Chapter Three
It was a normal high school day. I was done with all the studies and the lectures and stuff like that, and I was quietly minding my own business in an isolated classroom when I heard footsteps in my direction.
I looked up. It was a girl. And I think I'd seen her face somewhere before as well.
But I didn't recall her name. And I didn't know what the hell she was doing there, because it seemed as if she was walking right up to me.
"Excuse me, are you taking doubts?"
Goddamn it that was the most innocent voice in the world.
One thing about me. When people didn't know who to approach for in case they had a doubt in a particular subject, and they didn't wanna disturb the subject teacher, they generally came to me. Now I don't know why this was the case actually; not like I was that smart or anything. Hell, some of the kids who came with doubts were smarter than me. And so was this girl, as I later discovered. But I could manage it pretty well I guess.
"Are you taking doubts?" she asked again, and I definitely didn't know what to say.
"Yeah- yeah." I replied, stuttering my way through the answer. God this girl was pretty.
"Well, could you help me with this little question here? I've been trying it for some time and I can't really get to the solution."
I looked at her book. It was a problem of surface tension, which was a difficult topic in itself. Plus the question she'd brought was unlike anything I'd ever seen in my life. And I don't know if this is true, but I think she could sense that.
"Um, okay." said I, trying to figure out the sum, "Alright let's try to solve it."
Not less than half an hour later did we reach slightly close to the answer. And it was all while she was using her brains and I was sitting there like an idiot. God, I'd never been more embarrassed. But even if I could do the sum, which I definitely couldn't, I was highly distracted by how beautiful this girl was. I mean I never thought somebody could look so nice and just be themselves!
"What's your name?" I finally asked her. She looked at me with a 'you-don't-know-my-name?' glance.
"I'm Lucy." she replied, extending her hand. I shook it earnestly.
"I assume you don't know mine." I laughed.
"No I do, actually. Alex, right?"
"Yeah. How do you know me now?"
"One of my friends told me about you. You're the guy who helps the students who're stuck."
"Not really," I replied, "but I guess you could say that. Pretty stuck myself though. Hey, what's your last name?"
"Frost."
Lucy Frost! Goddamn it. That's why she looked so familiar. She was the girl Mary was always talking about! The girl who was loved by all the teachers and stuff like that. It actually used to annoy Mary that some teachers liked Lucy better than her, and she used to complain about it to me all the time.
And I never thought I'd actually get the chance to meet Lucy Frost. Who was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, by the way.
"So Alex," she asked, "you usually stay back after school?"
"Yeah. Yeah I do most of the times."
"Okay. I do that too, you know. Not that I have any really close friends whom I study with, but…"
"Why not?"
"I don't know. Just like being alone, I guess."
"Same here."
"Isn't it nice when there aren't many people to bother you? Everything happens really smoothly then."
"Especially studies." I said.
"Yep. Hey, what's your favourite language?"
"So I guess we aren't discussing surface tension anymore?"
"I guess we aren't." she laughed, "Come on, just answer the question."
"I'll have to say English. I love how simple it is. Despite the fact that both my parents are Italian…"
"Wait, they are?"
"Yeah! Alex Moretti, it's right there in the surname."
"Italy is a great place, you know."
"Ever been there?"
"I want to. It's my dream city."
"Mine's London."
"Why so?"
"Well there's this Sherlock Holmes statue there that's really good, so…"
"You like Sherlock Holmes?"
"Love him."
"Alright. I like Louisa May Alcott's novels."
"Little Women?"
"God, don't even start," she replied "I've read that book so many times that I stopped counting."
"It's a classic."
There was silence for some time.
"So Lucy, you like Italy huh?"
"Yeah."
"How about Italians?"
"What're you saying?"
"I mean, how do you like Italians as people?"
"Haven't met any. You're the first."
"And?"
She smiled. And I'd be goddamned if that wasn't the sweetest smile in the world.
"And you're making a pretty good first impression." she answered.
"Great! Where are you from?"
"I'm from… your dream city actually."
Well she did look like she would be someone in my dreams, but that's not what she meant.
"You're from London?" I asked, surprised at the fact that someone from London could ever move to Tokentown.
"Yeah."
"What're you doing here then? This place is nothing compared to London!"
"My mom's from here. My dad was born in London. They were still dating when they moved here. Mom didn't want to leave her hometown, so…"
"So your father… I mean do his parents still live in England or…"
"Yeah. Southampton."
"Wonderful. You know, you do look like you're from London."
"Why so?"
"Just… something about you. You're too pretty to be born in Tokentown."
I swear I could see her blushing just a little bit as soon as I said that.
"Well thank you. Actually people say I look a lot like my father, so…"
"There you go."
"It was great meeting you, Alex."
Whenever somebody said that, it usually meant they had to go do something else.
"It was great meeting you too."
I don't know why I said what I said next.
"Will we be meeting again?"
She looked at me and smiled. "I hope so." she replied.
Wow, I'd never expected that answer.
"Me too."
Then she got up, shook my hand and left.
I'd met someone wonderful that day. And this girl was unlike anybody I'd ever seen. I mean this was an extremely unpopular opinion at the time, but she was prettier than Mary to me. And her name. God I fell in love with her name. And her voice. And… you get the point.
We met often after that first encounter, and within the first two months of getting to know each other we were great friends. But this wasn't like me and Mary. This was something different. It was something a little less predictable. Lucy had a great sense of humour, and she was really fun to be with. But it wasn't like she was totally different from Mary. They were both really similar in some aspects. They were both incredibly beautiful, and I only know this because I know Lucy received a love letter from random people in the school every other day. And quite honestly, she didn't even bother to read them. For her, the people who proclaimed their love without getting to know the other person better were really stupid. And the only reason I'd managed to be a close friend of hers was because I hadn't acted really stupid yet.
Days passed. I didn't even realise when I moved from spending all my time with Mary and Sal to spending most of it with Lucy. But that's just the way the girl was. She was pretty, she was intelligent, she was funny, and in many ways she was the closest friend I ever had, second only to Mary. And that was only because Mary and I had shared a bassinet since we were just eight months old.
"Hey," said I to her one day, "you free this afternoon?"
"Let me check," she replied, thinking for a while, "no not really. Why what's the matter?"
"Nothing," I answered, trying to hide my nervousness, "I was just wondering if…"
"If…?"
"If we could go to the movies."
"We? You mean, you and me?"
"Yeah. Sort of."
"I don't know…"
Wow. I thought, the first time I ask a girl other than Mary to go to the movies with me, she turns me down.
"Okay." I said, saving her the trouble of giving an excuse, "I get it. No problem. I'll see you tomorrow then."
"You know," God I never got tired of hearing that voice, "I've been studying a lot today. A little break wouldn't exactly be bad."
"What're you saying?"
"You know what I'm saying."
There was that smile again. Turns out she didn't turn me down after all.
And that was probably the first day I enjoyed going to a movie that much. Not like Lucy and I held hands or anything, but it was still one of the best days I've ever had. We were so very smitten by each other, and we knew it. We didn't have to say nothing though, it was alright. Some feelings are better felt than expressed.
And now I look back upon those times, and I think about how truly happy I was when the simplest of things would give me the greatest of joys. But somewhere down the line, you know that things are gonna go wrong in your life… and you can't help it. You just can't.
So one fine afternoon I was just sitting in the living room and minding my own business, having just finished lunch. School got over early that day. God, how childish does it sound saying school? I mean I was almost seventeen by that time, yet saying 'school' reminds of some of the innocence I had back then.
My parents weren't home. They must've been out for work or something, I don't know. I don't remember.
There was a knock on the door at about one thirty in the afternoon. I wasn't expecting anybody, was I? No, certainly not. Surprise visitor? Maybe. So I got up and answered the door without thinking any further.
It was Mary. And she looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. Her eyes and cheeks were wet from crying, she was panting uncontrollably, and she looked as if she'd run all the way from the school to here without even pausing to breathe!
"Mary, you…" I began, trying to find words, "What's the matter?"
She hugged me. And it was unlike any hug she'd ever given me. It was more of an 'I need help' kind of a hug. And before I knew it, she was crying again. By the end of half a minute my shirt was soaked in her tears, and I knew now that this was something very serious.
I took her in and closed the door.
"Mary…" I said, but she cut me off and hugged me tighter.
I knew trying to get her to talk wasn't gonna work. She had to calm down first.
So I took her to the kitchen and made her sit down on a chair. She continued crying, her head drooped low, not even looking up at me.
But I knew what had to be done to cheer her up.
I went and opened the door to the backyard. And sure enough, there was a baby deer outside. I let it in and led it to Mary. She didn't notice it because her eyes were closed and she was weeping, but the moment its nose touched her knee, her crying came down a little. And by the end of five minutes, she'd calmed down.
She patted the deer with her hands and smiled.
"There we go," I said leading the deer back outside, "all settled now, aren't we?"
"I'm- I'm sorry." she began, stuttering through her words, "I didn't know what else to do. You're the only person I could come to, please forgive me."
I sat next to her on an adjacent chair.
"What's the matter, Mary? What's bothering you?"
She said nothing.
"You miss your father?"
She shook her head.
"No? Then what happened? Somebody said something to you?"
She denied that as well.
"Mary, is there something you wanna tell me?"
She was silent before she replied in a low voice.
"Okay," she said, her voice quivering, "you know how I was gonna stay back after school in the library right?"
"Yeah."
"So I was reading a book, just doing my own stuff, troubling nobody… and this guy came out nowhere and started flirting with me. I didn't like it, the way he spoke and made crude remarks towards me. You must understand my condition, there was nobody else in the library. I couldn't just cry for help. I told him to leave me alone and he kept his hand on mine and told me to come with him."
God, this wasn't gonna end well.
"I didn't listen to him, of course. I tried to resist his advances. But he grabbed the hem of my skirt from below the desk and…"
She didn't say anything further. I didn't want her to continue… I didn't.
"Then he pulled out a syringe of some sort from his pocket, some injection of some sort. It was some drug Alex, I'm sure it was a drug. He tried to put the needle in my arm. I pushed him aside and ran away from there. And I didn't know where to go! I didn't know whom to tell, this has never happened with me before! You're the only person I trust Alex. Tell me, what do I do?"
I didn't say anything for a long time. She kept her shoulder on my head and didn't say anything as well.
Then I put my arm around her and stroked her hair.
"I'm gonna call Sal, okay?" I asked.
She looked at me.
"What for?"
"I need to talk to him."
"But- what about me?"
"That's what I need to talk to him about."
"You're not gonna tell him what happened are you?"
"No. Not all of it. That okay with you?"
"Why do we need to tell him?"
I'd made up my mind now. I had to tell her the truth.
"If I'm gonna take care of this matter Mary, I can't do it alone."
"What do you mean 'take care of this matter'?"
"Don't worry," I stroked her hair again, "you're gonna be fine."
I assured her that everything was gonna be alright, and then I walked to the telephone and dialled Sal.
"Hey," I said, not waiting for the formalities, "come to my house. Fifteen minutes."
"What's the matter?"
"I'll explain later. Just be here."
"Alex, I'm with Bella right now, she's at my house and everything…"
That's his girlfriend, by the way.
"Look, I don't care…" I replied, and I noticed that Mary was listening, so I lowered my voice, "Just come here, man. Somebody's hurt Mary."
"What? Who?"
"I don't know. Look she's shaken to the core. Come on man, don't do this to me. I can't manage this alone. I need your help."
"Alright." he sighed.
"Thank you Sal."
"Gotta go baby." I could hear him telling Bella just as he cut the phone.