novel magic (pun intended)

PART ONE

This first part is dedicated to a very special friend, who has been through lots of stuff with me and for me. Someone with lots of wit, and who is extremely morbid. Someone who should wear more colors on his/her shoulders. Someone who is dearly loved by God and shops that sell black apparel.

P.S I told you our lives and experiences were made for TV!

- - - - 

Chapter 26 - Madness Comes from Petroleum.

Jeremy and Ashley were walking along Eunos Link expressway. It was nice - having bags as the only weights on them for the moment.

"I think God sent you into my life to-" She stepped hastily up onto a ledge.

"-Help me grow up." She smiled at her friend in black. She laughed like the child she was, at her own lame joke. The two of them laughed at each other as they waited for the road to open up for them.

"You think this is visual comm is it?" He said. She shook her head whilst giggling, one eye closed all the time.

"Well, Jeremy," She grinned. "I think sometimes, God sends signs into our lives to tell us when to stop... And when to-" The traffic light turned a fluorescent green.

"Go." She pranced around like a ladybug on fire, at the same time crossing the road. He smacked his forehead in mock exasperation. Jeremy scratched a pimple on his face. There was a Garang Guni man on a bicycle up ahead. A huge stack of used belongings was stacked precariously on his cackling vehicle.

"Wait, wait, what about this-" Ashley waved her arms in the air as she beheld an invisible screen in the sky. The man was cycling closer. There wasn't enough space on the path for all three of them. Jeremy raised an eyebrow.

"Sometimes," She smiled, as she stepped lightly onto the grass-patch on the side of the pathway.

"We have to give way-" The man cycled past them - him on the path, the two friends on the grass.

"To help others." She bent over with laughter. Jeremy stared at her in shock for a few seconds, then decided to give in. He sniggered, whites showing. It was getting slightly dark, and very soon the HDB lights would go off. This was the favorite part of Ashley's day - where people were on their ways home and the moon took over.

They walked towards the zebra crossing. There was a woman in red standing impatiently as cars zoomed past her and on the painfully ignored zebra crossing. Ashley thought of another way to make it a metaphor.

"Sometimes... Cars just don't give way for impatient people!" She breathed out the words through her dry lips.

"That didn't even make sense!" Jeremy gave her an expressionless face.

"Haha. I know!" They crossed over to the other side of the street, sources of light and sound in the peaceful atmosphere. They looked so... squarish, so cookie-cutter regular. Two bicycles honked crudely from afar.

"Left." Ashley muttered. The two moved quickly to the left of the path as the cyclist took over them from their right sides. They walked in silence for a moment. Suddenly, Jeremy veered sharply off the cement path. He trod carefully on wild wet grass as he made his way onto the emerald colored patch of uncultivated land. Ashley looked forward at the looming path, and shot him a weird side glance.

"What are you doing?" She pointed toward the path they were supposed to take.

"Follow!" Jeremy smiled, conspiring with him and himself as he beckoned her toward him.

She rolled her eyes, then stepped onto the unshaped earth warily, afraid of getting her slippers on well-hidden dog poo. Those things were like rushed and unfinished CA1 assignments - When you glanced at it from afar, it seemed okay, but when you got yourself in it, you knew you were in deep trouble.

He stopped after half a dozen steps. He smiled in a cartoon-like manner to his friend. Pointing to a pile of weeds that somehow managed to look like flowers, he cleared his throat.

"WHAT?" She demanded.

"Sometimes, we have to take time to stop and look at the flowers."

"WHAT!" Ashley said again, this time as an exclamation, as the ! mark would have told you. She laughed wildly. Ashley hit him hard on the back, her fingers aching after she did so.

"HAHAHA!" Was all he could manage for the moment, so she joined in. After all, it was Metaphor Madness Day.

"You know what, anti-sexism states that we should treat women the same way men are treated." Jeremy smiled at Ashley.

PIAK. He hit her equally hard on her back.

"Ow!" She laughed. Thoughts encircled her skull, and she thought of something.

"You know, we all believe in the law of doing unto others, as they have done unto us!" She smacked him even harder than she did previously, but this time, her clumsy fingers flung the glasses off his face, as she slapped his face by accident.

"You slapped me!" They laughed atrociously, like mad chickens that just laid green eggs.

"Sorry dude!" She clutched her laptop bag as the syllables flew out of her mouth: Ha, Ho, Hee. It varied between the three.

They walked in silence for half a beat.

"We're supposed to be a civilized society, Jeremy Teo!" He nodded, stopped his hand in mid-air, promptly ending their backslapping competition. They walked along the familiar pathway. People were waiting patiently (maybe not) at the bus stop. They looked almost like mannequins, with their closed eyes, stoned eyes, and drab faces.

"Jeremy, i swear we come right out of a storybook! You know what, if we walk far enough, I bet we'd reach the edge of this page and crawl right out of the novel we're in!" He laughed, the veins on his neck popping slightly.

"Ah! The lights!" He drawled as he cringed at the imaginary TV lights that shined straight in his face, crouching slightly with his hands above his head like an Osama cornered by multiple helicopters. She clapped her hands in delight.

"You think this is the Truman show is it!" He pushed her on the head. They slowed down a little.

"Haha-" Ashley knocked her hand lightly on a pillar, as if it were a door instead.

"This, my friend, is actually cardboard." 

She pointed to something else. "That, my dear ignorant friend, is construction paper. Those are held by nothing but glue!" They laughed simultaneously. The day sky was retiring, and its counterpart was more than glad to take over. A few HDB lights had come on. They looked very much like stars.

"K luh, here's me." Ashley's voice drifted into the setting atmosphere. The day was gone, and night had come to take over, with sleep in its stardust and dinner under its gaze.

She stopped at the junction between the converging paths. Tilting her head slightly, she waved goodbye to her friend. Jeremy smiled, and turned to walk away.

"Bye!" He called out, his back already turned. Ashley walked off to her own home, feeling very much like a character from a storybook. The clouds drew away.

Chapter 27 - It doesn't work that way. But we shall keep walking.

PART TWO

This is dedicated to a very loved individual, who I’m getting to know and adore so much more everyday. This for you, someone very special in his/her own right, and his own ways. Someone who’s been through heartache before, and someone who is so much more than he/she seems. Someone who should sleep earlier and wake up on time. Someone who should never leave Skype. And never skip class again.

P.S: My cherry :)

- - - -

Chapter One - If roses are red, and violets are blue, then I know ...:)

Annah looked at her laptop, her fingers itchy though her head was tired. She clicked on her blogpage. And started to type…

Annah had gone up to get her module notes and her guitar.

The sight that greeted her eyes when she opened the door made her cringe in horror. The TV on, and a slackened figure covering the sofa’s hide, she walked past it without a single word. Changing into her FBT shorts, she smiled to herself as she thought of what was waiting for her.

She closed the door without any gentleness. It clanged to a great shut as she pressed the lift button.

It opened onto the dark and cool lobby. Annah slid out of it, carrying the guitar with her. Contrary to popular belief, hidden deep within the Ibanez casing was a cheap, ordinary yamaha classical guitar that cost nothing. Heck, it wasn’t even hers. But that didn’t matter for now. She walked toward him. He had been waiting. She took her place opposite him, her ears listening to the treasure trove they were sitting in. It was as if they had sat there many times before, without losing the excitement of it all.

Rain was dripping slowly and languidly onto the pavement. The air swayed, and sashayed towards higher skies. A slight breeze blew into the Senior Citizen’s Corner, enveloping the two silhouetted figures at the table.

“It’s cold.” Annah shivered slightly, eyes smiling at him. His eyebrows knitted high together in worried wonder.

“If only I brought the awesome jacket.” He reached forward to place a skinny hand on her head.

“Uh-uh. The awesome jacket.” She crinkled her nose, pulling herself in tighter. They opened their notes – Her first, then he.

They stopped studying. It was so peaceful. They had talked, and they had laughed. Time was endless, a flowing entity that seemed very far away. She had done her quiet time whilst he made use of the cheap guitar; his voice and guitar music soothing in its own untrained way, and comforting in the cold.

“If you were an MRT seat, what would you do?” He asked her.

“I’d put cushions on myself so people would have a comfy ride and be less grumpy in the mornings.” Annah replied.

“Wow. You’d do that for people that fart on you.” He laughed with her.

“What about you?” Annah placed her chin on the round stone table. Her eyes glanced at all her notes, none of which were spread out in logical order.

“I’d have sharp, poky things on me so no one would sit on me,” He answered. Annah smacked the table and laughed.

“You are so evil.”

“If you were cough medicine what would you do?” He asked her again.

“I’d kill all the other cough medicine in mass suicide through burning!”

Anna opened a packet drink. She was more thirsty than she’d realized. A ringing lullaby wafted into her ears. Her mom was back. She opened the door, greeted by the delightful smell of dinner. She sat down to eat, hungry and slightly more tired than before. She starte d typing again.

He was about to go.

“Hey wait. I’ve got something I owe you.”

“Yeah?” Oh, the look in his contact-lensed eyes was just too cute to be true.

“Hug?”

He smiled, and she hugged him. She sitting down, and he on his feet. It lasted for all of 0.5832083 seconds. It was kind of awkward, but she felt happy.

"I get lost in this world

I get lost in your eyes

And when the lights go down

That's where I'll be found"

- lost by anouk