The eternality in our ephemerality

Chapter 14. Free hugs.

The blinking resumed to its previous intensity; my eyelids configured themselves to see, in meticulous detail, if the boy I was searching came into peace. But although my school was small and private, I was searching for a minuscule piece in a sea of puzzles...

He did not appear in my eyes. Better said, no new face came into my sight. I had to remember that I actually did not remember how he looked.

Periods flew by, and in every single one i sat at the back, thing i never did, and  glanced up to the sky, through the tiny windows. They all looked at me as if i was ill, as if I had been through a traumatic experience.....maybe I had.

 I still could not bare to tell my friends the truth, as petty as it was.  As expected, my overthinking forced my shoelace to remain untied. I only noticed it until i saw my upcoming future: my face splattered into the cement.

A valiant arm grasped heartily my hand and pulled me aggressively back to centre place.

"Watch it little girl!" Ty sang, wrapping his arms around my body, neglecting my almost-stumble.

"Ty! Hi!" the words hurried out of my lips as my gasped breath returned to its adequate symphony "Thank you! Oh! Sorry I've been so distracted lately...did I hurt someone? Did I hurt you?"

The seriousness of his eyes evidenced his clear calm: I was the tornado of concern with eyes of suspicion and a pucker on my pale lips...lips being bitten at the shamefulness his sweet smile emended.

"I am fine" he huffed with an air of sweetness. "You, despite your craziness , are also fine. Now, stop apologising for things you didn't do. I'm lucky I found you. But nothing will happen if I am next to you. Now walk straight, you're hunching"

I nodded and followed his orders...until we both laughed because of how serious he sounded. It was so unlike him. His essence could be narrowed down to the class clown, but he was sweet and easily misunderstood

We had been friends ever since we were young yet somehow at sometime he had faded away.

His hand, finally settling on one particular place after checking me for damage, grasped my elbow and led me across the way. My eyes fell on his glasses as my fingertips grasped his hand and I pulled him into another hug.

"I missed your hugs."

"I missed hugging you. " I confessed, my thoughts sinking into the abyss they were created from "You'll never lose my hugs.And thankyou, for not making me fall"

"anytime"

His hand, without further ado, placed mine above his and directed my dispersed body into a glassed door with a bright, colourful sign that allowed the viewers to see the word: Tutor Room.

With his arm still cribbing my shoulders: we entered through the door a few seconds before the bell rang...I undressed a perfectly accurate smile, quite ironic, for the only occasions that have fled across me were incidents. I, in my innocent carelessness or plain stupidity, kept smiling.

I directed to the table i always sat at and after waving good afternoons, finally sat in the last chair left.  My small society consisted of few members: Oliver and Jane were the only ones capable of truly comprehending the confusion I had for character. Jane was the type of girl who had the same authentic glimpse of joy most girls envied, and of course, a beautiful charcoal afro despite the ghostly paleness in her skin.

Jane's arms wrapped around mine: her curiosity to my latest incident visible in the contour of her deep brown eyes. I, without revealing much, smiled at her sweetly, pressing her hand as a sign of intuition and understanding....she understood.