Back Into Your Arms

Three weeks passed and I received no call, I was beginning to lose hope.
I paced back and forth through my classroom waiting for my students to arrive when I noticed a figure enter the room from the corner of my eye.
I looked up and it was him.

“John” was all I was able to utter out.
After realizing he most likely wrote the poem, and stalking him on social media, the way I saw him had changed. I didn’t feel like he was much of a stranger anymore.

“Hi” is all he said to me.

“What are you doing here?”

“I signed up for the class”

I looked at him confused as I reached over for my roster. Sure enough, his name was there.
I blinked a couple of times, then looked up to see him again.

“You never called”

“Melody, I know, I’m sorry”

“As long as you know” I replied silently and went to my desk to give him some of the papers I gave the new students.
He looked around and sat on the closest seat to the front. The closest seat to me.

“John” I complained

“Mel” he simply replied.

“How do you know me?”

He let out a heavy sigh.
“Mel-” he began but was interrupted by the entrance of a few of my students.

I switched from my “upset face” to my “I’m a teacher face” and greeted my new students and handed them the new papers.
Soon enough the class was filling up, and John was just looking at me the whole time, his head resting on his hand.

I heard a couple of my student’s whisper about how handsome he was. I simply rolled my eyes.
“Welcome to your first day of class, I’m Melody Riley your instructor, you guys can call me Miss Riley. I’ve been teaching cooking classes for the last 7 years, you can find my certifications and a little more about me on the pamphlet I handed out to you guys. As you guys know, this is a beginner to intermediate level class, my goal is to help you guys get comfortable in the kitchen and be able to cook for your friends, families or significant others without hesitation. We will focus this first week on making breakfast, proper food handling techniques, and getting comfortable using the oven and the stove. Are you guys ready? Let’s begin, I’ll pass out all the ingredients” I said getting excited to teach class again, I had almost forgotten about John sitting there at the front.

I started teaching them how to make a simple omelet, sunny side up egg and some scrambled egg muffin cups. Something easy that would help me evaluate where everyone was at in terms of their cooking experience.

I watched John as he was able to successfully accomplish all tasks.
The whole class overall was a good one. They were amazed at how even though they were simple things they had done before, the methods I had showed them had helped them avoid mistakes they usually made, like the egg sticking to the pan for one.
When I dismissed class, John remained seated. He waited until everyone in the class had left. I finished cleaning and looked at him.

“So?” I asked.

“Would you like to go take a walk with me?” he offered.

“Are you going to tell me how you know me?”

He nodded.

“Fine” I replied and led him out, as I locked the building and we began walking down the street. He cleared his throat.

“I met you back in high school, freshman year, English class”

“Freshman year?”

He nodded.
“Freshman year, we sat side by side in class”

“Then what?”

“Well, we bonded over falling asleep in class and our love for death cab for cutie”

“I fell asleep in class?”

“Oh yes, and for some reason you always got away with it” he laughed as if remembering, it hurt me that I didn’t even know I did something like that.

“Tell me more” I demanded.

“Well um, sophomore year we had 4 classes together, so we saw each other most of the day, we became good friends Mel”

“How come this is my first time hearing of you?” I asked confused.
We stopped walking.

“That’s something you should ask your brother” he whispered.

“My brother?”

“I don’t want you to fight with your family Mel, but if you really want to know, you should ask your brother”

I didn’t understand what my brother had to do with me not knowing about John.
“What about the roses? Did you like me in high school or what?”
He started laughing.

“Oh yeah, I had a big crush on you”

“That’s it, we never dated or anything?”

“Dated? No”

“Oh” I said slightly disappointed, he noticed this.

“What? Did you want us to have dated?”

“No, I mean, I just thought maybe…” I felt so embarrassed, maybe he wasn’t the one wrote me the poem, maybe it wasn’t mine to begin with, the poem never did have my name on it.
He laughed.
I shot him a glare.

“But I did like you, that’s why when I saw you were teaching classes here in Brooklyn I figured I would stop by. It’s been 10 years since I last had seen you, I thought maybe your memories would have come back”

I shook my head.

“They never did”

“Yeah, I see that now”

“Anyways, tell me more about what I was like in high school” I said to him as we continued walking.

“Well, um, in despite of you falling asleep in class, you were a top student. You were quite popular freshman and sophomore year”

“Only freshman and sophomore year? What happened junior and senior?”

“I don’t know, I think you started hanging out with some baseball player and his friends”

“Baseball player? Who?”

This was all new to me.

“Gosh, I don’t remember that fools name” he said and laughed.

“Oh”

“Yeah, you stopped hanging out with the popular crowd then”

I nodded, he knew plenty about me. I wondered if he knew about the piano classes.
“Wait, did you by any chance have piano class with me?”

His eyes went wide.

“Ah, piano class? You never took music in high school”

“What? But my family told me that’s where I learned”

“Did they really?”

“Yeah, they did…”
Nothing was making sense, he was either lying to me, or they had lied to me.

“I taught you” he whispered.

“YOU taught me?”

“Yeah, sophomore year, afterschool in the music building”

“You know how to play the piano?”

“Of course” he said and smiled.

“Wait, do you remember how to play the piano then?”
I shook my head.

“No, but I have recordings on my old iPod of me playing. After the accident, I forgot how to play”

“Really? That’s a bummer”

“Yeah”

“I could always teach you again sometime” he offered.
I smiled.

“I don’t think I can learn it again, I tried taking lessons when I was 20 and trust me, I simply couldn’t”

“Maybe you need your original teacher to teach you again”
We both laughed a little, there was a moment of silence.

“Would you like to go out to dinner?”
I looked around, almost positive he was talking to someone else but he was looking at me.

“Dinner? When?”

“Right now”

“I-I mean”

“C’mon, we can continue talking there, it’s better than us walking on the street waiting to be mugged”
He had a point, I was about to suggest we do it another time when he grabbed my hand and waved over a cab, he opened the door for me to get in so I did.

“Where are we going?”

“Michael’s of Brooklyn, ever been there?”

“No, I haven’t. I don’t really go out much”

“You live in Brooklyn but don’t go out much?” he scoffed.

“I’m typically the type of person who stays in to read”

“Yeah, I know” he said and chuckled. I saw him reach into his pocket as he took out a folded photo.
He handed it to me. I unfolded the photo and to my surprise, it was me and him. He was wearing a baseball uniform and I had a big poster in my hand with his name on it. His arm was around my waist and I looked very happy.

“Wait, you played baseball?”

“Yeah, I did”

“You were in the baseball team, yet you can’t remember the name of the fool I started hanging out with that made me lose my popularity?”

He laughed so hard.

“Gosh Mel, are you really that upset about having lost your popularity”

“I’m upset that I don’t know who I started hanging out with”

“Mel, the fool in the baseball team, was me”