Chapter 2: Getting The Box

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(NOT EDITED)

Chapter 2: Getting the Box.

              I wiped my tears and sat in that trance for about ten minutes. I opened the dressers’ drawer casually. And to my surprise found a little pink box with a cute ribbon tied to it, I remember that Summer had this box with her. But she never showed me what was in it; each time I tried to get a peek at the box she would slap my arm and say,

“Ethan, stop! You can’t see what’s inside. That is really personal,” she said.

And I would still peek in but she would close it, and then I would kiss her nose to make her forget about the fact that she was angry with me. And each time the box would be left in some corner because I would forget about it.

Once I had asked her about it, and she had just given me a hint that it was about me and her. Then I had asked her why I could not see it, to this she was just mute.

I remember her telling me that I could see it, but there was a condition.

She had told me I could see it when she was not around and I had just taken it as one of her sadistic jokes.

And now it had turned to a bitter truth.

She was really no more and I could see it all by myself, I really felt bad for not taking her seriously. How life could play games with us.

This was the freaking truth.

She was no more.

I had to accept it.

But I couldn’t.

That was also a well known fact.

There never was and never will be another Summer in my life.

I would live with this fact all my life.

Shoving the heavy feelings in the back of my mind in some corner where they could wait to be acknowledged for a while.

I opened the pink box. As soon as I opened it I was rendered speechless when I saw what exactly was inside it.

ALL …all the memories or rather the things that connected both of us were in it, from our first meeting to the last one.

Every little thing which I gave her or things that were insignificant to me, like a single flower I had given her on some random day was kept with the utmost care.

The first thing that caught my attention was that particular flower, to be precise, it was a simple Lily.

Probably for you or any other person it would have been an ordinary Lily, but for me it was really important. Because if that Lily wouldn’t have been there, I would have never met someone as beautiful as Summer.  

It was my and hers.

And nobody could understand the meaning it held for both of us.

I still remember our first meeting.

Drew, my best friend and I were having a friendly fight, and he had pushed me on purpose towards Summer. We were just seniors' in high school and it was all too well.

So as Drew pushed me I dashed into a quiet Summer who was walking past me, she was carrying books which fell on ground. Ashamed by my lack of awareness I quickly bent down to help her, and she looked quite surprised. I just gave her, her books and she went off.

But I kept staring at her like a fool, rubbing the back of my neck, as I saw her receding figure.

In the lunch break to be polite and really sorry, I plucked a Lily and walked to her table where she was sitting with her friends. She was discussing something with her friend, when she saw me coming, her expression changed as if she had just seen a ghost.

 Her eyes grew so huge as if they were ready to pop out. And she stopped whatever she was doing and stared at me.

I felt really self-conscious as I covered the distance between me and her.

I just went there and held the Lily in front of her. My one hand holding the lily lightly so it won’t crumble and I rubbed the other hand nervously at the back of my neck chewing my lower lip.

Her two friends sitting next to her started giggling and when I gave them a dirty look they covered their laughs with coughs. Summer hushed them to be quiet and I mentally adored her cute actions.

Then she turned to me and took the Lilly. I was really dumbfounded about what exactly I was supposed to say next, so I said the most embarrassing thing.

“Umm…would you like to go out with me?” I said and bit my lip for doing so.

Her expression changed to that of amusement; well at least she was enjoying me. And I think she well knew the effect she was having over me.

“What?” she said softly, but I knew she had heard me right, and that she was just pretending that she did not hear me.

 I took in a few deep breaths before I said anything.

“Would you like to have coffee with me some time?” I asked smiling a little at her.

She gave me a warm smile looking at the Lily and then looking at me. She just nodded at me and titled her head to one side in a way in which she looked cute.

“Yeah, sure,” she said still smiling.

Now I was really being dumb.

Ask her, her number Ethan, so you can call her.

Come on dude what is up with you?

Have you just been whipped?

“Can you give me your number as I think I lost my number,” I said using the most famous and clique line.

She just shook her head and scribbled her number on a piece of paper and handed it to me.

I touched the Lily lightly and let the soft feeling get to me. I was back in Summers’ room with her pink box right in my lap and the Lily which was kept perfectly safe.

How fragile it looked now. Just like Summer was.

 After our first meeting I did call her and we did go for coffee. But that was not that. We frequently met at pubs and coffee shops.

She told me about her mother, and that she just lived with her father.

We loved each other’s company and we never ran out of topics to talk about. We always had something or the other to talk about.

Sometimes I would run to her when I would have something to bitch about and she would too listen to my stories with all her attention. 

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