ONE. I’LL MEET YOU DURING EVERY HALF MOON
It’s stupid. It always has been. How oblivious I am! What is wrong with me? What’s with all the weird hallucinations I encountered last night?
All of it seemed too good to be true.
My mind subconsciously recalled the events that happened in my head last night.
Oh no… I groaned to myself. My wits are running wild, too wild. Better stop this. Now!
I sighed. The perfect picture of him in my mind was still stuck, embroidered into every single cell. My brains were raging, thinking only of him.
And who’s the him?
Well, I couldn’t bother to tell anyone about this –other than myself, of course– and not even my two best friends Helen and Kathy. Everything seemed so wrong. In so many ways.
I had a dream last night.
It wasn’t a bad dream, and I admit, it was the most glorious of all the dreams I had. Including the best ones previously like dreaming about myself eating potato chips out of the packet for hours and hours –yay! – or even kissing the guy I’ve a crush on.
Hold on. It was the guy I had a crush on. Now the guy just totally changed in a second, into him… Ah…
Anyhow, the dream I had could be described by this one word– Awesome.
It started as me looking at myself, and I was wandering around a really green field, a few blossoming tulips floating around in sync with the wind that blew by. Everything was utterly peaceful.
Although the weird thing was that it wasn’t in the day. It was night. Darkness lingered in every corner of the sky and ground, a half moon hanging by the corner, lighting everything up like a miniature sun. There was a really pretty blue lake, filled with… blue colored water. Like, really deep blue. Almost like an ocean, you could say.
Old oak trees stood nearby the lake, shielding some parts of it from the moonlight. Even though the moon was only a half of it, it lighted everything up just perfectly. Not too bright, not too dark.
What if it was a full moon, I asked myself.
I started wandering around, by the lake, hopping slightly in the field of wondrous green.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, there was this small little sheep near the lake –not that I ever saw a sheep in real life before– with this really white wooly coat around it and it was going ‘Bah, bah’ the whole time. I didn’t know why, but I could understand what it was trying to say.
The sheep’s thoughts were being passed down into me, a soft, wooly (yes, wooly) voice whispering into my mind.
Hi! I’m Nancy. What’s your name, human?
Whoa, I didn’t know that sheep has names. Of course, I never had any pets before. Not even a goldfish or any type of fish, under my concern.
I wondered for a few seconds of how to answer the sheep. Should I just use my voice to talk to it or either use the mind talking power she was using?
Suddenly, as if it were a natural reaction, I started saying the things I wanted to express through my mind.
My name is Quinn. You’re definitely a sheep, right?
The sheep thought for a second and her little white head bobbed a little.
Of course she was a sheep, I told myself. If not why is she so fluffy white and wooly?
‘Nancy! Come here!’ a deep, smooth voice suddenly echoed around the lake.
The sheep –I mean, Nancy looked over to her right and let out one ‘Bah!’ then she went walking to a huge oak tree nearby and went ‘Bah!’ again.
There was someone talking to Nancy, and I saw a few fingers sticking out from the shadow of the tree, patting Nancy’s fluffy little head. The sheep was going bah the whole time in pleasure. She really enjoyed being pat, doesn’t she.
‘Bah!’ Nancy suddenly said and turned over to look at me.
Yes, Nancy? I wondered.
‘You know someone new, Nancy?’ the deep voice said again, and then there was the sound of a chuckle. ‘Introduce us. Come on.’ The voice urged the sheep.
Nancy looked over to the direction of the huge oak tree and then turned back to me again. She looked like she was deciding something now.
What is it, I asked her again.
My master wants to meet you.
Why?
Because he wants to make friends.
I grinned. Nancy was just so cute.
Well…Fine then. So where is your master?
Nancy went bah again and a foot stepped out from the shadows. It was a pair of navy blue sneakers.
The figure of a person started to emerge, slowly, slowly…
Until a boy appeared.
Forget handsome, he was totally mesmerizingly gorgeous.
I stared.
And stared and stared and stared.
For one moment, –no, one minute, I just stood there and stared. His deep yet electrifying blue eyes zoomed straight into mine, making my heart race faster and faster.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, my heart cried desperately.
This was the guy.
Forget my previous crush for two whole years, which was Greg. This boy here was even more charming. So much better than some soccer fanatic.
I just knew it.
This was the guy I fell in love within first sight.
A minute and a half passed. I didn’t even dare to change anything, to do anything, afraid that I would spoil this beautiful image right in front of me.
But then, I started to choke.
Oh no, everything is ruined. This beautiful image…
I kept blaming myself for spoiling everything.
No… I can’t… go on anymore… Ugh…
The thing was, he was too beautiful until I stopped breathing. My lungs and mind just stopped. I guess this was what it is like when the phrase ‘Take my breath away’ is used. I could really need that phrase to use now.
‘Are you okay, Quinn?’ his charming deep voice echoed around the field, over the water, and I could even feel the sky warming towards him. No matter if it was night or day or even cloudy, this world just followed his flow. Followed his every move, every time he blinks, a cloud will start moving. It was as if the whole time everything here was controlled by him.
This was fantasy.
Definitely fantasy.
Him, the lake, the mind-talking sheep, the little ornaments hanging around this place, seemed just too… unrealistic.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
My heart stopped beating faster. It was at its normal pace again.
Okay, maybe it is still accelerating by just a little bit. This was a dream I would never get over.
A dream.
Those two words started to echo in my mind.
Just a dream.
I started to realize…
Maybe this really wasn’t real. This was just a dream. I was sleeping in reality now. This was just a dream that was too good to be real.
Yes, this was a dream. Always will be. Nothing can make this happen in real life.
Part of me sighed in desperation.
Why wasn’t this happening in real life? It would be so much better.
But another part of me also knew, this guy was just too gorgeous, too handsome to be true.
‘Quinn?’
While thinking, I almost forgot that he was there. He was asking me something, he was saying my name.
‘Y-yes?’
Oh no.
My voice was shaking slightly. I felt slightly scared in this unknown, dreamy world. But this was my dream right? So why did I need to feel scared?
Pushing courage forward, I decided to ask him again.
‘Who are you?’ I asked, trying to avoid contact with his eyes. It was too dangerous. I might faint, right here, right now.
His eyes opened wider slightly, as if he was surprised.
‘…’
A slow, awkward silence followed.
I wanted to say something again, but then his lips moved a second quicker than mine, putting a stop to my mouth.
‘Nancy didn’t tell you my name?’
‘The sheep?’ I thought for a little while.
One second, two seconds…
Three seconds.
He was still waiting for my answer.
I was trying to recall the mind conversation between me and Nancy a little while ago. So far as I know, she didn’t mention anything about another person’s name. Especially a boy’s name.
‘I… don’t think so.’ I slowly said.
Breathe, keep breathing, I told myself. I couldn’t faint now. I was having a conversation with this beautiful human now –if he really is human– and I couldn’t just black out from nowhere.
I still wanted to look at him.
He looked to the direction of Nancy, and the sheep shrugged. More like she looked like she shrugged, her wooly shoulders moving slightly up and down.
Sorry I didn’t introduce my master to you first, Quinn.
How did he know my name?
I told him, of course. Silly of you to ask that.
Sighing slightly, I asked this beautiful being again.
‘So what’s your name?’
Smooth as a frail slide of glass, he answered.
‘Caleb. Nancy told me your name, though. It’s Quinn, right?’
‘Yeah. Thanks, sheep.’ I mumbled.
Nancy went ‘Bah!’ again for some reason.
Caleb chuckled. A low, deep laugh was forming in his throat, thus producing a chuckle, since he decided to not laugh out loud.
‘Nancy feels… appreciated.’ He said, still trying to stop chucking. Unfortunately, it wasn’t working.
I tried to laugh as humorlessly as possible, making sure my voice wasn’t cracking into pieces. If it did, I would just embarrass myself in front of him.
‘Sorry.’ He said, wiping a small trace of laughing tears from his eyes. ‘Didn’t mean to laugh at you or anything.’
I rolled my eyes.
Yeah, but you still laughed, didn’t you?
Although I could say all of this in my head, I couldn’t bear to let it out, smack it into his face.
Because an imaginary vision struck my mind.
If I ever hurt his heart, would his beautiful face corrupt too?
I started to eye his face carefully, noticing the features I never did saw when he first stepped out from the shadows. There was a little trace of lavender in his eyes, and around it was the most beautiful ocean wave. Even a Hawaiian beach couldn’t compare with his electrifying blue eyes.
A small patch of lavender with an ocean surrounding it. That was what I could think of to describe his eyes.
It was so surreal.
Then my eyes started darting upwards, upwards…
…Until it reached his hair.
Oh. My. Gosh.
Three words that you could only say when you see with your very own two eyes, how blonde yet transparent his hair felt.
Not that I ever really touched it –although it would be heaven! – but just by looking at the strands one by one, I could feel it in me.
His hair wasn’t exactly blonde, and not exactly gold. It was the mixture of a light brown and blonde. That was what it was like. Soft and subtle, unlike my own hair. My mom used to describe once that it looked like a ‘well kept patch of grass’.
In other words, it was messy but well kept. I made sure to brush it at least fifty times a day. But no matter how much I brushed, it just couldn’t look straight like my mom’s, instead it just stayed a patch of grass. –Well kept grass, I hasten to add.
‘Quinn? Are you daydreaming again? Hello?’
Oh no…
His voice was too good to be true. It was nice and soothing to hear it flowing through my ears. Like a flow of water going straight through my brains. Rough but smoothly flowing on and on.
‘Y-yeah?’
My voice was starting to crack again.
‘Are you alright? Do you have epilepsy or something?’ he asked, his face looking slightly concerned.
‘But epilepsy is for crazy people.’ I reasoned.
‘Well, from the look on your face just now, I could say that you’re darn right crazy. Just imagine the person you’re talking to suddenly blank out from nowhere.’
That hit my funny bone.
I started to laugh, a line of laughter kept creeping through my mouth, calling me to laugh louder.
He started to chuckle too.
Seeing Caleb laugh was the best thing to look at in this whole planet.
There was a spark of humor in his eyes, added with the assembling of his features, thus making him look kind of childish. There were little dimples just by the tip of the curves of his mouth and his lightly-colored eyebrows –eek! – were slightly creased in the middle, extinguishing his childishness.
Result: he looks like a serious guy that took a good joke.
I wanted to slap my face. Like really hard.
This was so definitely a dream. No guy could be this perfect in the real world. There was nothing to compare. Not even the tallest building could compare with his height, from my perspective.
I stopped laughing.
Caleb noticed my silence and took note of my face expression. It was like he was trying to open the book in me. The thing was that I couldn’t reveal that book that easily.
‘How tall are you?’ I asked him.
He smiled again. Obviously he was thinking that this was just a plain joke.
But his eyes started to roll to me. I wasn’t laughing with him, like a crazy cow. I was seriously serious.
One of his eyebrows hopped up in confusion and he asked me, ‘Why?’
Because I have spent almost all of my life getting taller and I can’t!
That was totally true, and there he was, tall as a fully-grown palm tree standing beside an oak tree. He was obviously at least one head taller than me.
I tried everything; from drinking two glasses of milk everyday (till I finally vomited) and stretching every freaking day, nothing worked. And there this perfect guy called Caleb was, tall as a coconut tree.
How unfair life is!
I’ve always wanted to be that tall, so that the world can be in my view…
‘Just asking, seeing how tall you are.’ I said lamely, trying to hide my annoyance. This dude was the ideal height I wanted to be!
‘Well… the last time I measured… it was… hmm… I guess its 171 cm.’ he said.
‘WHAT?!’
‘I told you. It’s 171cm.’ he said. I guess he never expected me to be this surprised.
‘What’s your secret of becoming tall?’
How I wished there was a notepad for me to record all these things now.
But this was a dream right?
This guy couldn’t… possibly be real, right…?
Suddenly, Nancy went ‘Bah! Bah!’ and Caleb sighed.
‘The sun is going to come out soon. You’d better hurry back into your own world. Remember; meet me here during the next half moon, Quinn.’ He smiled.
‘Huh?’
‘Your mom is coming to wake you up already. Staying in a dream for too long can make you suffer, you know.’
What was he talking about? How would he know my mom was coming to wake me up now? Why was he asking me to go back? Why meet him during another half moon…
Out of the blue, the whole ground started to growl.
Rumbling. More rumbling.
‘Bye, Quinn. See you, soon.’
Caleb smiled a little, showing some of his dimples.
Hold on… he was leaving? To where?
‘B-bye.’ I managed to stumble out of all the questions I had in my head. His smile grew wider. I couldn’t help but return it, seeing how sweet it looked. Maybe I really… fell in love with Caleb.
This is so unfair!
Did he even like me? Did he even consider of liking me?
Then an idea suddenly hit my mind. The ground was still rumbling underneath, but everything on the surface stayed still. Sort of like a volcano under the ground.
I tried communicating with Nancy.
Nancy, help me look out for him, okay?
The sheep looked at me for a moment and shrugged.
Sure. You’ve fallen for him, didn’t you? I tell you, if I were human…
Yeah, yeah. I guess I have. Just help me look out over him, okay?
I smiled towards the sheep and Nancy took another second then looked back to the direction of her master.
Got it.
And then Caleb started shifting away, further and further.
This was my first confrontation with him.
By the next half moon, it’ll be our next meeting.
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Hey! :D
I guess this first chapter is a little quite long (well? 2,000+ words?)
but I'll try to continue this as soon as possible.
Working on another novel now called And It's Just A Curse .
Enjoy this chapter :)
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