Kristal Anderson
His car came into view and I made no effort to hide the stupid smile plastered on my face.
It was nearly twelve in the morning and here I was, at my window waiting for a guy I barely knew to get out of his car just so I could see him for some reason.
This whole situation felt silly when I thought about it too much, but God did my heart explode with contentment I hadn't felt in what seemed like ages.
He stepped out of his car, suit jacket in hand, the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up to his forearms, his hair disheveled in the most perfect way, the way his black dress pants fitted should be considered illegal. And so should the ungodly thoughts running through my mind at the mere sight of them.
He shut the door to his car, his eyes were already on mine, and mine were on his, and the last thing I wanted to do was break the contact. He lifted his hand up in a wave and I returned the gesture with a smile on my face that could have easily been reaching my ears.
That was all two weeks ago, though it didn't feel like it.
My days just a few weeks back all felt the same; I woke up, stared at the ceiling contemplating life for a few minutes, then I'd stare out my window for the majority of the day enviously looking down at the people whose life wasn't on pause. Though not much of my routine has changed, now I felt like I had something to look forward to every day. Talking to him.
There was something about him that just made me feel. . . comfortable and safe. The two weeks went by in a blink because of him, I could talk to him for hours and it always felt like nothing more than just a few minutes had passed.
Just a few nights prior, we had talked during his car ride back home and while he was making his dinner. He was in his kitchen chopping up veggies for a Caesar salad he had told me he was making and I was in bed on my laptop scrolling through my socials.
A comfortable silence fell among us, we spoke whenever we had something to say, we let out every random thought.
"No way," I said more to myself, I hadn't expected him to be listening after we had both been doing our own thing enveloped by a comfortable silence for so long.
"What?"
A squeal left my lips as my eyes scanned the words on my screen, excitement cursing through my veins like a venom so deep in my bloodstream, "The Berlin Symphony orchestra is coming to town,"
"No fucking way, when?" In one of our conversations about nothing and everything, we discovered our mutual love for classical music. It was a discovery that came with hours of us discussing our favorite composers, orchestras which to some may seem boring but that conversation made my little nerdy heart happy.
"Classical music was always one of the very few things that my father and I had in common," He had told me that day, he let out a small chuckle, "I remember. . ." He paused for a moment or two, "I remember when I was little I used to sit outside his office whenever he worked from home and I would just listen to the classical music he played in there. I guess that was my way of feeling closer to him,"
My heart filled with joy when we figured out that we had yet another thing in common; classical music was my mother's favorite genre and now that she was gone it made me feel closer to her.
"In two weeks, Saturday night in the grandâ oh my gosh they're playing swan lake Spanish dance!" My heart was doing flips in my chest and couldn't contain my excitement.
"Your favorite piece,"
A bright smile lifted my features along with the realization that he remembered. Our conversations were always sporadic, chaotic in the best way possible, we jumped from one topic to the next quicker than you could say Jack Robinson. Hell, I didn't remember half of the things we talked about, yet he somehow found a way to remember something that I had mentioned in passing.
"And your least favorite," I said with a giggle, recalling how he'd told me that it was one of his least favorite pieces. The smile on my face faded as reality came crashing down on me, the excitement that was cursing through me was drained from the realization, "you should go," I said and it was like a small piece of my soul cracked a little more with every word that leflt my mouth.
It was times like this that having your life on pause really hurt. Hearing my favorite piece live and in person would have been a life changing experience. If I wasn't stuck inside that is.
"I totally will, if I have a compelling enough reason to go,"
"You could film it for me, is that a compelling enough reason to go?"
He let out a light chuckle, "I'll have to get back to you on that one,"
We had that interaction about a week ago and we hadn't touched the subject since. Part of me was glad because deep down I wanted to bury that information in the depths of my soul just so I wouldn't need to think about the fact that I was going to miss a concert of a lifetime.
And it remained that way until last night when he proposed an idea so absurd that I hadn't been able to get it off my mind since.
When he got home from work last night, he had asked me to come to my window because he wanted to show me something.
He held up his hand showing me two light blue tickets, his other hand holding the phone up to his ear "Guess what i have in my hand right now,"
A gasp left my lips, "You decided to go, I'm so happy for you,"
"It's not everyday that the BSO comes to town so there was no way I was letting us miss it,"
"Wait us?" He nodded a sly grin on his lips, "Aiden, did you forget that I can't leave the house?"
"Not even for a 90 minute concert?"
A chuckle rolled his way through my lips, "No not even for a 90 minute concert, Aiden, my aunt would never allow that,"
"And who says she has to know?"
I stared at him, my head tilted to the side slightly, "What, are you suggesting I sneak out?" His shoulders rose and fell in a shrug, that grin never leaving his face telling me that that was exactly where his mind was going. I couldn't help but laugh, "What are we, 17? Absolutely not, I'm not doing that, that's just ridiculous,"
He let out a low laugh, "hey don't answer me now, there's still a whole week until the concert,"
"Don't hold your breath, my answer will still be absolutely not,"
6 days until the concert
Aiden: 90 unforgettable minutes, an experience of a lifetime
He texted me in the middle of the day, out of nowhere. I stared at the text and a laugh erupted from me before I replied
Me: lol. What, are you an infomercial? Not happening Aiden.
5 days until the concert
Aiden: You know what rhymes with dessert?
Me: Aiden, don't even think about it. Lol
Aiden: Concert; like the one we could be going to in 5 days :)
Me: Aiden!
4 days until the concert
Aiden: You know what rhymes with yoghurt?
Me: You tried that yesterday, what makes you think it'll work now?
Aiden: Concert; like the one we could be going to in 4 days :)
Me: You're insufferable!
Me: P.S. still not happening lol
3 days until the concert
. . .
It was 12 in the afternoon, that was usually the time he would text me trying to convince me to go to the concert. But today there was nothing.
Me: No texts today? Refreshing.
Aiden: I was just trying out a different technique; the silent treatment to get your gears turning and maybe you'd end up convincing yourself. Is it working?
Me: Nope. My aunt would probably kill me if she found me in the act.
Me: Also, you should probably sell the second ticket while you've got time
Aiden: A lot can happen in 3 days darlin
Me: Is the nickname also part of your technique?
Aiden: Did it work?
Me: Nope
° ⢠° ⢠° ⢠° ⢠° â¢
Growing up with Aunt Jenna, I was never one to get into trouble, I always did my best to stay out of trouble. I guess I always felt like a big enough burden that I always went out of my way to be the perfect kid.
Enough through my teenage years, I was always in line; never snuck out, never snuck boys into my room, didn't do hard drugs, barely partied. I was what some would call the perfect kid.
A small, curious part of my brain always wondered what it would be like to be bad, to be rebellious and do things the way I wanted. And that little part came out to play today, I wondered what it would be like to do something bad for once, something that could have bad consequences but my brain assigned that to be future me's problem.
Maybe if I didn't feel like such a burden I would be more carefree, more reckless but I couldn't bring myself to be.
2 days until the concert
Aiden: What's the craziest thing you've ever done?
Me: Probably this. Talking to you behind my aunt's back, her and I have always been super transparent with each other.
Aiden: Everyone needs a little bit of crazy in their life or else where's the fun in that?
⢠° ⢠° ⢠° ⢠° ⢠° ⢠° â¢
Lake swan Spanish dance was blasting in my ears, I laid in bed, my eyes shut and I just listened. Every single second of it was absolute perfection. For a split second I imagined myself in the audience, listening to it first hand. But I didn't let myself ponder on the image for too long.
His words were sinking deeper and deeper into my soul. When I looked back at my life, the crazy bits were always the most memorable ones whether they were good or bad. Normalcy got boring, normalcy blended into each other while the crazy bits always stuck out.
The song came to an end and the logical part of my brain was awakened once again, reminding me of the risks that doing something so silly would bring. And suddenly all the images, all my thoughts were silenced by logic.
1 day until concert
The fun part of my brain must have knocked out the logical part with a sedative during the night because when I woke up only one thought consumed my mind.
Me: So what's your plan? How do you plan on getting me out of here?
Aiden: Thought you'd never ask darlin
AHHHH SO IT BEGINS!
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Thank you for reading! I appreciate every single one of you!!
Love, J