Second Love

Then, one rainy afternoon, I met him by chance on the street near my house, and he got himself under my umbrella to say hello to me.

"You live around here?" he asked me.

"I live over there, in Carlos da Maia street," I pointed. "What are you doing here?"

"I went by Joanna's place, but she's not home."

"Is Joanna your girlfriend?" I asked.

"More or less," he replied. "Are you going home?"

"Yes, what about you?"

"I'm gonna get soaked all the way to my home!" he laughed.

"You wanna wait a while in my house?" I invited him.

"Is that no problem?"

"Of course not!"

"Then I will!"

And my heart started beating faster, as usually when he was around me. I took him under my umbrella to the entrance door of my building, and we got in. My mother was coming down the stairs. I didn't know what to say, first of all, because I thought she was no longer home, and secondly because she was the last person I wanted Orpheus to see me talking to at that moment. I ended up babbling some ridiculous kind of hello, as if I hardly knew her.

"I'm in a hurry, Lara. Are you okay?" she asked me.

"Yes, it's a pleasure to see you," I replied.

"What?"

"Nothing, Mom! See you later."

"See you later, Black Pea!"

Then she said hello and smiled at Orpheus hurriedly. He returned a normal hello and we started walking up the stairs. He didn't seem to have recognized her. Then he asked me:

"Is your Mom that actress from the Special Channel Show?"

All down the drain! My hopes vanished! Why the hell didn't she leave one hour earlier, as usual?

"Yes," I replied, annoyed, cutting off any development on the subject.

I opened the door of the apartment and my father, who shouldn't be home anymore either, came down the stairs from the second floor with photographic material to take with him to the magazine.

"Hi, Lara!"

"It's Orpheus," I introduced.

"Hello," said Orpheus.

"Cassio Lopes, how are you doing?" and my father shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you," Orpheus replied.

"Well, I have to go," my father concluded, and started getting on his jacket. "Is it still raining?"

"Yes," we both replied.

"Well, then, see you later, Lara, Orpheus," my father smiled at me and nodded at Orpheus.

"See you later," we both said.

Then Stella came to take a look at what was going on, and I also introduced her to Orpheus, and Levi walked down the stairs at that point to go to the kitchen. I started getting tired of introductions.

"My brother Levi, this is Orpheus."

"Hi!" they said.

"Wanna go up?" I said. "Now there's only Marco left for you to meet!"

"All right!"

We went up and I took him into my bedroom to leave my school books there. The cats were sleeping on my bed. He stroke them. Then he started looking at my walls, full of pictures, posters, drawings, and writings.

"Pink Floyd," he said, looking at a poster. "Is it your favorite band?"

"No," I smiled. "I like so many bands, I don't have a favorite one."

"What do you like?" he asked me.

"A lot, I don't know."

"For example?"

"Old stuff and new stuff."

"Like what?"

"Old stuff or new stuff?"

"New stuff."

"I like many different bands."

He laughed.

"Are you gonna tell me one?"

"I don't know, The Clash. How about you?'

"I still like Duran Duran, can you imagine? But it's a secret!" he winked and smiled.

"Yeah, I know!" I told him. "Normally boys don't like Duran Duran, because they're cute and therefore a girls band, right?"

"Of course, but what do I care! And I also like Wham!" he added.

"Finally I meet a guy who doesn't care!"

"Did you make the drawings?" he asked me, changing the subject and looking at the walls again.

"Yes."

"And the writings?"

"Some are mine, some are from authors I like."

"Writers?"

"Yes."

"Are you also a writer?"

"I guess so."

"Thus the typewriter."

"That's right."

"And what do you write? Poems?"

"Yeah, some, but they don't rhyme. And I write what I see, about the people I know, and what happens. Do you wanna meet my brother?"

"Yeah, sure!"

We left my bedroom towards the upstairs living room. The door was locked and Marco came to open it. A smell of hashish started spreading through the hall and my brother and Neri looked at me from inside the room, very smiley, surrounded by a cloud of smoke.

"Are you nuts? What if the parents were still home?" I asked him.

"Mom also smokes," he replied, before he saw Orpheus standing there. Then he noticed him and introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Marco!" and he shook his hand.

"I'm Orpheus!"

"This is Neri."

"How's it going?"

"What if Stella can smell it?" I told him. "It's not funny!"

"Don't worry, Sis! Wanna smoke?"

"No," I pushed him away. "You're such a jerk! I love you, but sometimes you're such a jerk. I'm going to open the window!"

Orpheus, however, seemed to like that first introduction to my life, for he smoked from my brother's and Neri's joint and stayed around a while checking out music and talking to Marco. Neri left before him, when the rain was still falling. As for me, no matter how long and how closely I looked at Orpheus, I didn't get tired of his tanned and freckled face, of his green eyes, of his big and beautiful nose and mouth. I think that day I knew for sure that I was in love.