The Experience Buddy [Completed]

Chapter 39

Time really does pass in the blink of an eye.

Before I knew it, it was everyone's favourite swimsuit season of the year again. Hero and I will be spending our summer holidays together, going on dates! I propped myself up on the bed with my elbow as I stared at the portrait that Hero drew of me the other time. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head.

Taking the chance while he was still asleep, I washed up at lightning speed then went to poke around the coffee table in the living room. Shortly, I found the magazine that Hero showed me last time that the agency sent him with clothes that he modelled for. Carefully, I cut along his silhouette and then happily skipped back to the room. As quiet as I could, I opened the photo frame and snuck the magazine cut out inside the frame, overlaying it on the drawing.

"Now we are side by side in one picture." I mumbled under my breath and giggled into the pillow so as to muffle my voice.

"What are you giggling about so early in the morning?" Hero yawned as he stretched lazily in bed. I smiled brightly as I pointed at the frame. He rubbed his eyes and then traced the direction to where my finger was pointing to.

He burst into fits of laughter and rolled onto his back. "I love it."

So the tiny eureka moment in the morning, turned into a full blown personal project by the end of the day. In between pockets of free time, I would cut more pictures of Hero in every magazine in his house. Then I would search for those that he doesn't have the hard copy of and try to buy them, otherwise, I would print them out from the internet. I stuck every piece carefully into a new blank scrapbook that I had just bought. After the pictures, I would use different colored pens to write captions and create speech bubbles for each of them.

"I love Emily Lee the most in the world..." I muttered as I wrote and also couldn't help but giggle while doing so.

So mushy that it made the hair on my arm stand but I was enjoying the entire process of it.

"Please appraise my artwork, mi lord." I snickered as I passed my scrapbook to Hero who looked at me suspiciously.

"Although I might be able to guess but, can you please confirm if this stick figure is meant to be you?" He laughed. I grinned and nodded in reply.

While cuddling on the couch, we went through the pages of the scrapbook together. Hero took a pencil and would give my stick woman a fix here and there to beautify her.

How I wish for our relationship to be like an endless book, with neverending pages to flip.

-----

"What should we do for our date today?" I sang and skipped into the kitchen when Hero was making breakfast for us both. So after the last fish and chips attempt, I gave up learning and Hero gave up teaching. I held up a glass jar with wooden popsicle sticks inside.

"Pick one!" I told him excitedly with a bright smile.

"What are you up to this time? You and your weird ideas." He chuckled but he complied anyway, and picked a stick. Then I quickly snatched the stick from his hand and read my handwritten words.

"Flea market it is." I exclaimed. "Let's get me a pair of sunglasses!"

The next morning.

"What will you pick for today?" I grinned as I held the jar in front of him. Hero was no longer surprised anymore, but a smile was plastered on his face when he was drawing a stick. I think he was enjoying this as much as I do.

"A movie date." I cooed.

There wasn't exactly a movie that we particularly wanted to watch in the theatres. So to keep up with the surprise element, we asked the counter lady to pick whichever movie she thought was suitable for us to watch together.

In the end her choice was as expected, a romance film. The female lead who was searching for love ended up discovering there was no one else better for her than her childhood friend who has had a crush on her for 15 years.

"Hey Hero?"

"Yeah?"

"If our story was filmed into a movie, what would you give it as the title?" I asked as we were exiting the theatre.

Hero thought for a moment then he answered. "I'll give all my love to you."

I nodded, quite pleased with his response.

"You?" He asked.

"What's it like to love your frenemy." I grinned. Then he let go of my hand and sped up his walking speed, leaving me behind. So I laughed and ran after him, hooking onto his arm tightly when I caught him. Before heading back, we dropped by the bookstore on purpose so that I could feel the cheap thrill of seeing my book on the shelf.

This went on for a week. Every morning we will wake up together. Then over breakfast, we would draw a random popsicle stick to determine our date activity. After that, we go on our date, take pictures together to add into the scrapbook. At night, we would snuggle in bed together but what Hero didn't know was that, every night after he falls asleep, I would secretly let my tears roll down my face.

The clock is ticking and I don't know how much more time we have left together.

One night, as usual, I would wait for Hero to fall asleep. I stared a little longer at his sleeping countenance as I gently swept the bangs from falling across his forehead with my finger. Then as stealthily as I could, I got off the bed and tiptoed across the room like a quiet mouse, closing the door slowly and as silently as I could after I exited the room.

"He is asleep now." I told Heath over the phone.

"That's good." Came his voice from the other side of the call.

Like every other night, Heath and I would just have a five to ten minutes call at night. We switched from text messaging as it was easier to say it all at once rather than to type a whole bunch of text messages. Hero and his well being would always be our main topic but sometimes we would also talk about other stuff like me asking him for career advice for after graduation. Since I am the only child of my family, it was nice to have someone older to look up to, someone who I could ask for advice like an older brother.

For weeks now, the two of us have been, for the lack of a better word, plotting on how to get Hero to accept financial aid from his family. We both know how obstinate he is, so we've been thinking of ways on how to do so without making him angry. With his current medical bills piling, he still has the previous hospital bills to clear. And obviously, he shouldn't be working harder to earn the money to pay them off.

"He did roughly mention what happened with your father back when he was in high school. I could kind of see why he wanted to cut his father off from his life, but what exactly happened between the two of you? Especially now when we don't really know if the treatments are going to work-" Before I could finish what I intended to say, the door opened and Hero emerged from the room.

"Say that again?"

-----

A/N: Good news! Starting tomorrow I will be posting two chapters every day until the end of the story.