Shine

So I was just there, standing with my bike near the entrance of a building, not knowing what to do next, when I saw this blond guy coming out of an elevator, with a bike, and my very first impression was that I knew him, but I couldn’t remember where from.

I must have stared at him a bit awkwardly, and so he stared at me too, smiling very much, don’t ask me why, as if he was seeing something quite amazing instead of me.

I smiled back, and just as he was passing me by with his bike, the cloth on my hair fell over my face for the third or forth time that morning, covering my eyes a bit, and so I removed it and said to the blond guy:

"I washed my hair today, it’s really soft, you know, so this keeps falling down…"

He didn’t seem to understand me, but had stopped and was still smiling, as if he couldn’t talk or something, until he finally pronounced, looking at my map:

"Can I help you?"

"Oh, I need to find my dentist, you know, I feel like I’m in a dream or something, this place is weird, I’ve been looking for more than half an hour for this number…"

"Well, I don’t know the area too good either, I just moved to Holland recently, but we can take a look around."

He said this in a singing tone, with one of those round American accents, not too strong, just native and sweet, and as he spoke he kind of bounced a bit as if he wasn’t able to stand still.

While I was looking at his face, I couldn’t believe how blue his eyes were, and how clean his skin looked, and his hair was just so blond that it almost seemed white in some parts, falling over his eyes and neck.

"Uh… yes… thanks," I told him, so we got on the bikes and drove around a bit, always smiling at each other almost idiotically, if not totally, and there was absolutely no way we could find the door number I was looking for.

In the meanwhile, though, I was already more interested in looking at him than finding the building.

"Let’s give up," I told him. "I’m already too late anyway."

"All right," he said, still smiling at me as if he was hypnotized. And then he added:

"I keep having this feeling that I know you from somewhere."

"Yes, me too!" I exclaimed. "It was a really strong feeling when I first saw you! Weird, isn’t it?"

"I don’t know if it’s weird, maybe we met somewhere, and we just can’t remember."

"Yes… maybe."

"What’s your name, anyway?" he asked me.

"Lara. What’s yours?"

"I’m Shine."

"Shine… is that a nickname?"

"No, I just got a funny name," he said. "I’m Shine Huckleberry."

"Huckleberry is your family name?"

"Yup!" he replied. "You like it?"

"Yes, I do, actually, and Shine is a beautiful name."

"Well, thanks, miss Lara, and what’s your family name?"

"Lopes," I told him.

"Lara Lopes…" he seemed to think for a few seconds, and then said:

"You sound famous."

I laughed.

"So, miss Lara Lopes, would you like to have some coffee at my place?"

"Well…" I didn’t quite know what to think. "Sure, why not?" and then I remembered:

"But weren’t you going somewhere?"

"Oh, well, I was already too late anyway," he said.

"Oh, I’m sorry," I told him. "What did I make you miss?"

"School," he replied. "But it was just the one class, and I feel like some pancakes."

He said this in a singing tone again and just added:

"Shall we?"

"All right," I told him.

His parent’s house was empty. He showed me around, told me that he had a brother named Kite, and then we went to the kitchen to make some pancakes and coffee.

Then he put on some country music, which I thought was funny, and we cleaned up the table and place the dishes in the washer.

He sang along with the music, and seemed quite emotional about it, and had quite a good voice.

"I like you, miss Lara."

I smiled, suddenly a bit shy, and got up.

"I guess I better be going," I announced, and he also got up.

"Oh, I’m sorry," he apologized. "I shouldn’t have said that."

"It’s fine, don’t worry," I told him, on my way to the corridor.

"Well, it was really nice meeting you, Lara!" he said, while he gave me a little hug, as we were standing next to the entrance door of the apartment.

"You too," I told him, and while I hugged him back I could smell his skin and his hair, and it all smelled salty and wild like the sea or something. So when my face stood in front of his face again, I just kissed his lips.

We bumped against the door and the walls of the corridor, and then we kind of bumped all the way to his room again, lost our balance by the bed, I remember I had to laugh and asked him:

"Are we? Are we…?" and we fell on his bed, both laughing. His body was hard and he had a flat stomach, unlike mine or Kiss’, and then suddenly I told him:

"Stop, stop! Let’s just stop for a while!"

"Okay," he said.

"What are we doing?" I asked, kind of rearranging my hair a bit.

"Uh… kissing?"

"Are we going to get naked?"

"I don’t know… do you want to?"

I thought for about five seconds, and then said:

"Let’s get naked."

So he kissed me again, and I had never felt anything like that. It was as if his touch could make me loose all consciousness of being on earth, and I was drifting away into space or somewhere far.

I only spoke to him again one month after that, when Kiss Peace and I had already resolved our relationship. It’s not that Kiss was hurt, she wasn’t, she actually wanted to be with other people too.

Kiss told me that if I liked Shine she didn’t mind, but unfortunately, I couldn’t deal with it and had to make a decision.

I knew, however, that what I was feeling for Shine was stronger than what I had felt for Kiss. I just couldn’t ignore it.