Chasing the Sun

082

(Flashback)

That fucking AJ really did a good beating on me, he really called for help in the middle of our fight? What a pussy.

"This is the third time this week you've been to the hospital, do you ever tire of  getting into fistfights?", The nurse said as she swabbed a Betadine filled cotton onto my bruised cheek.

"What can I do? trouble always finds it way into my life. Besides, I had the upper hand this time! If only that prick's boys didn't aid him, he would've been the one you're treating right now.", I replied furious, my brows almost meeting each other.

"You should really find something worthwhile that would keep you from engaging into fights."

The nurse was annoyingly talkative that time, and as much as I wanted to take off and leave the hospital, my wounds weren't fully treated yet. I had no choice but to listen to her earfuls.

"When I was your age, my husband was also a delinquent like you. He often got into fights with boys from other schools, and although some of his fights ended with him as the victor, he also had his fair share of losses, like you.", She said as she firmly pressed the cotton on my skin that had me cussing because of the pain.

"Arghh!"

Rather than apologizing, she just laughed at me as if she did that on purpose. She was starting to get on my nerve, and I wasn't buying any of her words.

"But you know what? everything changed when he met me. I told him I didn't want a boyfriend that would bash his head with other delinquents on a daily basis, so even if his disputes with other boys continued, he stopped fighting back.", She continued, completely drawn into her own narration. 

"Your husband's a pussy.", I replied, expecting that she would bash me in the head with one of the metal trays beside her because I called her husband a pussy.

But rather than getting furious, she smiled at me warmly.

"Or, he's in love."

Love? How can something as vague as love be enough to turn a brute man into a loving husband? She must have watched too much of those romantic-action films that her disposition towards men changing was like that. 

I've never been in love, but I knew I didn't have to feel it in order to understand the way it works. People get weak because of love, and it's only the brain's mechanism to disguise one's weakness as a form of attraction to someone. A wolf in sheep's clothing.

"So what are you saying? I should get a girlfriend?", I asked her, my eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"Not exactly. What I'm saying is, find someone who'll make your heart beat like nobody else does. I can't tell you to get a girlfriend because it doesn't really guarantee that you'll be in love, but just look for someone that will change the way you think about life.", The nurse said as she took care of the bruise of my right eye.

"I don't have the time for something as measly as love. I'll die anyway, why be with someone who will only add to my suffering?", I ended. I could've sworn I looked like I didn't want to prolong the conversation anymore, but the old woman talked still.

"You'll never know, young man. Sometimes we find love in the most unusual of places, untimely of times, in unprecedented circumstances. You shouldn't talk like that when you haven't felt what it feels like to be in love, because if you do and it disappears right before your very eyes, you're gonna wish that you never should've felt it in the first place."

"You know what I'm wishing? that AJ trips on his way home or chokes on a fish bone when he eats.", I said as I jumped out of the mattress and readied myself to leave the hospital.

"Remember, the most unusual of places at the most untimely of times, in unprecedented circumstances. It might just be now.", The nurse ended as she smiled at me, as if she knew what was exactly going to happen to my life. 

Spoken like a true creepy old woman.

I brushed off the words she told me and headed out of the hospital. On my way out, I caught a glimpse of a boy, standing just a few meters from the door talking with one of the doctors. He had a fair skin, so white that it seemed like he never went out of his house and spends an enormous amount of money on skincare. His body was surprisingly a heavy build, a mesomorph type of physique that made him look buff in his pink colored shirt. His eyes painted a deep shade of brown, and I could almost understand what they were talking because of how expressive his eyes were. His hair was cut in a bowl shape that was brushed off to his temple, giving the impression that he was a boy with an exemplary record at school. 

I realized I had been looking at him for quite a long time and was utterly weirded by myself, so I blamed it on the nurse's silly remarks that were oddly replaying on my mind. 

Just then, in a split second that made my world decelerate, our eyes met. His brown colored eyes met mine, and in that fleeting moment that our glares met, I saw the universe in another person's sight. Contrary to how slow my world was moving that time, my heart beat so fast I thought it would jump right out of my chest. I couldn't move, and my system seemed like it automatically shut down the moment we looked at each other.

I'm not usually the type to pry on other people's lives and meddle on things that didn't require my participation, but I found myself rummaging through my bag as I searched for the camera I had just recently bought. It was brand new and had not captured a single photo yet because I was saving my first click for the most beautiful sight that my eyes would ever lay upon, but I knew instantly that his beauty was something I didn't wanna miss, and he was the most beautiful sight my lenses were waiting to capture.

In the most unusual place at an untimely of time, I met the boy who made my heart beat like no other person had, in a circumstance that I never expected to happen.