Moth to Her Flame

Lou

I heard about her ,knew her before she ‘met’ me. That was the third time we’d seen each other. Id been introduced to her once by a mutual friend. I don’t think she spared me a glance, of course she didn’t remember my face. The first time I saw her, I had to look again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming or tripping. Cee was simply the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen but that wasn’t the first thing I’d noticed about her. It was her smell. She smelled like some sort of edible arrangement, if it had chocolate dribbled over it. And I subconsciously tried to look up from the car whose back tire I was scrubbing and I saw her figure . It was so divine that I wasn’t surprised to see the frown and pout on her dreamy face. She looked like she wanted to slap someone or at least slap anyone who comes up to her. Until her friend said something funny. I remember looking at her smile and feeling happy. She laughed and laughed, probably adding jokes because she was whispering back to her friend and her friend chortled out loud, which cracked her up even more, her whole body quivering including her soft,fluffy butt. I looked away in case she looked back and caught me looking, I really didn’t want to find out what would happen. I didn’t even want to think about it. I’d seen her friend with her boyfriend a couple of times. He never said hi whenever he walked by with a woman as if he didn’t sit out here hanging out with and sometimes sharing a blunt with the boys. He lived just down the street. Her boyfriend was a real ladies man. I know he’s the most serious with her because she’s the only girl I’d seen here more than twice. Before her was the dark skinned girl who was still sleeping with my Flatmate. The lungs on that tiny girl, boy oh boy. At first it was funny. But it got to a point. I had to ask him to let me know ahead when she’s coming over. So I don’t keep jerking awake when she starts yowling 3am in the morning . During the day and even late at night. They play loud music but they can’t do that all the time. The neighbors were sure to give us hell and it would definitely irritate me. I could always find somewhere to sleep. Anywhere but there. I don’t know how but I figured Cassandra’s friend ,whose name was Karen by the way,wasn’t as freaky as my flatmate said the itsy-bitsy mega phone was. She was quite heavy too and dragged her feet when she walked. I’m quite sure she can’t do all the tricks her boyfriend and my flatmate talk about. He never talks about her. And nobody has ever brought her up. He barely talks about a girl unless he’s had her or wants to have her and he’s seen her with you. I liked hanging out with him because he was funny and he had links to all sorts of jobs. He’s pretty awesome and definitely someone you want to have in your corner. He’s pretty much reserved around other people. Even when everyone in our circle is around the said other people. He goes from the chatty, bubbly, explicitly funny guy to a guy who’d reply your greeting with a smile and a nod after which he’d look away. When I brought her up when he came around in the evening. The first thing he said after I asked who the girl who walked by with his babe this morning was, was that he couldn’t give me her number because he didn’t even have it. “Okay”. One of our dogs barked behind the gate . “Does she have a name?” “Cassandwa”, he said. It was always funny seeing this buff, tall, gruff looking guy pronounce his r wrong. I usually had a joke every time but not today. I felt like knowing more about Cassandwa. “What’s she like?” “Dude, that girl is proud, just leave her alone. She will ignore and embarrass you if you try to talk to her”. I honestly didn’t doubt it. “She’s very creative with her insults too”. “You’ve gotten into it with her before?” “Her friend tells me everything”. He laughed fondly, shaking his head “That girl is something”. She really was. The next time I met her was in her house. My friend, Jamal told me he wanted to quickly say hi to one of his friends while we were driving down to one of our friends house. Her place was like two streets to our final destination. I waited in the car while he went in. I was starting to get impatient when I heard her laugh. She sounded like a horse snorting. Whatever Jamal said was so funny that she laughed all the way to the car and until he sat in the car. He pointed his thumb backwards to me, “meet my friend,Lucas”. Her face lost the laugh and became straight immediately. “Hi”, she said blandly, glancing at me briefly before flicking her eyes back to Jamal. “Say hi to Kareem for me. tell him I said Happy Birthday”, she said flashing him a small sweet smile. “I’m pretty sure he invited you to the party”, Jamal said,c*****g his head. “I’m not in the mood to be with a bunch of people today” she almost literally whined, rolling her eyes and pouting. “I haven’t had any sleep and I was up all night working on a piece” “That pair of joggers was looked lit, did you really finish by 4am”. Her eyes were looking in another direction but she bobbed her head. She really looked like she needed to sleep. She had dark circles around her eyes but she was still so pretty. She just looked really tired like she was ready to drop. “I guess I’ll see you later,Jamal said, holding his car door. She backed up and smiled , “remember to have fun and please send me snaps when something fun happens at the party” “I gotchu baby”. She threw her head back and laughed when he said that. It must have been an inside joke because Jamal was beaming too. She started walking back to her gate in that her dainty way. Hips swaying side to side as she slowly placed each foot in front of the other. It was something to watch. She locked the gate and turned around and didn’t look back,only then did Jamal reverse the car down into the street and drive away. When I came outside and she was gone, I was dismayed. I knew it was done. I didn’t even get her number. I had no idea where or when I was going to see her. Jamal once said sometimes he feels like she’s an illusion. Because one day you hang out with her and you have an amazing time and you don’t get to see her for the next month during which she might or might not converse with you. She takes time away from everything sometimes and she takes such times very seriously. Nobody was going to disturb it. I was going to ask her if she wanted to go somewhere to talk before Jamal came to get me. She seemed like a really cool person. She felt like a beautiful sunset. It was refreshing to be around Cee. With her, the world seemed like a brighter place. Everyone who would tell you about her would probably give you different accounts on who she is but one thing that they would all agree on was that , you could forget all your worries while you were with her. All I could hope for was that she’d want to see me just as much as I wanted to see her. The guys tried teasing me about her after the party was over . We passing around blunts while Jamal and a friend of ours we simply called Gee played video games . I’m not sure anyone knew his real name. Sometimes I forget about his existence until I see him. I just kept a blank face and didn’t say anything. “Won’t Cassandra tell your girl that you were putting your hands inside a woman’s jeans and cupping her butt?” I asked steering the conversation away from me. He laughed and shook his head letting out a puff of smoke. A girl that minded her business. I nodded in approval before leaning back into seat thinking about how she felt in my arms. How she slowly rocked her hips,just an hair’s breadth separating us. I was glad our bodies didn’t touch. My body would have gotten too excited. I acted so calm for the storm that was raging inside me, but I was enjoying the moment so much that I didn’t want to ruin it. I wanted to cry out when she put my hands on her butt. It was even softer than I imagined. Sweet baby Jesus, your father did well on this masterpiece. The boys were so sure she had a thing for me. I thought she was just really drunk or she’d heard about me and wanted a taste. I hoped it would be the first or the third thing so I could at least get to make her acquaintance and possibly be her friend and obviously get her alone and make me her sigh and cry out my name, while I looked into her huge brown feline eyes as I bury myself in her soft,soft body. If there was a spectrum with cute on end and sultry on the other, Cee was right smack in the middle. She was a mix between doe innocence and fox slyness. She had this innocent look but sometimes it’d slip and she’d give you a look that promised trouble, the kind of trouble you’d do anything to get into. That day when she opened the door and just stood there staring at me like she wanted to have her way with me then and there, her puffy lips slightly parted, if she’d told me to set myself on fire to keep her warm. I would have. I’m exaggerating but do you get the picture I’m trying to paint here?. She had an effect on people, they would do literally anything to make her happy and I heard she was that way too towards her friends, Cassie would go that extra mile for you. I wished I’d spent more time with her. I wished i could spend more time with her, but if you’d ask me to relive that day, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. It was perfect. It was short but it was nice. It felt like my first crush all over again. There was nothing I could do but wait. I promised myself not to mess up the next chance. Somehow, the whole fact that she was practically unreachable excited me. I didn’t care if she was just drunk that night, if I had to go to every party she was at just to get closer to her, I would. Usually, I do not stress over girls. I’ve never had to but this girl looked like she’d be different. I could tell. I wanted to experience what really knowing her would be like. An idea then popped into my head. I knew her house. I could send gifts to her as an anonymous admirer, maybe I could work something up from there. I smiled to myself. This was going to be interesting, I just felt it. I was eager to see what effect that would yield. I chuckled to myself that night when I calmed myself down and decided to wait for a week. So she wouldn’t think it’s me. I didn’t want her going to ask Jamal about me. In fact, I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to involve him in anything I wanted to do with her. I wanted to enjoy this secret. It seemed too precious to share with anyone. I tried looking for her on social media that night to no avail. She really was an illusion. Since I’d already figured out what to do, I went to sleep that night with a smile, what a day!.