His simple smile to the place I had in mind replayed in my head. Even though it was a dare, I carefully looked over his features for any signs of discomfort so that I could change to a place that was more to his liking. It seemed like the dare amused him so I planned the night out, hoping that he would have as much fun as I would have.
I quickly rummaged through my closet for any casual clothing that would be appropriate for the outing. I would've loved to wear a piqao since it complimented me to a great extent but it's length as well as its material hadn't provided enough space to move around as I would've liked to. I moved further into my closet until I found the large stack of clothes that was my previous style before I moved into this town.
I ended up choosing a denim dungaree with a colorful jersey, a simple outfit that was my absolute favourite. My mother hated this outfit with a passion and it was required since I wore it at every opportunity that I had. She hadn't understood why I gravitated towards this outfit when my closet was filled with different outfits that were more vibrant such as dresses, skirts or coats. I never expected her to understand how I felt extreme satisfaction whenever I stood infront of the mirror and looked over my appearance.
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"This outfit needs to be burnt," my mother said as she came into my room with a stack of shirts in hand. "You need to wear something else," my mother said as she took a seat and watched me fixed my hair. I nodded my head even though I had no plans of rummaging through my closet for anything else.
"I need to go. Bye, mama," I waved to my mother who placed all of my ironed clothes in my closet and rushed outside where I was sure Myeol waited for me. I slowed down when I reached to the front door as my nerves started settling in. I took a few deep breathes and rubbed my arms on my clothes one last time to take in my emotions and left the house.
I smiled when I saw the familiar car parked on the other side of the road. Myeol sat on the hood of the car, a blunt in between his lips and a bouquet of red roses in his hand. I looked behind at the house, checking if my mother had rushed to the windows in order to check the new "friend' that I told her about and was relieved to see no poorly hidden figure or a bunch of curls peeking through the curtains as she would be livid to see that I hung out with a boy who smoked weed. That for her was a definition of a bad boy.
When I was just a few feet away from him, he pulled out the blunt from between his lips, threw it onto the sidewalk pavement and crushed it with the souls of his shoe. "Hey, Sugar," he called out with the smile and extended his hands with the flowers towards me, urging to take it from his hands.
"Hi," I whispered back and shyly took away the bouquet of flowers from his hand. The small nickname that he gave me was something that was sprung up on me the day that we spent by the burger restaurant. He called me 'Sugar' when my attention turned to unnecessary things instead of our conversations and when I asked about the nickname, he told me that it seems fitting for me since I was obsessed with sweets. "You really didn't have to do this actually."
"I just wanted to give you something," Myeol said as he ran towards the passenger door and opened the door for me. He then ran around the car and took a seat by the driver's side. "You look beautiful. This style really suits you," he said with a small smile as he drove out of the nieghbourhood and towards our destination.
Maria's skates, the rollerscating venue was just a few minutes away, as so I've heard from others. Christine, her friends and many others have been talking endlessly about this place and it made butterflies erupt within my stomach from the way people have sold the place. Maria Skates was situated in an entertainment center that was built by Maria Adam, a multimillionaire, who had multiple businesses across South Africa. My classmates had told me that this was one place that I had to visit because whatever Maria chooses to do, it had the most perfect of reviews.
"Wow," I whispered when we finally reached the destination and looked at the large building that had many posters that advertised the stores that were inside. The building was large and seemed futuristic with all of its floor to ceiling windows, escalators and the many stores that held a sophisticated outlook on it.
We both both came out of the car and walked towards the building. It was rather full, it was much expected since it was the most spoken of place within the town and it had just been opened to the public. When we looked at the many people who lined up their the rollerskating place, I began to get deflated.
After 30 minutes of standing in the long line, we finally reached the podium where we bought some rollerskates and started our day.
~~~~~~~~~
I wasn't a pro at rollerscating so it was inevitable to fall every once in a while when I was distracted but I had the best of times. Myeol however was reluctant to rollerscate but only agreed when I explained that I needed someone to hold me when I loose my balance. I moved around the place with a large smile whilst Myeol followed closely behind, a face void of any emotion.
After 2 hours we were finally exhausted and chose to eat at a nearby restuarant, Salt 'n Pepper, another restuarant that was popular amongst the community members. We sat at the booth right at the end of the store, away from the loud teenagers and the long queue. It was a perfect place where you could be amongst the crowd but also enjoy the peacefulness of being away from the hustle and bustle near the entrance.
I played around with the pasta on my plate as I thought of what I was going to say. I had thoroughly thought it through these past few days and had multiple conversations with Christine, I'm going to express my feelings towards Myeol. I couldn't pretend that we were just merely friends anymore. We were 17 and much too old to hide behind masks and pretend until somebody said something.
"Myeol," I called out as I placed my fork on the side of my plate and said a few prayers in my mind when his attention turned away from his plate to my face. "I like you. I like you so much that I want to start a relationship with you." I wanted to say more, explain why I had come to that point but nothing escaped my lips when I noticed the raised eyebrows of Myeol. It looked as though it was a silly confession but I gathered the small pieces of confidence and continued, "will you be my boyfriend?"
