fiction: SHORTCUTS

If you were like me who always wanted to take the shortcuts in life then you're probably familiar with my predicament at the moment:

I am seated on a school park bench approximately half a meter from the man of my dreams. He's reading what seems to be a very dog-eared textbook. His arms, mere centemeters from my right shoulder. His left knee, with his left leg currently under his other leg, is inches away from the hem of my frilly skirt...

I have a theory that attraction between two people can work both ways, it's just a matter of making your intentions clearer. Make the first move...

Without making a fool of yourself.

And if you're a girl like me, without looking like a total skank.

You see, I'm used to making things simple for myself and other people:

When the cashier announces P115, and all I have is P500, I hand Ninoy Aquino with P15 so that I can get an exact P400 instead of a messy (and time-consuming handling) of P300+P50+P20+P10+P5 bucks.

Thanks to Pythagoras, when I see the corner where I have to turn, if there's no obstacle I take the hypotenuse path. And no walking in curves, the shortest distance between to points is a straight line.

See? Shortcuts work, and make things easier, faster. Shortcuts... without making a fool of myself and looking like a total skank...

I figure, there's got to be a logical and economic way of quickening this turtle pace to close the contact... and to quote some unknown wise man.. to get it on, baby.

Masterplan:

(1)If I angle my body to the right and tuck my right leg under my left leg, then my knee is barely brushing his.

(2)If I pretend to be craning to look at the people walking past us over his head then I can almost smell his hair.

(3)If I prop my right arm on the backrest, as he does, my fingers would be mere milimeters from his fingers.

Hypothesis: When he sees me thisclose for the first time then he'd see me more than his______friend and more like his_friend and a potential girlfriend.

 

I lick my lips and take a deep breath.
Geronimo.

 

Body angling...ok
Craning acting... ok
Arm propping... ok

My bare knee tingles in anticipation, my nose breathing in a waft from his hair, my fingers aching to close the mere milimeters...

He lifts his head from what he's reading... his eyes roams over my face so close to his... looks at me for what seems to be an eternity... he tosses his textbook aside... takes my hand in his... his mouth mere inches from mine...

"Jods, lakad mo naman ako kay Marie oh."

 

I sighed turning away, hitting him on the head with the textbook and resuming our 0.5 meter distance.

Nope. We're miles, miles apart.