He remained neutral in next few years of him struggling to repress his dreams of being a baseball player. After the accident and missing countless hours of practice, his parents shut down the idea of it. He found solitude in his siblings, but the truth was-it was not enough.
But hope draped into a form of a stranger, a light that slowly seeped through his darkest times and made it’s way to become his own sun.
Exams, thick textbooks, strict professors and deadlines-His life can only masqueraded better by taking peaceful study sessions in the nearby hilltop cafe; Accompanied by cake, tea & the soothing melody.
This week, something had gone odd. A lady was a now daily customer in the cafe. The odd part-there was this different type of nervousness when he’d see her. She draws really good, has a knack for arts, loves tea and he’d knew all that because he wasn’t minding his own business.
Studying? His bored eyes would always drag itself off the sea of texts and secretly rest in the plain white canvas she’s about to prepare. Patiently, he waited for the pencil to graze the paper & when it did, he was looking at another piece of canvas life made.
She basked in the shades of gentle sunlight, her eyes accentuating at the smallest details-a fragment of time stood still within his sight.
He would deny it was any sort of attraction, perhaps it was indeed a small tender curiosity that’s been making his chest go a bit electric the moment he’d catch her in his sight.
Maybe his denial was because he was afraid of letting her know of his entire existence-to carve himself out in the background. If he didn’t even want to, Life was still going put him through it.
In a really lucky day, he sat in a table nearest to her. Before finishing her work, she took a sip of coffee. Her soft elbows pushed the pencil off the table, he saw it & slowly gulped. He was gonna say sorry to his heart later.
“Hey girly, you dropped something-pencil here ya go.”
He held it, not too tightly and not too light.
“Ru...mi..ya?” He looked at the name inscribed heavily in the wooden pencil.
His eyes pushed itself to look at her straightly, his stomach churned in too many emotions & his chest-he was dying, basically.
"Thank you Mister...” She was slightly amused at the tone of his voice, her frail hands clasped the pencil he handed over. She looked at side of his table, and in a few seconds she found his name marked on his notebook. “Angelo.”
It can’t really be this sudden, but he needed to know her more.
The thought of them being just strangers was terrifying.
It took a few days, and nights drowning in contemplation.
He sat in the stairs, his courage growing weaker when every minute passes. Should he do this or not-the question was rattling around his brain.
“Hello! What are you doing outside?”
But he found strength the moment he turned around. Rumiya smiled at him, embracing him with warmth. It’s all gonna be okay. He smiled too, her skin catched the glow of the sun and even though she did make him weak-he loved it.
I need to know you better.
And I just hope you realize the same thing I did.
I don’t wish to be strangers with just some memories.
