Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Boys that I like don't grow on trees (I've never been a fan of the Tarzan-types)



This post will be rather silly.



Once upon a time, a girl was invited to a dinner with some old acquaintances, maybe friends isn't the appropriate word since they rarely saw each other. She didn't feel like going because she hadn't seen them for a long time and she didn't know if they'd have anything to talk about. But she had to go and so she went, after a long day when she'd done a dreadful exam that she was sure she was going to fail. There was someone in the dinner that she especially wasn't looking forward to seeing, someone that had made her knees weak in a long faded summer.


But it wasn't as bad as she had anticipated. There were more people at the dinner than she expected and she soon started chatting to them, particularly a girl that seemed even more nervous than she was. She tried to act naturally around those people she hadn't seen in a while and she felt she was doing okay. They were all very nice and she was very fond of them, even though she thought she had little to say.


When it was time to sit at the table, she sat next to the boy of her past, like they had done in that Summer and he was still very quiet and talked to her in a friendly manner, while making sure she had everything she needed. But suddenly, in the course of dinner, her focus changed entirely. Someone was trying to include the other shy girl in the conversation, asking her if she didn't think a particular boy was good-looking, creating embarrassed looks between some of those sat at the table, while the boy in question blushed visibly. Our girl looked up to the boy in question, who was sitting more or less in front of her and she saw that not only was he good-looking but he was completely enchanting. And, from that moment on, as fickle was she was, she couldn't take her eyes off of him for the rest of the night and completely forgot about the boy sitting next to her, who probably couldn't care less about her either.


She commented to the boy that he was becoming the colour of his shirt (he was wearing something red) and he replied he could get even redder, which she thought was particularly sweet.


He didn't have to say or do anything special from then on because she was already smitten, but she noticed how polite he was, how he always said her name when addressing her, which made a nice change from most people. After dinner, some of them sat on the floor with pillows and chatted. The girl didn't talk much, she just laughed, as she usually did when she was with those people she already knew from the summers. One of them was particularly funny. She paid close attention to the boy, to a curl that fell on top of his forehead, trying to understand what colour were those eyes. She felt good and she started to wish that she was a part of that group regularly.


As the night draw to a close, she worried that unless something extraordinary happened she wasn't likely to see the boy again in the near future. Nothing extraordinary happened and soon she had to leave. The boy stayed. She'd had no way to talking to him alone, nor did she know what she could say to someone she'd just met.


She felt the excitement of meeting someone new that she could really like and simultaneously a sadness, as though she had already lost him. In the following days, she looked for ways to contact him but nothing worked out. She couldn't contact the others either: she knew they were no more than acquaintances, nice fun ones, but just that.


The girl never saw the boy again and gradually she forgot about him. She had to, what choice did she have? What did people do when they met someone in these circumstances? Yeah, go for it. That would've been interesting, right there, next to all those people she knew. She didn't risk it but she didn't regret it. It was one of those things she had to let go of.


Recently, the girl found the boy in one of those Internet communities. A tiny part of her wanted to send him a message saying 'hi', but she knew that something that was ridiculous years ago, would be utterly unthinkable at the present moment. She will let go again, knowing that she doesn't fall for someone who blushes everyday, but because she has a lot of important things to think about.

[Edit: FB commented that this reminded him of something japanese writer Murakami wrote and it's true! It's a short story that you can read over here and there's a line that sums it up very well - "Oh, well. It would have started "Once upon a time" and ended "A sad story, don't you think?"" But read mine first!! lol]

15 comments:

Miss Iyer said...

Oh this is such a cute albeit depressing story DevilM. Almost like a travel through a time capsule :)

I particularly liked the way it ended, although in real life that isn't what I would recommend. But for a story, I think this is how bewitching it should be :) Thanks for sharing it!

dharmabum said...

the girl sitting next to the boy who was being gazed at by the girl who was being smitten by the boy who was sitting right next to the girl in question.

boy! what a lot of confusion :P

fb said...

I like this. It has a quality about it that reminds me a short story that I'm sure I've mentioned on blogs before: http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/murakami-perfect.html

And yes that was a pointless and very silly football match last night at Stamford Bridge officiated by Mr Graham '3 yellow cards in the World Cup' Poll who thought it was all about him.

I don't what your newspapers are like but here all the transfer rumours are flying about now...

Devil Mood said...

Miss Iyer: Thanks Miss :) So what would you recommend? I think grand romantic gestures belong more to fiction than real life but I may be wrong ;)

Dharma: LOL It is but you got that right - that sentence is perfectly correct, I wouldn't have written it better!

FB: Wow, I'm flattered that this reminded you of anything written by Murakami :) I shall read that!
The transfers are a little bit quiet for now - what are they saying over there? Anything juicy?
I was amazed by Graham Poll last night, never seen so many cards in an english game, but then I remembered he was Mr. 3-cards-to-the-same-player :P

Preeti Shenoy said...

Tell the girl to send the boy a message.:-) The internet is a great thing.It loves to play cupid :-)

madelyn said...

Well you know what I am going to say
to that ninny girl.

Send the message and say "hi"

At the end of all our days=
it will be the
things we did NOT do that we will
regret

not the things we did.

Niall young said...

Is the story about you?..or am I reading too much into it?..if so..you must write to him..love knows no rationality..do it!!.the ending may very well be "happy ever after"..

If this is not about you..then it should be..I am a romantic..and I recognise it in others!

Devil Mood said...

PS: Okay, I'll pass the message but I'm not sure she'll listen. :P

Maddie: First of all, thanks for teaching me a new word "ninny" - this girl really is ninny, my friend ;)
I think you have a point - I regret some of the things I did but mostly the things I didn't.

Niall: Yes, it's about me. I don't know why I started writing it as a story. More entertaining perhaps. "Love knows no rationality" + "happy ever after" - you really ARE a romantic! :)

holy chaos said...

i agree with maddie!

diyadear said...

nice little story devilmood..
quite realistic..

Miss Iyer said...

Umm, in real life?? I'd say just go with ur impulses :)

Devil Mood said...

Holychaos: I agree with her too, but it's easier said than done ;)

Diyadear: Well, of course! :)

Miss Iyer: Thanks for that, hehe

fb said...

I'm so glad you liked the link and there are a couple of collections of short stories because some of his novels do seem quite intimidating by the thickness of them.

The two collections are:

'The Elephant Vanishes' (which has the story I linked to in it which I remember the most)

and

"Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman'

Oh i went to the Liverpool v Fulham match last weeke because my brother had tickets though Liverpool didn't bring a proper team. They were strange seats about six rows from pitch level so the perspective was strange, I only had a mobile telephone to take pictures which weren't so good, I'll try to post soon.

dharmabum said...

really? i can't make sense of it myself, when i go back n read it now. boy, i must be one mess, whadya think?

its a cute story u know :) [gotta say that now that ppl think it sounds like that celebrity jap writer and all that] :))

Devil Mood said...

FB: Thanks for the information, I'll look for those. Well, I suppose Liverpool are always Liverpool, even with a B-team.

Dharmabum: No, you're not a mess. And you don't have to say anything, but thanks hahah ;)