L: Find a GirLfriend

Katie

Dedicated to a friend of mine (she knows who she is). Thank you for sticking around :)

When we disembarked, I felt as if I had died, and kept being defibrillated in slow motion about every fifteen minutes. There was a section of wall I slunk down not too far from the gate.

A girl, wheezing and puffing from an inhaler sat about a meter away from me. Her mousy brown hair sat in a bun pulled at the base of her neck, strands hanging out and smaller curly hairs creating a St. Elmo's fire around her head. Her wire-frame glasses sat over small, green eyes attempting to be framed by flaking dark brown mascara applied scantily to her top lash. She was in a green hooded sweatshirt, "CAMP COUNSELOR" printed onto the back above a four leaved clover with an H on each leaf.

"Oh, hey! I'm sorry, I didn't see...you...there..."

"Hello."

"Uh...hello? Do I know you?"

"No, nor do I know you."

"Oh, uh, good because I thought maybe you knew me that's why you approached me."

"..."

She was neurotic and anxious. How pleasant.

"Uh, so do you like planes?"

"No."

"Haha! Me neither! My counselor, well, more like psychologist or whatever, tells me to relax and trust the plane, but I can't!"

"Mine doesn't even know what's wrong with me."

I found myself smiling.

"Oh! At least you don't get airsick, I'm sure you smell it on me!"

In fact, I did not. What I did notice was her bright and shining friendliness, her sincere smile that melted everything in it's wake.

"No...you smell just fine."

"Oh don't kid me!"

And her laugh resonated.

"So what's your big problem? I don't get why you need a shrink."

And, she said that.

"Oh, really?"

"Really. You seem like an alright guy."

"Give me the honor of proving you wrong!"

I told a joke. I never did that. But, the joke turned bitter and unfortunate in my mind, and I stopped smiling.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing... But to answer your question, I don't usually talk to people like this."

"Oh. Loner much?"

"Yes, you could say that."

There was a slight stall as she pulled out her cellphone.

"Well, hey, what's your name?"

I just took her phone, and created the contact myself.

"There."

"Oh. Thanks."

And we just sat there for a moment or two.

"Oh shit, I bet my ride is here. Hey, I'll call you or something. Bye, Rue! WAIT, I'm Katie. Okay, bye!"

With that, she ran off out of the terminal, past the concourse, and out of my sight.

"Ryuzaki, I have a doughnut and coffee for you. Come and sit."

He led me out of the terminal and into a cafe seating area, with power outlets and wifi. Two business people were pounding away at their macbooks. The coffee was essentially black (sugar) water. But, the doughnut was pleasing.

"Ryuzaki, who was that?"

"Katie."

"I see... Just be careful, please."

He gave me that look he gets sometimes. I saw it on mothers and fathers when they watched with some positive connotation an action of their spawn. I have no idea how it relates to Wattari, or why he wore it then. There was also a long pause.

"We should get going."

He led me through the airport, past running, frantic tourists, the occasional whining, barfing family, and the countless "normal" people. And it wasn't a long drive before we were where we needed to be.

She called later, as she had said.

"Hello."

"Oh, hey! So you made it home?"

"I did."

"Good! Well, I love my exchange family! I was a little worried about it...well, not a little, you know how I get, but there's nothing to fear! We're going out to dinner tonight, actually."

"Where are you from?"

"Oh, America. Why?"

"Don't order the steak."

"Oh yeah, no, I won't. I'm really not that big on steak, since I raise show cattle and calves."

"What's there to show?"

That curiosity was rare of me to voice, but I wanted to ask her things. It seemed acceptable.

"Their muscles and things. And at the end, you get a chunk of money for them. Then they get sold to the beef industry, and sold as grade A beef to fancy restaurants. "

"Oh."

"Yeah, it would seem like a boring hobby but-"

She went on and on and on, filling my head with feed changes and common veterinary problems calves face and anything else I would have to know to do what she does. It was comforting to have her not stop talking. Even as I stayed quiet, she kept on, perfectly comfortable...with me. And this happened daily for a while.

"Hello."

Her chatter resumed, this time about her studies.

"Hey, are you even listening?"

"Yes, I am."

She sighed right into the receiver, and it felt like she was right beside me for a moment.

"This isn't working, Rue."

"It isn't working for me, either."

What did I just say?

"Ok, good. Bye."

"Bye..."

The droning of an empty phone line was all I heard. I thought she would come back on the line, that it was some technical error, but no, nothing. I don't know how long I sat there.

[INTERMISSIVE AUTHOR'S NOTE: By now, you should be thinking, "WTF? Is he just going to keep trying out ladies like clothes? Why the hell should I keep reading? Because, think of school. What you learn builds on itself, trivialities come of use in the next "level". My eventual plan, skip the bold italicized text if you don't want to know, is: everything he is learning (there will be one for each chapter in order, here) such as: "Some women are just awful people. Some don't make good friends." will come back and be needed when he has to pick the right one. This is truly about whether or not L has the sense to stop for the right girl. So wait, I promise it won't be long.]