HER HERO

summer vacation

Timed flowed like cement. I checked my cell for the time. A minute had passed since I last checked an hour ago, or so it seemed. Sitting there with nothing to stare at but a wall with chipped cream paint was excruciatingly dull and there was no telling when he would be called. It was so pointless too. Go in, get your heart rate and blood pressure taken and go out. I began to drift into an unpleasant daydream or was it a paranoid fantasy? So hard to tell and didn't care. It helped to pass the time and he wasn't one for entertaining himself with optimism.

My best friend Embry came over to the table, I am well-schooled in what love is, what love is not. When the primitive drive takes the wheel it's hard to fight it, to stay what a friend should be. If I wait for the panic to subside, to feel the sadness that lives beneath my anger, to let the fear be acknowledged... then I'm in control. Soon the feelings of love come back and I want to hold you so close. In truth, whenever the wintry rain sets in I want to run to you. Only you. Every time. Maybe one day that'll actually happen, or perhaps you'll run to me. Either way, regardless of outward appearances, you're the only one my heart has let in.

I know she will always be there for me, to lift me up when I fall. You are everything I know, the person who laughs before picking me up, the person who hugs me when I am crestfallen, the person who wipes hot gloomy tears that fall from my eyes. She is part of my soul.

''So how's your parent's reaction by you not moving out this summer break.'' She stated, her arms rest against the cafe table, adorn the sun-kissed grey as if placed there at the tip of an artist's brush.

The ambiance of the cafe, its homey aroma, draws my soul into its cocoon. The cafe tables in their rich deep browns, the aroma with its dark aromatic perfume, we sit, my friend and I, helping each other find ways to make our lives and loves better. We are each other's best doctor and medicine combined. The coffee, the music, and the smile of someone who cares are a fragment of heaven, a chance to enjoy the company and to start to want more.

Yet there is a need to fool the senses that this society is a safe place and we belong to a tribe. So in this cafe, among the noises of people, their scent, their occasional glances, and the chatter of the baristas, I give my primitive brain a little of what it craves, just enough to see me through. It is terrible for the higher brain to know that we are solitary, that our life path has asked us to learn how to be the warrior instead of the cosseted, the protector, and not the protected.

''Honestly, they clash,'' I say holding my cup in both of my hands. ''But my dad wants to terminate me that I should start to be responsible for my mistakes.''

''Oh, that's bad, though we can spend the whole summer together, right?''

It's early and the machines are yet to warm, so I ponder this chance to rest a moment longer, to drink in the aroma of this place. The barista has tired eyes, yet there is that glimmer, a giveaway of her good heart.

A week after, I saw Mr. Price and my best friend Embry walking together in the school hallway, she gives me a glimpse of a smile. Her crush. The boy from Alaska had a quick glance but trying not to steal my eyes back.

''Hey, you already know him, Mr. Price, the guy who helps my broken tire - so devilishly handsome with a heart of gold. Apparently, he doesn't even like the hunt.'' She muttered.

She's love wrapped up too thinly to stop it from spilling out of edges. Are they dating now? But Embry excused herself and not be gone too soon. Jasper and I just exchange glances.

''So you are joining the football team?'' I say.

''Oh, ya. I'm just waiting for Riggs, you know him right?'' He muttered, expressing a sly smile.