IF I FALL - #Wattys2016

BARBECUE DAY | TOM

Ok.. She acted weird that night on the terrace.

Her, who could stay hours talking with me suddenly sounded cold and her mood somehow changed without a warning. Well... Always knew she was weird anyway... But that time was... How should I say? Different.

Mike asked me to make sure I'd take her with me to that barbecue they planned on that Saturday. To be honest, even if he didn't ask, I would have invited her anyway. She liked them and I knew they liked her. Besides, since I introduced her to the crew, Sarah surprisingly left me off the hook.

It was not right of me to act that way toward her just to protect Mike. I hated myself for letting her down. But I couldn't be by her side all the time. She needed to learn how to deal with her life on her own. And since I introduced Lya as my girlfriend to everybody, Mike started talking to Sarah again. Everything seemed to go as I had originally planned.

I texted Lya reminding her to be ready at 1 pm. Knowing her, I was convinced she would be late. That girl seriously had some punctuality issues.

1:30 pm, she was still not here. Damn it!

I went to her floor and banged three times.

"Yo, princess, you're 30 minutes late, you know?" I yelled across the door. I heard a faint "coming!" From inside and patiently waited until her grace finally decide to come out.

And finally, she opened the door, after 5 additional minutes.

Her long wavy brown hair were left down, falling on her shoulders. She was wearing some whites shorts and a brown top that was perfectly matching her clear eyes. Yeah... She looked fine! Couldn't deny that this girl looked really beautiful when she made that little effort.

"Sorry" she pouted. "I couldn't find my sunglasses".

Couldn't be mad at her when she put on that cute face.

We walked to the subway station and jumped on the first train to Brooklyn.

"Wanna sit down?" I asked her, showing her an available sit behind her.

"It's not that far..."

I noticed that she kept avoiding eye contact with me. Something was wrong. She was never the shy type. Not around me anyway.

In fact, she started to change from that night, after Mike's party, when she told me about her parents. From then, something felt different. Maybe because I was getting to know her.

I would have been the last one to judge her though. I could relate to her story more than she thought. But that was not something I was going to tell her.

We barely spoke during the whole ride. She was looking through the window all along and I preferred playing with my phone than trying to figure out what was going on in her head.

Thirty minutes later, we were in Prospect park, where every body had already arrived: Kev, Jeremiah, Mike, Terry, Janelle, and their friend Alexa, all sitting around a table and already grilling some meat.

"What's up guys?" Janelle screamed from afar.

Immediately, Lya grabbed my hand, letting me know that she was in her girlfriend mode. I couldn't refrain from smiling at how quick she could go from cold to warm when needed. Oh well...

We greeted everyone before sitting at the table.

Conversations, debates, laugh, arguments, whispers, meat, drinks.. I was having a great time. Every now and then, I took a glance at Lya who seemed to enjoy herself as well. She really connected with Janelle and Terry. Or maybe she was just faking it. In any case, she was great.