Behind the Clouds

10/28/14

Today was our day. The first Tuesday we would spend with each other. We kind of ruined it by being at the spot yesterday, but now we can make it official. He didn’t pick me up this morning, however, because after school he was gonna do more exploring. He still hadn’t found the “hidden wonder” he was looking for in California.

 As we walked hand in hand through the halls, we ignored the normal glares and whispers and carried on pass the jerks who were so ignorant to the truth about us. We held our heads high and didn’t acknowledge any one of them with our hands held tight to remind ourselves that we had each other for support.

Eventually, lunch came around, and we snuck through the gate to finally rest peacefully under the shade of the oak tree near the mysterious, red tulip. The red tulip that somehow survived amongst the same, inane bushes surrounding it. Both of us lied on our backs side by side on the grass, too stuck in this state of serenity to even touch our lunches. Who cared though? Maybe for us, the peacefulness was more important than food. But for some reason, a realization came to my mind, and I thought maybe it was time to break the silence.

“You know what I kind of realized?” I said softly.

“What?”

“I don’t know anything about you,” I said honestly.

“That’s a lie. I’ve told you stuff about me before.”

“Alright fine. Let me rephrase and say I don’t know enough about you. In my head, I know that you’re my boyfriend now. You’re the first one I’ve ever had, and I can barely remember five things about you.” I felt bad for not getting the chance to know more about him. I thought that since we were officially dating, that meant we were supposed to know things about each other, but I guess we kinda forgot about that for a little bit.

“Why would it matter? I’ve already told you my favorite color, band, the fact that your boyfriend has a past he’d rather not relive, and that I have a sister in Australia. You don’t need to know everything about the person to be crazy about them,” he said looking at me. I couldn’t believe he said he was crazy about me. It made my heart speed up a little. But no matter what, I wasn’t backing down so easily.

“Well small details matter too you know? Sometimes I feel like the small details are just as important as the big ones because it shows that even if it’s so unimportant, the fact that you remembered them makes it special,” I said.

“You’re not wrong. I believe you. So what do you say? A round of ‘All about You?’”

“Is that what we’re calling it now?”

“Yup. We just take turns asking each other questions since small details seem so important to you. So, favorite color? Mines grey.”

“Blue. Like the ocean and sky. Favorite place? Disneyland.”

He looked right at me and said, “Santa Monica Beach.” The heat crept up again, and he smiled. He probably saw the red in my cheeks. “Second favorite Disney movie? I’m saying second since I already know your first is The Little Mermaid.” He’s good. Can’t believe he remembered.

“Tarzan,” I said simply.

“The ape man? Why?” I loved The Little Mermaid, yes. I loved the idea of living in a different world with the beautiful creatures of the deep. But with Tarzan, I always thought there was something more to it.

“Well... First, it was because of the music. My mom told me that after I first watched it, we bought the soundtrack because the only way she could get me to shut up when I cried was to play the music. Now I know all the words by heart.” I smiled at the memory of me singing and dancing along to “Strangers like Me.” That was when my heart still felt whole. When life didn’t feel so empty.