The Moments With You

ANNABELLE

CHAPTER 3

 {5 HOURS BACK IN THE DAY}

**Just before Mel got the grocery that evening, back at the Milford University, like 3 to 4 hours back, when Mel was still together with Sidney at the rooftop, just as soon as they finished about 3 sticks of cigarettes each, they decided to head back to the lecturers' lounge, because Mel, who was a Biochemistry and psychology lecturer had a class on chemistry that was due in a few minutes,

 At this point, they had already gotten to the entrance of the lecturers' lounge, Mel wasn't planning on going in with Sidney, he had to move to an entirely different block for his class, because it was a different major;

 Just as Mel was about to say bye and head out, Sidney held him by the hand and advised him to once again to really think more about what Annabelle told he said "to some extent I trust he words, she was a Psychology major just like you were, and she was really good and still is Mel, I’m sure she must have noticed somethings in you for her to utter those words with that much sadness, according to you, Mel think about it" Mel turned to face him and gave him a proper shake and said "I will Sid, but still try to see my brother at least once, for some reason, it seems like it really bothering you", with a little smile on his face Mel released his hands from Sidney's, backed him and went away from the architecture block, leaving Sidney all shocked down to the bones Sidney asked himself if he made it too obvious “Ezekiel, what am I gonna do with you, what am I supposed to do" Sidney thought as he let out a deep sigh, the opened the door to the lecturer's lounge and walked in, the a colleague who was in there yelled "come on man! You smell like cigarettes, stay 2 meters away from for the rest of the day" Sidney chuckled after hearing that and continued to his seat "sure thing Mr. Evan, sure thing"

 Now close to the Biochem block, Mel had a flash back of everything he and Sidney talked about, "well he definitely succeeded in making the rest of my week quit shitty" Mel thought; "it can't get any worse than this, like literally" Mel mumbled, but as he said that, he got a text from Annabelle, it read;

 "I already had a meeting with my attorney, the divorce papers are ready, should I send it to you or will you come get it at her office?"

Mel saw this message, he felt a chill go down his spin, down to the tip of his fingers,

 "haaa! she couldn't even call me, what exactly did I do to her to deserve this" Mel lamented, “do this kind of shits do happen in reality too" he said so the laughed in frustration but for a short while,

 Then he put his phone back into his pocket, let out a deep sigh and said "anyway, I gotta get ready for class, and in this state, I hope it goes well".

 So, the day ended as well as the class Mel Handled, the students were the first to leave the lecture room while saying their thanks and byes to Mel, but Mel remained in the class, all alone;

 He, just stood alone in that empty class, he was depressed, he stood there for close to 1 hour, not even realizing that time was going, as he stood there all that went through his mind was "how do it come to be like this, while we were dating, we were so happy, we were part of the same major, although I was double majoring then, but when we had psychology classes we were always together, and I really liked her company and I LIKED her too.....Anne you really helped me go through a phase in life, I didn't want to accept it, you brought me out if it, what am I supposed to do now, or is she in Love with another?

The problem Mel phased even though he might not have realized it, was the fact that Mel was depressed because he's marriage was ending, it was because he didn't want to be alone, but all the more it was because of the statement Anne made that never wanted to leave his mind, “the feelings you have for me are not what you think they are and it took me three long years to finally accept it" was what Annabelle said to Mel the day they had an argument that made her leave the house the lived in together for 4 years; and the expression she wore on her face when she said it, he feared that he's selfishness might have locked her up in his own goals and might have caused her a lot of pain, that is if it already hasn't even done that.

 Mel needed a break from all this guilt and thoughts, “isn’t the way you call a guilt-trip" he mumbled to himself;

 As Mel was still standing the consuming himself in his own thoughts, a colleague who was already ready to go home walked by the lecture room, whose door was still wide open from an hour ago when the students left, saw him and called out to him, he said "wow, Me Mel, aren't you gonna head home, we're literally the only ones left in this block, if not all of the school, or are you working overtime today", "Ah good evening sir, no I'm not doing overtime" Mel replied him as he came back with a shock, but still didn't let it show, "ah, then you should really check your watch" he concluded and left,

 As his colleague was leaving, he raised his right hand to check what the time is and he was shocked to find out that 7:20pm was what the time was, the he asked himself “for how long have I've I been standing here for", he check he's pockets to see if he's belongings were still, and it seem like that still all were, cause it looked like he went into a serious trans, imbedding himself in his own thoughts;

 A few minutes passed and he was already at the parking lot of the Biochem block, he located his car, got in, then put his hand into his pocket and not noticed he had no cigarettes left, considering he had actually stop smoking ever since Annabelle started to mean something to him,

 "Ah, I should really stop smoking for real this time" Mel thought, but still drove himself to the nearest convenient store to get some packs of cigarettes;

 Just as he got to the convenient store, he came down from his car and went in, but Mel was finding a hard time looking for the section cigarettes were stacked,

 And that how he bumped into Alec**

 Now facing Alec, Mel felt calmer and a bit relieved, “for some reason, I just like the way he looks at me” Mel thought to himself,

 Alec, now back to his right state of mind responded to him “really, you believe in those kinds of stuff, because you saw me up to three times in a day, you wanna be friends ´Alec said so while looking at him sarcastically, then Mel childishly nodded in affirmation, Alec looked at him in shock, making a rather surprised face and said, “man, you must have made many wrong choices in life”

 Mel became confused on hearing that, but it still sounded a little funny to him so, he laughed it off,”hm? Your ways of speaking has changed and, you don’t really sound so polite anymore” Mel added, “so, what were you expecting, an angel from heaven, there’s no such thing as being polite in this world, the only difference is, I know when I’m wrong and how to take responsibility for it” Alec responded,

 After Alec told him that, Mel was a little surprised as to how he thought, he wasn’t ready to debate with him, of that idea of his was right or wrong, he just that it was unique.

After a few seconds Alec broke the silence, he asked Mel,” what were you were you going to buy” the Mel told him he was just going to get some cigarettes, but he couldn’t find where they were stacked, but then Alec came to his rescue, an told him it was buy the counter, so the ended up walking to the counter together, but silently, though it didn’t take that long to get there,

 So, when the got there, Alec when ahead and paid for the items he had bought earlier, but Mel asked the attendant where he could get some cigarettes, the attendant was female, and immediately he spoke to her, we completely fell for him, that because, Mel was a handsome man an had aa really cool voice that was so nice to listen to, for a moment there, the attendant was carried away and forgot she had to attend to Alec, and that pissed him off a little;

Alec banged the table a little and that brought the attendant back from the little day dream she was having, then she attended to Alec and showed the cigarettes to Mel but while she was doing all that, she kept glancing at Mel who was totally oblivious to it, Alec noticed all this and disliked the fact that she was a little slow but the attendant wasn’t noticing all this and Alec didn’t  feel like creating a scene,

But then, Alec took a careful look at Mel and noticed that it wasn’t just his face that was attractive, his body, his voice as well as his charisma, it was cool,

As soon as the attendant was done answering them, Mel who noticed she has been glancing at him and it made him feel quite uncomfortable, held Alec by the hand and walked off In a faster pace than normal, just as soon as Mel took Alec by the hand, it took him by surprise, Alec felt nervous to the point that it made his face turn red, then just as soon as the got out of the convenient store, Alec released his hand by force, then Mel snapped and realized what had happed, but then he didn’t say anything to him, he wanted to see how Alec would react, he himself didn’t know the exact reason why he held his hand and dashed of the convenient store, all he knew is that he did it by impulse.

Alec, who’s head was now faced down faced down asked Mel in a serious tone, “why did you hold my hand Mel”, Mel paused for a few seconds not answering in order to see what will happen, but that silence angered Alec a little, the it made him raise his head and he said “don’t you know its not right to start grabbing peoples hand out of the blue, you need permission before you can do that”

But Mel gave an awkward reply that got Alec dumbfounded, unable to counter, he asked, “is that why your face is all red” Alec impulsively touched his face as soon as he heard this and all he could think was how and why, but the Mel came to the rescue and said, maybe it was cause of the weather, which was nowhere near believable by both he and Alec, because it was summer, and the nights were not exactly cold,

Mel continued after a laugher, “anyway I did that because the lady in there was literally checking me out and I knew if I stayed there a second longer, she was gonna ask for my number, I really don’t wanna go through that stress, and as for why I dragged you along, maybe it was because I didn’t want to leave you behind or maybe it was just by impulse, I don’t really know, pick whatever answer the best satisfies your curiosity;

As Alec heard this, he didn’t know how he should react or how he should process such an answer, he could only feel his face getting hotter and the thoughts that ran through his head was, “Mel truly had a cool voice that was nice to hear, come to think of it, his appearance is really amazing, he had black hair which looked so silky, he had fair skin which was quite bright, droppy cute eyes, a high bridge nose, bright red lips, with a good height either 183cm to 185cm, so yeah, maybe he is taller than drew, and his body type was the slim and slightly muscular but Drew’s was the athletic type.”

So, Mel broke of the moment of silence once again and asked Alec where his house was, that he could drop him off, but Alec was to nervous already to get into a car with him, so he just refused even though Mel pressured a little, Alec’s answer was still a negative.

After pressing for some time and still getting a negative answer, Mel gave up, went into his car and drove off, as he did so he thought, “well this will be the last time, and he still hasn’t done something about the way he looks at me……………[sigh] Alec, what do you want from me, anyway I still have his number right?”

As Alec saw Mel drove off, he left, as he was walking back home, just as he was about to sink himself in thoughts of Mel, he got a call from Drew and he said

“where the f**k are you man, you taking forever, did you go to Australia or Italy to get them”

As soon as Alec heard drew, he giggled and said “you d**k head, I’m on my way home, don’t eat me through the phone”