Sonder

Chapter 4

IV

Weird.

That was how everything felt like.

New.

That was how I felt. I can still remember that time...

I looked over to my side to see Angela eating beside me. For some reason, even if I pushed her away, she still remained unlike Ana. Angela was quick to run to my side when I was alone and in deep grief. She never left my side. She was always so understanding and caring.

"What's wrong?" Angela asked.

I shrugged and smiled, "Nothing. I just realized that I'm lucky to have someone with me."

I looked away, and my dark brown orbs found Ana... with her new set of friends.

They were 3 girls altogether, laughing as they walk and wearing shorter skirts and expensive hand bags with dangling jewelleries. I could see the fun written all over Ana's face.

They shined.

Ana shined.

I've always figured that Ana was always too bright for me. She got the love that I never had from the others; she loved to please them. A girl like me would never fit in her world. As they walked away, I found myself staring too much.

She didn't even notice me.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, lightly tapping me. It was Angela. Though she spoke no words, I knew what she wanted to say.

"I'm always here for you."

I looked up at the beautiful, blue skies above. Maybe it's not bad after all, or so I thought. I could hear loud thunder and the powerful lightning. It's going to rain, and I should go home. I should go home and take care of Joy, but I stayed. I stayed here at the park where Ana and I always talked. We'd sit at the semi-rusty yellow swings and lightly swing ourselves with our foot on the ground. We were happy.

If I don't go home any sooner, I'd probably catch a fever. But hey, won't that be better? Maybe I should stay for an hour? An hour and a half? Or maybe even two hours!

This is pathetic. How can a fever kill me? For sure, it'll just knock me out for a day or two. Well, nothing's going wrong anyway. Might as well try to die, maybe death could set me free.

The roaring thunders became louder and louder and the skies cried and its tears poured out. I closed my eyes and felt coldness of the rain.

And at that very moment, I let myself wonder, "How does warmth feel like?"

Though I could hear the continuous sound of the thunders and rain colliding with the ground, the droplets escaped me.

Perplexed, I opened my eyes to see an umbrella on top of my head.

In front of me was none other than Eman Chan—the captain of the swimming team, who won 4 gold medals.

His hand was holding the green umbrella sheltering the both of us and the other on the pocket of his varsity jacket. Eman's eyes reflected curiosity.

"You know," he started, "you don't have to ask how warmth feels like."

"You feel it in small different ways. Just like this," he added as he intently stares at me, "sheltering you from the pouring rain... now that's warmth."

And that's how I let myself get smitten away by Eman Chan.

Over the next few months, nothing could ever separate the two of us.