The Quirky Tale of April Hale (Quirky Series #1)

2.15: PENGUIN

2.15: PENGUIN

When I was 16, I totally thought that I would have bought a house by the time I was 23.

23 looked like the defining moment, you know.

23 seemed old, although not that old. Young, but not 'Bursting-with-Effervescence' kind of young. Old, but not 'I've-Done-Everything' kind of old.

It was the perfect age to buy a house and then make everyone around me proud.

Now, I was one year away from 23, and a house still seemed like a long way to go.

What actually surprised me that most of the pros and cons of being 22 were actually the same.

-Pro: You can buy an alcohol without getting carded.

-Con: You can buy an alcohol without getting carded!

-Pro: Your parents don't hover around your life much anymore.

-Con: Your parents don't hover around your life much anymore...?

-Pro: You eventually get a glimpse on what it's like to forget about That Guy that broke up with you 4 years ago.

-Con: You eventually get a glimpse on what it's like.... Oh, wait. The glimpse is gone.

Back to being sad.

After a while, I started to give the 'State of Missing That Guy' a name: Penguin. I chose the name Penguin because it sounded simple but hard to achieve, just like how Benedict Cumberbatch always failed to pronounce it (AN: IT'S TRUE! LOOK IT UP ON YOUTUBE AND LAUGH WHILE FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM). Forgetting That Guy seemed like a simple enough task to do: Forget the guy who broke my heart. Do not think about the guy who made me cry to sleep for months. Do not love the guy who didn't love you enough to stay.

You know, the standard Ted-talk speeches.

In reality, it was far harder than to do just that.

Sometimes I wished my brain could disconnect itself from my chest sometimes, because when Penguin struck me, I always felt unimaginable pain coming from my chest. The pain travelled to the whole body, with its core on my chest and the worst pain on my head.

The memories.

And I tried. I tried not to blush whenever I remembered his words. I wanted to not have any reaction whenever I was reminded that there was no longer That Guy in my life. It was hard, and sometimes very inconvenient. I couldn't text anyone whenever I had nightmares. Plus, I always bought too many Teddy Bears and nobody to gift them to.

"April, you did this part wrong!" Audra's voice shocked me out from the Penguin.

Audra showed up in her full red-headed glory, pouting cutely towards me and then flicked her hair over her shoulder. "You edited the sequence wrong! I specifically told you that I wanted the scene when I posed after the finished make-up look to be longer. You focused too much on the make up application!"

"It's a make-up tutorial, it's supposed to focus on the tutorial part of the make-up," I mused.

"Ugghh!" Audra's face reddened and for a moment I had a premonition that she would explode. But then, she suddenly inhaled and then closed her eyes as one of her legs shot up in a popular yoga pose. "April. You're Quentin's sister so I don't really want to have a silly fight with you. So, please... just do what I say and make the posing scene longer, would you?"

"Sure," I said. It was a job, anyway. And even though Audra didn't pay me well, she was Quentin's beloved girlfriend and it was my duty to make him happy by making her happy. I knew what she was capable of whenever she got mad, and it was like seeing hell being brought into your face.