Forgettable

Meeting peculiars pt3

I knew who it was; it was Hugh Apiston. Claire and Olive were talking about how he and Fiona had something going on between them. I smiled at him, and he held his hand out. I shook his hand while he introduced himself. "Hugh Apiston, The Bird told everyone to get to know you, so we wanted to see if you wanted to come and meet with us for a while." He said it with a thick Irish accent. I'm not sure why, but his Irish accent was kind of intimidating. It's probably because I've never heard anything like it. I only knew that it was Irish because Enoch made fun of him for being Irish.

"Sure, I'd love to meet with you and your friends." I said. He smiled at me and led me to a place that looked like a garden. There was the girl who I think is Fiona with the messy hair growing flowers, and there was the invisible guy who I think is Millard reading a book. Fiona tapped Millard's shoulder once she saw him with me, and they both waved at me. I smiled at both of them. Once we walked over, Millard fixed himself up a bit and introduced himself once again.

"Hullo, nice to properly meet you, Matikas." He said it in what I can assume is a British accent.

"Nice to meet you too, Millard." I said it in my Filipino accent.

Then, when I saw Fiona, something clicked in me; she reminded me of one of my cousins for some reason, so I asked, "Mano po." I then held out my hand and bowed slightly. After a moment, I wondered why she wasn't giving her hand to me, and then I remembered I wasn't in the Philippines and everyone was looking at me. I quickly got up and apologized.

"Ey! Sorry! You reminded me of one of my family members back home."

She whispered something into Hugh's ear, and he said back "She said it was okay, but asked what Mano is and why you held out your hand."

"It's a thing we do in the Philippines where people who are married that we haven't seen for a generous amount of time, like our parents, would hold out their hand and we could put it on our forehead. I don't think that was the best explanation."

I thought for a minute about how I could explain it better, but then I got an idea.

"Hugh, do you mind if I use you as an example of how we do it in the Philippines?"

I saw his expression change slightly before he arose and stood in front of me.

"Okay, just place your hand like this." I rearranged his hand, and I made it sort of like you were weirdly dipping only your fingers into water. I then said, "Mano Po!" and I used my hand to kind of place it sideways from where Hugh placed his hands. Then I placed it under his fingers and placed his fingers on my forehead.

I felt Hugh tense a bit once I placed his hand on my head, but I could feel him calm for a bit once I removed his fingers. Millard then wrote something in his note book, but it was probably about what he just saw.

I smiled at him once I rose up and removed his hand from my forehead. After what had happened between us, he just gave me a smile, like he had just walked onto me eating my own hair. He went to stand with Fiona, and she whispered something in his ear. "Fi said thanks for showing that example and that if you didn't mind, if you could stay a bit longer to talk more," Hugh said a bit hesitantly. I told him that I would love to stay and talk more.

Hugh and Fiona talked a bit more, and like Claire and Olive said, it did look like they were actually dating. I tapped what seemed like Millard's shoulder and whispered if they were dating or not.

"As Hugh's best friend, I'm sure they've kissed before, but Hugh is just too shy to admit that he likes Fiona."

I was shocked; I was sure that They were dating. Hugh would go on and on talking about anything, really, and Fiona would give small or just one-sentence answers. Fiona had a beautiful voice, yet she didn't talk much. I wanted to know why she didn't talk much, but that was most likely an invasion of privacy, especially when I just came from a foreign country.

Millard talked with them as well, but for some reason he brought me up to talk more times than I thought he would. I guess I didn't mind spending more time talking than I expected, plus at some points we would talk about some stuff that happens to people our age. I think there are easy people to talk to, and I think I might consider talking to them more.

They brought up other people that I didn't think i met, like Victor, Bronwyn, and Emma.