The Anatomy of Love

Thali's perception of love

At the age of 14, I thought I could no longer find my idyllic stimulus. I thought my sense of sight could no longer pinpoint his path. But that's what I just thought. Until finally, he came. The first day I met him, my heart thumped so wild. My brain responded to what my eyes was seeing and for the first time in my life, I had that inexplicable feeling. Honestly, one look at him and I became an absolute madcap. I froze and felt like my brain stem, which was the one responsible for directing my heartbeat, was beyond control. The heady feeling carried out by my limbic system located at my temporal lobe made my brain conceived that what I discovered at that instant . . . was peculiar. Fear, affliction, rage? No.

It was . . . love at first sight.

That unforgettable day, I thought I would die for wanting to be with him. The first day of my second grade is when it started. He was almost perfect, from cranium to toe. His pitch-dark hair, his charismatic look, his magnetizing smile that can automatically melt someone's heart, and his tantalizing eyes. Something in his eyes. They're hazel brown, and bordered in the dimness of his eyelashes. They're captivating. It felt like my eyes can no longer escape from his unescapable glimpse. Undoubtedly, the feeling I had after that first day incident was as light as a feather. Why? Because I finally found him, my idyllic stimuli.

Meeting him was fate, I supposed. In fact, the memory of our first meeting was still fresh on my thoughts. My cerebrum could prove that. As I said, it started the first day of my second grade in high school. I was walking in the school hallway and while my face is gravely plastered in front of my class schedule, I unintentionally bumped someone. *BUMP* I fell on the ground, feeling like my cerebellum was out of action. He lost his balance too, and it's like the impact of our collision was absolutely intense. I could feel my cheeks flush in anger. It might be normal to feel pain after being bumped by another, but seriously. What he did was really a severe pain in the butt. I was about to stand from where I tumbled and spit out my unmannerly words to him, but before I could do that, he got up and reached over his hands to help me. Out of nowhere, I became dumbfounded. And as my face turned to look at him, the pupil in my eyes broadened for I saw an adorable creature in front of me. There he was. The stimulus of my dreams.

My hands felt the electricity of the hand he offered to me as I caressed it. When I got up, he robotically apologized for being careless first thing in the morning. I could barely respond because of his dazzling hazel brown eyes, so beautiful that made me intend to gaze at it 24/7. I felt my stomach do a flip-flop when he suddenly offered his hand for a shake. A shake? I was just staring at him. An involuntary act, I suppose. And that's when he introduced himself.

"By the way, my name is Neuron, a junior from section A. Just call me Ron anyway. You?" he said, showing off his hypnotizing smile again.

I felt my cheeks flash into fiery red. It's like the atmosphere surrounding us both was starting to take a slow motion while my eyes are focused to his gaze. In fact, that took my central nervous system more than 10 seconds to process what he had said.

"Ah uhm . . . n-nnice meeting you. Ahh . . . Thalamus. I'm Thalamus, sophomore. Thali . . . for short," I answered stupidly.

This feeling could get any worse. It felt like I was having a panic attack. What better way to ward this feeling off? I just didn't know. It felt like I wasn't in control of my own body. I couldn't breathe when I felt the electricity around his epidermis again. Being held by someone's hand wasn't really a big matter for me. But to this guy, I knew for definite that his touch was beyond the usual. That feeling probably made my parietal lobe react as if it was contented by the way he warmly held my hand.

That was the first time I felt butterflies in my stomach. You know- strange feelings caused by certain chemical reactions in the body. And what really bugged me about was this feeling that I couldn't stop thinking about him. About that junior guy named Ron. Since that day, my brain had become inactive for it can't interpret all the feelings I feel every time I think of him. What does love look like, anyway? How does it feel to be in love? There are so many questions that bombarded my cerebrum. It felt like being imprisoned inside a Math class surrounded by numbers and equations written all over the place. In fact, there's more. He keeps hunting at my dreams. Even before sleeping, he keeps flickering on my mind. Day by day, I would wake up at the sight of morning being soaked by sweat with a smile pasted on my face. There's no one else inside my egghead, and probably he's the reason of my morning secretion.