The Fifth Date

Chapter 29

A/N: Please listen to the video posted beside or above as you read and replay. You can do so without hassle by placing the word "repeat" in between youtube and .com in the url. I strongly suggest you do. HAHAHA.

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Pit-pat. Pit-pat. Pit-pat.

The rain continuously pitter-pattered against my umbrella and the ground. The cold weather made me shiver. It was numbing. Neither my thick long coat nor my gloves can keep me warm nowadays. It had been raining for a month straight.  I stared up at the dark gloomy sky through my transparent umbrella and thought how much pain the sky has been going through to cry in sorrow for this long. Could it be possible that the sky and I felt the same? Or maybe there’s just too much going on in the world and the sky decided to let it rain out of randomness.

The “WALK” sign in green went on and I, along with several strangers beside ,behind, and in front of me, stopped marveling in our own thoughts as we trudged forward to the other side of the road.

I walked.

I kept on walking.

I didn’t know I still had that strength to walk this far. I didn’t even know I still had strength at all. When I turned around the corner and found my destination, I stopped for a second, letting the rain wash away what I was afraid of feeling once I step inside the café. But I knew. Micky and Vicky knew. Even the rain knew how almost impossible it was to reign in the pain and tears I have and walk inside the café like everything was alright. But I did. I clung onto the word ALMOST. 98% done; 2% undone. Just when you thought you were already there betting on it at 98%, there’s just this inevitable 2% that will stop you at any way possible. And we always felt bad about that 2%. That 2% that was supposed to complete what was left incomplete. That 2% that was supposed to fill in what was missing. That 2% that was supposed to happen to what didn’t happen. And that 2% was everything to me. I was hanging on a cliff on that 2%. The knife didn’t go through my heart by 2%. The ocean didn’t drown me by 2%. No matter how 2% of my life was left. I lived. Because I almost died with 98%. But thank God for “ALMOST” because I had 2% left to live on. It served as my anchor—my lifesaver. It was everything that was left of me.

Two percent.

It was all I had.

I opened the glass door and the wind chime jingled just the same for the past few years. The aroma of coffee wafted through the air as soon as I got in. I folded my umbrella and left it by the doorstep and gazed through the crowd. The place was packed and noisy even through the rain. It had been like this since the rain started. I walked carefully, trying not to bump onto people, chairs, and tables like I always did before. When I reached the counter, I glanced down at the table beside me. It was empty. It had always been empty for a year. Micky didn’t let anyone else sit on it thus placed a RESERVED card on the table. A painful rush of sadness made my throat hurt.

“Kristin!” Micky beamed at me.