Love with a Bang

3. Lachlann

I'm a fucking idiot. A buffoon. A good for nothing asshat. What was I thinking? Trying to orchestrate one of those 'meet cutes' my sisters are always banging on about. What a great idea Lach, purposely bump into the woman whose attention you want, in hopes she'll be overcome with excitement at your presence. My ego isn't normally that big. I realise I'm still standing there, tub of ice cream in hand, when I see a small child trying to get into the ice cream freezer, while its mother quickly grabs it and hushes them, reminding them not to talk to strangers. Great! My second day in town and I am already going to be known as the creepy guy. I place the tub back in the freezer and continue browsing the store. The elevator style music entrusted to lull you into buying more products playing in the background as my inner monologue continues to berate me about my stupidity. I make my way toward the bakery, stopping to grab a pecan plait. They were my grandmother's favourite. I make my way towards the tills, just in time to see Aida and her friend high tailing it toward their car.

"What took you so long, man? The beers are getting warm", Nate shouts as I walk in the door. Clearly he hasn't moved from the spot on the couch where I left him over an hour ago. That spot is sprawled one leg over the arm of the seat, the other with its foot planted on the floor as he uses one hand to wave the PlayStation controller in the air and another to shovel crisps into his mouth. "Look at the guy, man. Total bot behaviour. He probably still asks his mom for pocket money." Yeah, Nate is not exactly a mature gamer. He still behaves like a 13 year old boy, sometimes worse, dishing out insults behind the comfort of an online persona. In other words he's a dick. A dick who happens to be my oldest friend. I used to visit this town every weekend, visiting my grandparents. Those weekends became my saving grace. This was the only place I could truly be myself. School was rough. With 'it' groups and cliques as far as the eye could see, I forced myself to fit the mould wherever possible, avoid the bullying I bore witness to on a daily basis. That still didn't stop me from falling for her. Aida. The goofy girl next door. When we moved to a bigger house to accommodate my parents' incessant need to have more children, I was allowed to pick my own room. I chose the room at the side of the house. My parents thought I was crazy. I was given the first pick of rooms and I didn't pick the biggest. It was the window that got me. If I sat with my back to the wall in the little nook, I could see into the forest behind our house. I used to sit there and read, daydream, sketch, you name it. A week later I saw her in the window. She looked sad, but when she sat in her equivalent window nook, and picked up some knitting needles, her face lit up. I must have been staring because she turned to look out the window and caught me. At first she looked scared, but then the smile returned to her face and she waved. I waved back, and that was it. I was a shy kid. I didn't talk if I didn't have to. I found that puberty hit my vocal cords hard. The confident depth of my voice didn't match what I felt on the inside, so I spoke as little as possible. But somehow, that didn't turn her away. She waved and smiled at me through the window almost every evening. When no one sat beside me at lunch, she sat beside me. Not once did she force conversation on me. She seemed as content in the comfortable silence as I was. A few years later I joined the school paper committee. Of course, Aida was there. Shy, but like a ray of sunshine, surrounded by the team, each of them basking in her sunny aura. I couldn't get away with complete silence here and I knew it. So, when I needed help, or just wanted to chat, I went to Aida. She was shocked at first, I could tell. She probably thought I couldn't speak. However, she surprised me. As quick as the shocked look on her face appeared, she replaced it with the most genuine smile I have ever seen. She spoke to me with such gentleness and patience, as if frightened to say the wrong thing and have me retreat back into my shell. I loved it. Weeks went by and we slowly began chatting more and more. Until, one day we were walking out of the paper room late and out through the soccer team practice. One of the jocks missed his shot and the ball came barrelling towards us. Not thinking, I stuck my foot out to stop it, in fear of it hitting Aida. I stopped the ball, tapped it once with my heel and kicked it back to the goalie on the pitch. Two of the boys and the coach came running towards me, begging me to join the team. Apparently, quick reflexes and the ability to kick the ball in a straight line made me a hot commodity. Of course, me being me, I didn't know what to say so I just rolled with it. I became one of 'the boys', no one looked at me funny when I walked past and almost everyone wanted to be my friend now. Except Aida. No matter how hard I tried, I could never get our paths to cross. Being part of the team meant needing to withdraw from the school paper. By the time practices and matches were over, Aida's blinds were down. We began to drift apart and we never spoke again. I wasn't even sure she remembered who I was anymore, until that night at the party. She looked at me when Jack started spouting his bullshit, hoping I would say something. I couldn't. I was terrified. I told Ter to get him to stop. It wasn't right to comment on a woman's body like that anyway, never mind in front of a crowd of people. Ter ignored me and let Jack keep going. I was so proud of Aida when she stood up for herself. But I could see the fear and disappointment in her eyes. Fear that Jack wasn't going to leave her alone. Disappointment in me, her old friend, for not sticking up for her. I thought it was over, until Jack got his hands on some speed and started saying how he was going to make Aida pay for turning him down so publicly. He started collecting fireworks for the display but wouldn't hand one over for when we were setting up. I heard him talking to someone but I was too busy trying to clear people from the area so we could set the display up. I didn't see who he was talking to until it was too late. About a month later she came back to school, staying for a week, but the bullying was too much. She and her parents packed up and moved to the other side of town, and she enrolled in a new school. I haven't seen her in years, and my first thought was meet cute? Yeah, maybe it was time to rethink my strategy...