Under The Lotus Tree

Chapter 1

*1964, New York*

I was always surrounded by women.

From my childhood up to this day, not many men were in my life. With the exception of my father, whom I caught glimpses of occasionally, as he was getting off to work or when he forgot to close his office door.

He is an intimidating man, I must admit. Tall frame, sharp, unforgiving eyes, a permanent discerning expression on his face. The word that fits him best is 'unreachable'.

Of course, I also caught glimpses of boys and men in the street. But they did not peek my interest.

Due to this lack of male presence in my life, I did not find anything abnormal in my indifference regarding men nor in the deep admiration I held for women.

As I grew older, people started pestering me. Always asking if I was interested in a boy. Whe I said I was not, they would translate my denial into shyness and just assumed I wanted to keep the 'boy' I fancied a secret.

I thought that as time went by I would too find a man that I could fancy. But, at the same time, I could not stop myself from following around the pretty girls in my class, with the excuse of trying to be their friend or from stopping by the convenience store a little too regularly in order to look at the pretty cashier.

Therefore, I have finally come to the conclusion, that the day I will fancy a man, will never come.
I denied it for quite a long time. But let's be honest. It was pretty obvious.

Now, I am sitting on the floor behind the school building. Not because I was avoiding anyone, I just needed a smoke.

Now, now I know you may think that smoking at such a young age was not the best idea but I could not help it. I started just because a pretty girl offered me a smoke last summer and from then on, I could not stop.

What can I do? I am weak to requests from pretty girls.

Anyway, back to the present.

I loved the back of the school. It may not be the best preserved part of the building. But what made it better than all the other parts was the big lotus tree that was planted there. Ever since I was young, I was awfully attached to this tree for some reason.

I even gave it a name. Roxanne, I named it. I read somewhere that the name meant dawn and it had struck with me.

Perhaps, if I had any interest in men, I would name my future child that.

When it was hot in the summer I would always sit under Roxanne and occasionally steal one of its fruits.

I was too focused on the tree that I did not hear the sound of footsteps coming near me.

That being said, I was startled by the sound of a sweet yet judgemental voice.
《That's one bad habit you got there.》
Curious, I looked up to see who did that voice belong to.

...

Wow.

She was. Wow.

Sharp yet soft features. Short-ish blonde-
No,no it's not exactly blonde, it had a reddish hint to it, especially now, that the sun was complimenting it.

Her eyes. Her eyes were a really light brown. The lightest I've ever seen. Perhaps, if I look a little closer I could even find hints of green-

《Um, why are you getting so close to me? And would you please just throw away the damn cigarette.》

Turns out, in my attempt to fully grasp her eye color I had gotten a bit too close.

I immediately pulled away and put out the cigarette.

《Haha, silly me, silly me.》 I said trying to fix the very akward atmosphere I had created. But she still looked at me as if I had just escaped from an asylum.

Just as I was about to try to say something else in order save myself from this peculiar situation, she bursted out laughing.

Uncontrollable laughter, may I say. I could not tell if she was making fun of me or not.

But at that moment, I did not care. Because her smile truly made me forget whatever nonsense I was about to spout.

Illuminated by the sun, with that smile on her face, she looked like an angel. No,no. It was as if she, herself, was the sun.

At that moment, I would do whatever she asked me. No matter how ridiculous the request was.

《You're real funny, huh.》 She said while wiping a tear that had escaped due to all the laughing she had done. 《I'm Oriana, pleasure to meet you.》she smiled, and I melted. How come I didn't know her? We go to the same school after all.

《I'm Eva, pleasure's all mine》 I tried to give her my best smile and reached out my hand to give her a handshake.
As she took my hand all I could think about was how soft her hands were.

《Well, Eva, I'm sure you know smoking is prohibited, right?》

Oh shit.

《The punishment would be pretty bad if a teacher found out.》

Oh shit.

She bursted out laughing again. 《Oh my don't look so panicked, I won't tell anyone, Eva. Just be a little more careful, will you? If a teacher had come here instead of me you would've been damned, haha》.

I smiled without realizing《Yes, I'll be more careful, thank you》just as I said that, the bell rang.

《Well, I gotta go. See you around, Eva.》
She waved at me, I waved back and as she was walking away I couldn't help but wonder...

Why the hell was she at the back of the school?

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AN/
Thank y'all for reading<33