Birds of Paradise

August 11th, 2007

Birds of Paradise 

August 11th, 2007

  

“I swear, you two would be so cute together,” Marilyn repeated to Elea for the fifth time. Elea was barely listening at this point. She was more preoccupied with her hair twisted in a bun that didn’t seem to want to stay in its place.

            Marilyn looked at her friend expectantly and the annoyed brunette sighed before uttering a few words. “Whatever you say.”

            This was not what the blonde beauty had wanted to hear. She groaned in disapproval. “I swear, there’s something wrong with you.”

            Elea thought about the fact that her friend seemed to swear a lot. It didn’t exactly concern her for too long though. She had other worries—like meeting a boy her friend was hell bent on setting her up with. It wasn’t that Elea had anything against it—per se. She was simply content with her current predicaments. Yes she was single, but at least she wasn’t unhappy with someone she couldn’t get rid of. She was still young after all. There was no need to rush into a futile relationship. She didn’t even know the boy Marilyn had been talking to her about for the last twenty minutes. She would meet him today, and frankly, she was not overly excited about that fact.

            A couple of Marilyn’s friends—which meant they were Elea’s friend by association—were coming over for the weekend. They were planning on going to swim in a lake in the middle of the forest, an old spot Marilyn knew. Elea was close with one of the girls, Cassandra, but most of the other ones, she had only seen once or twice. The boy Marilyn was yapping about was completely unknown.

            When cars finally arrived in the driveway of Marilyn’s parents’ house, the girls went by the door to greet the invitees. Cassandra automatically went to hug Elea. They had not seen each other in a couple of months, and the shy brunette realized she had missed the red headed fire cracker. They both exchanged the usual I’ve-missed-you and how-are-you-doing before Elea’s gaze shifted.

            His height was the first thing that hit her. Because it could only be him. She recognized all the other faces. Marilyn had not mentioned he almost had to bend his head to cross a threshold. But she did not lingered on how tall he was for too long—his face offered a much more interesting subject to decorticate.

            He grinned at them—a lazy grin, a careless one—and the way it light up his face, it made Elea catch her breathe.

            “Elea” Marylin stepped in, dragging forward her bewildered friend by the arm. “I’d like you to meet—”

            The boy finished for her. “Liam,” he offered the still shocked Elea his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

            Elea mumbled a shy “Nice to meet you too” more worried with the fact that she couldn’t hide her face behind her hair, suddenly feeling very self conscious about her bad skin and her glasses covered eyes and how utterly plain she looked aside her supermodel-looking-friend. How was she supposed to compete against that? Of course, Marilyn was dating Julian. But still, when she stood besides her, it was hard not to compare the two, she knew it.

            The rest of the day was spend laughing, swimming, bathing in the sun and just having fun—the kind of days Elea didn’t have enough. She realized that if she hung out more with her best friend like this instead of secluding herself in the comfort of her room with her books she would experience more days like these, but she was cosy in her habits.

            Still, that day Elea couldn’t find it in herself to disagree with her blond top model of a friend. There must have been something seriously wrong with her to not be excited to meet the overly-tall boy.

            Because he could do more than just stand in the middle of a room and look pretty. Liam was funny—sometimes maybe even borderline stupid. He made Elea literally laugh out loud, clutching at her stomach. He did childish things like write on her arms against her will while they drove to the lake or close the door at the gas station so she couldn’t get in—at least until she gave him the right secret password. And he was also caring and generous. After just a day with him, she had been able to see all of that in him.

            And at the end of that weekend, Elea thought that maybe a futile relationship wouldn’t be such a bad idea, after all.