Everything She Needed

04 | midnight

04 | midnight

   Let me start off with a confession: I actually had a good time with Declan. He had taught me a lot of techniques in those long-ass math problems and I taught him one thing to make a girl at least find him attractive.

   Yes, despite the numerous things he taught me, I only returned the favor by teaching him one.

   Getting a girl isn't as easy as it seems. Girls, as many people know, are a lot more complicated than they seem – take that from someone who is one of them. I explained to him the basics; how there are different kinds of girls who like different kinds of things, and that some turn ons for one girl could be a turn off for another. There were some girls who liked strong scented cologne, and there were girls like me who absolutely hated them, probably because I prefer their natural scent.

   Declan was already one to complain on how I only taught him one thing and took at least two and a half hours to explain everything. "Patience is the key, Declan," I told him, which was indeed a fact. Nobody could get a girl to fall in love with them in a day. They needed to know it step by step.

   It's similar to a staircase; skip one, two, or three steps and you'll fall, stumbling back to the floor you started with, making your hardworked effort mean nothing. I think that's what made Declan believe what I told him, as I said the exact same thing. "That actually makes sense," he had commented, and I remember him putting a finger on his chin, his eyebrows all the way up, his eyes widened with astonishment and thoughtfulness.

   Declan was probably the only person I'd ever have to give advice to who took it as a situation between life and death, if I hadn't mentioned that already. It was as if he didn't have a girlfriend by the time we graduated, he'd be punished for not doing so. It was something I really didn't understand, and didn't have the guts to ask him. He loved her that much, that I could grasp. But his way of begging me to teach him more was different compared to the other people who seeked for help.

   One of the reasons why I think so is probably because he's basically the only person who came to me on how to get a girl. He just didn't look like those kind of people who beg on their knees in order to have someone to love them. It was simply outragous for me.

   I just got home from school and as bad as this sounded, I was expecting another note being stuck on the front door, saying my parents were anywhere from the house. Instead, I saw my dad lazily lying on the couch, flicking the channels on the TV with the remote without paying any attention to what he was skipping or not. "Dad," I called, gently slipping my bag off of my shoulder and on to the small table right next to him. He didn't look back at me, which I found odd since he regularly greets me with a hug whenever I got home. "Where's mom?" I asked, thinking that maybe if I got him talking, he would smile and pull me into his arms.

   But all he did was shrug, not saying a word, or moving a muscle other than his thumb pressing up and down on the button. I raised an eyebrow at him and said, "I'll be upstairs," I informed him and run up to my room, which was right next to theirs. Instead, I saw mom on her phone, aimlessly scrolling down probably her Facebook feed. "Hey, mom," I greeted, but only her eyes darted to me and then directly back to her phone.

   "Natalie," she huffed almost so flatly it was as if she didn't want to see me. Her voice sounded so tired and filled with stress, and that seeing me right in front of her right now only seemed to add more. "How was school?" She asked, and I was honestly surprised that she did. Although it was a rare thing she'd question, mainly because they thought I was actually doing good in it, and had no idea that I was – and maybe still –  on the verge of not graduating because of some failed subjects.