Who We'll Be

It’s pretty funny how Eric and I became good friends so fast. He offered to walk me to my next class—it turned out his second class was near my room—and we talked along the way.

I realized he's just really naturally nice, unlike those other members of the basketball team who acts like they’re rulers of the universe or something.

“So…” he said when we finally reached my room. “See you around.”

His smile had never faded ever since I met him this morning, which was very, very cute of him.

“Yeah,” I smiled back.

As expected, I was the center of attention when I entered the room, and the teacher gave me a lecture—IN FRONT of the class—about being late and how it may affect my grades and all that blah blah blah. I'd rather eat a cupcake right then.

Classes started as the minutes tumbled to hours, and the boredom was totally torturing my soul.

Luckily I managed to survive the first half of the day.

When it was my last to subject before lunch, I sat next to Jane, my classmate and a good friend of mine.

We’re about the same height, but her hair was blond, mixed with a few light blue highlights, and her eyes were dark brown, unlike mine that were dull gray.

I’ve known her ever since we were kids, so she knows Sky too.

When the teacher started the lesson, we did what we always do, being the good pupils we are:

Chat like the world’s going to an end.

The teacher never noticed us anyways, because of his hearing problem.

So I told Jane about Sky being back in town.

“You do remember Sky, don’t you?” I asked her.

“Of course, I do!” Jane beamed. “He always used to play with my Matt.”

Matt is Jane’s boyfriend, but they started off as best friends, which made me feel a teensy-tiny bit hopeful about my situation.

“So he’s back in town, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“So…” Jane suddenly grinned in an evil manner.

“So…?” I repeated her word, one of my eyebrows raised.

Her smiled widened in a more evil way.

“You still like him, don’t you?”

Her question made my eyes bulge out and fall to the floor.

“WHAT?!”

I never told Jane about that…heck, I never told anyone about my feelings for Sky.

Is my love for him really that obvious?

Even when we were kids?!

Jane laughed. “That’s a yes, right?”

I glowered at her. “What the heck are you talking about? I never said I like him!”

“Oh, but you act like you do,” she chuckled.

I continued to glare at her. “Where’s your proof?”

“Um….” She thought about it for a moment, then smirked and pointed at me. “You blush just by hearing his name.”

I rolled my eyes. “I so don’t.”

“You so do! Let me show you.”

She grabbed a cute little pocket mirror from her handbag.

“SKY WINTER!” she shouted as she placed the mirror in front of my face, like she just said a spell and the mirror was her magic wand.

“Hey!” I shove her mirror away. A few people had already looked at us because of Jane’s yelling. “The teacher might hear you!”

The teacher was busily writing some stuff I have no idea what. All I know is that there’s numbers in it.

“Don’t change the subject!” she chuckled, waving the pocket mirror at my face again. “See? You’re blushing!”

“I’m not!” But I can see on the mirror that my cheeks were a bit redder than normal.

“Yes, you are! Sky Winter! Sky Winter! Sky Winter! Sky Winter! Sky Winter!” she repeated his name over and over.

Jane kept on teasing me about Sky and how I’m blushing like a red hot chili pepper until…

RIIIIIING!!!

At last, the bell! My savior! I love you, bell! Okay, I love Sky more, but I also love you too!

Oh my God…I’m confessing my love to the bell…I need to get out of here before I do more weird stuff…

I sprinted to the door with Jane as soon as the class ended, and to my surprise, Sky was already waiting for me outside of my room--I told him my schedule—with his back against the wall, looking all badass and stuff.

At first I was feeling all happy, I mean, who wouldn’t be? Having the love of your life—even if he doesn’t know--wait for you at lunch time so you can eat together and all…I think that’s romantic.

But it wasn’t just him. He’s with a bunch of people.

He was talking to the guys, and I can tell that Matt was there too, because they’ve been friends and all, and the girls that were with them kept on batting their eyelashes at Sky like there’s no tomorrow.

My mind told me to wait after the crowd had cleared out, but Jane suddenly shouted, “Matt! Sky, hey! Long time no see!” and she ran straight to the crowd.

I continued to stand near the door, feeling all awkward.

“Symmery!”

Sky called and wave when he finally saw me.

I guess I have no choice. I walked towards the pack of people.

“People, this is Symmery,” he announced. “My bestest friend.”

Aw, he’s proud of me.

“Wow, she’s cute,” a boy with sandy hair looked at me with interest. Some people smiled at me too.

I sighed.

If only Sky would smile at me like that …life would be much, much easier…heck, my life would be COMPLETE.

Speaking of his smile, he’s doing it right now…

…at the girl beside him.

Because I was trying to ignore the girls around him—to prevent my cookie-tossing evil plan—I hadn’t notice that girl earlier.

She wasn’t as flirty as the other girls, she was just standing beside him, all quiet, but still very noticeable, because of the fact that she’s just so pretty.

At first, I wasn’t sure if it’s actually her, because I rarely see her around. The school is very big, after all.

But after a long moment of observation, I finally managed to confirm that it was, in fact, her.

Rowena.

Rowena, the girl Sky was meant to give that lollipop to when we first met.

And now, she’s standing right beside him.

I know they’ve known each other when they were kids, but…

For some reason, my heart started to ache. It sank like a sinking ship, deep down into the bottom of the sea, like...like the Titanic, or something.

Oh, shrimp. It’s breaking again.

“Hey Symmery…is something wrong?” Sky suddenly asked, his tone full of worry.

“What? No…nothing.”

Yeah. Nothing.. My heart’s just breaking into pieces…

My head also felt pain, and the moments that passed seemed like a blur. We happily ate at the cafeteria and stuff, but whenever I saw Sky with Rowena, my heart just kept on sinking.

I went to my next classes thinking about it, until at last, my other love, the bell, finally rang.

Sky was waiting for me outside of my room, but this time, he’s alone. My heart reassembled, shot up from the ocean, feeling all ecstatic.

“Let’s go?” he said. We had agreed that we would go to school AND walk home together.

When we were walking down the street, we came across an ice cream shop, the place we used to hang out to when we were kids.

“Ooh, let’s eat some ice cream first!” I said. I’m so hungry and depressed anyways, and in times like these, ice cream is my sole redeemer.

“Okay.” Sky smiled.

I bought the strawberry-flavored one, and he bought the vanilla. We sat outside the shop on the spinning-chair thingy.

After some minutes, Sky challenged me to an ice-cream licking race.

“Bet you can’t beat me,” he exclaimed.

“So sure of yourself, eh?” I said, licking the ice cream as fast as I could.

After a few ice-cream licking minutes, I finished the ice cream before he did.

“I won!” I bragged. “In your face!”

Sky suddenly started to laugh. “In my face? Try looking at yours!”

Damn. With some strawberry substance still splattered on my face, I quickly search for a handkerchief in my pocket, but found none.

I can’t face him, looking like this! My God, so so clumsy…

To my surprise, Sky took his own handkerchief…

…and started wiping my lips and cheek.

I was immobilized, shocked by his gesture.

He was still laughing when he did this, and I couldn’t help but look him in the eye.

After a moment, he, somewhat accidentally, looked me in the eyes, too.

And he just stopped laughing.

He smiled instead.

Of course, my heart just reached the shore. It was puffing out its victory smoke, its passenger veins fully alive.

“Um….” I said, breaking the very awkward ice. “I guess we better go now.”

“Hey…” he said, smile bright, “Wanna go to the playground?”