PERSPECTIVES
By Patricia Isabelle Perez
2-Simplicity
(A/N Summary : A story of 2 best friends' relationship throughout the years from five different perspectives.)
-un.
I remember the old days… The elderly woman thought, as she had a bird's eye view of the whole park. The old lady loved watching little children play in that park, because it always reminded her of how she used to be when she was about 65 years younger, when the world wasn't that complicated. A soft smile was on her face as she watched a little boy in a blazing red t-shirt with denim jumpers and high socks playfully skip over to another boy (who was quite pale and skinny, she said to herself) in a gray polo shirt with long, black denim pants looking awfully lonely under the yellow slide.
The jolly little boy in the red shirt leaned forward and cupped his itty bitty hands on his knees. He grinned and his baby teeth sparkled under the sun as he greeted a cheerful hello! to the poor white boy who was quite evidently shy and a little bit scared. The boy in red laughed, stood up, and outstretched his hand to the crouching boy under the slide.
On the other hand, the lady's attention, at that time, was placed on another group of children on the other side of the playground. She missed the slight smile of the pale, skinny boy as he laced his fingers with the other boy's and hoisted himself up.
How adorable those two boys were, she muttered to herself as she was walking farther away from the playground, away from the cute laughter of the boy in red, from the flushed, sweaty face of a kid in gray, and from a beautiful friendship that was destined to begin on that day.
-deux.
Adults ruin absolutely everything, an 8 year old boy proclaimed as he sat on the steps on a porch one afternoon. He had an angry pout on his lips, and he knit his eyebrows together in annoyance. He continued to mumble incoherent and frustrated whines about his parents to himself, thinking that he absolutely hated time-outs on the porch steps. The door creaked open, and the little boy heard the familiar graceful footsteps of his mother, much to his chagrin.
Henry... Come on, honey. Don't act like that; you know Daddy and I love you. A soft, feminine voice filled the child's ears, and he crossed his arms and turned the other way around.
Hmph. The boy huffed, scrunched up his lips and pointed his nose to the sky, shaking his head.
Henry James Lau, if you don't face me and talk to me properly in 10 seconds, I'm forbidding you to even GO NEAR the TV. The woman placed one hand on the boy's shoulder, but the boy refused to give in and he childishly shook her hand off of his shoulder. The lady narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms as well. She raised one eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak.
Ten… Nine... Eight…Seven... The boy still didn't budge.
Six… Five… Four… The woman pursed her lips in irritation and a visible vein on her forehead twitched.
Three… Two… HENRY DON'T YOU DARE MAKE ME SAY ONE, OR ELSE I'L—
OKAY FINE! The boy hollered, as he whipped his head angrily at his own mother. WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME PLAY IN THE FIELD WITH RON AND HARVEY IF YOU REALLY LOVED ME, HUH? HUH? HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THAT! I DESERVE FREEDOM! I DESERVE TO GO OUT WITH MY FRI—
Uhhh… Mrs. Lau? A teenage boy's voice interrupted. The angry little boy turned around to face the perpetrator (who very IMPOLITELY disrupted his 'moment,' he added,) as he didn't bother to hide the glares he threw at the stranger. The boy cleared his throat.
You dropped your wallet at church this morning, I'm sorry I wasn't able to give it to you earlier… The boy explained as he scratched his head. The younger boy noticed that the teenage boy had a tall but lanky build, an awfully pimply but white face, a pair of brown eyes that seemed to glisten on its own, and a very ugly haircut. The younger boy felt an odd mix of guilt, fascination & irritation when he watched the other boy's lips move in known shapes, with words flowing from his mouth. Not long after, his mother went back inside the house (with an earlier fight nonexistent in her memory), and the teenager languidly sauntered back to the curb, and Henry found himself alone on the porch once again.
The 8-year-old decided to sit on the porch steps (definitely NOT hoping that the interesting boy from earlier would come back his way, and he did NOT jump up from his chair when he saw a tall, lanky figure in the corner of his peripheral vision). His eyes strayed to the figure in distant blocks from the porch he was presently in. As he looked closer and as the figure grew more distinguishable, he noticed that it wasn't just ONE figure present, it was actually two. Henry was taken aback at the sight of a pubescent boy being carried piggyback by the boy who came by his house earlier. They were laughing, and the rays of the sun bounced off of their sweaty skin, creating an overall 'shimmering' effect. The little boy agreed then and there, that those two older boys were the epitome of human imperfection, yes, not perfect, but beautiful in their own unique way. The way their eyes flickered with delight, the way their teeth shined under the scorching sun, the way their hair would move with every shift of their bodies – they were oddly…beautiful, if not perfectly imperfect.
The next scene shocked him (if not left a 8 year old speechless for 2 whole days,) because it just came so quickly that the little boy could not believe what happened in a span of 10 seconds. 10 very long seconds.
So the scene goes something like this : The pimply faced boy basically threw the laughing boy off of his back, and they both plopped down on the grass, exhausted and out-of-breath. Then the other boy, sat up, moved closer to the tall, lanky boy, and suddenly leaned down to kiss him. On the LIPS.
Poor Henry's eyes widened and his jaw dropped to the floor. He couldn't believe his eyes, of course. Two teenage boys kissing in plain view for everyone to see wasn't really an everyday spectacle. Out of instinct, his legs started to move and he staggered and fell on his butt, yet he didn't care anymore. Fear, disgust and surprise etched his face as his back hit the door, and he struggled to stand up and turn the knob to open the door. The door finally opened, and he dove inside, lungs straining for oxygen. He quickly held the cross pendant on his neck, uttering a soft prayer to God for protection against demons.
-trois.
About 7 years after Henry's view of life changed permanently, ruby red lipstick was applied on thin, pursed lips; mascara was brushed on thick, black eyelashes, and 5-inch stilettos were paired with cocktail dresses with hems barely mid-thigh.
Life in college opened the eyes of everyone who'll be able to experience it. Life in college didn't only mean crappy dorms with sorry excuses for roommates, nor was it just a torture chamber made solely to suck the life out of the students. College didn't only mean sucking up to your professor in every humane way possible just to pass, and nor was it just having to pull off all-nighters that would plant whales under your eyes. College was way more than just that – it was a party. Fraternities and sororities were all over every building imaginable, and parties were literally all day long. During the day, there were themed lunch parties and university concerts and fairs, but parties during the night were the most intense of them all. Chaotic it may seem, since without most parties were spontaneous and last minute, but everyone just knew everything – at least, when it comes to parties. Night parties were the wildest – it was like Sodom, Gomorrah, Las Vegas, Macau, Seoul intensified. There were booze, drugs, sex, dancing, clubbing – absolutely everything legal and illegal were welcomed in college night parties.
Long, thin legs equipped with killer heels occupied the dance floor, and the droning beat of the music echoed through the walls of the large sorority house. A female in a scarlet tubed mini paired with strappy stilettos strutted through the dark, mahogany doors and all eyes turned to her. She was the epitome of a human Aphrodite – she oozes out sex appeal from every pore of her body. A corner of her mouth curled up into a smirk, as she continues to saunter forward to the bar. She suddenly stopped and squinted her eyes in the direction of one man sitting by the bar, gulping down the 8th bottle of beer in a span of a minute. She smiled slyly, and started to walk to his direction.
Innuendos were exchanged, ugly pick-up lines were used and snarky remarks were made. Every now and then, the boy would look out the window, his gaze glazing over, and then he would snap back to reality, drunk and completely miserable. The man was a natural charmer, everything that came out of his mouth was slurred but it hooked you to him, and the more he talked, the more he glanced at you, the more your eyes met – the more you get magnetized, attracted to his presence.
They went down the hallway, up the stairs, and into a dark, large room at the edge of the corridor. Clothing was shed, kisses were wet, yet empty. No emotion, no nothing. The moans and whimpers were just products of hormones, of human want, of lust – of pain. A tear was shed amongst the layers of sheets and pillows but was quickly absorbed like a sponge. Pseudo-euphoria was all that mattered, and it was all they wanted anyway, a quick exit from the world, from hate, from unrequited love.
The night quickly faded away, filling the room with magnificent swirls of the early rays of sunrise. As soon as the night disappeared, the boy was gone too, and only a text message remained.
I'm sorry but I can't.
-quatre.
A wedding invitation was sent to a charming man. As soon as the envelope was torn open, old wounds ripped apart, leaving the man bleeding, bleeding. Sensations of a thousand poisoned arrows piercing through his fragile, broken heart rippled across his whole body, and he was numb.
Marriage was always considered to be the happiest moments of one's life; one of the few days in your lifetime that just had to be perfect. Everything was planned even before, everyone was notified before, but it never necessarily meant that everything, (or in this case, everyone) was ready for it.
The red carpet was placed perfectly in the centre of the aisle, and the cathedral was overflowing with scents of carnations and jasmines all over. Everyone was in a shade of lavender, except for the bride in a white gown with a long train and an all-true smile on her face as she walked down the aisle with her arm hooked into her papa's.
Her gaze was locked into another's, hopeful and in-love. She held the hand of her other half, her reason for living, and everything was just beautiful. The whole ceremony was a blur, and the next thing she knew, she was kissing a tall, suave man, with her arms hooked on his neck. The crowd cheered, and applauded. The lovely bride ran with one hand on her dress, and one hand laced into her husband's own, as she looked back to the place where it all happened. She saw a glimpse of a man in a tuxedo, dashing as well, a small smile plastered on his face but the eyes gave it all up. Moisture fell down his left eye, and he looked rather pained for a millisecond, but then the façade was up again and the bride was already outside the cathedral, and went inside the car for the reception.
She leaned her head on her husband's shoulder, and basked in the excitement of a fresh start.
They went down, hand-in-hand, and greeted all the guests. Everyone was politely thanked and welcomed, yet there was still that man (who was very handsome and charming indeed, Darling's right, she thought) whose eyes gave everything away – hurt, happiness, but most of all, regret. The bride wondered at first, but quickly shrugged it off, thinking that there were way more important things to be thinking about on this day.
She ended up on a chair between her new husband and her maid-of-honor, and her husband was beside the interesting male. The time came when they had to say their wishes for the newlyweds, and the best man stood up, and smiled brightly, I'd only like to say these 2 lines for you two, he pointed out to the woman and her husband, number one, congratulations for getting married, and second – may your marriage stay healthy, and a piece of advice – don't be afraid to take a risk, because sometimes, you're just too late to do anything anymore. Cheers! The woman smiled at the generous remark of the unusual man, and she peered into her partner's eyes – a flicker of guilt, and lost chances.
-cinq.
As the years go by, the groom meets with his old friends for a normal drink in the local bar. The boy under the slide, the boy in a red shirt, the pimply faced teenage boy, the daring pubescent boy, the drunk yet charming college student, the pained best man, the guilty new groom – they were all there.
They bask in their hidden miseries; they drink up all the pain, and they swallow the guilt – so at the end of the day, the pain's nearly gone, and they're just two best friends sitting just a little bit too close to each other.
FIN.