Dear Ludmilla

Chapter 3

                                                        A few more weeks passed by and Ben got to know Ludmilla better. She had officially joined their group of misfits, which was a trio before: him, Brittany and Micky. The reactions of his other two friends to her were overall positive: Brittany was now ecstatic that she had a friend which was a girl (and not having to deal with these two idiots alone, as she jokingly put it). Micky was overall unaffected by Ludmilla, still in love with the other girl in their group. Ben knew that he still had work to do to get to know her: Ludmilla was mysterious and didn't open up easily. At least he knew that she loved nature; in fact the first outing as a whole group was to Central Park, for a picnic.

                                                    The more he spent time with Ludmilla, the more attracted he was to her. He loved her tinkling laugh when one of them told her a joke. He loved the way she stroked her chin when she thought of an idea. He loved the way her dark eyes sparkled when she spotted birds when the gang played their special game: Who Can Spot The Bird. The principal aim of this game was researching a bird on the Internet, going to Central Park with a printed photo of the bird and who can spot the most birds wins a free Cappuccino from Starbucks, because all of them loved Cappuccinos.

                                                   And yet he sometimes was frustrated with her. Why was it that the moment he connected with her, made her laugh and speak up, she seemed to close up again? Why was it that she didn't seem to trust him? Why did she have to always have to have that mysterious air about her? They had been hanging out for 3 weeks now! Surely that was enough time for her to break out of her shell? He decided to go and talk to Brittany, the hopeless romantic of the group, about it. Wasn't she the closest to her anyway? Maybe she could point him in the right direction for winning the girl. He had seen many series and movies on men who wanted to win over their dream girl. He never liked those kind of stuff. He even laughed at the protagonists on screen, yelling at them to get some backbone, as if they were real. But now he realised that when you were infatuated with somebody, they suddenly are the only thing that matters. And that it is not as simple as getting a backbone or focusing on something else. True he had baseball, school and Micky talking about his own crush to keep his mind off Ludmilla, but the rest of his time was devoted to her. He mostly thought of her at night, just before he dropped off to sleep. 

                                                        At break time, he found her alone in the cafeteria and asked her on how to gain Ludmilla's affection and trust. Brittany seemed lost in thought, before responding to his question.

                                                        "I don't know, Ben. Each girl is different. For example, if it was me, I would want my dream guy to serenade me with the song You're The One That I Want  from Grease  but each girl is different, and honestly, I don't see Ludmilla being happy with that. She's more shy and hesitant to confide her true self to someone. She's like an oyster with a pearl inside, but like an oyster, she doesn't open up much. I think she'd be happy with a simple picnic at Central Park, just the two of you alone, buy her flowers and ask her to be your girlfriend. But don't do that yet. It's still too early for her. Wait a few more weeks, then surprise her. But don't wait too long, either. When the moment seems right, go for it. Trust me Ben, I've been waiting for Mi..I mean, a particular guy to ask me out for quite a while now, and I feel like I can't wait much longer to confess my feelings. So helping someone else reach that goal, distracts me from my own troublesome love life and makes me feel a bit better." And with that, she walked away.

                                                        Ben was left breathless, and not in a good way. He had been friends with Brittany for almost a year now, but he had no idea she could talk so much. And with such vocabulary that he didn't understand. Couldn't she just have told him to wait a little before asking Ludmilla out? She really had to go on and on about what she preferred and how some guy she was sweet on had not yet acknowledged her feelings? That got him wondering on who the person was, and for a moment contemplated whether to alert Micky or not. But he dismissed that thought after a few seconds and focused on how annoying Brittany could sometimes be, with her nonstop chatter.This was why he preferred Ludmilla: she was more quiet. He walked away to his U.S History class, thinking over what Brittany said. He would follow her advice, for two reasons. First of all, it was perfectly reasonable. Second of all, even it wasn't, Brittany would drive him crazy if he didn't. And Crazy Brittany was the last thing he needed at the moment.