First and Last

03

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WALKING WHILE HOLDING HANDS IS NOT THAT BAD

C L O U D

W a t c h i n g h i m and stealing glances at him was enough for me. I was secretly admiring him for a year already and this was the first, no— the second time he talked to me. I. . . it always made me nervous to the point that my heart starts racing like crazy.

"That shot earlier was awesome." He said and I felt my cheeks burned.

"T-Thanks?" I wanted to smack my head for sounding not so sure.

He laughed. Oh dammit! He looked so handsome and I was starting to feel conscious with myself that I couldn't think straight.

"How about your friends?" I gathered my courage to speak. It would be so awkward if I didn't.

"They went home first or shall I say they left me alone," he chuckled.

He looked so handsome (how many times does he want me to say this handsome word, huh?) like those male protagonist of my sister's shoujo manga collections.

"T-That's awful."

Awful? Did I use the correct word?

"No, it's not that awful." He put his hands on the pockets of his pants while coolly standing. "And I'm afraid to say that I could say the same thing at your friends."

It's been 12 long minutes since Tim and Jhon left to the rest room. I felt my phone buzzed from my pocket twice and I read the mail making my eyes bulged.

From: Jhon Stephens

Subject: Good luck!!!

Hey, Cloud! Today's ya lucky day!! You gotta head back home with him.

You're welcome dude!

That was the first mail.

Then the second was...

From: Tim McCoy

Subject: Here comes 'spring' xD

When opportunity knocks on your door, you got to grab it!!

The third and four wheels are going to fly..!!!

I can't believe them!

"Is that from your friends?" He asked.

I pressed the power button hastily and shove my phone inside my pocket and nodded. As if he could read it from that distance.

"I. . . It seems like they're gone too. So, I gotta go."

I was cursing those two friends of mine while walking. How could they leave me. Didn't they knew that I was even too shy to talk to him and now they're wanting me to invite him and head back home together? The idea!

"Wait!" Seeing him running towards my direction suddenly had the urge to ran away. Lucky, there was only few people walking and I started sprinting.

"Hey!! Why are you running?" He shouted while ran to his fullest.

"I. . . I don't know!" I increased my speed. "Stop following. . . me!" I shouted.

What are we doing? Some kind of tag game?

This is the first time that I ran with my fullest speed and my energy was already running out, since it was almost the end of the day. My speed lessen and when I stopped from running, I could feel my heartbeat rummaging wildly inside my chest like crazy.

After a few seconds he finally caught up. What surprised me was when he grabbed my hand firmly before he crouched down, bowed his head and catch his breath like crazy.

We stayed like that for two minutes. My longest two minutes of my life! I could even feel the hand he was holding was sweating as if I just washed it without wiping it dry.

When his breathing went back to normal, he stood that startled me while not letting go of my sweaty hand.

Seeing him up close up, he had the most beautiful baby blue eyes as if looking into a calm ocean and his nose and lips—no, no, nooo. I wasn't thinking some weird stuffs here.

"M-My hand." I stuttered while thinking what warm hands he had.

"Why did you run suddenly?" He looked at me intently and didn't pay attention to what I just said.

"I don't know. . . I. . . my hand." I tried to pull my hand but he gripped it tighter.

"No, you'll run away again."

What?

He started walking while not letting go of my hand. Walking slowly, I saw our tall shadows. It pictures a couple walking hand by hand. I bet I was red as a ripe tomato now and wondered how did it turned out like this!

"No! I won't. . . I can't." I said, blushing. Then I could feel his grip loosen and it just made my heart sad, sadder than sad, it felt empty.

What the! What embarrassing things am I thinking?

Walking behind him while facing the faint orange sunset light. Like an artwork walking before my eyes. It felt like a dream.

"Where's your home then?" He asked without looking at me.

"Third station."

I heard him chuckled. "My stop is on the fourth station."

Huh? Fourth? But I haven't seen him rode the train for the past year. I mean, I was riding the train ever since. I've seen many familiar faces from our school but I haven't seen him, not once.

"You don't believe me?" This time he turn and looked at me. The light beautifully illuminated his face. I was breathless.

"I didn't say I don't believe you."

Suddenly, talking to him seems like the most natural thing to do.

The train station was ten minutes walking distance from our school. And the station flat form was filled with so many students, workers and random people waiting for the train. Rush hour.

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