Quandary

Pursuing The Impossible

I followed after Hailey in her house. Everything looked so lively and winsome to the eye. From the potted plants that lined various shelves, to the smell of baked goods coming from the kitchen. I traversed up her stairs, staying behind her. As we walked across a hallway, she stopped and opened a door to the left of us.

"Mom, my friend Don came over. He's the kid who lives down the street."

Her mother appeared from out of the room. She was wearing ruffled leggings and had long, wavy blonde hair rolling down her back. I could tell she was in her forties but she almost looked like she was in her late twenties. I was expected to be greeted with a cheery personality like Hailey's. Instead, I received a cold look.

"Hello Don."

"Hi Mrs. Bloom. How's your day going?"

I tried to make casual small talk like Braxton told me to. He said that I had to make a good impression on relatives.

"It's certainly going on."

The way she replied, she sounded condescending. I scratched the back of my head confusedly. She smiled awkwardly at me and then turned to Hailey.

"Thanks for introducing me."

She then went back into the room. Hailey walked on, strolling further down the hallway. As I passed the room her mother was in, I took a peek through the door. I was shocked to see copious amounts of alcohol on her dresser. There were various bottles of scotch and whiskey accompanied by many glasses, some full and some empty. Hailey stopped by a door and opened it up before walking inside. I followed in to be greeted by a room of cutesy proportions. Framed pictures of cats could be seen over a black polka-dotted wallpaper. The ceiling had a painted picture of clouds in the sky across it. A sleek white desk was in the corner of the room where more potted plants could be spotted. I looked down at the floor to see a fluffy white rug. The whole room smelled like strawberries. I watched her place the daffodils in a vase with a sunflower already in it.

"So... What do you wanna do?" Initiated Hailey as she sunk down onto her bed.

"I..."

What do we do? Crap, I didn't think this far ahead. I dwindled around in the room for a moment.

"You can sit there if you want." Said Hailey as she pointed to a blue bean bag behind me.

I stepped over to it and sunk down into the bag. It was comfortable.

"Uh... Talking is fine right?"

"Yeah!"

I shifted around in the largeness of the bean bag. Think, think... Think of something to say. That is, anything but trigonometry. My eyes fell on a framed picture of a Himalayan cat.

"So, you like cats?"

"Oh, yeah! I'm a huge fan of them. They're just so cute!"

Okay, good. I've initiated the conversation. Now all I need to do is respond. I need to reply with something worthy of fueling the fire of the conversation. I can't let the flame go out, I need to keep her interested.

"I love cats too, even though I'm allergic to them."

"Yikes."

"Yeah, I love their relaxed personalities though. Dogs can be too energetic sometimes."

"I totally agree."

This isn't weird. This is normal. Well maybe for her. There was something so strange about discussing cats with my crush in her own room. It was like the fact that I was her friend had still not hit me. I still felt overjoyed to be in her presence though. Was that friendship? Or blind love? Our conversation twisted around for an hour or two after that. The subject changed from cats to Romeo and Juliet then to something dumb like how much cream cheese we liked to put on our bagels. I had gained something by being here that I had lost a few days ago. Happiness. I had to fight so hard to get here, it felt like the world was trying to stop me. But in the end, it was this easy. All I had to do was talk to Hailey. As our talking progressed we grew out of sitting and talking to walking and talking. Hailey paced around the room as she spilled all sorts of amazing and wacky things about herself. It turned out she was overwhelmed about college and what to major in. She didn't know where she was going and that sense of mystery scared yet intrigued her at the same time. She had some interest in architecture and biology but she wasn't sure if she could commit to them. The flame had kept on burning. The flame had now grown to a roaring fire.