Rosemary

We sat in front of each other in the seventh grade. In the corner of the classroom, with me facing the window, and her looking out towards the doorway. I liked talking to her. She always thought of, well, interesting things to say.

But, the first time I really thought I saw her was during morning break one day in spring. We’d joked around as usual, and I ran off to my male friends to talk “boy” things (we were all young once, right?). I turned back in five minutes. It seemed so dull to talk with them. I craved her outrageous ideas, her unabashed statements. So I went back to the classroom.

I saw her then, holding a tape dispenser outside the window. I saw her joking around, pretending to drop it. I saw her lauging her head off, and then setting the dispenser down on the windowsill. I snickered at her antics, nearly laughing my own head off within my mind. Then I walked over, and she stood up to talk to me. Her movement knocked the dispenser straight off the windowsill, and right into the Embassy next door. We laughed for a long time; it was just so her.

And then, suddenly, school ended, and she left for the States. I was left alone, pondering on her ideas, and reliving our conversations. Eventually, all of my thoughts of her swam to the back of my mind, and soon, I almost completely forgot about her.

I might have, had she not approached me over the internet.

We talked again, and first, we started our conversations up again. We bantered and traded ideas, felt around taboo topics from curiosity, and laughed over stupid jokes and tricks. I liked talking to her. I woke up early on the weekends to try to catch her attention before she went to sleep, just to fit in five minutes of conversations. I stayed up until five o’clock, or even later to talk with her just for an instant longer.

Then came time for graduation- a few years later. She came to the ceremony, not surprisingly. She would’ve been on the stage with the rest of us had she stayed on. I saw her. She’d changed a little. Grew up. But she was still the same.

Then later, at the graduation party, I stood in the corner, leaning against the bar table and sipping an ice tea (no alcohol, I was sad to learn. But, we were all underage anyway. Perhaps it was for the best). She showed up with some others, laughing along with them. Then I saw her.

And we talked.