He is walking to... No specific destination. Headphone on, full blast, walking with so much ... swagger...
the girl on the other side of the road simply cannot take her eyes off.
She mutters to herself, "Wow, that guys is radiant." Looks down at her own clothes and wonders if she can stand next to him.
He is turning the corner now and girl turns her head around, her mother is waiting at the hospital you see. There is no time for boys.
--//--
The girl begins school in the spring and finds the boy in her class. This time he is wearing what everyone else is, but still... there is so much swagger. How does he pull it off?
She has no time to linger on that thought, for the bell has rung and her mother needs her to read the mail.
--//--
Every now and then, the boy is walking home and sees a girl with long black hair walking passed him with a serious expression. Her hands are always clasped together and always saying something but he can never hear because of his headphones.
When school ended, Draelin forgot his headphone in his locker.
Today, the girl walked passed him again and he heard her say this.
"What do mothers want from their children?"
--//--
The girl was in class when a note was passed to her. Addressed to the guy with swagger. It's been a week since the switching of seats and Lilia was dumbfounded by the number of notes her table partner received. Like a new routine, she slid the note over to his side of the table and proceeded to take notes on lecture.
Along the margins, she wrote a pestering thought.
What do mothers want from their children?
--//--
Draelin never read those notes. He wanted to ask the girl to stop passing them onto him but whenever he wanted to say something, the girl was already out the door.
--//--
Lilia received a text message during lecture that her mother was finally having the surgery today.
Frantic to see her mother, Lilia rushed to her backpack and ran even faster than usual days.
Her mother would need someone to see her back. Lilia hoped she did not cry.
--//--
Draelin flinched when his table partner shot from her seat and ran out the class. He slowly turned his head to her side of the desk and saw her notebook.
Even after a week of sitting next to her, he did not know her name.
He turned to the current notes and saw her name in neat writing, Lilia Iranis.
Draelin noticed that she even annotated her own notes with small remarks and happy faces. However there was a single phrase that did not connect to the rest of the notes. On the top corner of the margin...
What do mothers want from their children?
--//--
Lilia's mother could not keep a conversation. The anesthetic was still numbing her. But she kept smiling at Lilia, stroking her daughter's arm in reassurance. She was fine.
It was over.
--//--
Lilia was walking from the hospital again, carrying in a box her mother's belongings. Hair black hair was insufferable, covering her sight.
She bumps into a person, and swipes a hand over her face to clear her sight. Bowing in apology, Lilia quickly excuses herself.
Turning toward her original path, Lilia is pulled back to face the person and she is startled.
In panic, Lilia shoves the person with her elbow and looks them in face.
"Oh... I'm sorry."
It was her table partner.
--//--
"All mothers want from their children is love and obedience."
--//--
