Author: HeyaLiann
Prompt: Behaving childishly was an art form to them but like everything else it was a means to an end.
Prompter: maichardism
Behind all the bitter coffee and sweet pastry smell roaming around the coffee shop, there is a guy who keeps standing in front of a table occupied by a girl. The girl is leaning down on a sketchpad with a pen on her hand and a coffee that has 3 shots of Espresso on the table. She doesn't notice his presence nor does she make any attempts of looking up.
But the guy keeps on looking at her, the woman he loves, as his mind recalls the first moment they talked...
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She's had an obsession with paper boats ever since she was five. She always kept her scratch papers on the side pockets of her bag and folded them into paper boats once she was back home. Everyday, she would wish for the sky to cry so she could play with her paper boats after.
School was done. Her close friends were all on their respective family vacations. The sky was as bright as the sea. It was the beginning of summer. The season when rain was almost non-existent. The time when she couldn't play with her paper boats.
She was sitting patiently in front of their house, praying silently for the sky to cry. It had been a part of her daily ritual. The son of her new neighbor, who moved in just a week ago, noticed that too.
Instead of watering his mother's garden, like he used to do every morning, he walked towards the wooden gate that separated his and her house. He leaned forward and called her attention.
"What are you doing?" he curiously asked.
"I am waiting for the rain," she replied.
With a frown, he asked again. "Why?"
"So my paper boats can float."
"Just fill a basin with water."
"My mother doesn't want me to waste some water," she replied still facing the blue sky.
He could only watch the little girl praying earnestly for the rain to come. The next morning, he saw her again looking at the bright sky in front of her house. This scene was bothering him a lot lately. Like he wanted to help but didn't want to intrude.
On the next day, he came to a decision. He filled a basin with water and showed it to the girl.
"You're wasting water," she said but the sparks in her eyes expressed her desire to play on it with her paper boats.
"It's not wasting if I use this to water my mom's plants after we're done playing," he told her as he smiled.
She smiled too and eagerly ran to his side. "You like paper boats too?"
He liked sports actually. But for some unknown reason, he couldn't say no to this girl.
"Yup," he told her.
"I'm Maine," she smiled, showing her bright smile that was as bright as the blue sky above.
"Alden." He simply replied.
"Deng," she said.
"Meng," he called.
-----
Alden noticed a diary among the pile of Maine's half-zipped bag that was on the chair beside her. At first, he could not believe it, since it was years ago when he last saw her yellow diary. Even if it was a long time ago, he remembered the memory of it like it was yesterday.
