Young Writers Society

NEW BEGINNINGS

Despite that it was Saturday and my morning alarm was off, my mom entered my room at 8 a.m. sharp and woke me up with a silly smile on her face.

“Let me sleep for another five minutes. I was in the middle of a beautiful dream”, I said to her. She groaned and pulled the covers that I had embraced. The chilly room temperature caressed my neck, I shivered, then I got up.

“Get dressed, Lucy”, my mom said. “They should be here within the next hour.”

Today was, as my parents had notified me last week, the day my long-time-no-see second cousin William would return home. William had moved to Copenhagen five years ago for his post-secondary studies. He hadn’t been back home since then, for he was always busy with his school and part-time work. He was finally moving back today, and he was to stay in our place for a few days. But I wasn’t excited for getting to see him; we used to fight a lot.

We were young back then. I was 13 and he was 16, and we were two teenagers, two cousins who just couldn’t get along. But I doubt that things would be different now that we had both grown by five years.

As I was drowning in these thoughts of the past, my mom said, “Oh, I almost forgot. You know, you’ll show William around”

“Show him around?”, I objected. “He is from here, mom. He already knows the city.”

“He most likely doesn’t, since he left the city at a young age. He probably doesn’t know how to get to places using the public transit.”

I groaned, then opened my closet to go through the clothes that I could wear during the horrific days with my cousin that were awaiting me.

“They should be here for breakfast. Come down when you’re ready”, my mom said, smiling.

I nodded.

. . .

We greeted William and his mom Aunt Julia at the door. He had grown over the five years since we haven’t seen each other. I forced myself to smile, hugged him, and kissed him on the cheeks.

“Hi Lucy”, he said. “Wow, you look great. All grown and beautiful.”

“Thanks, William. You, too”, I replied.

My parents welcomed them inside, and we sat at the dining room table right away. As soon as we were seated, a friendly conversation started between my parents and Aunt Julia, leaving us two in awkward silence. Few minutes later, William broke the ice. “So, how have you been since we last saw each other, Lucy? That was five years ago, I believe, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, five years”, I replied. “I’ve been okay. Just struggling with senior year of high school these days.”

“Yikes, I dreaded those days so much. Good luck, cuz.”

He suddenly chuckled, then continued: “We used to fight a lot, remember? We were just two silly teenagers back then.”

I took offense in what he said. “I am still a teenager. I am 18. Eight-teen”, I said to him in an angry tone.

“Right”, he replied. “Young teenagers, I should’ve said”, he said apologetically, then smiled.

We ate and talked altogether for another hour. As our dinner finished and my parents started cleaning up the table, my father said:

“Lucy, why don’t you show William to his room upstairs?”

I nodded and gestured towards the stairs, asking him to follow me. As we arrived at the bottom of the staircase, I flipped the light switch and the dim stairwell got lit with a bright white fluorescent bulb. As we climbed up, the stairs creaked.

The top floor had a long, narrow hallway that connected the stairs to four bedrooms, one bathroom, and the small laundry room. There was a clock hung on the wall, ticking, breaking the awkward silence between us two cousins who didn’t like each other.

William’s room was in the end of the hallway, to the right, right across mine. It was a small guest room, with one bed, one closet, and a night stand. It always reminded me of hotel rooms. Sometimes I hung out there just for change. Not too comfortable, I thought. But William deserves discomfort. After all he did to me when we were kids? Yes, he does.

“Here you go, Bill”, I said, smiling at him, but really laughing evilly inside. “Make yourself comfortable. I will be in my room right across, if you need anything.”

William thanked me, and I left.

As I entered my room, I closed the door gently, picked up my cellphone, lay on my bed, and dialed my best friend, Michelle. She answered the call on the third ring.

“Bill’s here”, I said, without even saluting her.

“Bill who?”, Michelle asked.

“Bill, Michelle! Bill, William, my second cousin whom I used to fight a lot with.”

“Oh gosh! I remember him! Wow! Wasn’t he in Norway?”

“Denmark. Copenhagen. He’s back now. He’s finished school.

Michelle fell silent for a few seconds that felt like hours. After a deep sigh, she continued:

“So…what now? How do you two get along? Is he giving you trouble?”

My inner part wanted to answer her affirmatively. However, as I was about to speak, I thought about the dinner we just ate together downstairs in the dining room. He was nice to me. Was he nice because our parents were around? Perhaps. Or maybe he’s all mature now and now he likes his cousin. Maybe it’ll be a fresh start for us two cousins. We do have a lot of catching up to do, after all.

As I was stuck in these deep thoughts, “Lucy?”, Michelle asked suddenly, causing me to flinch.

“Yes. I mean no, sorry. No, he does not give me any trouble.”

“Well, I would’ve thought so”, Michelle said, “He’s a grownup now.”

“LUCY!”, Bill called from his room.

“I gotta go”, I told Michelle, then hung up.

Bill knocked on my door, and entered as I told him to come in.

“Hi Lucy. Wanna go out to take a walk or something? I’d love to get to know you more. Would love to catch up on all the lost years, cuz.”

His question startled me. After all the years of bullying me when were young, he wants to take a walk with me and get to know me more? To catch up on lost years? Ha ha!

“Umm… I’m quite tired, can’t go anywhere today. Maybe some other time?”

“Okay, no worries”, Bill said, “I am heading out then. See you later.”

“Have fun”, I said. He smiled, then left.

He must be a special kind of stupid for thinking I’d ever hang out with him, I thought. Without getting any angrier than I already was for his arrival, I decided to call it a night and go to sleep.

. . .

I woke up at 9 a.m. the next morning. I immediately made my way to the kitchen to grab a glass of warm water. Although I slept with my window open last night, thereby letting the chill of the dewy night in, my throat still felt as dry as Bill’s personality.

Clutching the half-filled glass in my right hand, I tiptoed to the living room, cautious not to wake anyone up. “Good morning, Lucy”, a voice startled me. As I looked in the direction from which the voice came, I saw Bill sitting on the left side of the couch. A thick book lay on his knees, and he had an index finger inside the book that marked where he left off.

“You’re up early”, I said, trying my best not to groan for seeing him.

“Yes. Little jetlagged”, he said, smiling.

“You want some coffee?”, I asked, hoping he would say no.

“Oh, that’d be nice. I’ll accompany you to the kitchen so that we can talk while coffee is brewing”

“Great!”, I said, hiding the sarcasm from my voice.

I took the lead to the kitchen as Bill followed. I added two full tablespoons of coffee in the filter, added water in the coffeemaker, and turned it on. As the water started burbling, we seated ourselves by the small table that my mom kept in the kitchen that was usually used for breakfast. There was an awkward silence in the room for a few seconds, but Bill broke it sooner than I hoped:

“So, we couldn’t really talk much yesterday. Tell me about your life a little, Lucy. How’s school? Your friends? Love life, if you have one?” He giggled.

“Yeah well, things are good. School’s okay. I have one very close friend. You might remember her from five years ago. Michelle. And no, I don’t have a love life.” Not that it’s any of your business, I thought.

“Yes, I remember Michelle.”, Bill said, “How’s she doing?”

“She’s okay. Just struggling with school these days. Same as me”, I said. The coffee stopped burbling, saving me from chatting any further. I poured ourselves some, took out milk from the refrigerator, and we walked back to the living room. I turned on the TV. Anything to avoid a conversation with him, I thought. As we were sipping our drinks, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. My parents and Aunt Julia were all up and descending to the living room where Bill and I were seated.

“Good morning”, Aunt Julia said. “You two are breaking the ices?”

“Sure”, I said, a little sarcastically. My mom felt the sarcasm and gave me a dirty glance. I smirked at her.

As my mom went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, my dad and Aunt Julia sat down on the two armchairs. “Are you two going to hang out today?”, my father asked. I looked at Bill, not sure what to say. I didn’t want to hang out, but I couldn’t tell that to my dad when Bill was seated right next to me. “Maybe you can catch a movie or something”, my dad said.

“Yeah, Lucy. I really want to see that new horror movie. I heard it’s a great one”, Bill said.

“Okay, I guess we can go”, I replied, now absolutely sure that I had no other choice. “We could go right after breakfast. Then grab coffee or something afterwards”, I added, unaware of what I was saying. Bill nodded.

As the TV anchorwoman was presenting the morning news, my mom came in the living room with a plate of pancakes in one hand and a small bowl of cherry jam in the other. She was followed by Aunt Julia who had roasted tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and bagels with her. I ate my breakfast as slowly as I possibly could, just so that I could delay the dreadful movie time with my cousin that was awaiting me. But as soon as I was done, Bill and I went upstairs to our rooms to get dressed.

We left the house and started walking in complete silence towards the movie theatre that was located four blocks away. After paying for our own tickets, Bill told me to go to the auditorium and wait for him there, stating that he had something to do. I told him to take his time with whatever it was that he needed to do. I went in the auditorium, seated myself, and started gazing at people as they arrived. In a few minutes, Bill came in holding two cartons of popcorn, two plastic cups, and a bottle of soda. I opened my mouth but couldn’t say anything. I was stunned by his action. He stayed behind to get us popcorn and drinks. Maybe he wasn’t a terrible person as I thought, after all…

“Wow”, I said, quietly but in a surprised tone. “Thanks.”

“Thought we could have some popcorn while watching the movie”, Bill said, “No worries at all, Lucy.” He filled the cups with soda, handed one to me, and said: “To our prospering friendship. Or, cousin-ship, I should say.” He giggled, and I smiled back.

The lights in the auditorium faded slowly, and the room burst into complete darkness briefly, before the show commenced and the light on the screen blinded me for a few seconds.

The movie was scary. Horror movies usually didn’t scare me, but this one made me flinch several times. At some point during the show, I started panting and my hand unintentionally grabbed Bill’s arm, seeking refuge from the terror on the screen.

Bill turned his head toward me, chuckled briefly, and rediverted his attention to the movie. I bowed my head down, embarrassed but grateful that my face was not visible to Bill in the dark.

When the movie ended and the lights were turned on in the auditorium, Bill turned to me, smiled, and said: “That startled you a little, huh?”

“Yea well”, I said. I shrugged.

“Wanna go get coffee now?”, Bill asked casually.

I nodded.

We exited the theatre and started walking across the street to a family-owned coffee shop. He is actually quite nice. Used to tease me a lot. Us two cousins who never got along in their childhood now becoming close? Weird but amazing. Wow, all those lost years of cousinhood.

“Is this the place?”, Bill asked, waking me from my daydream and making me come back to reality. We had arrived at the coffee shop.

“Yes”, I said, and we went in.

I wanted to return his generosity of buying popcorn, so I offered to buy us the coffees and a couple of muffins, and he consented to it.

As we sat down and started sipping our drinks, I took a deep breath, and said:

“Bill”. I stopped for a second. “I lied to you.”

He looked confused. “Lied to me? About what?”, he asked.

I looked down at the table. “Yesterday, when you asked me whether I had a boyfriend, I said no. But I do have a boyfriend. Well, let me rephrase that. He’s not really my boyfriend. He’s a schoolmate whom I’ve known for a while. We recently started seeing each other. Went on two dates so far. Both were very innocent. Didn’t even kiss or hold hands. Just talked. But…”

I stopped. I didn’t know how else to continue. After thinking for a few seconds, I continued. “In a way, I guess I didn’t really lie to you, since he’s not my boyfriend. But I dunno, I felt bad for misinforming you, so I wanted to talk about it. And I also have a problem…” I stopped talking again. I felt warm, salty tears running down my eyelids.

“Lucy? What’s wrong? Talk to me, please!”, Bill said.

I sobbed for a second, then said: “When he asked whether he could kiss me, I said no. I just didn’t think it was the right time yet and then he got so mad and upset that he started yelling at me all of a sudden. When I extended my hand to calm him down, he pushed me, then turned around and went on his way, leaving me in tears in the middle of the street with passersby staring at me as I was a weirdo.”

Bill fell silent for almost a minute that felt like hours. He then stood up and said: “Let’s go home. You should maybe get some rest, and if you want, we can talk more about it.”

I nodded, grabbed the muffin bags and put them in my purse.

We exited the coffee shop and walked back towards the house. Our folks welcomed us. My mom offered us tea, which we both kindly refused. I tried hard to hide my tears. As soon as my mom out of sight, I ran upstairs to my room, leaving Bill downstairs.

I entered my room, got into home attire, and hid myself in the bed under the covers. Then I started crying.

I felt my eyes becoming redder and redder with each salty tear that my eyes shed. Suddenly, I heard a soft knock on my door. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, and whispered, “Come in.”

It was Bill. He entered the room, shut the door, walked towards me, took a deep breath, and sat on the edge of my bed.

“Talk to me”, he said, without looking into my eyes, but I didn’t know what to say. All I wanted to do right now was to cry.

He must’ve understood that I wouldn’t stop crying for another few minutes, so he hugged me, and patted my back. “It’s okay, Lucy. He was a big jerk to you. You deserve someone much better. Your first attempt to dating didn’t work. So, what? Hell, look at me, I am 21 years old and haven’t been on a single date. Not even one!”, he said. Then chuckled in an embarrassed tone.

I quieted down. I let go of his arms that embraced me. I looked in his eyes. Then, without knowing what I was doing, I clutched his hands in mine, bent slightly on my bed, got close to his face, and kissed him.

I felt like he wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t stop me either.

As I pulled away from him, still looking in his eyes, I felt the tears on my face cooling off and hurting my eyes less.

Bill fell silent again. After a few moments, “Lucy”, he said. “Lucy, this is wrong. Very wrong. I can’t believe that you just… How could you, Lucy? If our folks ever knew about this, they’d…”

I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. I touched his lips with my index finger to shush him. When he stopped talking, I pulled my finger away, and kissed him again.

He pushed me away, got up, and started pacing back and forth in the room. “Lucy!”, he said, sounding a little angry this time. “Lucy, I am related to you. If our parents ever learned about what you just did…what we just did, they’d literally bury us alive. I’m your cousin, for fuck’s sake!”

“Second cousin”, I corrected him. “Our moms are cousins. We’re second cousins.”

“That still makes us cousins!”, Bill said, clearly pissed this time. He went towards the door, opened it, eavesdropped to our parents’ laughter that was coming from the living room downstairs, then gently closed it again. “You’re a very nice girl, Lucy. And you’re incredibly beautiful. But I really think you should find yourself a man who’s not related to you.

“I really like you”, I said to him. He sighed. “Of course, you do”, he said, “I am family. You like me as you like your other relatives. And I like you too. As a cousin.”

“I haven’t seen you in ages. Last time we met was when we were kids. After five years you’re like a stranger to me. I didn’t remember the slightest thing about our relationship other than the fact that we used to fight a lot. But since I got to know you a little in the past couple of days, I don’t think we’re on the same page as we were five years ago.”

“That still doesn’t change the fact that we’re cousins”, Bill said impatiently.

I nodded sadly. He was right, after all. We were related, we couldn’t ever be together; that’d be unethical. “You’re right”, I said. “but I really enjoy our friendship. And now that you’re back from Copenhagen completely, I’d love to hang out with you often, as cousins and nothing more, I promise. I don’t know what I was thinking when I…when I…kissed you.”

He smiled. “That’d be just perfect, cuz. Let’s just forget about this altogether, and we’ll become two close friends. Don’t let what happened make us feel awkward around each other. It’s okay. Anyone can make mistakes. Now come on, let’s go downstairs and have that tea that my aunt offered.”

We went downstairs, filled two mugs with tea, walked to the living room. Bill made a toast and said, “To our newly-prospered cousinhood. To new beginnings”.

I laughed. “To new beginnings”, I repeated.

My parents and my aunt watched us as we sipped our teas, clearly astonished by the friendly and warm vibe between us two cousins who used to hate each other to death.