ONE
“ Love, a boundless feeling
Free to give Free- to receive.
But not a love like mine-
Forbidden!
Not a love like this.
Such love must stay hidden
Inside dark corridors
Beneath my ribs
You mustn’t look at me tender
You mustn’t talk to me sweetYou mustn’t give this wild birdIts desired pair of wings”
I finished reciting the poem and turned to face my best friend Izzie, seated on the couch. She was clearly shocked. Her mouth was wide open.
“ Was it this bad ? “, I said with a tensed look on my face. It was homecoming and we were busy preparing for the poetry recitation contest. Being an extremely organised girl Izzie was all prepared.But I, being a late planner was probably still in a big pool of mud. I did not know what to do. I did not know what to recite ,until today I came across this beautiful poem by Clariel Estevez.It was hopelessly romantic.When Izzie came over this morning I planned to recite it in front of her, just to make sure that it sounded nice.
But after looking at her face right now, I was damn sure that I was going to lose.Hopeless me!!
“ Was it this bad?” , I repeated with a grumpy look on my face.“ BAD? Did you just say that your poem was bad???? “, said Izzie, even more surprised. She pulled me down and made me sit on the couch beside her.She faced me and gave me the widest smile possible.
“ You will rock the contest. That poem was just so amazing. And above all, the way you recited it left me speechless and shocked.”
I smiled too.Thank goodness . The recitation was good. At Least I am sure that I do not have to bear people laughing at me, during the event, the way people laughed at Eric Thomson , the school head boy while he had been trying his very best, to recite Casabianca,last year at the school carnival.
Izzie hugged me hard and said,” I am so proud of you Sam”. I giggled and hugged her. “ I guess , I am proud of myself too.”
“ I am proud of you too Sam”., I heard my brother’s voice.Oh God!!! Not now. I freed myself from Lizzie’s clutches and saw him standing near the TV unit , all propped up for the football match against a neighbouring school. To make matters more clear lemme tell you something about my dearest , over protective, moderately handsome( Okay he is really handsome! But ……...you know………...just to make him appear useless in front of my greatself.) big brother Daniel. Daniel was the captain of the school football team. And to be honest he was the best player in his team. He was in his senior year and had a great love for Chemistry. He was the recurring winner of the Science Fair organised by our school. So , he was a popular man back at school.But he was even more famous among girls because of his looks. Girls from all across the school came to the cafeteria to meet him everyday. They were all crazy about him. And when I say crazy, I mean really CRAZY!!!! We literally had to arrange for a new letterbox when our previous one got flooded with letters, gifts , chocolates and teddy bears from almost every part of the town, this Valentine’s Day . GOD!!!!!
Sometimes it feels like a disease,when you are railing the school corridor with your best friends and suddenly a girl pops up in front of you and asks,” Can you give me Daniel’s cell phone number?”or “ What did Daniel have for breakfast?” or “ When does he go to sleep?”.
Sure enough you can understand my life.Living under the shadow of an amazing and popular elder brother , who tries to protect you from every single guy , who tries to get glued to your life.
“ Thank you dear bro. “, I gave him a fake and sarcastic smile. He nodded his head backwards and went up to the refrigerator to fish out some juice.
“ Why are you prepping for the match now Dan? Isn’t it supposed to begin at 2 pm? My watch tells me that right now , it is 12pm.”, I asked.
“ I have to be there by 1 pm. The girls have prepared a song for me. They are going to rehearse it and then I have to be there for the autograph session.Popular life sis . Can’t let down my fans”, said Dan with a wide smirk, while putting the juice bottles inside his backpack.
I rolled my eyes with disgust, and looked down towards Izzie who was busy giggling. She lowered her voice and said, “ Really busy life.”.
“ Really busy .,” I said sarcastically and started giggling too.But Dan must have probably heard our whispers. He said looking at Izzie,” Sam, I see your super hot friend has come over. Hey there Izzie! You look nice in that pink skirt by the way.”. Izzie turned total red , grabbed the glass of water from the centre table and started emptying its contents to hide her cheeks.
I looked at Dan sternly. My hands on my hips. “ She is not a member of your drooling fan club.”
He just laughed out loud and said,” Sure she is sissy. And probably she is one of the most appealing girls I have ever seen.”
“ Tell me Izzie “,he said while advancing towards her” What do I have to do , to have you as my date for this year’s homecoming?”
Izzie was all tongue tied. Even though he was her best friend’s brother, he was still HIM. The ‘ Apollo’ of Romano Falls High School. To save my best friend from this kind of awkwardness I decided to take the reins in my own hands. I stepped between them and said,” To have her as your date you need to shut the hell up and leave the house at once. Surely you will get more appealing girls in the stadium. Just leave her alone.”Dan started giggling and grazed his hair backwards. “ Sure . But they are not Iz…..”
“ Dan!”, I yelled at him and threw a cushion in his direction.” How can you be like this? I am gonna tell mom.”
“ Sure . Tell her . Because mom is miles away in Africa treating her patients in places without telephone towers.”
I realised he was correct. My mom is a doctor by the way. She works under the WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION. Presently she was posted in Africa .We stayed with Dad in Los Angeles. But even he was not here this week because of some disgusting business trip to Arkansas. So yes. There was no one to punish him and scold him for his wrong doings.
I stamped my foot and threw another cushion towards . He caught it this time and kept it on the center table. “ My sister is becoming Mulan. Stay away from her Iz. She has turned out to be a completely mad girl.”“ Stop being an ass Dan…”, I was about to punch him when I heard the calling bell.
Dan immediately sat down on the nearest ottoman trying to flirt with Izzie as she shifted uncomfortably .
So here I was the only person left to open the door.I scooted over to the door and opened it.
And that was when I saw him. Chris. My brother’s best friend.He played centre forward and was a part of today’s match. Probably he was here to pick Dan up.
He smiled at me.
He was extremely fair , had dirty brown hair and pure hazel eyes. I kept on staring at his sweaty face.He was saying something and that was when I realized something odd. Why the goddamn hell was I staring at him?
“ Samantha? Hey are you listening ?”, Chris waved his hand in front of my eyes , bringing me back to reality. “ Yeah. Christopher. Hello. Good afternoon.”, I blurted out some random words. Gos Sam !!! Where is your own self gone?“ Good afternoon to you too. I was wondering, maybe you would consider calling Dan. We are late. The girls are waiting for him”. And there he was. Just like Dan. Mr.Popular 2.0.
“ Dan!!! “ , I yelled for my brother. “ Daniel Gregory Mitchell! Your best friend is her to pick you. Now stop flirting with my best friend and manage yours.”I turned back to face Chris. He was smiling .” Why are you smiling? Is there something...wrong with my hair?” , I said while trying to fix the flyaways. Let me be honest with you all. Nothing works on my hair. No hairspray can fix it.
“ You are such a funny girl Samantha. God knows why Dan is always complaining about you?”
“ Sibling rivalry Chris. You will not get it. ”, I said with a giggle and leaned against the door. He smiled at me. He was not that bad. Was he? I mean look at him. Lean muscles, chiseled face, sweet voice……………………………..“ Scoot out young lady,”said my brother and pushed me out of his way. I was about to hurt myself , but luckily Chris caught my hand. “ Thank you so much”, I said.
“ Come on Chris . No time to waste. A bunch of chics are waiting for me at the stadium.”, said my brother and almost ran towards Chris’ car that was parked in front of the fountain in our lawn. Chris and I shared a giggle .
“ So ? Hot chics? Autographs? Guess you both are getting all the girls in your team? Mr. Popular?”, I said.“ Nah! Not all “. He said with a smirk.
“ Why? Which super beautiful and arrogant lady is avoiding your charm?”, I said casually.“ Well you are”, he winked at me.
I felt my cheeks turning red. So I looked down . Why wasn’t he leaving? I looked up and saw that he was staring at me. I felt something racing in my chest. That is when I saw him holding my hand.
Should I tell him to let go of me? Would that be rude?
I looked into his eyes and said,” Chris. You should get going.”He seemed overwhelmed. But then he let go off my hand and was said with one of his usual smirks. “Wish me luck Sam.”
“ You both are going to win. I will watch the whole live match from home.Be safe.”I was about to hug him when I heard the honking of Chris’ car. “ Come on Chris. We are late.”
“ You should go .”, I said.He let go off my hand and caressed his hair. “ Yeah . “, he turned to leave. As I was about to close the door , I heard my brother yelling out to me,” Goodbye darling sis.” They drove away.
“ Love you . Good bye. Good luck.” I said slamming the door.Why was my heart racing so fast?????
Probably I was tired. Tired of fighting with my brother. But that was again extremely necessary for my survival.
Suddenly it hit me that we were late for the match too. I hate going to stadiums. The people out there make a lot of awful noise. So I watch all of the boy’s matches here at home with Iz. . “ Izzie , come on . We have a match to watch.”
