Memories for Tomorrow

jjinxx

Is your "nom" Fai-approved?
Chapter 21
Margie lifted her head and took a deep breath. She closed her sketchbook and gathered her bag onto her back. When she stood up, she noticed another person sitting on the trees just a short ways down the river.
It was Boy. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen him by the river. After her biology project ended, Margie found that she very much liked walking down Goose Trail and sitting by the river, sketching birds, the river, the trees, and whatever part of nature suited her fancy. The first time she discovered that Boy also liked this area, she was walking down there after lunch and saw him sleeping, leaned up against the trunk of a tree. She had noticed that there was a bee buzzing near his ear, and made her way closer to try to shoo it away. Her second discovery was that Boy was a light sleeper. When he opened his eyes, she’d been surprised and her upheld hand got stung by the bee.
She hissed in pain, but Boy had wordlessly taken her other hand and made her hold onto a tree; then he took her stung hand and squeezed the stinger out. After it was out, he blew on it to cool off the pain, pulled a bandaid out of his pocket, stuck it on her palm, and left back towards campus.
The second time she had seen him by the river, he was asleep again. Ever since then, she had never had the chance to thank him.
But each time they did see each other, though they didn’t talk, or even look at each other, there was a sort of acknowledgement of each other’s presence. They left one another alone, yet somehow occupied the space with a togetherness that couldn’t be explained.
“Why are you out here so often?”
She looked up in surprise, never imagining he would talk to her. He seemed more of the independent type that liked to have as little contact with others as possible.
Margie replied, “I…I like it here. It’s secluded enough for me to have space to myself, but not too isolated that I don’t feel safe.”
Boy watched the clouds floating above. Today was a blue sky day.
Margie wasn’t sure what to say to him. She had never been good at initiating conversations. “It’s sunny today huh? It’s supposed to rain next week.”
“I like clouds.”
“Huh? Oh. I suppose.”
“I think if the sky is too blue, it’s ugly. Clouds add a bit of personality to the sky.” He glanced at her. “Are you heading back yet?”
“Oh, yes.” She wondered if this was his invitation for her to walk with him, but didn’t have much time to think it over, and caught up to him.
“I saw you carrying a lot of biology and chemistry books. What are you studying to be?”
“A vet.”
She nodded with interest, but didn’t ask further.
------
 
Mai, Mario, Kim, Beau, and Mark all file out of the car upon reaching the city of St. Cloud. The reason for this outing was that St. Cloud would be hosting Aum and Om’s final hockey game.
“Our team is so going to beat those Huskies!” Mark declared.
Mario looked around the street they were standing on in the city’s downtown area. “Let’s find some food before getting worked up about our school spirit. Oh!” He pointed. “There’s a Jimmy John’s down that way!”
“Can we at least unpack all our stuff first and check into the hotel?” Kim reminded them.
“Fiiine,” Mario said as if she were the party-pooper. He squinted up at the tall hotel building. “What? When did St. Cloud’s Raddison become…” When Mario gazed up and read the name of the hotel, he exclaimed, “Le St. Germaine? That’s a French-ass name!”
All at once, the whole group shouted, “Can I have yo numbah!”
“Work that up-do!” Mark shouted to a girl that walked by who had a pony-tail.
“Shut up!” Kim hissed at him. “Did you not see her big beefy black boyfriend?”
“Oh you were working some tight-ass consonance there girl!”
“Do you even know what consonance is?” she asked. “And stop talking ghetto, the moment’s over.”
“YES,” Mark said with a duh, “I totally topped my creative writing class in high school. And this isn’t ghetto speech, it’s my normal awesomeness yo.”
Kim rolled her eyes.
“Hey I heard that there are ghosts in this part of town, especially in this hotel. Even though they renovated it, it’s still in the same old spot for years and years,” Mario said.
“Oh, stop with your nonsense,” Kim said.
 
“Oooh! These rings are so cool!” Beau gushed, holding up jewelry designed by local artists.
Kim sighed. “If only they weren’t so pricey.”
“Hey! They have all the seasons of The Office on dvd back there for real cheap!” Mario said, like a child finding candy, “I’m going to get them all.”
The group was browsing the shops downtown and had made a stop in one of the stores before continuing and stopping at a café for some tea and coffee.
“Hey, we should head back now. The game is going to begin in two hours and we need to get ready and get really good seats,” Mai said. She wanted to make sure she was in the front row, giving her voice to support Om during the national semi-finals.
 
The length of the hockey game was full of nail-biting moments. Players skated on and off the rink, some even got injured enough that they had to be carried off. But in the end, the side sitting on Lawrence University’s half of the stadium was able to cheer for their team’s successful game, putting Lawrence at the top for the nation’s semifinals.
 
After meeting with Om and Aum, Om led Mai up the hotel’s hall to his room. She poked her head into the room. “So, where’re your team mates?”
“They’re down the hall, probably getting wasted to celebrate.”
She smirks, “Why not join them?”
Om smugly shrugs, “I’m drunk off the victory already. Besides,” he slips his arms around her waist, “I’d rather spend time with you then with a bunch of sweaty drunk guys.”
“Don’t let p’Aum hear you saying that.” She hugs him. “Congrats.”
“Thanks.” Om felt every win was more satisfying knowing she shared his joy and pride. “Do I get, mm, some kind of reward?”
Mai folded her arms, keeping her eyes out the window at the view of the city. “Hm…What do you have in mind?”
“Nothing difficult,” he slipped his arms around her waist and laying a kiss on her cheek.
“Hey, this is not a private room, remember?” she reminded him, wary of the teammates down the hall.
“I know. I just wanted to spend as much time with you as possible, since we’ve both been so busy lately, and I was training so hard for this game.” He touched his forehead to hers, closing his eyes and making a tired face. She sympathized with him for all the effort he put into practicing and his schoolwork and not to mention working for the dorm. Mai snuggly hugged him back.
“You know what I like about you?” she said, as they remained embracing, “You always celebrate the good things in life and always do everything with whole-hearted intention. You never slack off.”
He looked up slyly. “Allow me to demonstrate one way I don’t slack off.”
She laughed while he kissed her. “Hey you!” she broke off, “don’t try to be sneaky.”
He smiled cheesily. His was still holding her close in the way that felt so natural to him, feeling more himself and more comfortable with her than any other woman before. “You know what I love?” He looked into her eyes, “You.”
Mai’s coherence fell away temporarily when she heard his words. Om could be such a shy guy, but at that moment, there was no doubt in his eyes, and his smile told her he simply felt happy confessing this, and when he drew her back close to his body, she knew he didn’t expect any answer in return.
“Thanks for coming out to watch my game.”
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else tonight.” She pulled back just enough so she could reach his lips.
The door flew open abruptly.
“This place is haunted!”
Om and Mai looked over and saw Mark, Mario, Beau, and Kim huddled under the blanket of the bed.
“We saw a ghost when the elevator down the hall opened!”
“Mai!” Kim whined, trying to tug the blanket over her.
The group fell asleep together in that single hotel room, finding space in the bed and on the floor. Mai was on one edge of the bed, and Om was lying on the floor next to her side of the bed.
“Om,” she whispered, peering over the side down at him.
He opened his eyes up at her. “Hm?”
“I love you too.”
He grinned in the darkness, and held her hand to sleep.
 
------
“Are you really going out to lunch with that guy?”
“It’s in Yulli Center, in SUBWAY,” Margie rolled her eyes at Mario’s interrogative manner.
“But you hardly know him,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, that’s why he suggested we have lunch together…to get to be friends.”
“Well, it doesn’t seem like that’s all HE wants.”
“Were YOU the one he asked to lunch? Did YOU hear the way he sounded? Because I’m positive he was sincerely just asking to become friends since he doesn’t really know anyone around here. And it’s admirable to me that he was able to ask to become friends, because I know I would have been too shy to do that.”
Mario pursed his lips at Margie’s cap-locks, since she was rarely irritated at him. “But guys aren’t like that. The first thing they think about when meeting a new girl and having the motivation to ask them to LUNCH is to become something that is MORE than friends.”
“Not ALL guys.”
“You wouldn’t know.”
“Well, are you ALL guys? You’re just one guy, how can you generalize that way?” she asked gently reproving.
“That’s just the way things work,” he emphasized each word. “Trust me.”
She gave him a dull look. “What. So you’re saying the first time we met, you were thinking of getting together with me?”
They exchanged looks.
She looked to the side, “Okay, forget I asked—“
“Yes” he answered.
She looked back at him weird for his flat out answer. He shrugged. “It’s the truth.” They walked a few more steps then both spoke at the same time:
“But you don’t anymore.”
“But I don’t anymore.”
They laughed. Mario looked at Margie, “I mean come on, we met in like first grade, and I just wanted to impress my big sister that I’d gotten a girlfriend before she got a boyfriend, that’s why I was thinking about asking you to be my girlfriend.”
“But then Mary kissed you,” Margie nodded in remembrance.
“And solved all my girlfriend problems. Ah, those were the beautiful days of love.”
“Didn’t, like, all the girls in first grade kiss you?”
“Yep.”
.
.
Mario sighed dramatically, “Too bad I’m not going to be visiting my relatives in California again this summer. Otherwise, I’d make sure to drop by your city.”
Taew threw him a scrunched face, “And who invited you to drop by my city anyway?”
“Okay, okay. Sorry for being a friend.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’re all going to see each other over the summer. Did you forget the event that we’re all going to be attending?”
Kim came in with Mark right behind her. “Yup, that’s what I told Kim too. But you’re probably sorry that you have to wait so long, huh Kim?”
Kim rolled her eyes away; she was used to his annoying her.
“What does one wear to a Thai wedding anyway?” Mario wondered out loud. “We don’t have to dress up traditionally too, right?”
“Just anything formal will be fine. You think Aum will want you looking better than him?” Kim snickered. “Yaya! Where are you going?” she called out, seeing Yaya pass by in the hall.
“Just wanted to grab something quick.” Yaya ran upstairs, but when she saw Nadech talking to Mai, she stuck behind the corner. Seeing their fun banter, she made herself turn around. Walking out into the sunshine, she sighed and shook her head. “Stop thinking about him…Stupid.”
“Only a stupid person calls herself stupid.”
Yaya swiveled and found Nadech trailing after her. “What are you doing out here?”
“What? I can’t come talk to you?”
“I thought…you would want to spend as much time with Mai as possible before you have to leave for the semester.”
He smiled. “Now that we’ve met again, we won’t have to worry about not ever seeing each other again like in the past. I’m confident of that. So what’s up?”
“Nothing.” She digs the toe of her shoe into the ground. “Just excited for the summer to begin.”
“Yeah, me too. I’m sure I’ll miss everyone here though. But it’s great that you’ll all be visiting! I’ll have a chance to show you around my home this time around.”
She nodded excitedly.
“And I’ll make sure to prepare some peaches to welcome you.”
Yaya couldn’t help appreciating the sun’s warmth. Peaches were her favorites, she had told him once.
.
.
“What are your summer plans?” Boy asked when they settled down to their Subway sandwiches.
“I plan on taking one class, and continue with my seasonal job at mall.” Margie glanced at him, “What about you? Will you fly back home?” She had learned that he was indeed from Boston.
He bit into his sandwich. “No. I’m staying here for classes as well.”
She nodded. “Won’t you miss home?”
“No.”
“…Oh.” Again, Margie felt awkward if she was to ask further, since she would be prying.
“You can ask if you want. It doesn’t matter to me,” he said.
“Um…” Margie watched him nonchalantly eating. He really seemed unbothered by anything. “No, it’s okay.”
He paused, looking at her curiously, but they both continued eating. It seemed both communicated better without words. Margie rarely met people who didn’t make her feel obligated to fill the silence, but Boy didn’t evoke that kind of pressure for her, and as the minutes went by, she grew even more and more at ease.
------
 
“Nadech!”
Nadech turned from where he was packing his suitcase. “Yaya?”
She entered into his dorm room that was nearly stripped of all the decorations, photos, and memories that he and his roommate had stored up throughout the year. She noticed one still up.
“Hey! Were you thinking of leaving this behind?” she accused, holding up a photo taken after their singing victory, with just him and her, their arms raised in celebration.
“Of course not. That one has to be packed specially on top of my clothes so it doesn’t break.”
Yaya felt a smile creep onto her face at his words. “Good.” She went over to hand it to him, but saw that there were other photo frames on top of his clothes.
“It goes along with these,” he gestured to the other frames depicting the rest of their friends.
Heh, so much for thinking he holds you in a special spot.
“You’ll keep in contact, right? If I don’t hear from you, I’ll be disappointed.”
Yaya lifted her eyes to see his smile. She liked his smile now just as much as ever. “Yeah, I will.”
“Good!” He stepped forward and hugged her.
Yaya wrapped her arms around him too, instinctively happy because he was the kind of person who had effortlessly shared memories with her throughout their first college year. When they pulled apart, her eyes caught sight of the bit of lint in his hair from his cleaning.
“You have something in your hair.” Once she brushed it off, her eyes slid down and met his. Yaya felt her face warm up and she quickly stepped back from him.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. You probably don’t want Mai…I mean, anyone seeing us standing awkwardly like that.”
“Mai?” He furrowed his brow.
“I mean…” Oh screw it. Girl power, that’s what Taew would tell her, right? “Did you ever like Mai?” as soon as the question was out, the mortification set in, but it was too late to take it back now.
Nadech’s brow furrowed. “Why would you think that?”
“You mean…you don’t like her?”
“She’s my best friend,” he looked at her like that should explain it all.
Yaya stood wringing her hands, caught between wanting to flee from the room and wanting to hear something that would make her happy. “So, you’re saying…she’s just a friend.”
“Well, not just a friend. She’s my best friend.”
She impatiently replied, “Yes, just a best friend. Nothing more?”
Nadech nodded affirmation. She bit down on her smile. “Oh. I was just, you know, curious.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Like…like Oh, you know, we both like to know these things.”
“You sure?”
She forced herself to keep a straight face. “M-hm. You should finish packing up now,” and she hurried from his room.
Nadech had a smile on his own face as he said, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
.
.
“Have you seen Margie?” Mario asked, going into his room where Mark and Nadech were lazing around after finishing their last final exam. “We’re supposed to head back home together.”
Nadech answered, “I think she might be with the other ladies. Mai told me they were all going shopping or something.”
“Let’s see if any of them invited me.” Mark checked his cell phone.
Mario turned a droll face at him. “If they didn’t invite me they’d never invite you.
“What?” he asked, confused.
“Face it Mark, you’re always going to be ranked last for the girls between the three of us.”
“How would you know?!”
“Uh, because,” Mario said as if it was crystal clear even to five year olds, “I’m like, besties with all of them because it’s just my natural charisma. Nadech here is like so foreignly gentleman that they’re always going to find him adorable. You on the other hand, are clumsy and tactless when it comes to the girls.”
Mark gaped as Mario and Nadech snickered at him. “Oh yeah, well…well,” he looked around for comebacks, “You knit!” he pointed at Nadech, then turned to Mario, “and…and you can tell the difference between turquoise and teal. Hmph.” Having delivered what he believed were insults, Mark marched off grumpily.
He had just gotten outside the door when Yaya stopped him and called for the other two.
“Where are we going?” Nadech asked.
“Downstairs,” she answered vaguely.
Once they were down in the lounge, the three guys saw that the girls had prepared a dinner.
“Thought we should all sit down together again before having to say farewell,” Yaya said, “So we cooked as a surprise.”
“Wow,” Mark looked around, “Ya’ll did this just for me?” Mario knocked his head.
All the freshmen seated themselves at the table. Yaya said, “Before we eat, I wanted to tell everyone how much fun I had this year with you all. And I hope everyone has a wonderful summer break.”
“Just wait until next year! We’ll have an even bigger blast,” Mark said, “And hit me up if you’re bored over the summer.”
“Yes, yes, I’ll miss you all too! Let’s eat! I’m starving!” Kim demanded.
“So impatient,” Mark said, and used his spoon to flick a piece of carrot at her.
“Mark!” she yelled.
The others put a stop to them before a full out food fight took away the plentiful dishes. Many more laughs echoed off the walls of the lounge that evening as the friends all shared a last wonderful evening together before departing. But they will surely not go the entire summer without seeing each other again.
 
------End of FIRST YEAR
* Stay tuned for a summer break side story and the gang's second year in college!
For now, a little bit of polling:
 
It's spring for the gang, but where jjinxxy lives, it's still winter wonderland and you’ve taken advantage of this opportunity to go build a masterpiece snowman. Who would you choose as company?
 
1.       Mark who slickly wraps an arm around your shoulder
2.       Nadech who sweetly asks to give you a hug
3.       Om who adoringly warms you by holding your hand
4.       Boy who sneakily puts his jacket over you
5.       Pope who thoughtfully brings you hot chocolate
6.       Great who playfully places his gloved hands over your cold ears
7.       Aum who teasingly chases you with a snowball to warm your blood
Mario who drags you inside so both you AND he can be warm
 
Hope ya'll enjoyed the story thus far!
jjinxx
 
 

Thip2789

sarNie Hatchling
awwww jjinxx, love this chapter...Om and Mai, what can I say, so freaken cute! Hmmm as for the polling, I'll have to go w/ 2,3,4, and 6 lol
 

Dal

***LOVE, LOVE YADECH***
Loved the end of the Freshman year! I am excited for the summer stories, side stories, & Sophmore year stories. Thank you na.

If I were still single & had to choose. I would pick one for each week of winter!!! This is a tough choice. Nadech, Om, Pope, or Mario. Ummm...I'll have to think about it some more.
 
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