My Reverie
(Part 1 of 2)
At first I thought the whole thing was a dream.
But when I looked up into the sky, I knew that the boy who had been kissing me a few minutes ago was real. I could still feel the pressure of his lips on mine, the sweet smell of his scent: Drakkar Noir and fresh pine needles.
I laid out on the little grassy knoll overlooking the Hudson River and smiled. Orion and The Big Dipper were in view that night, twinkling in the heavens and galaxies above me. I felt I was just about to melt into a puddle of goo on the side of the hill, I was that happy. I could’ve died then, and as cliché as this sounds, been totally fine with it.
Noah Daniels, the boy I had secretly pined over, finally said he liked me. And it only took him ten years to do it.
That night on, I knew that I was more in love with Noah then I ever was before. When he looked at me it was like he penetrating my soul with his glacier blue eyes. I knew that now, more than ever, I was sure that I had met the ONE, even though barely anyone meets their soul mate in high school.
Still, I stared into the bright sky. It was pretty unusual to see the stars on a Manhattan night, usually because of all the dense fog.
This starry sky must be some sign that Noah and I are meant to be together, I thought. A brisk wind blew around me and rustled the birch tree a few feet to my left, but I was in a state of sheer bliss.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Noah and I had known each other since we were seven years old, when he was obsessed with G.I. Joes and I played Princess with my friends. Both of our moms took the same aerobics class at the 27th Street YMCA, and we met each other at the day care they had for the aerobics moms’ kids.
Six year old me, a blonde haired girl with square glasses and braids, bravely went over to Noah, who was playing with a dump truck and blocks in the corner of the room. I was holding two coloring books and a box of Crayola 24 crayons that I brought with me in my Cinderella bag that I had a brief attachment to at the time. No one else wanted to color with me, and I wanted someone to at least keep me company while I scribbled in odd colors onto pictures of the Disney princesses.
I touched Noah’s shoulder, and he instantly turned towards me. Besides his blue eyes, he had scruffy dark brown hair and light freckles on his nose. He was currently holding some multicolored alphabet blocks, and he was scowling a little. His head was titled at an angle to the left, which I had always thought was a cute habit of his.
I quickly pulled out my hand and reached for his. “Hi! I’m Cleo, and I’m six. What’s your name?”
Almost immediately, Noah smiled and shook my hand. “I’m Noah and I’m also six.”
“Do you want to color with me? I brought two coloring books, a princess one and a Superman one, but you can just color in the Superman one if you want.”
“Sure,” he replied and then we sat on the ground and I opened both of the books, putting the Princess one in front of me and the Superman in front of him. I was about to start coloring a half scribbled picture of Princess Jasmine, but Noah spoke up before I could make any strokes.
“If you want, I can help you finish the pictures in that book.”
From then on Noah Daniels and I were best friends. I was immediately delighted with him because he was the only boy I ever knew who helped me color in my girly princess coloring books and wasn’t afraid that I had cooties.
We didn’t go to the same school, but we could always play with each other at the YMCA every week. We remained friends for years, until we finally didn’t play anymore, because we were too old.
I remember one day when I was eleven, and I was sitting in the kids lounge they had for tweens a couple of doors down from the gym where our moms still went to aerobics. I had always liked Noah a lot, but I had never had a crush on him – actually I had never had a crush on anyone before. My friends at school always talked about the sixth grade boys they thought were cute, but I had never been interested in any boys at our school. They were so dirty, gross, and mean, and I didn’t think I could ever like a boy like that.
Noah settled down in a bean bag in the tween room next to me, playing his Game Boy Advance. I suddenly looked over at him and something flipped flopped in my stomach. In that moment, Noah was no longer just my best friend; he was now my only crush and my best friend.
I started to dream about him at night and write ‘Mrs. Cleo Daniels’ surrounded by hearts in my diary. Tuesdays were my favorite days; I got to see Noah at the YMCA.
After three years, attendance to the Tuesday night aerobics class started to slip, until there were only four people going to the classes. The YMCA stopped them, and I was so disappointed when I found out that I cried in my room for a few hours after my mom had told me. I had never told my mom that I liked Noah, so my mom just assumed that I was getting emotional because of hormones or PMS.
Luckily, Noah and I both had cell phones and each others’ numbers, so we texted and called each other from time to time. I was heartbroken to learn that in eighth grade Noah had gotten his first girlfriend, a soccer player named Katie. I made up a lie saying I was dating a boy named Mark who played football, hoping that Noah would show some sign of jealousy, but he never asked me anything about it. I hadn’t actually dated anyone up to that point, hoping that one day Noah would show up at my doorstep and ask me to be his girlfriend, which was only one of my silly reveries that would never come true.
Months passed until I was ready to start my freshman year at Kingston, one of the biggest high schools in New York, located in Midtown Manhattan. I had texted Noah to see where he was going, and he also said he was attending Kingston. I was so ecstatic that on the first day of school, I put on lots of makeup, though I barely ever wore it on other occasions.
Turns out Kingston was such a big school that we didn’t have any classes together; we didn’t even have the same lunch period. I also discovered that Noah had transformed himself into a different person than the boy I used to hang out at the YMCA with.
He had become quarterback for the football team, and was friends with a lot of stereotypical dumb jocks. He had another new girlfriend named Nancy, a cheerleader, and clearly he didn’t acknowledge my existence. To his possy, I was not good enough to be a popular girl at Kingston High. When I tried to text him now, he never responded.
I tried to look for him in the halls between classes, but if I did see him, he was always with his football friends or girlfriends, too distracted by their chatter to talk or look at anyone else.
There was one particular day in December that I hung onto though. I had just come from Biology and was passing Noah in the hall with one of his buddies. He was talking, when he quickly glanced in my direction and stared into my eyes.
The eye contact was brief, but it assured me that maybe still liking Noah wasn’t an absolute crazy thing to do after all. Once again his blue eyes were all I needed to assure me that maybe, for him and I, there was still hope.
. I had so much fun reading this, and I’m going on to part 2. I would love a PM whenever you post anything new, and I will most definitely read it. I absolutely love your writing style!