Dear Valentine

XI

During the following week, I avoid hanging out with anyone other than my family after school. I fall into a consistent routine. Corrine and Aiden would meet up at my locker, since I am always the last one to get to the lockers. They would wait for me to come out of my last class: physics. At my lockers, we would talk about anything interesting that has happened while I pack my backpack with items I need for the night. After I finished stuffing notebooks and textbooks into my backpack, I would shut my locker and from there, we would stride side by side to Aiden's yellow jeep.

Corrine had to work the entire week. One of her fellow lifeguards fell ill, so she decided to substitute for the sick employee. She didn't seem to mind it at all, even though it was Final's Week. Since she was working more, she was earning extra money. "To contribute to our "Backpacking Across Europe Trip" fund," she had said to Aiden and I when we questioned her motives. She was going to somehow miraculously ace her finals with flying colors nonetheless.

Aiden would deliver her to her designated location, the indoor pool. He and I would bid our goodbyes to Corrine and when Corrine finally reaches inside, he drives away from the pool until it was no longer in sight. When he reached our street, he would pull into his driveway and we would finish listening to the rest of the song that was playing on the car stereo. After the song finished playing, we unbuckle our seatbelts and hop out of the jeep. I would bid my farewell to Aiden and vice versa. From there, he wouldn't take his eyes off of my back until he sees my walk into my house safely. Though he lives just next door, he liked to know that anyone important to him is safe from harm.

Inside my house, I would usually be up in my room for the rest of the day. A stash of junk food laid in the corner of my room. I made some excuse for the amount of food I carried to my room when my mom caught me on the way up the stairs. She looked at me, suspiciously, with her furrowed eyebrows and scrunched up nose. I just shrugged and called them "brain food."

Alex and I texted on the daily. He would text me just once every day with a hint about our first date. From the texts, I had to guess what the date is going to be, where the date is happening, and at what time the date is occurring.

The first hint came in on Monday. I slept through my six 'o clock alarm and thus, oversleeping. I don't know how I managed to sleep through a loud and repetitive buzz, but I did and twenty minutes later, my eyes flutter open to the sounds of cabinets and doors opening and closing. Once I take a glance at the time, I become fully aware that I had missed my wakeup call and nearly fall from onto the ground from the surprise. I am only glad that it wasn't a honk from Aiden's yellow jeep that woke me up.

I scatter across my room, trying to put together an outfit for the day in my closet. When it seems almost impossible to find an outfit that I feel like wearing, I find a cream knitted sweater that was hidden amongst my other clothes with one of the sleeves off of the hanger. My phone buzzes and I scatter back to my bed where my phone lays on my nightstand. Alex's name is displayed across my screen as I read it.

The sunset is not as miraculous and breathtaking as the girl reading this right now, but it's up there. No pun intended. -Alex.

I didn't get it at first. Nothing in the text included any information about our date. At the moment, I was just blushing because I comprehended it as a compliment, a lovely one for that matter.

The second text came just the next day. It was during another one of Mr. Yelvington's boring physics lecture. Instead of helping his students review for his upcoming final, he was teaching more stuff that wasn't even going to appear on the final. Quite frankly, I ignored his talk, thinking that I'll look into the topic he's currently teaching after finals are over, and study for his. When Alex's text appeared, I took a glance at my phone and read it.

A candle could possibly burn through your body if you're not careful. Don't worry. I'll keep you from bursting into flames. -Alex.

I still didn't get it when the text came in. At that moment, it just seemed random and I didn't know what to say. The second text was even more confusing than the first one.

I was still clueless when the third text appeared the next day. Aiden and I were in his jeep still, having one of our habitual jam outs to his car stereo. The song that was playing when he pulled into the driveway had ended, but "Thriller" by Michael Jackson came on and we just couldn't resist not dancing and obnoxiously singing to that song. In the middle of the second chorus, my phone rings, a light ding! interrupts our jam. I quickly turn my phone around so that the screen is faced me. I had only intended to take a quick glance, but when Alex's name popped up on my screen, I nearly gasped and placed it into my hands.

One thing I've never understood is why old ladies like to stitch quilts. I had to try it once, trying to follow my grandma's instructions and I nearly ended up in the ER. (It wasn't an option to decline my grandma's request. It would've been my mom, but she couldn't make it to the visit.) -Alex.

Aiden, who was still sitting next to me, gave me the look Mom gave me two days ago. I began to tell him about the randomness of Alex's texting and read off every text I received from him so far this week. He started to stroke his fake beard, which he had said years ago that one day, he will try to go one. I softly laughed at him while he tries to think up an explanation.

"You guys have a date this weekend, right?" he finally speaks up, directing his eyes at me. I simply nod and after, he proposes his theory, "Maybe he's trying to hint at what this date is all about."

After what Aiden had told me, the next day, I began to get a grasp at what Alex was trying to attempt. I wrote down all of Alex's i-guess-not-so-random texts on a piece of lined yellow paper that I ripped off from a memo pad I found lying on Dad's desk in the office room. I sat in his black leather office chair, spinning around in circles. After about twenty rotations of trying to think up what Alex's hints meant, a text causes my phone to come alive, initiating the fourth hint.

Carousel. Bouncy house. Those seem fun, but playgrounds and some swings seem more fun in the long run. -Alex.

The realization of Alex's intentions finally makes it easier for me to understand his texts. I try to piece together what I have received so far, but was still missing one piece.

The last piece of the puzzle came in on Friday. I was in the middle of getting ready for bed, brushing my teeth inside my bathroom with my phone lying on the counter just next to the sink. The phone vibrated as the text popped unto the lit screen.

A date with the dear Valentina on a wonderful Saturday. The forecast for tomorrow is sunny and funny, with a chance of a good date in the center of my heart. -Alex.

After I finished reading the text, I spit out the foam of toothpaste in my mouth once I finished brushing into the sink. I gurgle water in my mouth and spit it after a few seconds. I repeat the same process three times before washing my mouth and wiping it clean with the light pink towel hanging on the towel rack.

I didn't seem to get if this text was a hint or just a reminder of our date. I placed my cheeks my hands, curled up into fists. I reread the text for what seems like the hundredth time and try to point out anything that seems random, even it's off just barely. After changing my tactic in breaking the code, "in the center of my heart" doesn't seem to match with the rest of the text. I replaced "my heart" with a location and at long last, I have found where X marks the spot.

A candlelit picnic in the center of the park, just when the sun is about to set.