Clementine had become a wild child. Born in America but raised abroad, she now had little regard for the expectations of high society. But her reckless ways eventually catch up with her when she is kicked out of college in New York City and forced t...
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The crowd seemed to have no end. She kept pushing through the people, hoping to push to the from but there was no front.
It was wild, following the crowd. She felt a strange sense of solidarity. Of being one with the people. Clementine was even shouting back the words she could grasp, moving forward with the crowd all fuelled by the same energy.
She was waiting for an end to the crowd, to get to the edge of it, but there was no end in this never-ending sea.
Instead, she came upon an opening. A circle made by the bodies, within which there was the speaker of this whole charade. Yelling through a loudspeaker, the crowd seemed to cheer after every 5 words. Clementine got to the front of that line and stood there, in awe, taking it all in.
If she was claustrophobic, this would have been bad, and she thanked herself for being able to seat calm.
Within the large crowd, the plaza that was like a vacant circle where the real demonstration was going on. There were speakers in the middle, what seems like the leaders of this thing.They were afro-brazilian, and Indian and white and black.
This must have been organized, Clementine thought, as they yelled inspirational things into the microphone, getting the crowd pumping.
And there, amidst all the cheering, on the opposite side of the circle, facing the crowd form the other side, was none other than ZICO.
She somehow heard him among the yells, his distinctive voice. Right across the circle, to the left of the speaker was Zico. As if a vision that came upon, appearing all because she was thinking about him that hard, manifesting his presence.
Zico and his friends, yelling and laughing and chanting along.
Clementine's heart skipped a beat. This is what he was doing? Why didn't he tell me?
Clementine was sure she would have come with him if only he asked.
She tried waving at him, without bringing too much attention to herself, but it was no use. He didn't see her.
She thought it was a vision at first but was firmly grounded in real life when she saw that he was surrounded by his friends, and behind him, the most prominent presence other than Zico himself was the crazy-girl hair. The girl who acted as some sort of rebound when Clementine was recovering from her life-threatening condition, to put it lightly. She wasn't sure if she should get nervous about the situation. She tried waving again, but realizing she was a small particle in this mass of people and that he wouldn't see her like that, she promptly stopped.
So there they were, in the vicinity, separated by a great circle of revolution.
Him and her, separated only by a small revolution.
She noted to herself that there must have been more here than meets the eye.
She even tried imaging running across the circle to get to him, btu it would be much too abrasive. This circle acting like some sort of sacred ground she intuitively knew not to step on.
She saw the crazy girl hair again. Uh-oh. The one that he got with together in a moment of desperation when Clementine was in recovery. She was kind of behind the group, with some other girls.
Though it wasn't him that saw Clementine first, but his friend. A familiar face, he saw Clementine first, peering at her and then nodding at her. She waved back to him, and he nudged Zico, nodding towards her direction.
Maybe because she was staring at Zico now, her internal drama completely overshadowing the event, the friend caught her eye and for a moment he wasn't sure what to do but seemed to finally nudge Zico and nod to her direction.
Zico saw her, his eyes lighting up in surprise, followed by a recollection of thoughts. He exchanged a few words with his friend, and then swiftly and gracefully, no – expertly – made his way along the edges of the circle and got to her.
"ei garota," he came in for a quick hug, "what are you doing here?" he yelled over the noise.
"I just...showed up here," Clementine was feeling a little overwhelmed with how the day took a turn to unexpected.
"You just showed up," Zico mirrored her in a mix of admiration and astonishment.
"You should have told me this was going to be why you'd be 'gone for a few days;! I would have gone with you," Clementine exclaimed.
At that, Zico got almost shy.
"I didn't take this as your scene," Zico said to her, glancing over at his group of friends, some of whom were looking at him expectantly.
"Yeah. But it's different with you," Clementine hoped that he got the message that she would go many places with him, no matter how stark.
"Let's go join our friends," Zico murmured, and before she had time to react, he grabbed her hand and led her, once again expertly, along the crowd.
She said quick hellos but was mostly overtaken by the scene at hand.
The speaker was now having his fellow speakers perform near acrobatics and flame throwing acts. It was all very circus like.
Clementine was nervous, that she would somehow have to compete for Zico's attention with that girl being there too, but it was as if everyone knew their place, and everything happened very naturally. He didn't so much as even look at the other girl, and instead kept holding Clementine's hand throughout the whole thing, glancing at her as if to check if she was okay.
Even when they got separated by the crowd at one point because somebody dropped their bandana and he got up and went to give it back to them, only a few paces ahead, he still made sure to look back at Clementine, as if keeping her in his eyesight would somehow prevent her from being lost.
But she could have been in a labyrinth, and she still would have felt found if she was with him.
And in a way, this was a labyrinth for her mind. Navigating these new waters. And she didn't even mind, because he was her map. And his mind consisted of the maps that helped her find herself. A way back to herself.
She had that peculiar feeling of being seen again. As if, she was only a ghost floating past all the other faces. Unreal, except the moment he puts his eyes on her.
