A Fling Thing

As a freshman in college, you do everything to blend in. I didn’t know anybody back then. Our place was 50 miles away from home, far from the city that I used to grow up with.

Then, I met Xy. She’s pretty, petite, a head-turner, and an introvert type, but she knows how to crack jokes at times. We were on the same block and she happened to be my neighbor in the dorm. We would hang out despite the fact that we didn’t have much in common.

One time, we went together to the school's acquaintance party. We partied and had fun. To make the story short, she was by then already eyed by the senior cheering team and was encouraged to join as a stunt.

Xy however, was not interested in the first place because she didn’t know anybody on the team. So, she begged me to take the audition with her. As a friend, I did.

The cheering competition was fast approaching, thus we needed to practice double time. As part of the cheering team, we must be responsible enough to balance out our academic grades and our extracurricular activities.

The practice was held every evening after class hours. It was during this time that I laid my eyes on this senior guy who's also on the team and I admit, I had a secret crush on him.

However, I noticed that when Xy was not around in the practice, he would approach me to check on where Xy was. So, I thought he had a thing for her. Since then, he would drop by to say hi and I couldn't even remember why we clicked, then the rest was history.

He would wait for me to keep me company on our way home from the practice and I honestly enjoyed spending my time with him. I would look forward to every practice just to see him.

He was acting like he had a thing for me, but I didn't want to put malice on everything that we had. He was the type of a read-between-the-lines guy and I didn’t have the slightest hint on what he was doing to me.

He was too showy to wrap his arms around my shoulder, offer me snacks, drinks or whatever like what a boyfriend does to his girlfriend. He was too shallow. I thought it was cool at first so I just loved being spontaneous with him.

We didn't even exchange numbers. We just saw each other during practice sessions.

I had a hard time getting some sleep the night before the cheering competition. I was 90 percent nervous and 10 percent spaced-out. Our college cheering team had been the champion for the last four consecutive years. So, it was a challenge for us rookies to do our part to maintain the record.

Morning came, and everybody was busy prepping up. We had our makeups and costumes on and we were all set for the final moment to come.

After the cheering performance, we all settled on our designated benches inside the gymnasium. The noisy crowd was roaring rise and fall to cheer their respective college teams.

He sat beside me and complimented that I looked good that day. I, on the other hand, was hell conscious of how short the skirt that I was wearing, but I managed to cover it with the flags that I was holding.

Then, he unexpectedly slid his hands to hold mine so tenderly that I could feel the warmth of his palm pressing mine. I froze and was puzzled. Why is he doing this to me?

We were just holding hands the entire time and were enjoying every single moment of it.

Fast forward, we won the cheer dancing competition and we were still held champion. It was my first and last competition and I opted not to stay active for years after.

We had a victory party in celebration of our being champion and that was also the last time that I’ve seen him.

Everything happened so fast that we didn't even have a single chance to say goodbye. He was a senior in college and a guy who was set to finish and graduate at any time.

Though what we had was vaguely short… I could say that I was still pleased that he made me feel “special,” whatever that means.