1Making
the right connection..
I felt like I had spent an eternity in April's apartment right after Lea left with April. At first I was angry at Lea for getting up and ditching me like that! I mean it wasn't like Don was going to attack me or anything, but I felt so uncomfortable with his presence in the room. I had grown tense as I sat on the couch, my eyes were locked onto the wall straight ahead of me. I could only make out his image on the side of me, but I tried not to look at him. I am not really quite sure why I was uneasy with Donatello being there. He did seem very sweet, but for some odd reason I didn't want him near me. I am not sure why, was it because he was a freak? Okay freak is a harsh word. He was different than me, too different. I mean I know I get angry when people put down others when they are different, but Donatello was different. He wasn't even human! But if I was uneasy with him being there just because he was a mutant "freak", then why wasn't I angry towards him? You would think if I had that kind of attitude I would be very hateful to him. It was something else. I actually kind of knew what it was but the thought of it was so unbearable that I tried not to think about it. I felt like that there were butterflies in my stomach as if I was sitting in the room with a very attractive guy. But Donatello wasn't cute. Okay sort of cute, but he was a turtle for crying out loud! He probably knew the same for me and there could be nothing between us ever. I sat there for the longest time debating with myself quietly in my head. Suddenly Don's voice finally broke the silence that had existed in the room.
"Listen, I won't hurt you," he said. He seemed almost sad, just hearing it made me feel even worse about how I freaked out yesterday from seeing him the first time. He continued, "Look I know you are not quite comfortable with me being here yet and that you probably think I am such a hideous monster. But I really am not," now he sounded less soft as if he had some anger in those words. I felt so bad that I looked down at the floor some trying to gather my courage. He was right, he wasn't a monster.
Finally I spoke, but I kept my eyes to the ground. I didn't want to see his face for I thought he would be angry with me. "You're right. You're very nice and sweet, Donatello. You are not a monster. I am sorry for my behavior yesterday." I cautiously move my eyes up to him and saw that he was smiling softly at me, which kind of made me feel more comfortable.
"It's okay," he smiled at me. "I should be pretty use to it. I know it's difficult trying to adapt to seeing something that is a humanoid that is quite not like you. You didn't know any better and I completely respect that. I just hope you will learn that sometimes things that are not quite what you think should exist are not always monsters."
I nodded my head and smiled at him. I wasn't quite too sure if he was angry with me or not by those words, but I could tell by the tone of his voice that he wasn't. I scooted over some to the right on the couch to give more space and patted the end of the couch to motion for him to come over and sit with me on the couch. I wanted to let him know that I respected him and that I wanted to make amends with him. Donatello first seemed to be kind of shocked by my gesture, but he got up and sat down on the couch. He was only about 12 inches away from me, a lot closer than I thought. He seemed so close as if he was touching me. I looked up at him and I felt myself growing shy was I looked at his smiling face. My heart grew kind of flattery by this and I tried to slow it down, not sure what it meant. It even helped more to calm myself down when I noticed that Don seemed to be kind of uncomfortable where he was too. I could tell by his facial expression that he looked a lot tenser. It seemed so cute that I smiled bigger at him. "Look I am really sorry for the way that I acted towards you yesterday. Believe me I was expecting a lot of things, but not THAT." I said smiling some towards him; a slight nervous chuckle came out of my mouth. Don just looked at me and nodded his head. "But what I really wanted to do was to thank you for helping me the other night."
"No problem," Don replied quickly. "I followed you into the Bronx that night." I looked at Don very puzzled. Did he just say that he followed me? I could feel my heart skip a beat. I have no clue what my facial expression looked like, but I think Don could tell that I was uneasy by what he just said because I saw that there was a slight redness of a blush on his cheeks. "You didn't match the description of a person that regularly would just go into that place." He stumbled. I kind of wanted to laugh some, I could tell that he was nervous some his voice was now shaky. But did that mean that he liked me or something? I mean why would he follow me around the city? But then again he DID say he saw me going into the Bronx. That meant he just wanted to look out for people. He seemed like that type of guy. You know the kind who would look after others. There was no way that Donatello actually liked me as in a crush. That was just ridiculous I mean April did say that Don was kind of shy so he probably was like this around everyone. What would make me so special? I looked away some from him, I could feel a frown on my face. Boy this was confusing me! First I think Don may like me, then I am thinking that there's no way he does and that it is foolish to think that! He's not even my species! But why do I care so much? I have no interest in him…do I?
I could feel Don's eyes staring at me as if he was trying to read my facial expression to see what was wrong, but I think he wasn't going to ask what was wrong because next he asked, "So exactly why did you go there? I mean the Bronx isn't a safe place for anyone unless you're like my brother, Raphael." I looked over at him and I saw this huge smirk on his face. I wasn't too sure on his brother Raphael's personality, but by Raph's temper and the way he talked, he did fit the type that would go into those kinds of places. I knew exactly why I wanted to go into the Bronx in the first place. I was down about myself. I felt lonely and scared. The Bronx was calling me and I had to go forth. But I didn't want to tell this mutant turtle why I was acting the way I was. I hardly know him, how would he be able to help me? I wasn't quite sure on how to answer him since I didn't want to tell him the true reason and I didn't want to lie so I just turned my head away. I think he got the hint because he quickly blurted out that he was sorry.
Then once again there was loneliness in the room. I made a quick glance at the clock to see that I still had 40 minutes with him. Time was moving too slow! I didn't know what to say to him, I mean I already said I was sorry and I think he was kind of hurt for asking about the Bronx. My eyes lifted up to the television set and I leaned down to the coffee table in front of me to get the remote. "You want to watch some tv til the others get back?" I didn't want to be rude, but I hated just the silence.
"Sure," Don replied. "But I don't think you'll find anything really good on right now. I know April has some movies, you can pick one out to watch if you want." He pointed to a wooden cabinet located against the wall near the tv set so I got up and walked over. I could feel myself shaking as I walked over, I felt so nervous around Donatello. I haven't felt this nervous since the time I took a bus ride up to Washington D.C. in the 8th grade and I got to sit with this guy I liked named Brandon the entire way back home. Now I was scaring myself because if I compared Don to Brandon then it means that I did have some sort of weird crush on him. But why? He's not human! He's a turtle! It's just not right. But then again what makes us know what IS right? Gah I hate being so philosophical! My eyes skimmed the videos. I had no clue what type of movie Don liked and I didn't want to choose one that he hated, but I noticed that most of the movies that April had were some kind of westerns, cheesy sci-fi flicks. I noticed on the very end was a copy of the Matrix Revolutions. That was the only movie that I think I recognized that she had. "Matrix" wasn't my top movie but still I was pretty familiar with it since my brother, Chad made me watch it over and over when he got his own copy. I turned around and showed Donatello the movie. "This one okay?"
"Sweet! I love the Matrix!" Donatello exclaimed as I saw his eyes light up. "I let April borrow that movie to get her into it. Isn't it a great movie?"
I smiled some politely and nodded my head. I mean I didn't really HATE the movie, but it was hard for me to get into and I had so many questions about it but maybe since Don is familiar with the movie he could answer my questions. If Don ever met my family I am sure he would get along with my brother on this point. I put the DVD into the player and then sat back down on the couch, handing Donatello the remote.
It was right after this moment that I felt Don's soft touch on my left arm again. I could feel his finger's soft skin touching my bare skin since I was wearing my black tank top that day since it was kind of warm in the evening. At first I was kind of shocked, but when I looked down and saw his finger gently caressing my arm where my bruise was that I received that night in the Bronx; then looked and saw the sad expression on his face, I let down my guard once more. "I can't believe how some people in this world act," Don said gently. I noticed his eyes were locked on my arm. I felt like shivering some by his gentle caress. "Well at least it is looking better," he said with a smile as he looked up and then kind of blushed, realizing that he was actually touching my arm. I giggled when I saw his face turning red again. "Sorry," he said nervously and reset his eyes back on the movie once more.
"It's okay," I reassured him as I looked back at the movie. From that moment till about I knew that I had about 5 more minutes till my hour was up we remained in silence. I kept my eyes fixed on the television but I tried to look sideways using peripheral vision to see if he was looking at the movie or looking at me. But sadly enough he was just looking at the movie. What did I mean sad? I wasn't sad! There is no point in me worrying if he was looking at me or not! I was being so silly and letting my emotions get mixed up! I finally decide to break the silence between us by asking him a question that I often have debates about with my brother from the "Matrix" movie. "Hey, Don, I have a question," I said as I turned my face back around to face him, praying that I wouldn't stutter or jumble my words together which is common for me when I get nervous talking. "But you know how Agent Smith can take over different characters from the movie or computer programs and turn them into more of him? Well why couldn't he be able to clone them but control their clone? I mean if he takes them down, he would have their program code so therefore he could just duplicate them and have complete control over them. I think that would be more efficient for him," my eyes had wandered as I was asking back to the tv, afraid of being stupid, but I finally gathered the courage to look back over at him as I completed my question. I almost wanted to cry when I saw Don look at me puzzled for a brief moment. "Uh, never mind. It's a really weird question," I said kind of sadly, I felt so embarrassed that I wanted to get up and run from the apartment.
"Melinda, I can't believe you said that," Don finally spoke, his eyes partially wider.
Gah! I felt worse! "I know, kind of lame huh?" I said back to him, wishing I could have rewound time and cut that part out.
"No! That is so cool! I have been thinking the same thing! That's amazing!" Donatello exclaimed loudly, he was looking at me, grinning from ear to ear. I swear I thought he was going to bounce off the couch in excitement. "You know I thought I would never have been able to carry such a discussion with my brothers since they are so below my level sometimes, but I can't believe this!"
I giggled some; I couldn't believe that someone else believed in the same theory. I felt kind of proud and I knew I would stick it to my little brother when I got back home from New York. Don then said, "Speaking of computer programming. Have you taken any?"
"Yeah some. I took it in high school. My teacher thought I wouldn't be able to handle it since I was a girl and no girls took his class," I said, blushing some at first from his question. "Of course I showed him when I was the 2nd to best grade in the class out of 8 people!" I grinned big; I decided to share my proud moment.
"Really? That's great, Melinda! You'll have to show me one day what you have learned and then we can converse with one another," Don said back to me, I could see the joy in his eyes. It was kind of cute to see him get hyper like that over computers.
"Yeah sure, Don. I am not that good though. I mostly like HTML stuff. But I can try to understand what you're doing," I shrugged and smiled. I looked over seeing we only had a few minutes more till Lea should be back and we were only in half of the movie. "Aww man, we won't get to see the end."
"I can fast forward it some," Don said. "I really like the end part with all the cybernetic body suits that they wear to fend off Zion."
"Aw, but I like the end when Neo faces off with Agent Smith," I said, pouting some playfully with him.
"But they are just fighting with their hands. Don't you want to see technology at its best?" Don smirked back as he leaned down to get the remote from the table.
I grinned and snatched the remote from the table before he did. "Nope!" I smirked and playfully held the remote up.
"Come on, let me see it," Don said, chuckling some.
"No, we are watching end fight," I said as I turned and pointed the remote to the tv to change the movie, but Don leaned over and grabbed the remote from my hand. "Hey! That wasn't fair, Don!"
"A ninja is never fair," Don smirked back at me and pointed the remote to the tv.
I growled out playfully and grabbed the other end of the remote to keep it away from the tv so he couldn't change it. "Hey!" Don said as he laughed. We started to have a tug of war match with the remote back and forth. I held strongly onto the remote, determined NOT to let go. Don was trying to use one hand but when he saw me use both hands on the remote, he said, "No using two hands!"
I giggled and poked my tongue out at him as I held tightly onto my end of the remote with both of my hands, pulling as hard as I could to my body. "Very well," Don said and he put his other hand on the side of the remote near his other and pulled tightly as hard as he could to himself. He was clearly MUCH stronger than me and I fell over against him on the couch. I was almost on top of him on the couch. Immediately I think both of us stopped. I could feel my heart pounding really hard from him being this close to me and I could feel his pounding hard because when I let go of the remote with one hand, it landed on his plastron so I could feel his heart beat. I looked up at him, I felt my face flush and I think Don was the same way. That's when I heard the door to the apartment starting to open…