Such A Silly Game We Play

I'd Always Get To See You

They were leaving their house. They were given 3 days to move out and empty all of rooms. As I sat there listening to their conversation, I couldn't help but feel sorry for all of them. We kids didn't say any word while our parents were talking to each other. I kept looking at Cris, Jeff, and Marion from across the room, yet they didn't look back at me. After hours of listening to them, Uncle Joe asking my dad what they could possibly do and Aunt Manna asking mom about apartments that they could move to, I decided to leave the room since I couldn't handle sitting their, speechless, without any form of help or assistance to offer them. And even more, I couldn't take any more the tension inside the room. 

I stood up, quietly, and slowly walked towards the stairs up to my room. As I stood up, Jeff looked at me while he was still leaning on the wall. He didn't look mad or pissed anymore, he just gave me a concerned look, and in return, I just looked him in the eyes and gave him a small, barely-noticeable, concerned grin.

I didn't know what to do when I arrived at my room, I just needed to get out of dad's office. I walked slowly towards my bed and sat there, still holding my phone. I still remember that I made a promise to John, however, I didn't know if it was right to tell him what happened. For sure he'll ask why Jeff was at our house.

"Hey." I twitched as I heard the voice. It was Jeff's voice, I knew it even though I still didn't see him come into my room, I knew his voice so well. I looked at him for a while as I wondered why he came up to my room, since mom and dad didn't allow any boy to come  up here. And here he was, this handsome, caring, and miserable teenage boy standing in front of me.

"Hey." I stood up, accidentally dropping phone to the floor. "Oh—-"

"Let me," he bent down and grabbed my phone. "Here."

"Thanks. Sorry." He looked at my phone screen as his head tilted to the side.

"You're texting John?" I looked at my phone and saw that it opened to my conversation with John.

"Oh... yeah. I'm sorry, he's just asking where you were since he couldn't find you the past 3 days. I saw him a while ago."

"Oh." I immediately felt guilty, since he might think that I would tell John the whole thing.

"No, I'm sorry. I was just going to tell him that you were here, that's all. I wasn't going to tell him about anything else I promise." I realized that I said that to quick.

He gave me a small grin. "Don't worry", he sat down on my bed, and so did I. "I'll just go to his house after this." I just nodded, and we stayed silent for a few seconds.

"So... what's going to happen?"

He breathed deeply and said, "Well, first we have to move out of our house by Monday, and mom decided we're just going to move to a small apartment right across here."

"Really?" I felt sad for him, but I also felt excited that we would be neighbors. "Well, at least we'll be neighbors, right?" I saw him smile a little, which brightened up my mood a bit. Seeing him laugh because of me was somehow flattering.

"Yeah, at least now I'd always get to see you." I was stunned by what he just said. I was looking at my phone then I immediately looked at him when he said it. Not to expect anything, but, did he really mean it? Or did he just say it to lighten up the mood? I hope it was the first one, because boy, did I want to see that everyday. "Anyway, I think we'll be spending the weekend together."

"Really?" I felt a sudden excitement.

"Yeah, I heard from your parents. You'll go to our house tomorrow. Then on Sunday we're going somewhere, meeting someone again."

"Oh. Well, okay. I'd love to help." He looked at me and gave me a small and sweet smile, he looked longer than usual which made me a little uneasy, so I looked away. 

Then suddenly, we heard his mom's voice, calling him from downstairs saying that they were already leaving. We stood up immediately and walked towards the door, until he stopped and looked at me again. "Leena? Could you still keep it a secret?"

I didn't hesitate to answer, not even a bit, even though I badly needed too talk to somebody. "Of course. If you want me too."

"Thank you. I'll visit John after, but I'll just make something up. You can text him now, you know."

"Sure, sure. I'll text that you're coming in a while."

"Okay." And here we were again, awkwardly standing in front of each other, not saying a word. So I decided to make the first move.

I stepped a little closer to him, smiled, and loosely wrapped my arms around him with one of my hand patting his back. Then immediately, I felt his strong and firm arms move  around my waist and felt both of his warm hands at my lower back, which made my body move closer to his leaving no space between us. I felt a little conscious and nervous as this happened, but deep down inside, it felt awesome. So this is what it feels like being tightly hugged by a boy you like. 

We both went down the stairs. I said goodbye to all of them, and when they all went out to the driveway, I stayed inside, waving one last time at them, and went straight to my room. I still remembered the feeling of his arms around my body. I liked it, heck, I loved it. In those few seconds we were so close to each other, I felt warm and safe around his strong and firm arms. So that was the feeling. Now I know.

Immediately pulled myself together and stopped rethinking about what happened as I remembered that it was now the right time to text John, and so I did saying:

John, he's at our house. But he said he'll visit you in a while.

He's okay.

- Leena

... even though deep down, he wasn't. Somehow, I felt so privileged because it was only I who knew what was going on. I could see that he really trusts me, which makes me feel that I could now trust him too.