Middletown was a very small town right by the seaside. I couldn't believe my mother grew up here. It was so beautiful, especially from my bedroom window where all my senses tickled out to the blue ocean and gladly only a five minute trek from grandparents' house.
"Darling I'm about to make some pie, are you hungry?" I nodded giving the room a final glance. It was too weird to think my mother had slept in this room. Nothing seems to have changed, the bed was still neatly made, the walls brighter than a basketball, cut-outs of hot celebrity were still dotted on the wall and finally the half sized mirror- it was my worst nightmare and I wasn’t exaggerated. The feeling was horrible like the thought of dissecting a frog, or seeing the piece of mould forming on your chicken salad baguette in the fridge, that was the feeling I felt when looking into the mirror like clumps of bile forming in my pancreas. My stomach clenched tighter, up to a point where I couldn’t breathe. I felt physically sick staring at myself, all my ugly features spilled out in front of me. I couldn’t go in there and twist and yank everything till it was all perfect.
Remember you are in control Cleo. Remember you are in control.
I quickly snapped myself out it and rapidly unpinned the celebrity cut-outs and rummaged through the drawers searching for something like a sticking devise. After 20 minute of savagely sticking I calmed down slightly wiping the sweat forming on my forehead and slammed the bedroom door. The smell from the kitchen wafted violently at me, a reminder that I had only devoured three very delicious rocky roads, two bottles of water and a slice of cake in the past 27 hours.
"While I make the pie, you can go into the garden and help your grandfather hand pick those weeds. Please tell him to come inside and take his tablets." We hadn't talked much since I got here, my grandmother wistfully tells me more about the town and I just stay silent, not knowing what to say. For the first time I was short of words, I could usually talk people's ears off with my snide and funny comments.
My grandfather was giving instructions to a boy as they were both hunched over picking at the weeds between the broken fences.
"...you do that part; I fix this part of the fence."
As I got closer, I realised the not only shirtless like papa the boy was also white. My grandfather looked up ushering me to kneel down next to him.
"Papa, mama wants you to come take your tablet." I turned back around ready to run back from the evil sun but papa had other ideas.
"Tell mama I'll be there in a second. Come back out here to help me pick some weed. I will have to take a little nap after taking these tablets.”
"I-I ca-" I didn't bother to finish what I wanted to say. You see, what my grandparents didn't know was I had devised a three month plan which consisted of staying indoors at all times, the sun was lethal in my quest of becoming 'light toned' and going outside could potentially lead to my already very dark skin to go darker and I did not want to resemble the bottom of a cauldron by the end of summer. But it would have been disrespectful of me to say no, my mother raised me better than that. So I delivered the message, picking up the gardening gloves papa left on the grass. It was just past five and the sun was still burning hot. Just great. My plain white tee was already sticking to my skin.
"I'm Hugo." the deep voice nonchalantly waved his hands in my face but I kept quiet pretending like I was deaf. He repeated and I stared at them for a second before meeting his face.
Oh lord forgive me for I am about to sin.
Those eyes.
That jaw.
That mouth.
It was his eyes that slowly killed my inside organs first. They were solid blue- aqua blue, the kind of blue that are so rare to find only in holiday bliss like the beach. I couldn't quite describe them. They stood out the most of his whole features that's for sure. They were like diving and pooling in the Mediterranean Sea. Where everything was so clear you could see the fishes and the exotic sea creatures and even the mirage of your own reflections just beneath the seabed that was how chiselled and clear his eyes were. I fake cleared my throat trying to look less obvious as to why I was ogling like Princess Fiona meets Hercules.
"Hugo... sorry I'm erm Cleo." I shook his hand firmly, trying not to salivate at the veins visibly popping as he flexes.
"I kind of need that hand to get back to this." he grinned, revealing pearly white teeth.
"Oh right sorry." I dropped his hands, wiping the sweatiness from my own fingers on my shorts. We continued working not speaking at all. I watched him occasionally the sweat glistening off his body.
Someone better hurry and call Trey Songz because Hugo is giving him a run for his body, I mean money. I don't really have a colour preference but I do love chocolate… a lot, I feel like a hypocrite when I comment on the beauty of a black man’s skin but can’t appreciate mine.
That's another thing I’ve noticed about him. He had the body too, that heavy tan, an indication of being too often in the sun. Strong, muscular shoulders that seems to make me hitch a breath every time he pulls a weed out of the ground or how he literally stood up for a nanosecond to place his pile of weed with the others and his V-line has completely shattered my iris to pieces, not only are the two right angle triangles in the corner of his hips etched into my memory, they also seems to be telling me this polygon shape of man with angles and vectors and clear faces right here is the only thing I would be needed to pass my maths exams.
A warning bell is starting to ring telling me not to do anything stupid that would embarrass my hormonal self.
"That's the last of them. Can you tell papa I'll come by tomorrow to mend that fence and pick up mama's bakes for the cafe?" YES!
"Of course that's fine." I replied coolly. He took of his hat running his hands deep into his moussey dark curls before placing the hat back on.
After helping load the weed into the Hilux. He jumped into his car resting one arms on the wheel and the other hanging out.
"It was nice meeting you Cleo. Have a good day." He tipped his hat like a cowboy and drove off into the sunset literally.
Uh-oh I am in big trouble.
YOU ARE READING
Rocky Road
Novela Juvenil"Its a known fact the dark skinned girl never gets to drive off into the sunset with the hot guy." Hugo juggled the keys in his hands walking to the driver's side. "Who says?" "The world." "Well did the world ever get to tell you- driving into the s...
