An Unwritten Chapter

Mi-mi

The wind swept her hair with love every now and then while she walked along the riverbank waiting for Joe to come. Her wavy hair was let loose, the wind was calm and nervous at the same time. Just like Mia was, she reminded herself to breathe because if not, she won't be conscious when Joe gets there. 'Yo Mi-mi', she heard someone calling out to her. There was only one person she knew who called her Mi-mi, her heartbeats raced when she heard his voice. She turned to see the person she hasn't seen in a long time and hasn't been able to forget for a long time. There he was walking towards her, wearing a beige oversized T-shirt and black cargo pants. His stride never failed to intimidate her, he has changed a lot ever since she last saw him. His tall well-built frame can be seen from a distance. With his t-shirt complimenting his dusky skin tone he looked more handsome than ever. He is wearing glasses now, which made his facial structure even more attractive. But it was his smile that swept Mia away every single time. A genuinely cunning smile that confused almost everyone he has ever met.

Mia couldn't contain herself the closer he walked to where she was standing. When he got close to her, he gestured for a hug, but Mia didn't budge. Of all the time they were together, they weren't really in the presence of each other closely. It was safe to say this was the first time they had met without any third wheels around them. Seeing the disappointment on Joe's face, Mia suggested a bro hug. She extended her cold hand, it wasn't cold because of her nervousness, and neither had the weather had any impact on it, her hands have always been cold. With a smile, Joe slapped his hands onto hers. When his big warm hand touched hers, she jerked a little as if some high-voltage electricity passed through her.

Joe never realized how he made Mia feel, maybe that's why he let go of her the first time, maybe this time he will get a chance to get to know her properly. Mia's only concern was the people who intervened before, knowing that they are talking again, because they would do anything in their power to ruin it no matter how many times, and no matter how different things are now than before.

'Shall we find somewhere to sit?', Mia asked, she was still shivering, and it was so obvious in her voice as well. But she had to put all those scary thoughts aside and get to what she had been planning for a while now.

They found a bench by a pink blossom tree that was shedding its beautiful flowers to sit on, Mia picked up a flower from the grass before sitting down, she still couldn't look Joe straight in the eye. She focused on the flower and started twirling it between her fingers, out of nowhere she let out a sigh.

'Could you please put that flower down and talk to me?', Joe sounded surprisingly annoyed. Given the context anyone would be annoyed by that, Mia herself realized it. 'Sorry, I was just figuring out what to say to you.' She looked up at him, he was looking at her oh so eagerly to know what she wanted to say, like a little puppy. This made her smile, and Joe picked up the cue to say something. 'Well, I don't care what you wanted to say, because I've got you smiling. That's enough for me.'

After hearing this, Mia locked eyes with Joe and decided to pour her heart out, 'Your presence numbs my pain somehow.' She smiled, 'if only we had this chance to sit and talk earlier, we would be celebrating something else next week', she said. Joe didn't remember what was so special about next week, but Mia, she remembered every single thing that was special to them. The days and the memories were still fresh in her mind. 'Mi', Joe held her hand softly. 'We'll put it all behind us, the problems, our fight, everything. We want to be with each other, and I think that's all that matters. What do you say?', he asked. Mia needed a few minutes to realize that Joe just made everything easier for her by asking exactly what she wanted to ask him, except for one thing. She wanted to get to the bottom of it and figure out what really went wrong in the first place, so she told him that. Though he didn't want it at first, he agreed to figure it out together with her, but not at the moment. He wanted this moment to be just them, reliving their happy memories and this was the least he could ask of her as well. Realizing that she had some damage control to do from her end, Mia agreed to just enjoy the moment in hand with him that evening. It was the most beautiful three hours in their lives after a very long time, they spent reminiscing their good old days and for a while, they had forgotten that a world existed for them to get back to.

They both were lost watching in each other's presence and the blazing glory of the sunset. The shades of the sky were pink and orange, mesmerizing every soul that dared to look at the sky with strong will, they would have stayed frozen in the exact moment until a car horn blared, bringing them back into reality. Looking around them, they came to the realization that they were so lost in each other that they didn't even realize that it was almost time to get back to their lives. One might wonder, why they can't they just stay a little longer. But it is what it is, you can't repair a broken ceramic, the only thing you can do is make something new and something prettier out of it. But it takes time and effort, and a lot of patience.

Both of them were hesitant to get back home, but they had to. Though they spent a lot of time together, they didn't really say much to each other, that's the beauty of it. Both Mia and Joe didn't need words to be there between them to make their presence lively around each other. After a lot of hand holding and 'should we really go?' they both decided to continue they rekindled attachment to one another through text. Joe walked Mia home; he had already parked his bike close to her place. He waited until she got in and walked up to his bike and put the key in, all along he was smiling like an idiot, he looked himself in the mirror and shook his head. Before he put on his helmet, he looked up at the sky and sighed. Genuine happiness, that's all there was. No worries, no frights, nothing. What he has always wanted is now almost his, but he knew he had to tread carefully, but right now, at this moment he didn't care about those at all.

Mia ran up to her room hurriedly and opened her windows and saw Joe still standing by his bike putting on his helmet, 'you forgot to take me out for coffee', she yelled out. He looked up and yelled 'what' back at her. She repeated what she said and laughed, if only Joe could tattoo moments onto his skin, he would have tattooed this. He was looking up at Mia with absolute admiration, they way she laughed and the way her cheeks filled with life whenever she looked at him made his heart skip not just one, but multiple beats.

'Why don't we start with coffee tomorrow?', he asked. 'Oh yeah? Why don't you come and pick me up tomorrow?', Mia smirked from the window. She was slowly letting her guard down again, just like Rache anticipated. 'I'll text you the time, be ready and be yourself', was what Joe said. He loved the genuine mess that was Mia, and that made her thousand times prettier in his eyes. 'You got it, now get home safe', she yelled, blushing even more. She waited until he drove away and jumped into her bed. She hugged her pink unicorn stuffy tight and sighed, she thought about Joe and smiled. He was her happy place, her home.

She suddenly remembered how people tried to ruin it, and instantly got pissed at herself for ruining the bliss filled time she was having. But you know Mia, if she gets a thought in her mind its hard for her to get it out, and this thought had been in her mind for a while now.

Sitting up on her bed, she took her phone to text both Joe and Rache. Joe hadn't got home yet, but Rache was online. Before Mia could bring up her complaints, Rache wanted to know how their meetup went. She wasn't too happy about how things had gone that evening, but she decided not to talk about it with Mia now, because she knew that Mia wasn't in a mindset to listen to what she would say. Mid-conversation Mia brought up the matter, the one that had been stuck in her mind. When she was explaining her concerns, she felt like she has had that conversation before, it felt familiar. But she shook off the feeling that knowing well enough that she would have had her own conversation in her mind.

Rache had run out of answers and solutions to give Mia now, she really wasn't a person to get annoyed when her friends had issues, but now she was on the edge of having an outburst at Mia. But she knew Mia's struggle and calmed herself down before she suggested her to talk to Joe about it, maybe all three of them could meet one day and try to put an end to these never-ending questions from Mia. Rache had told this playfully, but Mia thought it would actually be a good idea to meet and finish talking about this once and for all. But even she didn't know the benefit of doing so because what's the point? What is she gonna gain from this finding out why they did what they did? At times, Mia is stupid, and it was so obvious. When she broke this matter to Joe the reaction was obvious. He was mad and confused, like, why would she want to dig that up again? It was supposed to be put behind them and they were supposed to move forward. But after a lot of convincing, he agreed to talk about it, one last time. He really didn't want to, but he did it for Mia.