Take Me by Surprise, It Will Blind Me

When I woke up, it felt like anything couldn’t go worse. The sun was shining so brightly outside and I could even hear some birds chirping on my windowpane, but nothing could put a smile on my face. It was the day. The day when I would move to the other side of the country without putting an end to all of the mess I’d left here. I found both Feranix and Amy in the kitchen, making breakfast for the three of us. They took a day off to spend the day with me before accompanying me to the airport at the end of the day.

I walked in and greeted by Feranix’s warm smile. “Hey there, coffee or tea?”, she asked as she stood up and went to the cupboard to get my favorite Pikachu mug. I smiled back and sat down.

“Tea, please. I don’t want to be all hyper today.”

“Why? You should, though.”, Amy said with furrowed brows when she slid some chocolate chip waffles onto the plate in front of me.

“Ame, I left a humongous wreck here and I looked like I leave to ignore it. Cameron came to the boutique yesterday… and I told him to go.”

Feranix and Amy sat down after getting my tea and sliding some waffles onto their own plates. They sighed and just shrugged their shoulders. We had a fun breakfast while talking about how we first met and everything, making me forget about all the problems I had now.

After we were done, they told me to go take a shower because they already set up a farewell lunch with the guys, minus… Cameron. It was pretty hard for me to accept the fact that I would be moving in a matter of hours, yet, I didn’t have any guts to just put the past behind. When I got to my room, I sat on the edge of my bed and took my phone to make a call to someone who I really needed to talk to at the moment. It dialed a number with Maine’s area code on the front. I waited patiently at the tones until a click sound was heard, signaling that someone on the other line already picked up the call.

“Hello?”, the soothing voice of the woman that raised me was heard. I closed my eyes and sucked all of the air around me to hold my tears. “Hello?”

“Hey, mom, it’s me, Dareen.”, I muttered so she wouldn’t recognize the crack of my voice.

“Dareen, honey, it’s so good of you to call.”, I could imagine the smile on her face. “How are you, sweetie? Is everything fine?”

“Everything’s fine, mom. I’m calling you to tell you… I’ll be moving to Los Angeles today. Arletta wants me to control one of her boutiques there, as well to be a part of her friend’s show.”

“Honey, that’s amazing to hear! I always remembered how you wanted to move to California, now’s the chance.”

I nodded and a sniffle escaped my lips. “Dareen, is everything really okay?”, mom asked again.

“No.”, I breathed and broke down while staying on the phone with mom. Even though it was painful to retell, but I told her everything about Cameron and everything that happened with him. She remembered him as my ‘partner in all of the classes through high school’ and how him and I used to do our projects in the kitchen or the backyard patio.

“I thought he was a good kid.”, she sighed heavily on the other line. “But, Dareen honey, he apologized and you saw how he turned into a wreck just for you. He’s worth the pain.”

“I feel like I can’t trust him anymore, mom. He’s the first one I’ve trusted as more than a friend and I gave him that. I don’t want to get hurt again.”

“Life and love are full of pain, but if you find someone who worth the pain, like you found Cameron, you’re lucky. Honey, you’re only 20 and you already found him, you’re the luckiest girl I’ve known.”

“So, what should I do now?”, I hiccupped while wiping the tears with my free hand. The collar of my shirt was soaked with sweat and there were drop stains from the tears. I could hear Feranix walked outside of my door, just got out from the bathroom, which means I had to take a shower soon.

“Trust him, honey, just put all of your past behind both of you.”

I nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay, mom, thank you, I really need to talk to you. I have to go now, I’ll call you before I leave Virginia, okay?”

“Okay, sweetie.”, by that, we hung up on each other.
***********
“Don’t you dare to put up ‘California girl’ act when you get back here!”, David narrowed his eyes on me and pointed to me with a fry. We decided to just had a simple lunch at a diner, which was actually David and Feranix’s favorite place to ‘get away’ from everyone. It was pretty neat and cute, actually.

I rolled my eyes while chewing my turkey sandwich. “No, I won’t.”, I answered with a little bit of the sandwich still in my mouth. “I won’t be a fake tan, bleach blonde, plastic made bimbo.”

“Now that’s our girl.”, Amy giggled and put her arm around my shoulders. “But, seeing Victor Lenox is producing the show you’re gonna star in, I think we need sunglasses when we meet you again.”

“Oh come on, guys.”, I interrupted. “I’ll still be the same Dareen Turner from Fairfax, Virginia, who has red flaming hair and likes to eat waffle for breakfast, and not to mention, who likes to has… turkey sandwich for lunch!”, I answered and picked up my sandwich for the last part. The others laughed and we enjoyed our food.

It was fun to see my friends happy with their own boyfriends but it was pretty pathetic of me to feel cold and empty as I remembered how someone supposed to be next to me right now. Eric noticed the change of my expression and nudged me on my elbow with his elbow.

“Why the long face, Turner?”, he asked with a smile. Ever since I knew him, Eric and I never talked for more than a minute. He was pretty quite around people and I was busy with Cameron back then.

“I don’t know.”, I muttered and glanced over at David, Amy and Feranix, laughing at something David did. “I’m feeling like I have to trust Cameron again, you know.”

He nodded and took a bite on his fry. “I know it would be hard to trust someone who hurt you, trust me, I know how it feels.”, he chuckled. “But, you know, you’ve seen the guy wrecked himself because of you.”

“You sounded like my mom, literally.”, I giggled and he just rolled his eyes playfully. “But, go on, I want to hear what you have to say.”

“All I’m saying is, I’ve never seen Cameron like that just for a girl. Well, once, he was close to this with his ex, but trashing his room and stuff?”, Eric whistled quietly at the end before continuing. “You’re the first one to flip him inside out.”

I bit my lower lip at Eric’s words. Was I that much of an impact to Cameron? I meant, we didn’t meet each other for years until reuniting again. He said he liked me since high school, but, I only saw him as a friend back then, because I didn’t believe in love. “What should I do now?”

Eric smiled and patted my hand in a brotherly manner. “Call him. Tell him how you feel, heck, tell him to come to the airport so you guys can have a last goodbye.”

“Thanks, Eric.”, I smiled widely and he smiled back. I could tell he wasn’t that much of a hugger and it felt like we already hugged with smiles. I excused myself from the table and went outside the diner to make my call. Cameron’s number was still on my speed dial, so I just tapped number 2 to get his number on call.

The tones were driving me crazy but it sent me to voicemail instead. “Hey, it’s Cameron. Just leave me a message and I’ll get back to you soon!”

“Hi, Cam, it’s Dareen. We need to talk… can you come to the airport later? Because I’ll be leaving for L.A. on 6. Okay… bye.”, I hung up and went back to the diner, wishing Cameron would call me back soon.
*********
The airport wasn’t that crowded when we got there, which was a good thing because I didn’t need to see some couples reuniting or separating. Eric got a trolley for my luggage while David loaded them out from his car’s trunk. When we set them up on the trolley, we walked in and found my departure gate. It was already 4.50 PM and I haven’t gotten a call back from Cameron. Suddenly, I now knew how he felt.

“This is it.”, Amy muttered. I turned around and saw her eyes and Feranix’s glistened. “This is it.”, she said again.

“Amy. Feranix.”, I breathed before engulfing them in a tight group bear hug. Both of them quickly sobbing and sniffling on my shoulders. I closed my eyes while rubbing both of their backs in a soothing manner. “It’s okay, I’ll try to come home for the holidays. You guys could visit me there too.”

“We’ll miss you, Dareen, we really gonna miss you.”, Amy sobbed and tighten the hug. “I wish I could turn back the time and let you shoot me with comments.”

I chuckled and actually smiled. “It’s okay, Amy. I love you.”

“I love you too. We both love you. Until the end.”, Feranix hiccupped as we pulled away. David quickly put his arm around Feranix’s shoulders to comfort her. “Don’t forget about us, Dare.”

“I won’t. You guys are my best friends and you have David and Eric to keep you company. The time will fly.”, I smiled as I wiped my tears with my hands. The three of us laughed at the end.

“Take care now, Dareen.”, now it was the guys’ turns to say goodbye. David pulled me into a warm hug and rocked me side to side a bit. “Keep your promise to stay being our Dareen Turner from Virginia.”

“I will.”, I giggled. “If you ever hurt Feranix, I’ll cut your balls off, you know that?”

He blew raspberries and rolled his eyes. “Psh, if I ever hurt Feranix, I’ll stab myself in the eye with a hot branding iron.”

I laughed and we pulled away. I turned to Eric and he already had his arms open for me to hug him. I quickly got into his hug. “Thank you, Eric, for the advices.”

“No problem, Dare. I’m sorry it didn’t turn out like the way you wanted.”

“At least I gave it a shot, right?”, I smiled up to him.

“You gotta be in the race to win the race?”

I nodded and we pulled away. With a deep breath, I said my last and final goodbyes to all of them before walking towards the check-in counters. My friends stayed where they were and waved their hands. I could still see Feranix and Amy sobbing while waving. It was heartbreaking but they supported me through this. When I looked back again, my friends were already walking towards the exit. I still wished someone would run from the entrance and pull me into a hug. A someone.

Cameron

My eyes shot open to the bright light of the sun that streamed into the living room because I forgot to close the curtains. I didn’t quite remember what happened last night. It became a routine of me for days, due to what happened with Dareen. I even couldn’t remember the last time I had a proper meal!

I quickly reached for my phone at the coffee table and saw that I had a few text messages from David and Eric, saying that Dareen left today. It bothered me a lot but there was nothing much I could do about it. If I go to the airport, it would make Dareen harder to leave because probably I would beg her to not go. I checked my voicemail and heard that I had one new voicemail.

“Hi, Cam, it’s Dareen. We need to talk… can you come to the airport later? Because I’ll be leaving for L.A. on 6. Okay… bye.”, the voicemail recording played. Dareen wanted to talk…

When I glanced at the clock on the wall, it was already 5.10, there was no way she could still be outside of the gate. I ran outside to the driveway and got into the car. In a second, I drove out and sped up to the highway. Good thing I didn’t get pull over by cops because I was driving above the speed limits. The cars were driving so slow or it was just me, but I maneuvered passed them to get to the airport on 5.30.

I parked my car and ran towards the entrance, bumped onto David and the others outside. “Dude, what are you doing here?!”, David asked.

“Where’s Dareen?! Has she left?!”

“I don’t think so, her plane takes off at 6. Cameron, what are you doing here?!”, Amy asked again. I groaned in frustration and ran inside, ignoring their calls. My eyes scanned the people inside, looking for the girl with red hair, who probably stood up like a sore thumb.

My eyes stopped when I saw Dareen, on the other side of the airport, already in the ‘passenger only’ side. I went closer and called for her. “Dareen! Hey Dareen!”, I even waved my arms to get her attention.

She had her earphones in and her back was walking further from me. After a few more calls, it was no use. I completely couldn’t say whatever I wanted to say. I completely lost Dareen.