Waiting For An Eclipse

Chapter 2.5

May 25, 2016 (cont.)

Nathan grabbed my hand and pulled us to the bleachers to sit with the forms in our hands. I started to fill in Katrina's first, not knowing what to say after that.

"You know, I'm disappointed in you." He said, breaking the silence that had enveloped us a few minutes ago.

I stopped writing and looked at him as he continued to fill his up with a serious expression on his face.

"Why?" I asked, making him stop and look at me.

"I'm not a ball that you can just pass on to someone." He said with an empty expression and continued on with his form. I felt guilt build inside me, making me grasp my pen tighter.

"I'm sorry. It's just that I thought you'd want to be with Chloe, since I observed that everyone seemed to want to be with her."

At that time, I didn't know what made me tell Nathan what I truly felt. Maybe because the guilt covered up my humiliation.

He turned to me again and finally the smile slowly came. He patted my head as if I was a dog, but this action made my heart warm.

"Hmm, yeah. But I wanted to be with you more, so I'm the first exception to your observation."

As soon as he said that, a genuine smile crept to my face. Because for the first time, there was someone else - who wasn't a close friend of mine - who wasn't affected by her charm. Maybe Nathan did have magic, and it totally blocked her spell.

He continued to speak more about random things, and this time, I wasn't making small remarks but rather, saying the thoughts in my head out loud.

I finished Katrina's and started to fill up mine. Nathan was fast in filling up the forms for him and his other two cousins. Probably because he was given an old form that he just had to copy. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't prepared and had to wait for Katrina's replies on my questions about hers.

Then he told me that urban city schools weren't surrounded with trees like the one in ours, so he was suddenly feeling refreshed being here.

Besides the elevation, the school was pretty much cool, and I told him that this place was the coldest during early mornings and late nights.

"Our country doesn't experience four seasons due to it's position on Earth, being the fact that it's near the equator. But in here, you can totally feel it. There's this bunch of trees around the track field that grows leaves during summer, turns yellow into spring, and then loses those leaves during fall. And during December, the temperature becomes colder like the winter." I told him that made him silent for a while. I looked at him and caught him staring at me.

"What?"

"That's the longest you said to me, so far." He said, smiling playfully. I frowned at him and punched him on the shoulder lightly.

"Of all the things I said, that's the one you observed." He just chuckled gently and joked about how slow I was in filling up the form. I continued and felt his gaze land on my paper.

"December 28? You're a Capricorn?" He said with excitement evident on his tone.

"Yeah, so what?" I asked, not looking at him as I wrote now the information about my parents' occupation.

"Auri, do you believe in astrology? You know, horoscopes and all."

"No, why?"

He suddenly grabbed both my shoulders, making me turn to look at him.

"Well, starting today, you should." He said with such conviction that made me tilt my head in confusion.

"Why?"

He let go of my shoulders and just smiled at me.

"I'm a Taurus." He answered, obviously making me confused more. Then he changed the topic, gesturing me to finish my form.

He just talked about the most random things, and I find it really amazing that he can still keep a conversation going or avoid making the atmosphere awkward.

I was told that I was that type of person who always make things awkward due to my silence and lack of enough response. That weakness made me less friendly, and so not much of my classmates and schoolmates feel like being around with me.

Only Katrina and Jacob were the only people who understood me. I wasn't awkward with these two, possibly because I was comfortable in taking my mask in front of them.

But right now, it seemed like Nathan was able to cover up my weakness, even making me comfortable around him.

We finished the process around 11 in the morning. School bus was still going down around 2 in the afternoon, so as to be considerate of everyone.

Nathan invited me to ride with him, since he brought a car, assuring me that he was already legal and own a driver's license.

I didn't agree at first, saying it was okay, but he already carried mine and Katrina's stack of books released today and placed them at the back seat of his car.

"I won't take no for an answer." He said and opened the passenger door for me.

"Then why ask in the first place?"

He laughed at my reply, and he stopped in a fastfood restaurant where we both ate lunch together. We continued our conversations, and he asked questions about me this time.

He dropped me off right in front of my house even though I told him that it was fine to drop me off in the bus stop, but again he wasn't satisfied with that and kept asking me where the direction was, so I gave in. He even helped me carry the books inside.

"Thanks." I said as he rode in his car.

"No, thank you. I had fun today. You're my first friend ever since I got here. I'm excited to see you in June. Or let's meet again, hang out the rest of the vacation. That is, if you're free. I'm just stuck at home, entertaining myself with video games and movie marathons."

I smiled at him. "We'll see."

We exchanged phone numbers before he finally left.

I spent the rest of my afternoon napping and did my laundry.

Nathan and I exchanged text messages.

After I ate dinner, I slept early, already decided to visit Katrina's little brother in the hospital tomorrow.

Then I wrote this before sleeping with a smile on my face as I recalled the day's events.

- - -

I flipped to the next pages and read them, anticipation of another meeting with Nathan. But Mom never met him or hung out with him during the rest of her summer because Mom spent them with her best friend Katrina.

And she said that Nathan had to unexpectedly fly back to his hometown in the North due to some personal family matters. He spent the rest of his summer there.

The May days finally came to an end, and I felt like Mom's school year was going to be more interesting.

June was the start of it.

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