If It's Meant To Be

2 February 2012

Tommy stood at the same spot, in the same pose as he had the day before. He whistled softly to himself, wondering if she would come. He couldn't help but think of what he said last. Was he too straight forward? Should he have stayed, instead of heading out the way he did? No. He knew he couldn't. Yet, here he was, willing to break a promise for a girl he had only just met.

"Hi" she smiled. He hadn't noticed her walking up to him, or stopping in front him, waiting for him to look up.

"Hi" he smiled back. He looked at her for a few seconds, trying to remember if he noticed her dark hair yesterday.

"Let's go." He said.

"Where to?" She asked. Tommy smiled. He liked the way she answered.

"Somewhere." He said. Just as he did the day before, Tommy held his arm out for her to hold and she gladly took it.

They arrived 10 minutes later in front of a door.

"Why are we here?" She asked, "it's 5 o'clock".

She hadn't even checked her watch but Tommy believed her. He wouldn't have doubted her if she had said it was 2 a.m.

"It's never too late to learn."

"I'm here from seven to one every day to learn. I'm pretty sure five p.m. is definitely too soon to be standing in front of a classroom again."

"Don't you worry. We aren't here to learn something as useless as what they teach us at school," she cocked her eyebrows at him, "we are here to learn about each other."

She laughed.

He stared.

He couldn't tear his eyes away from her upturned lips, he didn't want to stop listening to the sound of her voice as it reached his ears. He didn't know why. Well, perhaps he did.

He had never heard a laugh quite like hers, it echoed off the classroom walls and came out in short, staggered breaths. If this was how she laughs when things weren't at all funny, he thought, how would it sound when she was really having fun?.

Granted, her laugh wasn't pure and melodic, it was rather random and sharp, but he liked her too much to care.

She covered her mouth as she noticed him staring, but he only smiled and opened the door for her.

"Are we even allowed to be in here?" She asked as she looked around the classroom. He simply shrugged and began writing their names on the blackboard:

TOMMY                                                                        ANNA

"What's that for?" Anna inquired.

"To keep track of our answers."

"I didn't even know we had questions."

"Well now you do." He spun around as he turned back to the board.

"Question one, why haven't I seen you before?" He asked.

"I just moved here two weeks ago."

"Okay," he wrote 'new' under her name "Question two -"

"Uhm isn't it my turn?" Anna interrupted.

He gave her a smile and nodded at her to ask "Okay, hit me."

"With your best shot" she said.

"What?" He was amused.

"You know," she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear "the song? Hit me with your best shot, why don't you hit me with your best shot, fire away?"

He smiled, turned back to the board and wrote:

ANNA

New

Singer

"Just because I thought of a song, doesn't make me a singer. Plus, I didn't even sing well."

"You don't have to sing well to be a singer. I mean look at all those people getting money for selling music with a good beat and severely auto tuned voices."

She took the piece of chalk out of his hand.

TOMMY

Likes to assume things

He took it back from her with a frown and erased her words.

TOMMY

Makes intelligent guesses based on observation

She laughed and wrote again

TOMMY

Makes intelligent guesses based on observation

AKA assumes

AKA specific

AKA uses unnecessary words

"Unnecessary words?" He asked, stealing the chalk from her.

"Yup. I mean 'makes intelligent guesses based on observations' when you can say assumes? Who says that?"

"I do. I say that. There's nothing wrong with it."

"I never said there was anything wrong with it." She said, sitting on one of the desks in the front row.

His smile dropped a little. She noticed his sudden change in mood and smiled.

"Maybe I like unnecessary words." She said and at that he smiled. "And maybe I don't" she jumped off the table and made her way to the door.

Tommy was still staring at the empty space she was just seated in. He swivelled around when he realised she was leaving.

"Where are you going?" He asked. His voice was tinged with disappointment as he followed her. "We just got here."

"It has been an interesting twenty minutes but twenty minutes too long" She said and walked out.

"Wait, you can't just walk out like that."

"Why? Because it's rude and makes you feel like I'm not interested in you?" She said with a raised eyebrow.

His lips twitched in realisation.

"Is this about yesterday?" He asked. "Because I walked out on you?"

"I don't know, is it?" And with that she walked down the short hallway and turned the corner, out of sight.

This is definitely about yesterday he thought with one hand running through his hair and the other in his pocket. Definitely.