Sneeze

14.2.2012, 8:45am

    From a very young age, he'd learned that princesses never married kitchen boys, and he firmly believed that there was no such thing as love. 'Why?' you may ask; because his mother, the purest form of love he had ever known, loved his father, but that love wasn't enough for him. His father truly loved the other woman, but it wasn't enough for her. Both of them loved him, but it just wasn't enough for them to stay together. The only love he knew was the way his mother sang him to sleep, the way he used to bite her cheeks in return, the way they danced in the rain, and the way he lit a candle in memory of her, every February 14th. 

Now, as he hugged his grandmother before leaving for school, as far as he could see, the stores on the street were decked in red. From ribbons to curtains, from banners to tiny heart-shaped stickers stuck on huge glass windows, and from gift hampers to chocolate wrappers.

'What is with the whole Valentine's Day, 'Meant-to-be', 'Soulmate' thing anyway?' he thought as he kicked a rock on the footpath. Every year, he was hurting but the rest of the world never cared. He didn't expect anyone to. It's just that his mother had told him to never let a day pass without showing love; even if it was in the tiniest way - to someone who would never expect it or to someone who could never return the favor even if they tried. He admits that it's been difficult to do that every single day but this way of decorating everything up for one day, in the name of love just didn't sit right with him.

14.2.2012, 9am

"Dad!" she exclaimed as she paused to fold his collar over the red tie.

"Thanks, sweetie. Now go kiss your mother, I'll be waiting in the car."

"Ahem, aren't you forgetting something?" her mother asked from the kitchen. She giggled as her father covered her eyes.

"Happy Valentine's day darling," she heard him say followed quickly by a smooch sound.

"I'll expect you back early, Husband. Granny's watching her for the evening."

"Hey!" she exaggeratedly folded her hands on her hips as her parents high-fived each other.

"Rules are rules sweets," her father shrugged.

"Fine, you guys keep this up while you still can, one day it'll be my turn too. I can't wait to see your faces then!" she threw on her book bag and hugged her mother. Her parents looked at each other as her father called out after her, "Have you told that boy you like him yet?". 

14.2.2012, 12:30pm

"So? Did you ask yet?" her friends nudged her as she opened her tiffin box.

"Guys, you promised you won't talk about him today," she tried reminding them.

"You can't keep saying that. It's been two months. Today is like the best day to ask him out."

"Did you forget the part where we're at school?" she asked her friend with blue hair.

"I don't mean now, silly! Didn't you say that you're going to your grannie's house after school? It's like the perfect excuse! I've met your gran and you could just tell her what happened when she asks why you were late."

"I don't know guys," she sighed.

"Oh, come on!" It was her other friend this time.

"You guys do realize that he's only said 'hi' to me once and he's never once smiled at me?!"

"That is not true, and you know it. Why is that important anyway?" the blue-haired asked.

"It could just be me. He probably doesn't even think about us like that," she tried to say.

"Okay, what's the worst that could happen?"

"I don't know? Dying from shame?" her voice was squeaky now.

"Or," her friend paused, "he could just say no?"

"Same thing?" she looked at her friends as if they'd grown two heads, "uh-uh, no way. Forget it!"

"Okay wait. How about we do this the normal way?" the other friend said with a glint in her eyes.

She narrowed her eyes, "As in a vote? That won't be fair; I already know what you guys are going to pick!"

"No," her friends said in unison as they extended their closed fists towards her.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she said as she shakes her head and prepares for a heated game of rock-paper-scissors.

14.2.2012, 2pm

She sighed for the umpteenth time as she waited for him in the library. She'd lost the game twice in a row, it was a free period, and she had finally agreed to speak her mind. She wanted to ask him for a movie date or simply some chai in the bookstore cafe they had met for the first time, last summer. They'd become classmates, class monitors, and eventually had started to speak to each other. Well, it was mostly her doing the talking but she figured it was because he preferred listening. He's always been this quiet, charmingly nerdy, handsome but reserved, man-child; and she just couldn't stop-

"Hey!" His voice pulled her from her thoughts. She gulped. He actually came.

"Hi!" She said a little too brightly and immediately regretted it.

"What's up?" he asked, "You said you needed to tell me something urgent?" His question made her gulp again and she exhaled. Loudly. "You okay? You look a little red. Like it's stuffy in here or something," he sat beside her.

"I'm fine," she said, "I-"

"It's because it's Valentine's Day, isn't it?" he asked.

"What?" Wait, what?

"You must dislike this whole thing about love and mush and all that red, right?" he said. Her head nodded without her consent. What?

"It's so annoying," he continued, "I mean what kind of love is it if you have to set apart a particular day for it? Why can't we tell the difference between genuine, strong love and the show-and-tell kind of love anymore? I've not been able to stand it since morning," he sighed and then chuckled. "Oh, my god. I just... that was out of the blue. I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that."

She panicked, "No, no. It's... this is actually the first time I've seen you speak so passionately about something; without stuttering."

His eyes widened, "Huh? Oh, yeah," he gulped, "Yeah, I guess so," he shook his head, "Let's not talk about such things," he shook his hands and asked, "what was it that you needed to ask me?"

She smiled, "I wanted to know if you'd be interested in decorating our class bulletin board for this week; about the actual meaning of Valentine's Day, its origin, etc.?" Nice save!

He frowned, "You know what? That's actually a nice idea, but I'm not sure how far our class would agree with it. Then it'd just be us like the last time and I don't really want that - for either of us."

She nodded, "Yeah, you're probably right. It just hit me and I thought I'd share it with you."

"Okay, but couldn't you have asked this in the class?" his left eyebrow was raised.

She rolled her eyes, "Please, I know you like to sneak out of the free period to get your hands on the new books that come in every week."

He laughed, "Yeah, I do." When she turned to get up, he tapped her elbow, "thanks for getting me out of there. I feel like I can breathe easy all of a sudden." She turned to look at him and saw what seemed like 'relief' in his eyes.

"No problem," she said, "maybe tell me next time without having me figure it out for you?"

"I'll keep that in mind," he smiled.

12.2.2012, 3pm

"And?" they pressed.

"He hates Valentine's day," she said dryly.

"What?!" they shrieked.

"Keep it down, girls!" Their homeroom teacher chided.

"Sorry ma'am," the blue-haired girl said. "What?" she said again, turning to her.

"I didn't even get to ask him what he thought about us before he literally told me in the most un-subtlest way that he hates everything about the 14th of February."

"Did he figure it out?"

"No, I made a save."

"Okay then, phew!"

"Yeah, phew," she said as she fist-bumped them before grabbing her water bottle.

'Dad will laugh his head off once I tell him this,' she grimaced as she swallowed. 'I can't believe he hates everything red! How could he be my crush and hate these sweet little things? I know I told myself that I would wait and I know it's too early but seriously if soulmates exist, I wish mine would just let me know already!' she stubbornly thought.

Two desks away, an uncontrollable urge to sneeze overcame him.