Impeccable Love (On Hold)

Novel Freak

NOVELS.

That word was the most used word in my vocabulary. I hear that word and my body literally vibrates. You mention the word and you've gotten my full attention. My life completely revolved around that word novel. There was no place I went to that you wouldn't see me with a novel; is it at school, at church, in the yard, in the toilet... Where? You just name it. Don't even mention my room because that was literally a library stacked with tons of novels. I particularly preferred the romance genres. You might have guessed already, I was a hopeless romantic. I mean, I was the girl invisible to every male homosapien and I was yet to understand why. What was it about other girls that I didn't have?

First off, I was a normal female, which means I possessed every feature that normal females ought to possess, needless to mention what those are.

Secondly, I was beautiful if I dare to say so myself. Mum always told me so and I never even doubted her because whenever I looked in the mirror, I liked what I always saw. So the question is, why didn't any guy notice me?

Well, it really didn't matter much to me anymore because I had an imagination that was as wide as the sky. So even if in reality I was the girl no guy ever noticed, in my head I was the girl every guy wanted as a girlfriend, which was the reason I loved to read those cliché romance novels where all the guys flocks to the female main character — who in my head was always me — but then she chooses to be with the male character that every other girl swoons over. In the end, the main characters both end up with each other, to the chagrin of the other characters. But what do we care? That is how we always want it to be, even in our real lives — fair and rosy. However, real life itself is never fair and definitely not rosy. We never always get what we want. But maybe what we want isn't what we need and what we should have at the time we want it.

Just maybe.

Anyway, back to me and my addiction for novels.

"Can't you watch your way?" My face was buried in a Nora Robert novel while I walked along the hallway to my class that I didn't notice a teacher was in front of me already. If she hadn't spoken, I would have most definitely bumped into her. It wasn't a new thing. I often bumped into people whenever I was with a novel. And I was always with a novel. But unlike the other times, this was the first time I was bumping into a teacher. And not just any teacher, but a teacher that was aware of my obsession for novels.

"I'm so sorry ma." I apologized, holding the novel behind me.

"You and novels! You'd read novels in the classroom while classes are going on and you'd still be walking and reading novels. What is your problem with novels? Are you cursed with it?"

"I'm sorry ma," was all I could say. I didn't want her to confiscate the novel like she did my other one in class.

"Sorry for yourself. If I hadn't spoken, that's how you'd have hit me. Hand me the novel." She extended her hand towards me.

"Please ma." I begged.

"Now!"

But my pleas fell on deaf ears. I handed her the novel hesitantly and she walked away with it, while I watched her with tears welled up in my eyes. I just wanted to know how the novel ended.

The day dragged on slowly with a series of what I call dry classes. Could the classes just end already so I could read the other novel I had in my bag? Yes, I always had an extra novel in my bag just in case I finished one, I could read the other. Or in some other cases like today, when one is seized, I would have another to engross myself in. Just in case you're wondering when my penchant for novels started, well when other kids in primary school were stealing pencils, sharpener and erasers, I was stealing children story books and novelette. That is as far as I can remember.