Effeminate Within

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter 13

GREG KNOCKED ON my door earlier this morning and he was carrying a bucket of ice cream. "Happy two months!" He greeted.

I hugged him—a sweet kind of hug and not the way like how I used to hug him when we were just friends. "Oh, yes... wait, two months? How come it's been two months?" I asked, taking the bucket from his hand and placing it on the table.

"Start counting from the day we first kissed. December." He looked serious as he explained.

My forehead wrinkled. "But shouldn't we start counting from the day we became official?"

He scooped from the bucket. "Ehhh. It's not worth arguing. The time we spend together doesn't matter. What's important is how in love we are." He winked before he spoon-fed me. "So what are you planning to do today?"

"Tell me yours first."

"I think I will be absent for today."

"Me too." I mumbled, taking the spoon from him and spoon-feeding him back.

"I mean not just for today."

"Huh, are you kidding? Professors will start their lessons next week. We better catch the overview, don't you think?" The enrollment for the second semester started last week. The semestral break that was promised was moved to the next class end.

"Yeah, but I just thought that holiday has passed, yet we haven't even able to spend longer time together enjoying something." Greg's eyes were focused on mine as he spoke.

"What do you exactly mean?" I said, holding the gaze.

Greg reckoned what to say, "I am thinking of hiking, island hopping, going to beach..." Greg tried to add more but I hushed him with my lips touching his.

"I've never tried hiking."

"Great!" His grin grew wide. "And we can camp after."

"Sounds fun,"

So we decided to go hiking and the mountain that Greg knew happened to be quite far from Hansville. We packed necessary stuffs inside his car and drive off immediately. Greg's expertise in driving was admirable. He could go to places I didn't even know exist even without a GPS device helping him.

It's two in the afternoon when we reached a province-looking place which looked serene and isolated. And it took us another ten minutes to find a parking space before we started walking for several minutes to get to the foot of the mountain.

There were no more than ten hikers here with us. The way up through the peak was sometimes steep and sometimes the soil was a little muddy. But this was the challenge and joy of hiking—quite resembling life. It'd be boring if we could hike up through the top of it without a part of us getting dirty or not getting any scratch or wound from falling at some wrong and slippery stone we'd step at. It seemed weird that I came to think about such thing, but maybe that's the essence of making recreational time.

Before I was totally lost at my little philosophy, a voice of a woman shouting snapped me back to reality. I quickly glanced at the source of the voice and that's when I realized that the woman was laughing. It seemed she accidentally grabbed on a weak twig of a shrub, so she fell once she clung onto it.

It's just as when we pick something or someone we thought was strong enough to hold us up and help up, and then we would realize soon that we made a wrong pick which was why we stumbled down. But I liked how the woman reacted. Not with a wince, but with a laugh.