Paper Hearts

03. b o x e s

 //i dedicate this chapter to sejal, who has the quirkiest personality//

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It wasn't usual for a gift-wrapped box to fall out of my locker everyday. If anything, it was never usual.

I had been staring at the box for what felt like seconds, but was probably minutes in time. The wrapping was lilac, the bow glossed over in silver. My favorite color was lilac. I reached a hand out and poked the box, testing the waters just incase it was actually an explosive time-ticking bomb that was going to blow up in my face.

Nothing. Not even a slight twitch or jerk to the side.

A wave of relief washed through me as I scooped it up in my hands. I slammed my locker shut with my elbow, and made my way to the library before curiosity gained the best of me before I needed it to.

I walked down the hallway and I was grateful no one had crossed paths with me along the way. It's not average around here for someone to be holding a gift box. Especially a box as elegantly designed as the one currently in my possession.

Once I reached the library, I found an empty table in the far end, and made my way there. In front of everyone, I had to keep my composure calm, inattentive. It would be a disaster of my own if any other's besides Tomas and Michelle knew about my "admirer."

All types of theories were running through my mind about what could be in the box by the time I'd set it down on the table and sat in front of it. I wringed by hands together, placing them on my lap and bit my lip. I wanted to have at least have a valid idea for what was in there. Although the anticipation was eating me inside out, my mind had to prepared for what was hiding in the box.

I stared at it, expecting it to just open and all the contents would just pop and show their selves to me. But obviously, things like that only happened in cartoons.

Taking in a deep breath, I brought a hand up and held onto the silver ribbon that taunted me with it's shiny exterior. I held onto an end of the ribbon, and pulled on it. I watched as my hand guided it to loosening up and coming apart all together.

The ribbon delicately slid off the gift box, and I couldn't wait any longer to open it up.

And that was exactly what I did. I picked up the top off the box and placed it lamely somewhere on the table, not paying attention.

What I was left staring at confused my mind to the core.

Plain white, paper hearts filled the box to the split top, not giving space for anything else. There were no words, no signs, not even a hint of something other than white. How was this a letter if there were no words? I picked it up and lifted it, peering under the bottom to hope to find something. Nothing. I searched all around the box in hope to find at least one words, one sign that there was admiration floating around somewhere.

Unfortunately, I was left disappointed when I couldn't find a single word to give me a clue about what today's gift meant. I huffed and reached for the top, ready to stuff this back into my locker and leave it there for a very long time. "What could that have meant?" I murmured to myself over a few times. I aimlessly twisted the top in my hand, flipping it around.

The moment I was going to put the top over the gift, I catch a glimpse of a yellow object on the inside of the top. Quickly flipping it over, a yellow post-it note stood there, its brightness glossing the caresses in the top.

I took the sticky note in my hand and read the words scribbled across it. "Look for the heart with the golden words." Looking back down at the box filled with the paper hearts, my brain finally registered what the meaning of this all was.

And so I put the note down, and grabbed the first heart.

Nothing. Throwing that one to the side, I picked up another. Nothing. Nothing but white starring back at me.

I go through each and every heart one by one, making sure to the check the front and back, incase I'd missed the words. From what I'd checked so far, none of them had a single letter.

As I was nearing the bottom of the box, I notice a flicker on gold in the corner. I reach my hand down and pick the heart out. And luckily, this one had words on it.

Internally, I thanked God that I didn't have to go through the entire box before finding it.

I focused everything on the paper heart, and scanned the words. My breath hitched when I made sure what I'd read. "Out of all the hearts I went through, yours was the one that stole my breath away." The beat of my heart echoed throughout my body, and the paper shook in between my fingers.

In that moment, my heart was telling me one thing, and my brain was telling me another. But unfortunately – I hadn't prepared my heart for this.