The Conspiration of the Universe

Chapter 2

2

Yesterday was just hot but today, it is brutally hot that for the first time of my life I decided to take off my shirt and wander around the apartment half naked. If Matt was here and sees me this way he would probably say “So you think you look hot showing off your body?” and he would laugh at me.

Sydney hadn’t returned any of my text messages since then. If she was busy then it’s fine and rightful to make myself busy as well so I started looking up on the internet possible research titles I could work on for my paper.

A few types and clicks and my academic mode turned off and went straight back to Sydney-mode. I couldn’t just stay put and ignore the fact that I have pissed off Sydney yesterday. Have I been such a jerk? To top it all, two days from now, it would be her 16th birthday and I really don’t want to reach that day that we hadn’t made up yet.

Maybe I should surprise her. Maybe I could turn this around if I would do something incredibly special, but what would it be? Should I buy something for her, flowers and chocolates? No, such a cliché. A necklace maybe? But where would I get the money? For this special occasion, I need professional help, so being a teenager that belongs to the instant, digitized, and rather more productive generation, I googled: special gifts for girlfriends.

Hmm, a couple shirt possible... a special scrapbook thingy...could be. Well it is all possible if only I had the money. Maybe the answer lies here on the apartment. The idea suddenly popped up on my mind and then I swiftly checked under my bed. Yes, it’s still there. I reached for the brown chest that lies under my bed. It was heavy and dusty. Though, it has just been a few months of being there but the chest looks older being practically an antique one.

I opened it up and dust literally flew off and danced at the beam of sunlight like they were alive. Books, a bunch of books- the chest had my old collection of books. Just seeing my old friends make me feel nostalgic and lonely. “I’m sorry for locking you up. You know its college. I’ve been very busy.” I whispered to them. Four years of abandonment, they had endured.

One by one, I removed the books from their stacks and looked at it admirably. Almost all of them were Young Adult novels from a single writer, Andrew Bautista. How could I abandon you guys? These books made me feel thirsty, thirsty for words and thoughts. If only I could choose the best then it would be the perfect gift for Sydney. The Paperback, A Rollercoaster Ride, A Wish...these titles are the ones of what I liked the most. Okay, I know that Andrew Bautista doesn’t have a knack on giving book’s names but the contents are rather excellent. I continued to dig deeper and finally reached the bottom. A sky-blue book was sitting there waiting to be noticed. A Starless Night. I grabbed it and thought that this is it. This is the book I wanted to give to Sid.

No, this is the book I am willing to sacrifice.

***

It took me a day to accomplish a plan for tomorrow’s celebration. But the birthday celebrant still hasn’t replied to any of my efforts to communicate with her. I texted, called, e-mailed, PM’ed and any other technological means I could think of (well not really, I haven’t tried faxing her. I wondered if fax did really served humanity well.). That made me more desperate and scared so I called her one more time. After the second ring, a miracle happened and she answered it.

“Hey, why are you calling me?” Sydney said. Her voice sounded different.

“Hey, hi how are you?” my voice croaked

“Luke, is this important because I’m kind of a middle of something here?”

“Sid, are you still mad at me?”

“No, I’m not mad I’m just...tired.” I could her wheezy.

I nudged my chin with my thumbed out of nervousness “Okay. Tomorrow would be your birthday right?”

“Yeah, so?”

My heart throbbed as words scrambled in my head and I have to pick them up as fast as I could “I want you to meet me at the Freedom Park at 6 p.m. tomorrow, alright?”

“Sure, okay. I will look forward to it. I have to go”

“Oh, thanks Sid. I...”

She hung up. Blood pumped over my head and it felt kindda good. If my head was a balloon it would have probably popped. We might have bad times especially on our official dates but she was actually looking forward for it.