HelloFascination

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If I Knew What You Were Thinking
PART 1

© hellofascination / anch0redships

If I Knew What You Were Thinking
PART 1
 

June 22, 1997

Dear whomever is reading this,
   Well, I have finally decided to just not do any of those this summer. As you can see, I do not like complication and I really do not like dealing with them either. But I might just go out to explore the world instead of being stuck in this hellhole my mom likes to call “A Bedroom That Needs To Be Cleaned”. Despite that, I am actually a very well organized, well-mannered person.
    Back to exploring, the only thing I had done today outside of the hellhole was go get ice-cream with Chris. And who is Chris you ask? My one and only friend. Some people say that their friend is their one and only friend because they are the only one the “people” can trust. But I say it because he is literally my one and only friend. I haven’t made new friends since grade 7. I am now in grade 10. I hope Chris does not leave me.
    The “exploring” was fun though. Spending time with other people than my family is actually quite a big thing for me. After ice-cream, he drove me home. Honestly, I can drive myself but he says that I am too annoying and corpulent. I asked him why he agrees to be my friend if I am so annoying and corpulent but he just smiled. Weird kid.
    The moment after I got home, I had to study physics. But I decided not to because all I said was I had to but I didn’t say I wanted to. Those are two different things, obviously. So, other than studying for physics, I ate a KitKat bar. Unfortunately, all was going well until my brother woke up, literally choked me to death, patted my hair and stole what was in my hand. He told me he was going out again and to just tell mom that he was going out to get his car washed and won’t be back until tonight. An eight hour carwash? Cool. I suppose he wants me to keep what he’s been doing all year a secret. To be honest, I have no idea what he does when he tells me to keep quiet that he is going out. Probably to a party or a hangout or a gathering. I don’t really care anyway.
     I looked around, my eyes doing a routine. Up, down, right, left, up, down, right, left. It was quiet so I decided to call Chris and tell him that I was on my way to his house. Before I could hang up, he asked why. I did not understand because he never asks why. “Why” is a question to people who are curious. He is never curious. I told him I had nothing better to do but then he told me not to go. I sighed and paused for a few seconds then finally got the urge to ask why. Or why not. I can’t remember what I said. Chris said he had family over. I did not understand this either because he never had family over. At least of what I knew of. I didn’t want to talk anymore because I thought he was avoiding me so I slammed the phone on the charger and ran outside to get fresh air. What had gone wrong? Everything was fine this morning. People change, I know, but I never thought they changed this fast. Whatever.
      I sat down on the curb of my street. I did not do anything because I didn’t feel like it. I just watched the cars go up the hill; blue car, red car, blue car, white car, blue car. Damn, there were a lot of blue cars. The moment I lost count was when I felt a soft hand tap me on my right shoulder. I  continued to look straight ahead when a person started sitting down next to me, not saying a word. We sat for a few seconds, the person probably thinking I would say hi. I didn’t. The person finally broke the silence.
      “You’re Noah, right?”
      “Uh, yeah.”
      “I’m Grace.”
     I was positive that I have heard that voice before. I shift my eyes to the right to see the person more clearly. Long brown curled hair, hazel eyes, the most perfectly aligned lips I have ever seen in my life and of course, a nose. I turned to look at her.
      “H-have I seen you anywhere before? Maybe you know, a record store or the park?”
      “No. Not that I know of.” She smiled.
      “Oh. Sorry.” Huh.
      She was still looking at me with her mysterious eyes.
      “What?”
      “Nothing. I just moved here. Nice neighbourhood.”
      “Sure is.” Before catching my breath to say anything else, I mumbled loudly “How did you know my name?”
      “It’s a small town. And I have my ways.” She giggled.
      It was getting weirder and weirder.
      “So, do you want to grab a coffee or something?”
      “I don’t drink coffee” was all I could say.
      “Oh, then, what about go to the record store? I heard it’s great.”
      “It is.” I got up then turned to her.
    We walked down up the street crossed the road, up another road and reached our destination. Between when we started walking and when we got to the record store, we talked about our lives and what our favorite artist of all time was. Grace told me she loved Fleetwood Mac and The Beatles and I told her that I liked The Smiths and The Beatles, too. She told me that The Smiths used to be her dad’s favorite group and I had the sudden urge to ask her what happened. She just looked down. Soon I realized that I must’ve asked the wrong thing.
      Grace pushed open the record store’s door and I followed hearing the little bell at the top ring the highest pitch of the C key. I haven’t been to the record store in awhile, but it hadn’t changed at all. The smell was still the same, old and rusty. Bob the owner was there too. I saw some new records that were added to the store and I told Grace to check them out with me so it didn’t look like I was ignoring her. There were: Nick Drake, The Beatles, Suzanne Vega, The Moody Blues, Genesis and so on. I was surprised they had U2 there.

 

                                                   Love always,
                                                   Noah
 

© hellofascination / anch0redships