When the Rain Stopped Falling

Chapter 15: Someone is Looking Blue

Chapter 15: Someone is Looking Blue

In a matter of five days my life completely changed as if it went through hurricane. I feel that everything moves at a light speed and I’m being left behind. I couldn’t cope up. Maybe it’s life’s way of making up to the uneventful past years of my life, compressing it on a package of days.

I could feel a heavy throbbing in my chest as I lay still on my bed. I knew for myself that there is something wrong. I could feel it again. I caressed the scar on my wrist to remind me of my battle.I know that these days would come sooner or later but once again it took me by surprise like some predator lurking on the shadows of my emotions. And now it grabs hold of me and I can’t move, slowly sipping away my life. I tried to move my body but I seriously don’t have the will to do. I’m terrified. I’m deeply terrified.

“Leslie?” I heard a man’s voice from outside, it’s obviously Jasper. Leslie is not home. She said that she has to meet someone important. I wouldn’t want Jasper to see me like this so I remained silent for fifteen seconds wishing him to go away for a while. But he somewhat managed to enter our room. I shut my eyes quickly and pretended that I was sleeping.

“Apparently, your sister is not home,” Cole’s voice made me realize that he’s here too.

“Shh, lower your voice,” Jasper said softly enough for me to hear it. “Elois is sleeping,”

“It is 9 in the morning and this girl is not yet awake. How lazy?”

“Cole, just be quiet. Not everybody is like you who automatically wakes up by 7 in the morning.” I could hear their movements as they shift from one place to another. “Look at her,” Jasper whispered.

“What do you see in her? You seem to be very attracted to her,”

“Just look at her, Cole. One, I never saw a girl sleep so peacefully like this. It’s like she’s pretending but not. My sister is pretty but that girl is sure a mess when she sleeps. But Elois, look at her.” I tried my best not to react.

“I see, you have a comparative knowledge,”

“She’s very beautiful. When I look at her, it’s like all my other senses focus at her,”

“That’s alarming. Your statement made me think about a carnivorous predator ready to devour it’s prey,”

“Cole you can make anything romantic to not romantic.” I opened my eyes quickly as I heard the word romantic and I immediately saw Jasper’s face at my bedside. His eyes widened instantaneously and his jaw dropped. He looks very red and flustered. “Elois, how long have you been awake?” he asked with a shaky voice.

“Just now,” I feel heat on my cheeks. Could it be? Jasper made my blood flow through my body faster than usual. It could be since I regained the ability to move my body again.

“I think this is what they usually call awkward is it not?” Cole said. “Huh? Somewhat I could feel it.”

“Good for you, bud! Now you’re feeling awkward.” Jasper chuckled and went to Cole’s side. “You see Elois, I was just helping Cole to feel awkward.”

“I have no knowledge of that. You were actively complimenting Elois on how beautiful she is”

“No! No! No I wasn’t-” Jasper tried to cover Cole’s mouth but Cole effectively managed to stop him by grabbing Jasper’s arm and twisted it at an uncomfortable angle. “Ow! Ow! Okay no touching. I won’t touch you!”

“Cole, you can let go of him now. I think he gets the point,” I ordered Cole and he followed.

“Sorry, buddy, you almost touched my mouth with your disease-carrying hands,” Honestly, the word ‘buddy’ doesn’t seem to fit on Cole’s vocabulary.

“It hurts you know,” Jasper murmured.

“I am very sorry Jasper. I am still your best friend right?” Cole’s voice is very monotonous yet he looks very adorable that he made me smile.

“If Jasper won’t have you as your best friend, I would,” I joked. “If you would give me a high five” I raised my hand.

“Elois, I tried so hard to get Cole to give me a high five. I’m sure-” Jasper stopped talking when Cole gave me a high-five instantaneously. “What! How?”

“She offered me a high regard of friendship. It is not very logical to say no,” Cole explained.

“Okay Cole, from now on I’m not your best friend anymore, she is.”

“Are you perhaps jealous?” Cole asked. “Because you like like her and I get to be socially closer than you?”

“Oh my God, Cole. I don’t like her, like that,”

“Ehem, I’m in here in this room too.” I interjected their lover’s quarrel “Why are you in my room in the first place anyway?”

“Jasper wanted to see his sister”

“Do you know where she is?”

“She went out to see someone,” I told the boys.

“Someone? Is it a boy?”

“I don’t know,” I replied to Jasper.

“How about you? Do you have any plans for this day?”

I pressed my wrist. “Yeah, I need to uh, do something,” It smiled on me. Depression once again won me over like it carried me to a tower with a single exit and locked me up inside.

“Okay, Elois. Tell me if you need something alright. And smile,” Jasper said. He and Cole turned their backs on me and started to walk away leaving me alone again in my room. Jasper seemed to see through my mask that hides the fact that I’m not okay. He can rescue me from the tower. He can help me but I pushed him away. Of course, how stupid am I?

For the whole day, all I did was re-watch episodes of My Love From Another Star- a Korean TV series. I had watched this series a lot of times now but I still enjoy it nonetheless. It’s about a superstar actress meeting someone from another star- an alien, which struck her as very peculiar and engagingly mysterious. Cheon Song-yi is the name of that girl and it’s portrayed by Jun Ji-hyun. She is funny as hell in this series. On the other hand, the alien is named as Do Min-joon and perfectly portrayed by Kim Soo-hyun. He look so hot. In a twisted imagination of mine, sometimes I could see similarities between Cole and Kim Soo-hyun. But Cole looks more realistic. For example Cole’s hair could get dishevelled, unlike Kim whom I could only see on a screen has the perfectly stable unwavering hair. Regarding to their personality, maybe Cole is more similar to Do Min-joon the alien.

I promised Nikolas to see him this night but I’m not feeling it today. So I opted to stay and continue to watch on my laptop. We agreed that we would meet regularly by 9 as he explained that Cole sleeps earlier during the weekends which struck me as odd.

It’s one hour past nine now. But moments later, the door opened.

“Leslie? Is that you?”

“No Elois. It’s me, Nikolas.” I shut the lid of my laptop.

“Nikolas,what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question. You promised to see me by 9.”

“I did, well, I-uh,”

“Honey, you don’t have to reason out. I know,”

“You know what?”

“I always did this whenever you’re feeling it, watch me, okay?” Nikolas stood in front of me and cleared his throat then smiled goofily at me. He moved his knees apart from each other, placed his hands on his head and then his hips swayed gracefully from left to right. For the second time, Nikolas sang to me a melody.

Oh my, Oh my,

Someone is looking blue

A dance, A dance

Is all we have to do,

Place your left foot then wiggle it around

Try to make a fool

To make the blues away

Oh look, Oh look,

She’s smiling now I see,

A dance, A dance

Is all we have to do,

The princess is as pretty as she could be

I clapped after he finished his song and dance number. He looked so silly while dancing but he’s effective enough to make me giggle. “Thank you Nikolas,”

“Come here,”

“Huh?” Nikolas took my hand and pulled me up from the chains of my bed. He opened his arms and gave me a hug. A very tight hug. Because he’s taller than me, the side of my head met his chest and I could hear his heartbeat pounding. His arms pressed my back towards his body and I never felt so secure before. “I’m okay you know,” I told him with tears nearing the edge of my eyes.

“I know you’re not,” he whispered beside my ear. Nikolas went further and hugged me tighter lifting me to the ground, lifting me from all the weight I’m carrying out right now, may it be physical or metaphysical.

“I need this, thank you,”

“I know honey, I love you so much,” I felt my cheeks blush. This is really weird in so many levels but who cares about that right now. Nikolas actually rescued me from the tower, no, he managed to dismantle the tower with his bare hands and catch me.

“I’m surprised that you’re okay with hugging and touching,”

“Well, you taught me to try harder right. But if it’s you whom I’m sharing body contact, it’s like a million times easier. I don’t feel the need to be scared,” Nikolas had let me go.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“What is it?”

“Why did you go back here? It’s been plaguing my mind. I mean, why did you go back to the past?”

“I’m not sure if I could tell you. I might change the future,”

“Is that it?”

“What is?”

“In movies, time-travelers go back to the past to change something. How about you, what do you want to change? Your aim is to change something from the future right?”

Nikolas moved away from me, stared me at the eyes. “Elois, to tell you honestly, I’m not 100% sure if I can change the future. Base on the principles I learned, it’s nearly impossible unless if we uphold the conjecture about multiverses,”

“Multiverses? What’s that?”

“It means that there are other Universes out there. If I change something from this time period, I might set the history to a different course. Meaning, the statements I would be saying would be only fictitious not any different from stories on novels.”

“If you change the future, you mean your Universe where you existed would be different from the Universe I would be in?”

“Yes and that poses a problem because that means, if I did change the future, I have no chance of getting back into the new time period. I cannot get back.”

“Hmm, if you are able to get back from the future that means you haven't changed anything yet?”

“Indeed. I think that there are critical control points in a timeline of history. A critical control point is an event that is life-changing say a graduation, or your birthday, something like that. If I am successful changing that critical control point then I would change the future.”

“But you’re willing to change something right?”

“Yes,”

“If you change something from here, then you won’t exist,”

“Yes. After I change the future, I would be stuck in a time-loop. But it would be for a better version of our future,”

Time-loop? Nikolas, had so many words that I don’t understand, so many things to explain to me but I guess that would take awhile for it to settle on my head.

“Then what is it you want to change?” I pressed again on the question.

“Elois,” he took my hand and sandwiched it with his, “the truth is, you’re the one that could change the future, you have the critical control point.”

“Me? What-what am I supposed to do?”

“Elois, I want you to stop seeing Jasper. I want you to avoid him as much as you can,”

“Nikolas, are you serious? What are you trying to change?” my mind began to find any rational explanation to what he had just said. Why would he ask me to do that?

Before Nikolas could answer, the door of my room flung open and Nikolas raised his eyebrow at me. “No one can see us together!” he quietly screamed “It could change the future! This is bad!”

“Elois, I’m home!” Leslie screamed and barged in.