Remains of My Wasted Youth

The 16 year old boy’s fingers were drumming against the table anxiously. He was waiting for the woman to show up. His eyes would wander to the watch encircling his wrist some time.

She should be here 30 minutes ago, he thought. He took his phone from his pocket and checked if there were any messages.

There were none. She couldn’t be called, either.

He sighed, slamming his phone onto the table and held his head with his hands.

The woman Alex met a few months ago during summer school was his teacher. The teacher who taught the kids that went to the summer school, the kids that actually didn’t want to show up for it.

Alex was one of those kids too, but his thought immediately changed when Delaney’s figure showed up in front of the class. He still remembered about her looks when he first saw her – she was wearing a black high-waist skirt with a sleeveless white button-up shirt and black heels. Her reddish brown wavy hair was flowing to her mid-back.

To him, she was perfect.

Alex sighed, leaning against his seat. His supposedly hot drink was now cold; he hadn’t been drinking it. His eyes locked at the cup, his thoughts about her were running freely in his mind.

He entered the classroom a little bit too early, and he saw Delaney was sitting on one of the desks, staring outside the window.

His heart leaped when he saw her face; the sun hitting on it made her look even more beautiful.

Feeling someone else’s presence in the room, Delaney turned her head and smiled at him.

“You’re early today, Alex,” her voice softly rang into his ears.

Dumbfounded, he stared at her with mouth agape.

“Alex?”

“Uh, yeah…” he said, stunned by her beauty. “I, um, I have a… few questions to ask,” he managed to choke out.

She got up from the desk and sat on her chair. “Go on,” she said, smiling widely.

Alex had his head on the table, still desperately waiting for her. It had been 15 minutes since he last checked the time.

Alex walked Delaney to her car that day after the school was finished. He was holding a stack of books in his hands and tried his best not to drop any of them.

Delaney opened the car door and Alex placed the pile of books on the passenger seat.

“Thanks Alex; you’ve been helping me a lot,” Delaney said once he was standing up straight.

“No problem, Ms. Winston,” he flashed a smile. Alex had been very helpful to Delaney lately and she appreciated it.

Delaney smiled back at him, making his heart leaped for God-knows-how-many-times this week.

“You’re a very sweet boy, Alex,” Delaney said. She stood on her toes; even though she was wearing a pair of heels, Alex was still taller than her. Delaney was pretty short for a 24 year old, too.

Alex’s heart raced and his breath was stuck in his throat as her lips softly caressed his cheek.

“By the way, you can call me Delaney,” she said after pulling away. She got into the car and drove home, leaving Alex alone in the parking lot, frozen.

He started to chew his lip, worried. He had been calling her for the past ten minutes, but she never answered. She hadn’t showed up, either.

Alex was sitting on his seat, watching Delaney’s every move. She was anxious under his stare and found it hard to concentrate on teaching if he didn’t stop. She turned at him and gave him a ‘stop-staring-at-me’ look. He chuckled, smiling a little before looking down to his notebook and scribbling words onto it.

A few minutes later, the bell rang.

Kids got up and left the room. Alex collected his stuff and about to join his friends exiting the school, but was stopped by her voice.

“Gaskarth, stay here. I have a word to say to you,” she said seriously.

“I’ll see you later man,” Jack said, walking pass Alex’s table, patting his back.

“Yeah, later,” Alex responded.

Delaney waited until Jack left the room. Once he did, she walked to the door, closed and locked it. She then went to Alex’s table and asked, “Tell me why you kept on staring at me today.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Tell me why you’re asking. It shouldn’t bother you much.”

Delaney was taken aback; Alex rarely talked back to her.

Her surprised look quickly faded and replaced by a smile playing on her lips. She leaned forward to the boy and whispered, “Which girl wouldn’t be bothered if an overly attractive guy is staring directly at her?”

Alex gulped as her hazel eyes sharply bored into his. His eyes then traveled down to her lips and bit his lower lip to hold back the urge to lean forward and kiss her.

He watched as the smile grew wider, which then turned into a small smirk. She brought up her hand and placed it on his cheek, before closing the gap between them.

Alex groaned and sunk himself into the sofa even more.

She wasn’t an on-time person, but she was never an hour late.

Alex was about to stand up and leave, before the glass door was pushed open. He looked to see who it was, and his wish finally came true.

She looked really beautiful even only in a pair of skinny jeans, flat shoes and black sweater.

Delaney sat across him, apologizing. “I’m really, really sorry, Alex.”

“What excuse do you have this time?” he muttered.

She bit her lip, afraid. Afraid that he would yell at her about being late – or at least, afraid that he would stand up and leave.

But what happened later broke her heart more than the two things she feared before.

His eyes.

His brown eyes seemed upset and so disappointed – she’d never seen it before.

“But at least you finally show up,” he forced himself to pull on a smile.

A sigh of relief escaped from her lips. She was glad that Alex wasn’t angry at her. For a teenager, he was pretty mature.

“Hey, Alex…” she spoke softly as she took his hand. Alex stared at her, making her nervous yet again. “I don’t have too much time today.” He raised an eyebrow. “Anthony is gonna be home this evening, remember?”

“Oh,” he muttered, eyes traveled down to their hands. He was reminded about the silver ring that was encircling her ring finger; reminded that the woman he had an affair with was married.

They had been doing this for 5 months now, and it all started 2 weeks after the summer school started. Anthony, Delaney’s husband, was away for his work in Texas for 3 months, which made it easier for them to be together. But today, Anthony came back.

“I can only hang around until 4, is that okay with you?” she asked.

He nodded. At least you can be with her, he pointed out for himself.

Delaney smiled a little. “So, what do you want to do today?”

He rolled his eyes. “That question always makes me feel like a kid, Delaney. Stop it.”

She giggled. “I can’t help it.”

He bit his lower lip before asking, “Well, my parents aren’t home for today… Wanna come over?”

She shrugged. “Okay.”

They got up and left to Alex’s house.

Once they were there, they both settled in his room.

“You wanna see a movie?” he asked as she positioned herself on the bed that was facing the small TV.

“Sure. What do you have?”

He went through the small cabinet filled with various CDs next to the TV. “Uh,… not much actually.” He mentioned the movie names, but nothing really caught her.

“Let’s just watch something on TV,” she said, grabbing the remote next to her and turned it on. Alex sat next to her on the bed as she flicked through the channels and settled when The Simpsons appeared on the screen. Alex chuckled to himself.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

A few minutes later, her head was on his shoulder and his arm was around her waist.

Alex kept on asking himself whether he should ask her the question or not, and it seemed the answer ‘yes’ had won.

“Hey, Delaney…?”

“Hm?”

“Do you remember what day is today?”

She tried to remember, and a few seconds later she shook her head no.

“…It’s my birthday,” he said. “My 16th birthday.”

She pulled away, but only far enough to look at his eyes.

“Really?” she smiled and he nodded. She threw her arms around him. “Happy birthday!” she said, kissing his cheek.

He could only blush. “Thanks.”

She stared at his face for a while before groaning. “I don’t have anything for you.”

“It’s okay.”

“At least I should give you something!” she cried before thinking.

Her adorable thinking face was soon replaced by a smirk.

“Well, I do have something for you…” she said.

“And what is it?” he asked curiously.

She pushed him back onto the bed and whispered in his ear, “You’ll love it, I promise.”

They both knew this was incredibly wrong, but they just couldn't help it.