On that Tuesday midafternoon, I remembered looking out the window and watching the snowfall from the top of the clear world, and to the dirty and gritty ground, and I remembered that was the last time I could ever see the beauty in it.
Oh, how I hate acid snowflakes.
My mom dropped me off at my favorite coffee shop, where I sipped on my old cold mocha. I was working on my AP English homework, 192 questions on the book ‘Mythology’. I just wanted to get this done so I could enjoy my holiday.
The table in the corner had been my spot for the last three hours. My mom wanted me out so she could wrap my brother, Kevin, and mine’s Christmas gifts. It was easy to get a 19-year-old-boy, who has a pretty girlfriend, out of the house. You have to pay me on the other hand. No, seriously, my mother gave me twenty dollars just to leave.
So, 185 questions later, there I was, slowly losing interest in my work and my eyes drifting table to table. It was crowded that day, with a variety of people. Hippies, hipsters, old people, young people, him . . .
Those blue eyes, I have felt them on me most of the time I’ve sat down. They mostly read the paper in front of them. They had belonged to a man who could have been mistaken as a bear. He looked like the picture of a mountain man. I just ignored him when our eyes would meet. I told myself it was nothing.
That was my first mistake.
I looked to the other side of the café. Rory Gilligan was in the corner with his group of friends and a pretty girl holding his hand. They were all laughing. The words in my book kept on repeating, making me end up starting at them, mostly at Rory who didn’t have a clue in the world who I was.
I have to admit, I’ve always liked him. He reminds me of a young Judd Nelson. The thought has run my mind if I liked Rory because he looked like Mr. Nelson, or the other way around? It doesn’t matter too much I suppose. We’ve never even talked. And it’s not like I haven’t tried, but whenever I talk to anyone, my mouth goes dry, my mind goes numb, and I drift away.
For a few seconds, I thought he was staring at me, trying to understand where he has seen me. I gave a little wave. God, I must have been going insane. However, he smiled back, and my heart dropped when he returned a wave. My mouth almost crashed to the floor. I thought about walking over there, trying to make some friends.
“Excuse me, can I see that paper next to you, kitten?” the man asked me. I looked up to see the giant with the wondering bright blue eyes. He was pointing to the newspaper on the other table.
I slowly nodded and grabbed it for him. I peeked pass the man to see if Rory was still staring at me. He wasn’t.
As I handed the paper to the man, I noticed he wasn’t looking at the paper, he was staring at me. It felt of putting. “Thanks.” I just nodded, trying to return to my homework. “What you working on?”
I looked back up, surprised he was still there. He was easy to miss in a crowd but when he was in front, blocking your view from the world, it was hard to give attention to anything else.
“School work,” I finally mumbled.
He grinned. “So she does speak,” he laughed. I didn’t know what to say, so I just smiled with him. He glanced at the newspaper she shook his head. “These are troubling times. Have you read the news? Some woman stabbed a pregnant lady, just so she could get the baby. Try to cut it out of her and everything. God, what a nut.”
I raised both my eyebrows. If he was trying to start a conversion, he wasn’t doing great. “Yeah,” I mumbled, hoping my flat tone would drive him away. IT didn’t. But in a weird messed up way, it felt nice someone was paying attention to me.
He was getting closer, “What class are you working on?”
“AP English.”
He seemed to nod, as if it was rehearsed. “I never really liked school, but somehow I just zipped right through it!” he flew his arms wide open and knocked my mocha over, spilling it all over my table. I quickly grabbed my papers, but it was too late. They were all soaked. His face turned red from embarrassment, and my face red from anger.
“I am so sorry, are you okay?” he panicked.
“My homework!” I nearly screamed. Rory has of course looked my way, and I realized how much of a nerd I sounded.
“Let me get you another drink, what did you have?”
“No, it’s-“
“Let me go get you that mocha,” he told me as he walked off. He as up front ordering and I thought about walking away. God, the urge to bury myself alive was huge. But before I could walk away, he came back with a new drink. I was always taught to be polite, so I took it.
That was my second mistake.
“You sure you’re okay, kitten?”
“Yes,” I mumbled, looking down at my ruined paper. I was 185 questions in.”
“Well it’s just school,” he shrugged. He pulled a chair out and sat in front of me. “Who really cares?”
That’s when I felt like shouting at him. I could have screamed at the top of my lungs, but when I looked up and actually saw his face. I was going to tell him to go away, to leave me alone, but when I saw that face, I was a bit thrown off. “Do . . . do I know you?”
“What?” he seemed nervous. “I don’t . . . I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”
“Sorry,” I said retreating my eyes to the floor. “You just seem familiar.”
“Maybe you’ve seen me in town?” he suggested. “How’s that coffee?”
“Hot.”
There was silence for only a moment, but that ended with a long sigh from him. “Look kitten, I’m really sorry about your homework. I didn’t mean to say who cares. It’s school, that’s all. At least you didn’t get burnt, you know?” He saw that I was starting at Rory and his friends. “Do you know them?”
I just shrugged. “I go to school with them.”
“Friends?”
A laughed escaped from me. “No.
“That’s good. They look like a bunch of acid snowflakes.”
I blinked. Was that a common phase? “ What’s that?”
“Oh, that’s just what I call toxic people,” he said leaning in a bit closer. “See, in New York, they got that acid rain going on, tearing away the buildings. I am sure the snow isn’t any better. And snow, it’s very beautiful. I love the snow. It’s like people. Each one is unique and different. But some, like those kids, they are acid snowflakes.”
I wasn’t sure how to react. I never heard such a thing like that before. “That’s . . . different.”
He shrugged, looking disappointed. “Weird, I know.”
“Good different. Good weird,” I told him.
He smiled and it made me feel great to make him smile. I didn’t feel like a bother. “I like going to the mountains and escaping acid snowflakes. Just to get away from people in general, you know?”
“Well, maybe one day I’ll escape too.”
He stared at me. “Maybe you can. Are you going to drink your coffee?”
I held up my cup and nodded, and took a drink.
That was my third mistake.
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