Talia said, turning to her friend, a bit caught off guard.
Selena shook her head. "Don't mind him. He's been in a pissy mood ever since you came in here and talked about those letters," she paused and then whispered. "He keeps trying to do things to get me to respond to him more, so I guess he's all disappointed that Rick's show of affection for you got a response out of me,"
Talia nodded as the bell at the door rung. "Oh...I guess I better go," before she turned to leave, she said, "Good luck with Zico. Tell him he's a manly man or something."
Selena rolled her eyes. "Like that'll work. He's not stupid," a customer came in and Selena walked forward to greet them. "Hello! What can I do for you today? Any flowers you're looking for? A bouquet of ...Daffodils maybe?"
Talia smiled at the mention of Daffodils.
Ten minutes after Talia had gotten home, a package in the mail arrived for her. She didn't hesitate to rip open the packaging to greet a freshly written letter that still felt warm to the touch. She sat down on her front steps and mentally prepared herself for whatever words were about to cross her eyes.
「One
Day if I could, I would like to take you with me here to Rome. It's really pretty here and I can't think of a better person that would enjoy it with me. Everywhere I go, I think of your smile and your laughter. I miss you a lot and I don't know how I can express that more. I hope your day has been well. Eat until you're full and laugh a little more...even when I'm not with you. I am counting the days until I come back so I can meet you again.
Please wait for my return.
「Remember Me,
Rick
Talia got up from the porch with a grin that seemed wider than before and went inside of her house. She went into her basement and dug up an old box that had collected dust and grime. Talia spent the rest of her afternoon busy by redecorating and cleaning the box before she gathered up all three of the letters and placed them neatly inside the box.
°°°°°「P3 END」•••••
"Damn, that's sure romantic," Zico said, his arms folded across his chest with an amused expression on his face as Selena skimmed the letters rather quickly. He read them over her shoulder and then laughed. "Kid sure knows how to use words, I'll give him that." Zico gave Selena many agitated looks as she finished reading the letters and gave them back to Talia who only beamed and held them close to her heart.
Fleur de Doux wasn't particularly busy today and Talia had decided to come and show Selena and Zico the two handwritten letters she had received from Rick.
"With the way this is going, you guys are gonna get married soon," Selena said. "And I predict three, no maybe four babies headed your way."
Talia turned red. "I don't know what you're talking about..."
"Still, I admit it's pretty cute," Selena said. "He's a keeper. You'll probably end up getting married."
"You don't find this...cheesy?" Zico butted in, peering over at Selena with disbelieving eyes.
"What?"
"Cheesy, love-filled, handwritten letters?" He paused as he and Talia both looked at Selena who had decided to stare off outside.
"Well, it's the thought that counts, right?" Selena stared back. "What, you don't think it's a nice gesture?"
"It's not manly. Not manly at all," Zico said, grabbing a nearby broom to begin his chores. "I think it makes us men look weak and petty..."
Talia turned red again and clutched her letters in surprise. "Huh?! I...uh..."
And then Zico raised his eyebrows, stuck his thumb out and jerked it towards the door. "Get out of here already. I'm sure you'll miss another one of those letters and you're making this stupid place have more amour than it already needs." And then he stomped off to the back of the store.
"Wh- what was that all about?" Talia said, turning to her friend, a bit caught off guard.
Selena shook her head. "Don't mind him. He's been in a pissy mood ever since you came in here and talked about those letters," she paused and then whispered. "He keeps trying to do things to get me to respond to him more, so I guess he's all disappointed that Rick's show of affection for you got a response out of me,"
Talia nodded as the bell at the door rung. "Oh...I guess I better go," before she turned to leave, she said, "Good luck with Zico. Tell him he's a manly man or something."
Selena rolled her eyes. "Like that'll work. He's not stupid," a customer came in and Selena walked forward to greet them. "Hello! What can I do for you today? Any flowers you're looking for? A bouquet of ...Daffodils maybe?"
Talia smiled at the mention of Daffodils.
Ten minutes after Talia had gotten home, a package in the mail arrived for her. She didn't hesitate to rip open the packaging to greet a freshly written letter that still felt warm to the touch. She sat down on her front steps and mentally prepared herself for whatever words were about to cross her eyes.
「One
Day if I could, I would like to take you with me here to Rome. It's really pretty here and I can't think of a better person that would enjoy it with me. Everywhere I go, I think of your smile and your laughter. I miss you a lot and I don't know how I can express that more. I hope your day has been well. Eat until you're full and laugh a little more...even when I'm not with you. I am counting the days until I come back so I can meet you again.
Please wait for my return.
「Remember Me,
Rick
Talia got up from the porch with a grin that seemed wider than before and went inside of her house. She went into her basement and dug up an old box that had collected dust and grime. Talia spent the rest of her afternoon busy by redecorating and cleaning the box before she gathered up all three of the letters and placed them neatly inside the box.
°°°°°「P3 END」•••••
Monday, 6 July 2015
The Love Letters 「P2」
「Monday」
"Not now, Talia! The shop is really busy!"
Talia sat on the patio with her phone in hand talking to Selena, who was currently at work at the flower shop. "Yeah right....how busy? You just want alone time with Zico, don‘t you?"
Selena paused. "Did you really call me just to harass me? Because if so, I‘m hanging up," there was a few unfamiliar voices in the background and Talia knew at once that the shop was really busy. " ‘Kay, I‘m hanging up! Some of us actually have a job to get to!"
"Rude," Talia mumbled to herself after her friend hung up. But deep down inside, she knew her friend was in the right and not in the wrong.
The mail truck finally got to her street and made a beeline straight to her house. As soon as it stopped right in front of her house, the mail man got out of the vehicle and went up to Talia‘s patio with a package in his hand. "Please sign for this," the man said, handing Talia a stylus to sign on his device.
"Oh, okay," she signed quickly before he handed her the package. "Thanks!"
"Have a good day."
Talia sat on the porch swing as she read the label just like she did yesterday. It was from Rick again...! Only this time, there was no return address on it...perhaps somebody else‘s address was used to send it out, unlike yesterday‘s package which came directly from him house. Just like yesterday‘s contents, a piece of stationary paper was folded with crisp and prominent lines.
「Little
By little, I realize that I have fallen for you. Rome is nice, but not as nice as you. The ice cream here is nothing compared to your homemade ice cream which is filled with the warmth and laughter of a girl that makes me complete. I hope that you are doing well...it has only been a few days, but I feel like it has been one hundred of them. Stay healthy for yourself, please. Eat well, drink well, sleep well, and dream well.
Please wait for my return.
「Overjoyed,
Rick
With a bright smile on her face, Talia swung gently on the porch swing and placed the letter in her lap. Somehow, she knew that there would be another letter around this time tomorrow, and her heart fluttered in excitement just thinking about it.
°°°°°「P2 END」•••••
"Not now, Talia! The shop is really busy!"
Talia sat on the patio with her phone in hand talking to Selena, who was currently at work at the flower shop. "Yeah right....how busy? You just want alone time with Zico, don‘t you?"
Selena paused. "Did you really call me just to harass me? Because if so, I‘m hanging up," there was a few unfamiliar voices in the background and Talia knew at once that the shop was really busy. " ‘Kay, I‘m hanging up! Some of us actually have a job to get to!"
"Rude," Talia mumbled to herself after her friend hung up. But deep down inside, she knew her friend was in the right and not in the wrong.
The mail truck finally got to her street and made a beeline straight to her house. As soon as it stopped right in front of her house, the mail man got out of the vehicle and went up to Talia‘s patio with a package in his hand. "Please sign for this," the man said, handing Talia a stylus to sign on his device.
"Oh, okay," she signed quickly before he handed her the package. "Thanks!"
"Have a good day."
Talia sat on the porch swing as she read the label just like she did yesterday. It was from Rick again...! Only this time, there was no return address on it...perhaps somebody else‘s address was used to send it out, unlike yesterday‘s package which came directly from him house. Just like yesterday‘s contents, a piece of stationary paper was folded with crisp and prominent lines.
「Little
By little, I realize that I have fallen for you. Rome is nice, but not as nice as you. The ice cream here is nothing compared to your homemade ice cream which is filled with the warmth and laughter of a girl that makes me complete. I hope that you are doing well...it has only been a few days, but I feel like it has been one hundred of them. Stay healthy for yourself, please. Eat well, drink well, sleep well, and dream well.
Please wait for my return.
「Overjoyed,
Rick
With a bright smile on her face, Talia swung gently on the porch swing and placed the letter in her lap. Somehow, she knew that there would be another letter around this time tomorrow, and her heart fluttered in excitement just thinking about it.
°°°°°「P2 END」•••••
Sunday, 5 July 2015
The Love Letters 「P1」
「Sunday」
to be spent outside. There was not a cloud in sight in the blue sky, and the sun himself took the liberty to use its warm rays to lure people of all ages outside.
Talia was different though; she didn‘t leave the quarters of her house, choosing instead to stay inside and half a cup of home made ice cream that she had just made. Today would have been a better day if Rick were here.
Yesterday, Rick called Talia and told her that he was leaving to go to Rome for a week. A week! A whole entire 168 hours! So Talia stayed indoors as confinement, forbidding herself to stay indoors until Rick came back. Selena worked almost every day this week....she was lucky, though. She worked with the same guy who harbored the exact feelings for her!
In a slump, Talia flipped through the channels on TV. Everything on the screen was either a boring old rerun or an annoying TV commercial with that familiar yet naggy old tune. Just as Talia was about to fall asleep from utter boredom, the doorbell rang.
Talia closed the door behind the mailman and went back into the living room. She set the package down onto the coffee table and studied the label: it was Rick‘s address! His address? It was from Rick? But how??
After ripping open the package, Talia found enclosed a single, piece of stationary. It was a letter neatly folded; the folds were sharp and crisp and Talia shook from excitement as she realized what she was reading.
「 I,
Really really miss you already. I hope you are doing well. Make sure you‘re eating enough and drinking enough water! You better not be in a worse condition when I come back. I am depending on you to take care of yourself so that when I come back we can go to the Firefly festival. I am always thinking of you, so please be careful with yourself! I would like to return to you as a happier and more dependable Rick, so please...be safe.
Please wait for my return.
「From,
Rick
Talia‘s face lit up in glee and she sank back onto her couch with the letter pressed to her heart. Rick always knew the right thing to say...even when he wasn‘t physically here.
°°°°°「P1 END」•••••
These thoughts [Daffodils of Destiny]
Asia: I have the looks, the cash, the fame, and the talent. I'm better than any of these idiots here. And Talia may be pretending that she doesn't want a damn thing to do with me, but we all know that she wants some of this. Who is this Rick guy? He looks like a total loser; I'm faster, stronger, and hotter than he will ever be in this lifetime. I won't have to chase after Talia, because I know for a fact that she'll come running back to me. Just like she does....every. Single. Time.
Rick: Man, I really really like Talia, but I wonder if she likes me? I hope I don't come off as too sudden for her. I need to find a way so that she doesn't get go back to her stupid ex-boyfriend. She doesn't need him, but she doesn't seem to believe me every time I say so! Is it because she only sees me as a friend and nothing else? I hope not....otherwise, my chances are ruined. Maybe I'll get Selena and Zico to do something about this. I'm sure Zico wouldn't mind punching that dude's lights out! Actually, Talia may not actually like that if I go that route....better not risk it or she might distance herself from me more...and I really would not like that...
Selena: I know I'm supposed to go after Talia and all, but I can't focus! Zico just smells so good and my heart just pounds so hard in my chest every single time he accidentally brushes my arm and....Oh, God. What am I saying? Er....never mind! Let's just focus on finding Talia so that this whole entire thing can just be over. I know Zico says to leave it to Rick, but I don't know how this will all work out! But we all know that they're a match made in heaven. And that Asia! God, is he such a...UGH! If I wasn't so worried about him using the money card to sue for his so-called perfect face if damaged, I would totally demolish it!
Zico: Oh my GOD! Does this chick have to go off and ruin my plans every single time I decide to move in closer to Selena?! I'll call Rick; Talia ain't my girl, and neither Selena nor I are babysitters. Maybe I'll mess around a bit first; Selena sure does act pretty cute when she's all in panic mode. It might not be a bad idea to bust that stupid popstar's face either. He looks like he's been waiting his whole life for somebody to make some time of contact with that smug little face of his. I bet I could throw him under a goddamn bus and nobody would care or notice because he's...oh, I dunno. Useless to society? I might be doing the world a favor this time...
--- and finally ---
Talia: I hate everyone and everything! Why did Rick have to say that about me? Am I not feminine enough for him?? I'm not a GUY! I AM NOT! And that stupid Asia....how could he do that to me? That is the worst type of betrayal that anyone could do to somebody....and to think that he moved on so fast! That...that jerk! I don't have the heart to cuss and yell at him...even now...but it doesn't stop the pang in my heart when I saw him with that girl! Are all boys like this? Will I ever be happy? Even Selena found somebody to be happy with and - oh wait, what is this? Is this jealousy? Talia, how could you even say that about Selena and Zico! Oh, what gives: YES, I am jealous! I wish I had someone too...but the guy that I truly like now doesn't see me as anything female and the guy that I sort of want back has moved on and I...I....I hate the world.
Rick: Man, I really really like Talia, but I wonder if she likes me? I hope I don't come off as too sudden for her. I need to find a way so that she doesn't get go back to her stupid ex-boyfriend. She doesn't need him, but she doesn't seem to believe me every time I say so! Is it because she only sees me as a friend and nothing else? I hope not....otherwise, my chances are ruined. Maybe I'll get Selena and Zico to do something about this. I'm sure Zico wouldn't mind punching that dude's lights out! Actually, Talia may not actually like that if I go that route....better not risk it or she might distance herself from me more...and I really would not like that...
Selena: I know I'm supposed to go after Talia and all, but I can't focus! Zico just smells so good and my heart just pounds so hard in my chest every single time he accidentally brushes my arm and....Oh, God. What am I saying? Er....never mind! Let's just focus on finding Talia so that this whole entire thing can just be over. I know Zico says to leave it to Rick, but I don't know how this will all work out! But we all know that they're a match made in heaven. And that Asia! God, is he such a...UGH! If I wasn't so worried about him using the money card to sue for his so-called perfect face if damaged, I would totally demolish it!
Zico: Oh my GOD! Does this chick have to go off and ruin my plans every single time I decide to move in closer to Selena?! I'll call Rick; Talia ain't my girl, and neither Selena nor I are babysitters. Maybe I'll mess around a bit first; Selena sure does act pretty cute when she's all in panic mode. It might not be a bad idea to bust that stupid popstar's face either. He looks like he's been waiting his whole life for somebody to make some time of contact with that smug little face of his. I bet I could throw him under a goddamn bus and nobody would care or notice because he's...oh, I dunno. Useless to society? I might be doing the world a favor this time...
--- and finally ---
Talia: I hate everyone and everything! Why did Rick have to say that about me? Am I not feminine enough for him?? I'm not a GUY! I AM NOT! And that stupid Asia....how could he do that to me? That is the worst type of betrayal that anyone could do to somebody....and to think that he moved on so fast! That...that jerk! I don't have the heart to cuss and yell at him...even now...but it doesn't stop the pang in my heart when I saw him with that girl! Are all boys like this? Will I ever be happy? Even Selena found somebody to be happy with and - oh wait, what is this? Is this jealousy? Talia, how could you even say that about Selena and Zico! Oh, what gives: YES, I am jealous! I wish I had someone too...but the guy that I truly like now doesn't see me as anything female and the guy that I sort of want back has moved on and I...I....I hate the world.
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
The Daffodils of Destiny [Part 4] [END]
Talia was quick to stand up as quick as possible, hiding her dirty hand behind her. Rick shook his head, came a few steps closer to her, reached behind her, and snatched her hand to be displayed in between the both of them. He withdrew a sturdy looking handkerchief from the inside of his jacket pocket and wiped her hand clean of the dirt and grime that had made contact with her hand while she had been fishing for her beloved half dollar coin. Talia made no attempts to explain herself until after Rick shoved the now dirty cloth back into his jacket.... which she then muttered, "Thanks."
"You are really something!" Rick said, raising his eyebrows at Talia who lowered her eyes. "I heard you went over to your ex's house or something and demanded to be taken back. Is that true?" When she didn't answer him, he let out an angry sigh. "Have you not learned enough from this douc - "
"It's none of your business anyway, Rick!" Talia said, raising her eyes to glare at her supposed prince charming who had been able locate her after all. "And don't...say that about him...he's....just....going through a phase..."
Rick laughed really hard at that last statement, and Talia's face turned a deep shade of maroon. "A phase? Really? Wake up already! He doesn't want you anymore!"
"Why would you say that? That's not even true!"
"It is true! Stop being so oblivious," Rick interjected.
"And besides," continued Talia. "Why do you care about what I...about what I decide to do....since when have you...since when have..."
"Since always!"
Talia, eyes wide, stared straight down at the ground at her converse sneakers and refused to look up. Her mind was completely blank at the moment, and she didn't know what to say or how to say anything. She chewed her lip as Rick cleared his throat, determined to keep the conversation going.
"Was this really all because of me? Because I said that being with you was as comfortable as being with a guy?" When Talia didn't say anything, Rick continued. "Well, I'm honored that I can make a girl take off her pride and run back to her ex just with my mouth. But I don't want that honor. And for the record, I know you're not a guy," he walked towards the fountain. "It sure is pretty here though, isn't it..."
Talia walked over next to him and let out a small sigh as the lump in her throat started to shrink a little bit. "I always come here when I feel bad," she paused. "How did you know I was here?"
Rick laughed. "Okay, don't give me any weird looks when I say this, but..." he paused. "I've seen you standing here several times with your eyes closed making a wish. I always saw you here when I was delivering papers throughout the city."
"Stalker!" Talia said, feeling a bit surprised but pleased. She chewed her lip again and stared straight at the sculpture of the woman being held by her lover. "I wish you would have said something about that because now I feel like a total idiot..."
"You are an idiot. Who's stupid enough to go and find their ex? No wonder he wouldn't take you back. No matter how you look or how you dress, no one is going to want to - "
"Well - Well, I pity the fool who falls in love with me," Talia muttered, turning away.
"I pity myself too," Rick almost immediately said. "And I know I'm not really one to act like this, but..."
He turned to Talia, reached over and planted his lips onto hers. Talia's eyes only widened and she froze, unable to think, say, or react to what was going on. Her eyes probably only continued to grow larger until Rick pulled away. She couldn't describe the kiss even to herself because her brain was dead by this point; she couldn't remember anything about it except for the fact that a part of her brain had wanted it to last longer and that he had kissed her. The end of the kiss was met by this... a small, serene smile by the guy that she had always secretly adored, the guy that always knew her favorite places and where to look for her, and the guy who acted as her secret keeper; the guy who had secretly watched her without fail stand in front of a "mythical" fountain rumored to make wishes come true to those with a sincere yearning for love.
Rick cleared his throat as his face was the same color as Talia's. He scratched his head and bit his lip several times while looking around the scenery as people of all ages walked past the fountain and its observers. Talia's heart was pounding like crazy in her chest and she felt like her face was on fire.
"Here," Rick suddenly grabbed Talia's hand and placed an identical looking half dollar in it before he helped to close her fingers around it. "Here's a refund for that...that kiss," he cleared his throat again as Talia's heart yet skipped another beat.
"No, it...it was good. I mean, it was fine - um, what I mean is, um, don't...don't worry about it," Talia said, sounding a bit too cheery than she wanted. She unexpectedly shared a look with Rick, and the two of them started to laugh.
"DELIVERY FOR MISTER BARSEN AND HIS BAE!"
Talia and Rick turned to see a very enthusiastic Zico pulling a very disgruntled and flustered Selena behind him. The couple ran straight up to Rick and Zico who tossed a bouquet at him which he caught quite naturally. "We looked everywhere for you two lovebirds," Zico said as Selena was trying to catch her breath.
"Lovebirds? Speak for yourself," Rick said as Talia snickered, seeing that Zico wouldn't let go of Selena's hand.
Selena glared at the two of them. "We're not lovebirds, we're - "
"- More than that," Zico interrupted, causing Selena to turn an even darker shade of red.
"You - !"
"Anyway, those're those flowers you wanted us to get for you, lover boy," Zico said, ignoring Selena and instead choosing to point at the flowers. "The Daffodils of Destiny....this one here came up with that cheesy name.."
"Hey, you said it was good this morning!"
"I say a lot of things."
"....."
As Rick turned to Talia and handed her the Daffodils of Destiny, Talia's face and heart started to set on fire. She felt like her stomach was melting with the smile on Rick's face. "See?" he said as she took the gift from him. "Today wasn't so bad after all. You got flowers and your money back."
"I guess you could say that," Talia laughed. "Thanks for these."
"Hey.....Sometimes, look closer..."
"Look closer...what?"
"Sometimes if you look closer, you can find that the people who you want to be closer to are already by your - "
"Oh, yawn," Zico said. "Let's go, Selena. Let's leave this old couple alone to kiss some more."
"You- you saw that?!" Rick and Talia said in sync, causing them to blush some more.
"How- how much of that did you see?" Talia said, her heart stopping.
"All of it," Selena said, suddenly gripping Zico's hand a little tighter. "You guys sure are slow at - "
Zico reached over and pecked Selena on the cheek. "Yeah, it was too slow for my taste too," while everyone was still frozen he waved and dragged Selena away from the scene despite her protests.
"Maybe I should take some advice from that guy," Rick suddenly said about a minute later after the two of them had settled into comfortable silence. "It might not be too late...to give it a try." He reached for Talia's hand unexpectedly and Talia felt herself go red for about the fifth hundred time today. "I gave you flowers and a refund, so you just come with me today."
"To - to - to where?" she stammered as a breeze swept past.
"Somewhere," Rick said with a soft smile, and with the soft pit-a-pat of combined hearts, the two of them raced through the city, their smiles and footsteps as light as a feather.
The card tucked away quite snugly in the sleep flowers kept forever towards that bouquet read this:
[ The Daffodils of Destiny
Sweet and Amorous
Only Complimented by Pairs
Always Yearning
Fate and Destiny Decided
The Daffodils of Destiny ]
~~~~~ END ~~~~~
"You are really something!" Rick said, raising his eyebrows at Talia who lowered her eyes. "I heard you went over to your ex's house or something and demanded to be taken back. Is that true?" When she didn't answer him, he let out an angry sigh. "Have you not learned enough from this douc - "
"It's none of your business anyway, Rick!" Talia said, raising her eyes to glare at her supposed prince charming who had been able locate her after all. "And don't...say that about him...he's....just....going through a phase..."
Rick laughed really hard at that last statement, and Talia's face turned a deep shade of maroon. "A phase? Really? Wake up already! He doesn't want you anymore!"
"Why would you say that? That's not even true!"
"It is true! Stop being so oblivious," Rick interjected.
"And besides," continued Talia. "Why do you care about what I...about what I decide to do....since when have you...since when have..."
"Since always!"
Talia, eyes wide, stared straight down at the ground at her converse sneakers and refused to look up. Her mind was completely blank at the moment, and she didn't know what to say or how to say anything. She chewed her lip as Rick cleared his throat, determined to keep the conversation going.
"Was this really all because of me? Because I said that being with you was as comfortable as being with a guy?" When Talia didn't say anything, Rick continued. "Well, I'm honored that I can make a girl take off her pride and run back to her ex just with my mouth. But I don't want that honor. And for the record, I know you're not a guy," he walked towards the fountain. "It sure is pretty here though, isn't it..."
Talia walked over next to him and let out a small sigh as the lump in her throat started to shrink a little bit. "I always come here when I feel bad," she paused. "How did you know I was here?"
Rick laughed. "Okay, don't give me any weird looks when I say this, but..." he paused. "I've seen you standing here several times with your eyes closed making a wish. I always saw you here when I was delivering papers throughout the city."
"Stalker!" Talia said, feeling a bit surprised but pleased. She chewed her lip again and stared straight at the sculpture of the woman being held by her lover. "I wish you would have said something about that because now I feel like a total idiot..."
"You are an idiot. Who's stupid enough to go and find their ex? No wonder he wouldn't take you back. No matter how you look or how you dress, no one is going to want to - "
"Well - Well, I pity the fool who falls in love with me," Talia muttered, turning away.
"I pity myself too," Rick almost immediately said. "And I know I'm not really one to act like this, but..."
He turned to Talia, reached over and planted his lips onto hers. Talia's eyes only widened and she froze, unable to think, say, or react to what was going on. Her eyes probably only continued to grow larger until Rick pulled away. She couldn't describe the kiss even to herself because her brain was dead by this point; she couldn't remember anything about it except for the fact that a part of her brain had wanted it to last longer and that he had kissed her. The end of the kiss was met by this... a small, serene smile by the guy that she had always secretly adored, the guy that always knew her favorite places and where to look for her, and the guy who acted as her secret keeper; the guy who had secretly watched her without fail stand in front of a "mythical" fountain rumored to make wishes come true to those with a sincere yearning for love.
Rick cleared his throat as his face was the same color as Talia's. He scratched his head and bit his lip several times while looking around the scenery as people of all ages walked past the fountain and its observers. Talia's heart was pounding like crazy in her chest and she felt like her face was on fire.
"Here," Rick suddenly grabbed Talia's hand and placed an identical looking half dollar in it before he helped to close her fingers around it. "Here's a refund for that...that kiss," he cleared his throat again as Talia's heart yet skipped another beat.
"No, it...it was good. I mean, it was fine - um, what I mean is, um, don't...don't worry about it," Talia said, sounding a bit too cheery than she wanted. She unexpectedly shared a look with Rick, and the two of them started to laugh.
"DELIVERY FOR MISTER BARSEN AND HIS BAE!"
Talia and Rick turned to see a very enthusiastic Zico pulling a very disgruntled and flustered Selena behind him. The couple ran straight up to Rick and Zico who tossed a bouquet at him which he caught quite naturally. "We looked everywhere for you two lovebirds," Zico said as Selena was trying to catch her breath.
"Lovebirds? Speak for yourself," Rick said as Talia snickered, seeing that Zico wouldn't let go of Selena's hand.
Selena glared at the two of them. "We're not lovebirds, we're - "
"- More than that," Zico interrupted, causing Selena to turn an even darker shade of red.
"You - !"
"Anyway, those're those flowers you wanted us to get for you, lover boy," Zico said, ignoring Selena and instead choosing to point at the flowers. "The Daffodils of Destiny....this one here came up with that cheesy name.."
"Hey, you said it was good this morning!"
"I say a lot of things."
"....."
As Rick turned to Talia and handed her the Daffodils of Destiny, Talia's face and heart started to set on fire. She felt like her stomach was melting with the smile on Rick's face. "See?" he said as she took the gift from him. "Today wasn't so bad after all. You got flowers and your money back."
"I guess you could say that," Talia laughed. "Thanks for these."
"Hey.....Sometimes, look closer..."
"Look closer...what?"
"Sometimes if you look closer, you can find that the people who you want to be closer to are already by your - "
"Oh, yawn," Zico said. "Let's go, Selena. Let's leave this old couple alone to kiss some more."
"You- you saw that?!" Rick and Talia said in sync, causing them to blush some more.
"How- how much of that did you see?" Talia said, her heart stopping.
"All of it," Selena said, suddenly gripping Zico's hand a little tighter. "You guys sure are slow at - "
Zico reached over and pecked Selena on the cheek. "Yeah, it was too slow for my taste too," while everyone was still frozen he waved and dragged Selena away from the scene despite her protests.
"Maybe I should take some advice from that guy," Rick suddenly said about a minute later after the two of them had settled into comfortable silence. "It might not be too late...to give it a try." He reached for Talia's hand unexpectedly and Talia felt herself go red for about the fifth hundred time today. "I gave you flowers and a refund, so you just come with me today."
"To - to - to where?" she stammered as a breeze swept past.
"Somewhere," Rick said with a soft smile, and with the soft pit-a-pat of combined hearts, the two of them raced through the city, their smiles and footsteps as light as a feather.
The card tucked away quite snugly in the sleep flowers kept forever towards that bouquet read this:
[ The Daffodils of Destiny
Sweet and Amorous
Only Complimented by Pairs
Always Yearning
Fate and Destiny Decided
The Daffodils of Destiny ]
~~~~~ END ~~~~~
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Alternate Universssusss
As promised, here is the elegant ending to the Daffodils of Destiny. <3
-------------------
Talia stood up, face red as she hid her dirty hand behind her pants. Rick came closer and shook his head as he noticed her embarassment and snatched her hidden hand away from her to examine it on front of his face. He wiped it clean with a rag he pulled out of his pants pocket and then sighed. "Talia....you‘re really..."
"Rick, what do you want?" Talia said, furiously, hiding her hand again from him.
"Look. I heard you went to your ex‘s house..and I wanted to say that I was sorry."
"How sorry?" Talia asked, with a glimmer of dismay buried in a bit of hope.
Rick reached over and brushed the hair from Talia‘s eyes and smiled. "I wanted to tell you sorry...,for awhile now. I never meant for you to get all angry about this, and I needed to get it off my chest before..."
Talia glanced up as Rick leaned in closer with a smile as genuine as she had hoped. "Talia, I really am sorry...if you forgive me..." This was the moment! As Rick came closer, her eyes widened for a quick second before she bit her lip and shook her mind free from thoughts. This is what she had wished for all this time...all this time! And it was finally here, this one perfect moment that she had secretly desired at this same very spot moments before dropping her precious coin and hope forever. Talia shut her eyes and held her breath as she felt Rick‘s face and scent get closer and
"Oh my gahhhhh!"
Talia‘s eyes flung open as a tall man in fancy spandex like material bounded from the sky and landed right smack in between the almost kissing pair. The stranger with glorious flowy blonde hair and goatee flipped his hair back and whipped Talia in the face, forcing her to step back with a mouth full of hair and landing on her bottom into the metal pipes of the sewer.
"Rick! What are you doing?!" The stranger asked, embracing Rick like a mother to her cub. "And who is this....this..." Blondie glared at Talia who stared back in agape. "This horrendous little pale child!" Blondie sniffled. "I can‘t believe you‘re cheating on me with this boy!"
Talia stood up, furiously, her pockets probably smelling like toilet water. "I am not a man!!!"
Blondie stuck his nose up in the air. "Then why were you in the sewer?"
"I - I - I wasn‘t - !" Talia turned red. "Rick! What is this?! Don‘t tell me this s what I think it is.."
Rick stepped forward. "I wanted to say sorry, remember? I said I wanted to apologize and get things off my chest."
"And?"
Rick smiled nervously. "Well...I wanted to let you know that..."
"Know what?"
"Tell ‘er, baby!" Proclaimed Blondie, who had now started a glaring contest with Talia.
"I‘m getting married to Bofart Huberderk tomorrow evening here in Little Italy. We‘re going to officially become the Huberderks tomorrow!"
Bofart beamed.
"You - you what?!" Talia said, her heart sinking. "But that‘s...that‘s..."
"Ah, Bofart, this is the girl who first took me to Iredoci‘s Icecream Parlor!" Rick said to his gay partner. "You should thank her!"
Talia felt like a dry dessert who had never seen water in about twenty years. That was her special place....with Rick....and he had taken this guy there when she had thought he was different...
Bofart beamed again. "Ah, darling! So it was her!" He smiled at Talia who felt like she was going to throw up. "Dahling, thank you so much! I love the strawberry supreme flavor! I always ask for extra whipping cream and share it with my bae!"
But....Talia had always did that with Rick.....but obviously the true colors shown.......
"Anyway, Talia we saw you drop that coin in the gutter. We figured we should help you get it back."
Talia shook her head. "Ah, no. That‘s - that‘s not necessary."
Bofart stepped forward. "No, I will return that favor, dahhhhhling!" And he used his long gleaming hair to whip around the coin at the bottom of the gutter and pull it out. He detached it, wiped it off of Talia, and then handed it back to her.
"T-t-thank you?!" Talia responded, frightfully.
Bofart turned to his bae. "Can I ask her, honey?"
"Sure, Bo!"
"Tah-lee-ay, will you be the best man at our wedding? I know you aint no man, but I aint got a best man. All of the bridesmaid spots are taken....so can yuh help us out and be the best man?"
Talia felt deflated, but felt cornered, so she reluctantly agreed. "Yeah. Of course!" She paused. "But Selena....and Zico, are they?"
"Oh, you didn‘t hear? They got in a car accident a few hours ago. They‘re not going to be at the wedding. Oh well. Nobody liked them anyway. They were no fun anyway. It‘s better that they both died off, wouldn‘t you say?" He and Bofart laughed.
They.........died?
"Thanks, hun!" Bofart said, winking at her as he and Rick walked off, waving to her. "See you tomorrow, dearie!"
"Thanks so much, Talia! You‘re the best friend a guy could ever ask for!"
After they left, the coin the Talia was holding exploded, and epic Skillet Christian rock music was played passionately and violently with a quartet of violins and violas.
"Rick, what do you want?" Talia said, furiously, hiding her hand again from him.
"Look. I heard you went to your ex‘s house..and I wanted to say that I was sorry."
"How sorry?" Talia asked, with a glimmer of dismay buried in a bit of hope.
Rick reached over and brushed the hair from Talia‘s eyes and smiled. "I wanted to tell you sorry...,for awhile now. I never meant for you to get all angry about this, and I needed to get it off my chest before..."
Talia glanced up as Rick leaned in closer with a smile as genuine as she had hoped. "Talia, I really am sorry...if you forgive me..." This was the moment! As Rick came closer, her eyes widened for a quick second before she bit her lip and shook her mind free from thoughts. This is what she had wished for all this time...all this time! And it was finally here, this one perfect moment that she had secretly desired at this same very spot moments before dropping her precious coin and hope forever. Talia shut her eyes and held her breath as she felt Rick‘s face and scent get closer and
"Oh my gahhhhh!"
Talia‘s eyes flung open as a tall man in fancy spandex like material bounded from the sky and landed right smack in between the almost kissing pair. The stranger with glorious flowy blonde hair and goatee flipped his hair back and whipped Talia in the face, forcing her to step back with a mouth full of hair and landing on her bottom into the metal pipes of the sewer.
"Rick! What are you doing?!" The stranger asked, embracing Rick like a mother to her cub. "And who is this....this..." Blondie glared at Talia who stared back in agape. "This horrendous little pale child!" Blondie sniffled. "I can‘t believe you‘re cheating on me with this boy!"
Talia stood up, furiously, her pockets probably smelling like toilet water. "I am not a man!!!"
Blondie stuck his nose up in the air. "Then why were you in the sewer?"
"I - I - I wasn‘t - !" Talia turned red. "Rick! What is this?! Don‘t tell me this s what I think it is.."
Rick stepped forward. "I wanted to say sorry, remember? I said I wanted to apologize and get things off my chest."
"And?"
Rick smiled nervously. "Well...I wanted to let you know that..."
"Know what?"
"Tell ‘er, baby!" Proclaimed Blondie, who had now started a glaring contest with Talia.
"I‘m getting married to Bofart Huberderk tomorrow evening here in Little Italy. We‘re going to officially become the Huberderks tomorrow!"
Bofart beamed.
"You - you what?!" Talia said, her heart sinking. "But that‘s...that‘s..."
"Ah, Bofart, this is the girl who first took me to Iredoci‘s Icecream Parlor!" Rick said to his gay partner. "You should thank her!"
Talia felt like a dry dessert who had never seen water in about twenty years. That was her special place....with Rick....and he had taken this guy there when she had thought he was different...
Bofart beamed again. "Ah, darling! So it was her!" He smiled at Talia who felt like she was going to throw up. "Dahling, thank you so much! I love the strawberry supreme flavor! I always ask for extra whipping cream and share it with my bae!"
But....Talia had always did that with Rick.....but obviously the true colors shown.......
"Anyway, Talia we saw you drop that coin in the gutter. We figured we should help you get it back."
Talia shook her head. "Ah, no. That‘s - that‘s not necessary."
Bofart stepped forward. "No, I will return that favor, dahhhhhling!" And he used his long gleaming hair to whip around the coin at the bottom of the gutter and pull it out. He detached it, wiped it off of Talia, and then handed it back to her.
"T-t-thank you?!" Talia responded, frightfully.
Bofart turned to his bae. "Can I ask her, honey?"
"Sure, Bo!"
"Tah-lee-ay, will you be the best man at our wedding? I know you aint no man, but I aint got a best man. All of the bridesmaid spots are taken....so can yuh help us out and be the best man?"
Talia felt deflated, but felt cornered, so she reluctantly agreed. "Yeah. Of course!" She paused. "But Selena....and Zico, are they?"
"Oh, you didn‘t hear? They got in a car accident a few hours ago. They‘re not going to be at the wedding. Oh well. Nobody liked them anyway. They were no fun anyway. It‘s better that they both died off, wouldn‘t you say?" He and Bofart laughed.
They.........died?
"Thanks, hun!" Bofart said, winking at her as he and Rick walked off, waving to her. "See you tomorrow, dearie!"
"Thanks so much, Talia! You‘re the best friend a guy could ever ask for!"
After they left, the coin the Talia was holding exploded, and epic Skillet Christian rock music was played passionately and violently with a quartet of violins and violas.
Monday, 29 June 2015
The Daffodils of Destiny [Part 3]
"Zico, hurry up! We have to find her!"
"Alright, alright. No need to rush."
I stopped and turned back to Zico whom I slugged in the arm. "No need to rush? Did you see how mad she was? She's going to do something really stupid and then come crying to the both of us!" When he didn't respond, I said, "At least do me a favor and call her boyfriend on stand by, will you?"
The clock chimed seven times. It wouldn't really start to get dark until around eight o'clock as the Summer season had just started, but just because it was getting dark didn't mean that it was getting any cooler. I wiped the sweat from my brow as Zico took of his hat, shook his hair out, and then replaced it before taking out his cellphone to dial Rick.
Zico kept up with me at a rapid pace, following close behind as we walked around the city center; everyone was either going out for dinner or going home, so there were plenty of people out and about trying to go their own ways.
"Yeah, we'll check at his house," I heard Zico say as I peered around the corner at Talia's favorite ice cream shop, hoping that she was there but finding it filled with other people instead. "You go search where you know best." Zico hung up as I sighed. "Rick says that he'll check where he thinks she could be. Let's go to that toolbag's house and see if she was there."
I put a finger to my lips and said with a warning. "You better be glad she wasn't here when you said that. She would have killed you."
He raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I'd like to see that puny kid try. Gets hurt because Rick made a joke about not seeing her as a chick and she runs off to her ex's house. She's a piece of work alright."
I didn't know how to vouch for my friend's situation anymore, so I just grabbed Zico's arm and pulled him along. "Whatever, let's just go!"
The infamous Asia Buckyfield lived in an expansive apartment complex; to many people, it would be a house. But for his standards, it was most definitely an apartment. I dragged Zico to the front door of my friend's ex, and then I took a breath, trying to figure out what to say and how to say it without sounding weird. How exactly does one knock on the door of somebody else's ex and ask if they had been here prior myself?
Knock, Knock.
I turned to Zico, eyes wide in horror. "What are you doing?" I said between my clenched teeth. "I don't even know what to say yet!"
Zico shrugged. "What is there to say? Just say it."
"I can't! I don't know what to say, you idiot!"
"Well that sucks, doesn't it?"
"You stupid - "
The door flung open and a very tired looking Asia bundled out of it. He saw me and immediately said, "Ah, and the sheep arrive not long after. What do you want?"
"So she was here then? Talia was here?" I asked, without a moment to spare.
Asia sighed and looked at his nails."Yeah, what of it?"
"How long ago?"
"I don't know. I like to forget moments where uninvited people invite themselves over to my property." He used his forearm to push me back off his doorstep, to which Zico snapped and stepped forward.
"Hey, hands off you uneducated idiot!" Zico pushed me back so that he was standing face to face with Asia, who had just now noticed this newcomer on his doorstep. "Where're your manners?"
Asia widened his eyes. "Who are you?" And then he lowered his eyebrows and motioned to the both of us. "You her body guard?"
"I'm her boyfriend," Zico said with much confidence which made me turn as red as a beet.
"Yeah, well she did really good with you," Asia said, rolling his eyes. He looked over at me. "Where'd you get this kid? From the dump?"
Asia laughed at his own joke while looking at the Louis Vuitton wallet he had in his hand (to possibly show off his riches to us) until my supposed boyfriend said, "What, does your wallet tell jokes?"
Asia stopped laughing and stared at Zico blank faced. "I was laughing at you, you - "
"If laughter is the best medicine, then I guess your face is just curing the world."
Asia's face turned more red than mine, and I knew that it was on now. I had never expected today to be the day that Zico and Asia would be flinging sarcasm embodied crap at each other...especially not like this. But I wasn't going to lie; I really liked this show of sport. "Also," Zico added. "If you're going to be a smartass, you need to be smart first. Otherwise, you're just an ass."
"You wanna hear a real joke, you prick?" Asia said, moving towards us as Zico didn't move an inch.
"It's okay, you're already one yourself."
"You a comedian? 'Cuz you're not all that funny."
"I guess I'm a poet. Here's my latest work: Roses are red, violets are blue, I have five fingers, and the third one's for you." And with that, Zico in all of his confidence and glory flipped Asia off, and Asia immediately turned pale and seemed to have lost his breath.
"Uh...uh..." I grabbed Zico's arm and dragged him away from the house as the two gorillas continued to throw insults and curse at each other until we were out of sight.
----------------
"What were you doing, you idiot? We didn't even get to ask him which way Talia went!"
"What difference would it have made, really? Wisen up, Selena. He wouldn't have told us the truth even if I threatened to throw him under the bus."
"Like you'd have the guts to do that...."
"There has to be buses still running around, so I'll go back and get 'im."
I laughed as the two of us walked side by side on the sidewalk next to the grand bridge overpass with vehicles driving past underneath us. I realized then that my hand was still firmly grasped onto his forearm and let go almost immediately. Zico noticed and immediately grabbed my arm before I quickly shook it free.
Bumbling with embarassment, I said, "Let's hurry it up! Go find Talia before it gets late! You know the city's not too good at night."
Zico groaned. "Forget her. Rick will come to her rescue."
"You don't know that. You boys are all the same," I said as we walked past the third lamp post on the bridge. "No plan, just action. I swear..."
"Put a little faith in us," he said, unscathed. "You'll be amazed. It'll take days, no- months, maybe years off the wrinkly face of yours."
I glared at him. "Oh really?"
"Really. You need a vacation." He smirked.
"And what about you, Mr. Know-It-All?" I inquired as we stopped walking. "Maybe you should just take a vacation from worrying about what I look like for once and look in your own ugly refl-"
Zico reached for my shoulders, pinned my waist against the railing of the bridge, bent down forward and kissed me. It would have been a nice kiss, if I hadn't been so confused and running wild in my own mind at the time. But still, a kiss with a kiss, and his soft lips left on my own about ten seconds later, revealing my face probably to be just as embarrass as my mind made it out to be.
"That was nice," Zico said, a charming grin on plastered on his perfect face. "Let's do it again. It seems like my technique has already started to take some aging off your face."
"You -!" I hit his shoulder playfully, feeling a cross between embarrassment, anger, and happiness.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" And then he reached forward to tussle my hair and pull me into a warm hug. "St- Stop it already!" I said, turning red. "We don't have time to be playing around, we have to go find Talia first!" But I do admit that he smelled good and a part of me didn't want him to stop holding me. "Not in public....like this..." I grumbled.
"Fine," he mumbled into my ear. "Go find Talia."
"By myself?" I said, my voice in a squeak. "What about you?"
"I wanna go on a date..."
I slugged him in the arm really hard this time. "We can do all that later, you idiot! Now is not the time!"
He broke free from me to sent me a malicious grin. "So you said it then. You said you would go on a date with me."
"I - I - Oh, whatever! Let's just GO!"
And then Zico, leading the way this time with much more enthusiasm, dragged me off the bridge back into City Center.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talia stood in the plaza of Little Italy, her head down, picking her fingers as she stared at the plaza's infamous fountain. It was the fountain of lovers; sculpted by an Italian artist and sculptor in the 1800's, a marbled man and a woman stood together with their hands clasped leaning on each other for support. Amidst the water of the fountain stood hundreds of little pennies and nickels on the tile. Whenever Talia came here, she always felt a little better; Each time, she made sure to toss a coin into the water would it would usually sink to the bottom and she would make a wish. It was said that wishes here worked best with another person. And that would explain why each time she made a wish (by herself) it most definitely never worked.
The absentminded girl reached into her purse to pull her out her coin purse and dug in it....only to find it absent of pennies and nickels, and instead a half dollar coin. Maybe this time it was worth....giving it her all and trying?
Talia sighed and and closed her eyes, ready to make a wish. "Please...please..." Please help me to find somebody to be happy with...Please help me find the one...Please help me -
Someone ran past and knocked Talia over and she fell on her hands and knees, her eyes widening in surprise. A little kid about nine years old looked baffled, bowed his head in apology and ran off after his older sister who taunted him to keep up. Talia smiled at the boy before he ran off before realizing that her half dollar coin was missing. In alarm, she got up and looked all around her surroundings until she realized....
Clink! Clink! CLINK!
Talia peered down into the sewer hole with had metal bars to prevented anyone from getting past it. "My half dollar!" Talia screeched as a couple of people turned heads to give her looks. But she didn't care, that was a whole fifty cents! Fifty cents that could have been used to buy an ice cream cone here in Little Italy. It seemed that today had not been her day after all. Talia wrinkled her nose and tried to stick her hand in between the bars of the metal covering, but was met with no avail. She could not even get her hand between the bars and groaned when she withdrew her hand, without her valued coin. "Today sucks," she grumbled. "First Rick, then stupid Asia and his daft bimbo girlfriend, and now this! Today sucks!" she proclaimed a little louder this time.
"How do you not expect me to think of you as a boy?" somebody's voice called from somewhere else. Talia looked up to find Rick a few feet away, his hands in his pockets, staring at her from afar. "Especially when you're searching through the sewers."
"Alright, alright. No need to rush."
I stopped and turned back to Zico whom I slugged in the arm. "No need to rush? Did you see how mad she was? She's going to do something really stupid and then come crying to the both of us!" When he didn't respond, I said, "At least do me a favor and call her boyfriend on stand by, will you?"
The clock chimed seven times. It wouldn't really start to get dark until around eight o'clock as the Summer season had just started, but just because it was getting dark didn't mean that it was getting any cooler. I wiped the sweat from my brow as Zico took of his hat, shook his hair out, and then replaced it before taking out his cellphone to dial Rick.
Zico kept up with me at a rapid pace, following close behind as we walked around the city center; everyone was either going out for dinner or going home, so there were plenty of people out and about trying to go their own ways.
"Yeah, we'll check at his house," I heard Zico say as I peered around the corner at Talia's favorite ice cream shop, hoping that she was there but finding it filled with other people instead. "You go search where you know best." Zico hung up as I sighed. "Rick says that he'll check where he thinks she could be. Let's go to that toolbag's house and see if she was there."
I put a finger to my lips and said with a warning. "You better be glad she wasn't here when you said that. She would have killed you."
He raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I'd like to see that puny kid try. Gets hurt because Rick made a joke about not seeing her as a chick and she runs off to her ex's house. She's a piece of work alright."
I didn't know how to vouch for my friend's situation anymore, so I just grabbed Zico's arm and pulled him along. "Whatever, let's just go!"
The infamous Asia Buckyfield lived in an expansive apartment complex; to many people, it would be a house. But for his standards, it was most definitely an apartment. I dragged Zico to the front door of my friend's ex, and then I took a breath, trying to figure out what to say and how to say it without sounding weird. How exactly does one knock on the door of somebody else's ex and ask if they had been here prior myself?
Knock, Knock.
I turned to Zico, eyes wide in horror. "What are you doing?" I said between my clenched teeth. "I don't even know what to say yet!"
Zico shrugged. "What is there to say? Just say it."
"I can't! I don't know what to say, you idiot!"
"Well that sucks, doesn't it?"
"You stupid - "
The door flung open and a very tired looking Asia bundled out of it. He saw me and immediately said, "Ah, and the sheep arrive not long after. What do you want?"
"So she was here then? Talia was here?" I asked, without a moment to spare.
Asia sighed and looked at his nails."Yeah, what of it?"
"How long ago?"
"I don't know. I like to forget moments where uninvited people invite themselves over to my property." He used his forearm to push me back off his doorstep, to which Zico snapped and stepped forward.
"Hey, hands off you uneducated idiot!" Zico pushed me back so that he was standing face to face with Asia, who had just now noticed this newcomer on his doorstep. "Where're your manners?"
Asia widened his eyes. "Who are you?" And then he lowered his eyebrows and motioned to the both of us. "You her body guard?"
"I'm her boyfriend," Zico said with much confidence which made me turn as red as a beet.
"Yeah, well she did really good with you," Asia said, rolling his eyes. He looked over at me. "Where'd you get this kid? From the dump?"
Asia laughed at his own joke while looking at the Louis Vuitton wallet he had in his hand (to possibly show off his riches to us) until my supposed boyfriend said, "What, does your wallet tell jokes?"
Asia stopped laughing and stared at Zico blank faced. "I was laughing at you, you - "
"If laughter is the best medicine, then I guess your face is just curing the world."
Asia's face turned more red than mine, and I knew that it was on now. I had never expected today to be the day that Zico and Asia would be flinging sarcasm embodied crap at each other...especially not like this. But I wasn't going to lie; I really liked this show of sport. "Also," Zico added. "If you're going to be a smartass, you need to be smart first. Otherwise, you're just an ass."
"You wanna hear a real joke, you prick?" Asia said, moving towards us as Zico didn't move an inch.
"It's okay, you're already one yourself."
"You a comedian? 'Cuz you're not all that funny."
"I guess I'm a poet. Here's my latest work: Roses are red, violets are blue, I have five fingers, and the third one's for you." And with that, Zico in all of his confidence and glory flipped Asia off, and Asia immediately turned pale and seemed to have lost his breath.
"Uh...uh..." I grabbed Zico's arm and dragged him away from the house as the two gorillas continued to throw insults and curse at each other until we were out of sight.
----------------
"What were you doing, you idiot? We didn't even get to ask him which way Talia went!"
"What difference would it have made, really? Wisen up, Selena. He wouldn't have told us the truth even if I threatened to throw him under the bus."
"Like you'd have the guts to do that...."
"There has to be buses still running around, so I'll go back and get 'im."
I laughed as the two of us walked side by side on the sidewalk next to the grand bridge overpass with vehicles driving past underneath us. I realized then that my hand was still firmly grasped onto his forearm and let go almost immediately. Zico noticed and immediately grabbed my arm before I quickly shook it free.
Bumbling with embarassment, I said, "Let's hurry it up! Go find Talia before it gets late! You know the city's not too good at night."
Zico groaned. "Forget her. Rick will come to her rescue."
"You don't know that. You boys are all the same," I said as we walked past the third lamp post on the bridge. "No plan, just action. I swear..."
"Put a little faith in us," he said, unscathed. "You'll be amazed. It'll take days, no- months, maybe years off the wrinkly face of yours."
I glared at him. "Oh really?"
"Really. You need a vacation." He smirked.
"And what about you, Mr. Know-It-All?" I inquired as we stopped walking. "Maybe you should just take a vacation from worrying about what I look like for once and look in your own ugly refl-"
Zico reached for my shoulders, pinned my waist against the railing of the bridge, bent down forward and kissed me. It would have been a nice kiss, if I hadn't been so confused and running wild in my own mind at the time. But still, a kiss with a kiss, and his soft lips left on my own about ten seconds later, revealing my face probably to be just as embarrass as my mind made it out to be.
"That was nice," Zico said, a charming grin on plastered on his perfect face. "Let's do it again. It seems like my technique has already started to take some aging off your face."
"You -!" I hit his shoulder playfully, feeling a cross between embarrassment, anger, and happiness.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" And then he reached forward to tussle my hair and pull me into a warm hug. "St- Stop it already!" I said, turning red. "We don't have time to be playing around, we have to go find Talia first!" But I do admit that he smelled good and a part of me didn't want him to stop holding me. "Not in public....like this..." I grumbled.
"Fine," he mumbled into my ear. "Go find Talia."
"By myself?" I said, my voice in a squeak. "What about you?"
"I wanna go on a date..."
I slugged him in the arm really hard this time. "We can do all that later, you idiot! Now is not the time!"
He broke free from me to sent me a malicious grin. "So you said it then. You said you would go on a date with me."
"I - I - Oh, whatever! Let's just GO!"
And then Zico, leading the way this time with much more enthusiasm, dragged me off the bridge back into City Center.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talia stood in the plaza of Little Italy, her head down, picking her fingers as she stared at the plaza's infamous fountain. It was the fountain of lovers; sculpted by an Italian artist and sculptor in the 1800's, a marbled man and a woman stood together with their hands clasped leaning on each other for support. Amidst the water of the fountain stood hundreds of little pennies and nickels on the tile. Whenever Talia came here, she always felt a little better; Each time, she made sure to toss a coin into the water would it would usually sink to the bottom and she would make a wish. It was said that wishes here worked best with another person. And that would explain why each time she made a wish (by herself) it most definitely never worked.
The absentminded girl reached into her purse to pull her out her coin purse and dug in it....only to find it absent of pennies and nickels, and instead a half dollar coin. Maybe this time it was worth....giving it her all and trying?
Talia sighed and and closed her eyes, ready to make a wish. "Please...please..." Please help me to find somebody to be happy with...Please help me find the one...Please help me -
Someone ran past and knocked Talia over and she fell on her hands and knees, her eyes widening in surprise. A little kid about nine years old looked baffled, bowed his head in apology and ran off after his older sister who taunted him to keep up. Talia smiled at the boy before he ran off before realizing that her half dollar coin was missing. In alarm, she got up and looked all around her surroundings until she realized....
Clink! Clink! CLINK!
Talia peered down into the sewer hole with had metal bars to prevented anyone from getting past it. "My half dollar!" Talia screeched as a couple of people turned heads to give her looks. But she didn't care, that was a whole fifty cents! Fifty cents that could have been used to buy an ice cream cone here in Little Italy. It seemed that today had not been her day after all. Talia wrinkled her nose and tried to stick her hand in between the bars of the metal covering, but was met with no avail. She could not even get her hand between the bars and groaned when she withdrew her hand, without her valued coin. "Today sucks," she grumbled. "First Rick, then stupid Asia and his daft bimbo girlfriend, and now this! Today sucks!" she proclaimed a little louder this time.
"How do you not expect me to think of you as a boy?" somebody's voice called from somewhere else. Talia looked up to find Rick a few feet away, his hands in his pockets, staring at her from afar. "Especially when you're searching through the sewers."
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