Long-Distance Calls

Epilogue

Dear Future,

We've reached one of the many places I can consider an ending in my life.

It's not a happy ending. It's not a sad ending. I guess you could say it's a bittersweet ending but, frankly, it's just a real life ending. Usually in life you don't really get closure, and not all the stars line up for you to take a breath and smile at your own personal little ending.

Life goes on 'till death, and not even then you get closure. Now, this is a particularly open ending, but even in those beautiful endings where everything looks settled and everything looks to be right with the world, you have to remember that it's not really the end. There's a whole new story after that, and another one after that, and so on. And those stories might not all be happy.

Nothing lasts forever, neither happiness nor sadness. But which one lasts longer?

That's a question for another day but, in the meanwhile, I want you to look back at this series of mistakes I call a novel. I can tell you one thing: out of the many endings in life, there is always at least one happy ending.

So live life without worrying so much. Make mistakes. Because after one too many mistakes, eventually, you'll do something right. And that will make you look back at all the mistakes you've made and laugh about it. It will make you think that all those mistakes were worth it. Life is a series of wrongs in the search for something good. So mistake your way into your happiness.

This ending is merely a new beginning, so let me give you a glimpse of that.

August 2013

Backpack on my shoulders, sleep on my face, silent roads and frisky air, alone at a bus stop, it could only be one thing: the first day of school.

Sure, starting a new school in junior year wasn't the ideal, but I was excited.

After the Flushing High School fiasco, Queen's King's High School looked to be my chance at redemption.

It was a new life, sure, but there was still one constant that, I think, would never go away. BusSelena was still there, with her dreamy eyes and mysterious looks.

"Good luck on your first day, honey. ly" was Evelyn's text on my phone.

The school looked way less intimidating than the previous one. And there were way less students, too. I found my first class, English, and I guess I was about to meet my first classmates.

They were standing right there, waiting for the class to start. A guy with jet black curly hair and black (with shades of red) beard, wearing glasses similar to mine and a Green Day t-shirt, was talking to an at least six feet tall, redheaded, muscular-but-not-too-shaped looking guy, with a Slipknot t-shirt and a compelling smile printed on his face.

Alright, Peter. This is it. You either approach them now or you stay antisocial for life. Is it getting colder in here? Oh, no, wait, I'm sweating. Oh, and look! I'm shaking, too!

"Hi!" In the meanwhile, I had managed to walk all the way to the bearded one, who was staring at me with wonder in his eyes. "I'm new in this school, I just came here. I'm Peter."

His features lit up with one simple smile as he extended his hand to shake mine. "Oh, hi Peter..."

"Charming," I said, with a little more confidence. "Peter Charming."

"Seriously?" He kept the smile on his face but didn't laugh. Though I could hear his friend giggling right next to us. "Well, nice to meet you. I'm Mark. Caught R. Mark."

"Really?" I smiled, trying to look as friendly as possible. "What does the R. stand for?"

He leaned closer, with a serious face. "That's one secret you'll never guess," and he smiled, though he looked like he wanted to wink.

I chuckled and looked at his big friend. I suddenly felt small. "Oh, this is Chris," Mark said. And I shook the big guy's hand as he said "hi" and his face presented the smile of someone who could never hurt a fly.

"Do you reckon I could sit here?" I asked, walking toward the desk behind theirs.

"Oh, yeah, nobody's sitting there," Mark said. "Hey, Leslie, meet the new guy," he then called the attention of a girl standing right over that desk.

The girl looked at me first, then looked at Mark, then looked back at me and smiled. "Hi," she walked goofily toward me and extended a hand, "I'm Leslie. And this," she then walked back to the desk behind the one I picked, "is Africa."

And, dear Future, you have to believe me, I didn't want to think certain thought. I wanted to honor the promise I made to myself about Evelyn. But, when I saw that girl sitting right there, I couldn't help but think she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. Not only in real life, but in tv, in movies and books, and comics and anywhere else.

She just waved her hand shyly as she looked at me with her light brown eyes under long eyelashes behind long, wavy, anthracite hair falling down almost to her legs in blonde ends.

I sat down at the desk. "Hi," I said to her, as an excuse to take a closer look at her face. And I wasn't wrong. I simply felt overwhelmed with how gorgeous she looked.

"So yeah, they're all really nice," I said to Belle at the park, later that afternoon.

"That's nice to hear," she said.

"Yeah. Maybe I'll actually have a motivation to go to school, now."

"So really nothing wrong?" She asked.

"No. Really nothing. Just the usual embarrassing moment of saying my last name but, other than that, nothing."

"Yeah," she smiled, "tell me about it, my last name being Tinker."

I smiled.

"It looks like things are finally going your way, Pete."

"It looks like it. And, I don't want to jinx it but... I think this might be the start of some solid friendships."

"Peter?" A familiar voice calling my name from afar. I turned around and I saw Mark standing a few feet away.

"Hey, Mark," I said and he came closer.

"Who are you talking to?" He asked.

"Nobody. I'm just thinking. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing much. I was going back home, actually."

"I see. Well, it was nice seeing you again. See you tomorrow at school!"

"You can count on it!"

And as I stood alone in the park, having just not been avoided by someone I knew, I felt like that, right there, was the first day of my life.