The Lovely Adventure (Why Don't We Imagine With Jonah Marais)

The Wait Begins

Jonah had been tired for the longest time, but after talking to me, he felt this sudden rush of energy. He simply couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that no one in the grade really knew who I really was and how happy I really was, or at least how happy I really was around him.

I was truly happy around him, and I didn't know completely why. Maybe it was just the rush of adrenaline caused by his kind words. Or maybe how genuinely interested he was in who I was as a person. I almost told him everything about me; I let out all these anecdotes of my life that I have been overflowing my brain and I finally tipped the glass the over, spilling countless pieces of information about my life. I told him about my achievements in martial arts: getting my 1st Dan Black Belt in Karate at 13, winning national Karate competitions, being World Champion in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and all the little things in between.

I told this information, and Jonah seemed to find it so cool. He was so invested in paying attention to me, one of his thoughts slipped out of his mouth so accidentally, yet so smoothly:

"Was that why you had that black eye those two months?"

I was taken aback by his question. No one at school had noticed I had a bruise around my eye, especially as I put a great deal of effort into hiding it. My mother even helped, putting makeup on to hide the color, applying eye-shadow to the other eye to make seem like a new artistic style. While trying to comprehend how he could tell, I laughed, slightly uncomfortably. I could hear the concern in his voice, but I could also hear the real, subtle question he was asking.

"I actually had two black eyes, funny enough. The first one, I got punched in the face at a competition by one of the girls I was fighting. The second, I kneed myself in the eye during practice, because Satan blessed me with my legs and my flexibility."

Jonah had laughed at my joke, but I could still tell he didn't completely believe me, and I understood as I wouldn't believe someone right away.

"It's actually funny because my dad signed me up for martial arts so that I wouldn't get hurt or hurt myself, and my mom always felt I was too sweet for this world, even now." I said, trying to make it clear my family is not in that category; my family was small and we all loved each other, we would never hurt each other.

Jonah replied with a mocking voice "Well, if you're so sweet, I'm guessing that means nothing happened to the girl after she hit you." He had inched closer to me, slightly pushing me with his arm.

"For your information" I replied, as I pushed his chest playfully back as we turned the corner of the park's path, "there's a difference between being too sweet for the world and being revengeful for one person in one moment."

"So, does that mean anything happened to her?"

"Well, I mean, I feel bad about it, but I had kicked her in the neck by accident, so we had to stop the match."

"Wow, you are revengeful. Maybe I don't want to be with you after all." Jonah joked. Jonah only realized what he said, but I seemed distracted so decided to leave it be, hoping I didn't hear what he said exactly.

"I didn't mean to do it!" I exclaimed before stopping in my tracks. I didn't exactly here Jonah's joking tone, so I panicked. "What did you mean by that?"

"By what? The not wanting to be friends with you thing?" Jonah turned and walked back to me, stopping only an inch in front of me.

I looked up at him, he looked down at me. I knew he added in that word, 'friends', but I let it be. I didn't want to embarrass him.

"You really are too sweet...I was only joking, Liza." Jonah whispered.

"That's not a really nice joke, Jonah." I whispered back.

We just stood there for a second. There was a comfortable silence, but as I always did, I had to break the pause.

"Why are we whispering though?"

"I really don't know!" He shouted back, running away from me along the trail. I chased him, only realizing it was a mistake to run after a baseball player.

Jonah caught himself smiling when he thought about his time with me, especially watching me walk to him so tired from trying to catch him. He hadn't slept in days, so he couldn't wait to sleep on the plane. He had considered asking me to join him on the flight, but he didn't want to be too forward. Jonah felt that he could surprise me with the news after...

"after what?"; his thoughts went crazy. Was it okay to ask me right away or would I be scared away by that? Was he going to fast? Honestly, most likely when Jonah was thinking this, I was sitting on my bed, reading Harry Potter happily, hoping he would text me when his plane landed, hoping we could talk to each other on the phone, wondering if I should ask or wait for Jonah to ask.