Serene (Zhang Yixing)

4

You see, there're lots of interesting things about me. Sometimes I like to take the bus to the furthest park that I can find and just stay there for hours; sketching the flowers and taking walks back and forth along the same path so I can snap the most appealing pictures. One time I stayed out so late that my dad threatened to take away my stash of polaroids that I keep in a box on my upper shelf. I also like to draw! I have three sketchbooks filled with pencil sketches all the way from when I was just in the third grade! Realism is my favourite, I love drawing animals and the human anatomy the most. There's just something about drawing people that I absolutely adore.

"I like cats."

Yixing looked at her with a set of cloudy eyes, smiling. "Me too, I like cats as well." Constance watched as he scribbled down 'she likes cats' onto his page. She hoped that he couldn't tell how red her ears were getting. She did like cats, but it definitely wasn't an interesting fact. He probably thought she was the dullest soul alive.

"What's something interesting about you?" Constance murmured out, her fingers tightly strung around her mechanical pencil. Small baby steps.

"Pardon?" Yixing looked up from writing his sentences to giving her an attentive stare that almost made Constance want to shrink back into her plastic school chair.

"Uh, I said.." She cleared her throat, the grip on her pencil getting a tad bit sweaty. "Is there anything interesting about you?"

Constance saw the edge of his eyes twinkle with delight. "I like to write in journals, you would be amazed at how many I have!" It was obvious how excited the mention of journals made him. The thumping of his pencil against the desk got twice as fast as he shuffled his chair an inch closer.

Hearing about his special collection of journals made Constance do a double-take at the boy in front of her. "You mean, like..diaries?" She hoped that her face wasn't as red anymore as she realized just how intently the boy was staring at her. She was completely overwhelmed at his attention towards her. Yet, she didn't exactly dislike it either.

"Sure, if you want to call it that. Except that, I don't start every entry with 'dear diary'." Yixing laughed. Constance felt herself let out a small chuckle along with his laugh, and her face flamed up once again.

'He writes in journals.' She wrote out on her own paper, suppressing a small grin to herself. She had never met a boy before that wrote in journals. Granted, she hasn't really met a lot of people in general, or at least long enough to know something fascinating about them.

"So what kinds of cats do you like?"

"Huh?"

Yixing offered a slight humorous grin. "You said you liked cats, right? Which breed do you like the most? You must have a favourite."

"Oh right, I did say that..uh.." Constance trailed off, racking her brain to remember at least one cat breed. What was that cat that I saw hanging on top of that lady's white picket fence this morning? What did it look like again?

Constance began to sweat, realizing that she may be caught in her own web of lies. "My favourite would have to be.." She bit her bottom lip, trying to avoid eye contact with the boy in front of her. "That cat that looks like a jaguar..that has those spots.."

She squinted, trying with every ounce of her knowledge to remember a name for that tanned kitty she saw this morning on the walk to school.

"Hold on, the name will come to me, just give me a second." Except, it really wasn't. The longer she sat there trying to focus in on a name, the further away she got from concentrating. The never unwavering eyes of the boy made her nervous and almost panicky. He knows I'm lying, and it's not even a good lie to begin with!