2-0-1-3 (a short story)

It was a sweltering hot afternoon. One in which Rue would have gladly spent inside one of the nearest mall sipping a strawberry shake while playing Plants Vs Zombies on her iPad.

Sigh. Her iPad.

She gazed longingly at her newest prized possession, having meticulously saved her allowances, babysat her numerous boisterous cousins, tutored helpless freshmen in Chem 17, and begged her mom to augment the rest--pledging to postpone marrying until she pays her back. Her mom gave her a noncommittal shrug-- as if challenging her to prove that she can remain unmarried for the next couple of years-- which in itself is odd especially since she hasn't had a boyfriend since high school. FYI, the high school boyfriend, Tommy, doesn't really count because he was secretly trying to make Rue's best friend jealous. His plans eventually backfired and resulted to Rue's best friend's passionate admission of her romantic feelings for HER.

Rue gently ran her hand on the cool surface of the iPad wishing it would somehow come to life by merely wishing it to. This act brought her back to her current situation and for the nth time this afternoon, rolled up her fairly thick STS notes and hit Mike squarely on the head. He merely smiled, still immersed in his STS reviewer.

Mike, Michael, Mikee, Michaelangelo-- the sole reason why her life isn't, as of the moment, entirely her own...

Rue silently cursed Mike for installing PVZ on her iPad yesterday, then finished the damn game within the same day, while she was rushing her Biochem lab report.

Mike who, upon learning that she almost flunked her last STS exam has imposed review sessions together every Saturday until the next exam on this humid corner of the library.

Mike who her mother apparently suspects as her boyfriend--and thus the reason why her mother doubts her ability to remain single for the near future. Not that she could blame her mom, he is pretty much boyfriend material: he's always polite in front of her, seems like a nice kid and is even good looking enough--that is if you ignore that his head is much too big for his body or that his eyes are not the same size-- not that Rue particularly spent a lot of time analyzing his face but they have spent a lot of time together since becoming lab partners four semesters ago.

Fast forward to the present: Mike who has placed a pass-code on her iPad so she couldn't sneak a quick game whenever she went to the ladies room. She has tried every familiar and plausible four digit combination-- his birthday 0-3-1-1, her birthday 1-0-0-6, his parents' birthdays, anniversary, the last 4 digits of his and her student number, and so on. So far, she hasn't been able to even glimpse a single zombie on the lawn.

She imagined placing a bright red Cherry Bomb under his chair and wait for the fruit to dramatically expand and eventually explode, bits and pieces of Mike flying everywhere. Maybe she can even use his severed arm as a paperweight. She snickered like an idiot.

This small stifled sound got the attention of a couple of girls on a nearby table, looking at her if she has, as it seemed, gone insane from reading blurred STS reviewers. Rue had a weird feeling that the girls were somehow sizing her up, as if deciding something about her. 

Feeling like an amoeba under a microscope, Rue unconsciously swiped at her errant bangs, now clumping with sweat. After a couple of seconds of muted noises from the girls, one of them finally stood up and approached her.

She turned towards her but then the girl bent over and whispered in her ear, "Hi, can
you give this to Mikee?" 

She handed Rue a folded piece of yellow paper. 

Rue stupidly stared down at it and had an irrational urge of crumpling it into a ball and throwing it on the girl's perfect face. She oozed of sweetness, from her pink headband to her pink nail polished toes to the perfect smile on her pink glossed lips. Rue battled a sudden wave of nausea.

Rue was about to say, "Give this to him yourself, he's right beside me..." but the girl has apparently skipped her merry little way back to her table. Then they all began giggling with themselves. 

With wide eyes and apparent disgust at the lewd manner in which she was about to participate in the giggly girls' little conspiracy, Rue tossed the paper on top of the reviewers Mike was currently studying.

Hearing Mike unfold the paper, Rue got back to her reviewers, disgusted that she had been staring at the same page for an hour now. 

Another annoying round of giggles from the next table interrupted her, followed by shushing noises from the other occupants in the library. Rue mentally tuned everything out and daydreamed about planting a sleeping Doom Shroom on the giggly girls' table, putting a Coffee Bean on the mushroom, and waited as it wakes up, smiles evilly, and blasts the girls and their table-- leaving a sizable crater on the tiled floor. 

Rue smiled wickedly to herself.

Suddenly,  she felt a sharp tug on her ponytail. Turning towards Mike, she was met by a pair of surprisingly warm lips.

For what felt like minutes, Rue froze, thinking "WHAT THE F---" But then the instinct won over and she began to tentatively kiss him back. It was hesitant and awkward, as all first kisses usually are but then like all first kisses, she felt as if her whole body was tingling with anticipation.

Mike ended the kiss a moment later--staring into her eyes, brimming with happiness.

Rue wondered what her face looked like at the moment... Happy? Shocked? Confused? Scared shitless? Because as of the moment, she was feeling those emotions all at once.

"Took you long enough, Bru." He said, rumpling her soppy bangs affectionately. 

Rue slapped his hand away, hating that nickname. He used to call her Bru whenever she nagged him during their semester as Chemistry lab partners. He said that she looked like
a witch stirring the beaker steaming with evil concoctions. She usually snapped back that maybe if he was more helpful rather than standing like an idiot then they would be finished more quickly. 

But then he would laugh as he went back to the reagents--after getting the wrong stuff yet again, saying, "But then we won't be seeing so much of each other, Bru."

"Why did you kiss me?"

"Your note pretty much begged me to kiss you," he replied, eyes twinkling merrily.

"Hu-whaat! That wasn't from me! It's from little miss Strawberry Shortcake over there with her posse," Rue stammered, turning and pointing at the group who, at the moment looked like they were placing Cherry Bombs under HER chair.

He looked over at her table and shrugged indifferently, "That's Sachareen. She's an orgmate."

"And her note asked you to kiss her?!" Rue asked in a loud whisper, quite appalled that even the girl's named sounded sickeningly sweet.

He looked at her sheepishly, "In quite a few words, yeah..."

Rue suddenly reached out and tried to grab the opened note across him but Mike easily swiped it away.

He crumpled the paper and held it away from her reach. "Uh, I don't think so Bru."

"Well, why not? She gave it to me, I could have easily read it before passing it to you." 

"Well apparently they taught you manners at Hogwarts, Bru."

Rue felt steam coming out her ears as she sat down on her chair and pretended to read her notes again when a new thought occurred to her.

"Hey! You know my handwriting! How can you think I wrote that damn note?!"

For a moment, Mike was lost with words, and after a few moments of undignified stuttering, he finally gave up and just gave her a caught-in-the-act grin.

Despite feeling manipulated and violated by her best friend, Rue conceded and smiled back at him. He placed a tiny kiss on top her nose and lightly tapped her forehead with her forgotten STS notes. 

Grabbing the stack of papers from him with a laugh, she proceeded to seriously study for the first time today.

It was almost sunset when they decided they had enough studying for the day--well, their grumbling stomachs pretty much confirmed it. 

Rue glanced at Sachareen's table, surprised that she hasn't realized they already left. 

As Rue began to stash her mountainous review materials inside her backpack, she saw the yellow note peeking from Mike's folder.

Mike. apparently paying attention to her actions, pulled out the note and handed it to her, before standing up and stretching.

Opening the now crumpled yellow sheet, Rue began reading silently:

Point your lashes down
And you can picture my face-
I'm smiling...

Open your mouth, speak with your heart
And you can see my soul-
I'm waiting...

Place your arms around my waist
And you can embrace my uncertainty-
I'm shaking...

Press your lips against mine
And try to catch me
I'm falling...

She looked up at Mike and he was looking down at her, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

Standing up on shaky legs, Rue tiptoed and pressed a soft kiss on his lips.

Smiling wickedly at Mike, she asked, " So what's the pass-code on my iPad?"

He laughed loudly and was surprisingly not sushed by anyone, because everyone has apparently left, unnoticed by the two. A librarian merely gave them a stern look.

"2013. I figured by then you'd be able to pay your mom back for lending you money, and then finally, we can get married," Mike answered slinging my backpack over his own bag.

I grinned, feeling like one of those gyrating sunflowers, emitting balls of bright sunlight around me.






THE END