Meeting you
My life has always been the same, there were always the same events happening again and again like a broken record. In the beginning of July, after the schools term just have ended my parents and I take the train from our hometown in the cold and gloomy Wales to the warm and radiant Italy. When the heated summer later turns into a peaceful and warm rather than the scorching sun in August, we take the same train back to the gloomy Wales.
Even though I was so stuck in the cycle I loved it. I loved spending the summers in the little house in the northern Mediterranean Sea. I would spend the summer practicing my already perfect Italian or reading books about life’s complex questions and mysteries. The books made me question everything around me and I reveled in the feeling of uncertainty. Of feeling like we are a part of something bigger and together we have some kind of purpose. A purpose we need to figure out and solve, solve the great mystery of life. I could think about the topic for hours and I would find millions of answers but each one was purely theoretical.
That was until I meet you. You made me feel a new kind of uncertainty, a kind where I couldn’t stop thinking about you and how to solve you. I couldn’t figure you out and that drove me crazy.
The first time I saw you I was outside a stone house in mint green swimming trunks. The sun was burning the back of my head, waves crashing onto my thighs. To my left was a girl with red long hair, freckles, pale skin and green eyes like emeralds. To my right there was another short girl with dark brown curly hair, dark tanned skin and deep brown eyes. I suspect you know whom I am talking about.
The red head closed her eyes taking a deep breath of fresh air listening to the sounds of waves crashing into the stones behind us. “The first swim of the summer” She said as she started to run deeper into the clear blue water. She took an extra-long step and dived into the waves. Her head popped up seconds later, her long wavy hair now laying slick on her shoulders. “What are you waiting for?” She laughed.
The brunette took my hand and started running. Her curls bouncing with her every move. “Don’t tell me you’ve became a wuss during the winter Lupin” She teased. Her eyes glinted with mischief as she gave the redhead a look who started walking up to us. The water was up to my shoulders now. It was cold; it was always cold in the beginning of the summer when the sun had not warmed it up for weeks. The redhead was now standing beside me looking at me through thick eyelashes.
“Now!” Screamed the brunette and she and the redhead pounced on me at the same time. They pushed me under the water and the coldness consumed me. I have always been taller than them so they couldn’t hold me under the water for long. I took a hold of the redhead in my arms and threw her out deep into the water. She laughed and screamed at the same time but did not fight. We did this every year, the same things always happening. I knew that after she came up from the water she would jump onto the short brunettes back and they would run around in circles screaming and laughing welcoming the summer. I laughed and swam around looking at them like I always did.
They jumped of each other’s back and swam out to me. “Remus we are coming for you” They sang as they swam low into the water only showing their eyes. I had laughed and tried to swim away from them unsuccessfully like every year. They attacked me again, two against one.
That was when I saw you, I had just pushed a struggling Mary off my back when I spotted you. You were sitting on a stone a few meters away, there were trees and mesmerizing flowers surrounding you. Nevertheless, you were the only thing I noticed. It was as if time stopped when I spotted you and your half long black hair flowing in the air. You were wearing a light blue dress shirt with jeans shorts and a silver chain around your neck. I could not see the charm and I had never wanted to see something so much ever before. The loop was broken. I was frozen for what felt like minutes, I just stood there looking at you, mesmerized by you. Then your grey eyes looked at me and I could not understand wat I was feeling.
“Rem I am going up to my house to get some drinks, Mary and I are thirsty, do you want anything?” The redhead asked and I was snapped out of my trance. I still could not get you out of my head even then. I shrugged “I’ll have whatever you will have” I said completely forgetting that they would get orange juice, which I hated like every year. I hurryingly looked back to the stone in the water but you were gone. Only one look and I was completely gone. I did not know it then but I had fallen in love with you the first moment I saw you.
Days passed after our first encounter and I could not get you out of my mind, I had almost convinced myself that I had imagined you. That’s when I saw you again. Although this time, it was not on a cliff in the lake next to the redhead Lily’s house. This time I was on my way to ‘Alphard’s summer fruit’ to deliver some lemons from our garden. They had been in our storage room since February.
I had roped them on to my cycle’s package holder in a wooden basket. I parked my bicycle on the side of his light blue shop. The paint on the walls were starting to flake, the shop desperately needed repainting. However I continued walking to the backdoor where I knocked with the lemons in my arms. My blonde curls were laying onto my forehead slick with sweat. My yellow shirt had sweat stains all over my back and under my arms. I had a pair of jeans shorts similar to the ones you wore the first time we saw each other except mine were down to my knees and had small holes randomly scattered all over them. I looked down at my low white converse as I waited for Alphard to open the door. I was slightly dizzy from the hot weather and tapped my foot into the bright green grass impatiently.
Imagine my surprise when I say your face. You had your black hair braided into two long braids, with strands escaping here and there. This time you wore a white tank top with the words Bowie on them, a pair of yellow jeans shorts and a pair of yellow sandals in the same colour as the shorts. You still had the chain around your neck but the charm was not visible like the last time. You smiled at me and stepped aside from the door to let me in to the shop’s storage room. I was so confused and just stood there for a couple seconds. I was not mentally prepared to see you and was caught completely off guard by you. I do believe that my face revealed my confusion because you laughed.
“I’m Alph’s nephew,” You laughed and when I still did not move you raised an eyebrow with a smile on your face. “Are you going to come in or stand there all day?” It was the first time I heard your voice and it matched your angelic face wonderfully. I drank in every piece of information you gave me about yourself and stored it in a little treasure box in my mind; I named the box mystery boy. Suddenly I remembered that I had to say something.
“Hi” I just answered and walked in beside you. I was at least a head taller than you were; that piece of information was also stored in the box by the way. I was just standing there staring at you while you closed the door who squeaked in response. You had to push at the door a few times until it finally closed and when you turned around again you looked somewhat flushed.
“I’m here to deliver some lemons from my family,” I said looking down at your face. You smiled sweetly and wiped your forehead with the back of your hand making the sweat pearls disappear. “Oh yeah, then you must be” You trailed off reading on a piece of parchment you dragged out of your pocket. “Aha Lupin” you smiled with a satisfied expression on your face.
“That would be me,” I had said. You took out a pencil from your other pocket and scribbled something on the parchment. My eyes followed your fingers clutching the pen and the dizziness from before was completely forgotten. All my attention was on you.
“If you don’t mind me asking, where is Alphard?” I asked while you started running around the small storage room moving around boxes and scribbling on paper to make room for my lemons. You had your pencil in your mouth so you answer were kind of muffled when you said, “He is running errands so I am just cleaning and taking deliveries while he is gone” You had your back turned towards me and you were moving a quite large box labelled green apples. “Place the lemons here please” I did as you said and put down the heavy package. I wanted to say something but I was not sure what, it was as if my mind stopped working normally when I was around you. However, it did not matter because you talked before I had figured out what to say.
“So what’s your name?” You asked still running around the shop sending me glances here and there. “Remus” I said following your every move as you walked up to a mini vault and took out some money. You counted them and then you looked up at me with an amused look on your face. “So your name is basically mister wolf wolf” You teased with an eyebrow lifted like you did before. I found it adorable so I just smiled and pretended to be annoyed by rolling my eyes but the truth is I do not think you could have said anything that would make me annoyed with you.
“Yes” I said and then followed up with “What’s your name. It has to be awesome if you are going to make fun of mine” I smiled looking down at you from where I was leaning against the door. “I did not make fun of it, I quite like your name wolf boy,” You said taking a step towards me with the money in your hand.
“Are you avoiding the question?” I asked lifting an eyebrow up mirroring your teasing expression. You broke eye contact and chuckled “My name is Sirius” I let out a laugh. “Are you serious?” I asked you. You opened your mouth to say something but I could already guess what you were going to say. “Don’t even finish that sentence, I know your name is like the star and not the adjective star boy” I said, it was as if I could read your mind.
You smiled even bigger and stopped a few steps in front of me. “Not many people know that” You said, I remember feeling proud that I made you even slightly impressed. Suddenly it was like that was everything I wanted to do, make you impressed by me.
“What’s your last name then star boy?” I asked. “Black” You simply replied. I smiled even more. “Your privilege of making fun of my name is officially taken back Sirius Black,” I said putting an emphasis on your name. However, in reality, I would let you do anything to me. At that point I liked to pretend that you didn’t have an effect on me but I knew deep down knew that it was a lie.
You had smiled and handed me the money “78 €” You said. “Thank you Sirius” I said tasting your name on my tongue, I loved the way your name rolled of my mouth, and loved how good it felt to pronounce it, how smooth every syllable was. “I hope I see you around Remus,” You said and I think I liked to hear my own name come out of your mouth even more than I liked saying yours. I still think that you saying my name is my favourite sound ever, your laugh being a close second.
I could not stop thinking about you Sirius.
I was sitting on the ground leaning against a tree reading some random book I picked up in German to learn the language better. The book was talking about ancient Rome, probably because I picked it up from my dad’s library. You know that my dad is a professor studying ancient Rome so I have always been well informed about the history of our home in Italy. My dad was talking to some guests showing of pictures of statues to some other professor who happened to pass by. Most days were like this. My dad working, my mother being out with some friends or reading, sometimes she just relaxes outside with me.
Our chef Maritza were cooking lunch, the smell of fresh baked potatoes leaking out of the window to the huge garden. I pulled down the pair of sunglasses from on top of my head to my nose when some clouds moved out of the way so that the sun shined again. I had not changed from my swimming trunks, the same pair of trunks I wore the first time I saw you. Lily and Mary were coming over the same day and we were supposed to go to a book club later that evening.
Alphard usually comes and I could not help but to wish that you would come to. It was like you had taken over my brain; my every waking thought was about you. Sometimes it was about how I wished that I had said something different or continued our last conversation to spend more time with you. Sometimes it was about how beautiful I thought you looked. Other times I had woken up with a hard on from a dream I had about you. I wanted to feel embarrassed when it happened but there was something safe, something comforting about you that I craved.