Peace Hug 2

I narrowed my eyes at him with suspicion. "You could have warned me about your so called peace hug. Not everyone is happy to be taken by surprise."

"Sorry if I surprised you. Next time I'll forewarn you before I give you my peace hug."

"I don't think there will be a next time. At this point in time we have already made peace."

Aaron's eyes glimmered with mischief. "Are you sure there won't be a next time? Everyone makes mistakes."

"I am aware of that, but I would probably be careful to hurt your feelings in the future." I gave him a fake smile.

Just the thought on how to reconcile with him took a toll on my mental health already. It was really troublesome. I wouldn't dare compromise our reestablished friendship just to get another peace hug. In his dreams.

"Don't take this the wrong way. I was just saying that it would be to our best interest if we have a standard operating procedure on how to patch up our quarrel, just like a manual of operation." Aaron shrugged his shoulders with palms facing upward.

Standard operating procedure? Maybe a peace hug at every misunderstanding is what you're driving at. Dream on.

"I really don't know what you're up to but If you ask me, the simpler method the better. Let's just say sorry and if the deed is forgiveable, then...forgive." I gestured with hands spread out.

"I understand. I was just saying...maybe in the future..." His impish grin revealed his white straight teeth which distracted me a bit.

Before he could say more, which I presume would be more ridiculous than the SOP, I raised my palm at him, "Stop! Speak no more. I don't want to argue with you anymore. I'm so hungry. I want to go to the cafe right now." Some things are better left unsaid. Sometimes it's better to give up winning an argument than regret later on the words that escaped from one's mouth.

Aaron placed a hand over my head and chuckled, "Okay. Calm down. Let's go."

It was not hard to forgive Aaron. Though he had his own share of shortcomings, still he was better than all the other boys I've known. He was responsible, determined, hard-working and kind-hearted. He had a dream, an ambition. A man without one definitely has no future ahead of him, but Aaron seemed to know what he wanted in life. If there was one person worth admiring in this school, it would be him.

We walked with the same pace as going to the playground. Having cleared the misunderstanding between us, I felt the atmosphere around us became light and easy.

Without the tension in the air, our stay at Tom's cafe had been lively. Our friends never brought up the matter of our squabble, not yet, as I would realize to my dismay later, since the way we treated each other was kind of ambiguous. After our usual snacks, Aaron stayed behind to take up work behind the counter at Tom's cafe while we all left to go home.

Wednesday came, I went to see out adviser and requested to be excused from my afternoon classes since I needed to go back to the suburbs to deposit my money in the bank, which she approved. Straight away before lunch break, I went to the bus station. I told my friends that I will be staying overnight at the mansion in Jasmine Gardens and will return the following day.

The queue at the bank wasn't that long since it only took me thirty minutes to finish all my transactions. That evening, I requested Anita for a simple dinner comprising of one vegetable and one fish dishes. However, to compensate for the light supper, I pleaded for take-away dumplings to bring to school.

Not having many chores to do everyday in the mansion, Anita had sufficient time to learn to cook different kinds of dishes and one of them was seafoods dumpling with shrimps and crab meat as two of the ingredients. This dumpling had become one of my favorites and I intended to share it with my friends.

Anita and I woke up very early in the morning to prepare breakfast and my take-away dumpling for lunch.

While the whole journey going back to M City from the suburbs would take more than an hour, the waiting for a bus at the station was rather unpredictable with an interval of twenty to thirty minutes between buses. If I wanted to reach school before the first bell, say ten minutes, I need to be awake three hours before the time.

As calculated, I was ten minutes early when I arrived. I proudly showed my girlfriends the thermal bottle I was holding. "Guess what's inside?"

"Lunch?" Lizzie answered with enthusiasm.

I nodded while wriggling my brows. "What do you think we'll have for lunch?"

"I don't know, let's check it out." Molly grabbed the thermal bottle from my hand and opened the lid. A delicious aroma wafted past our noses and filled the room. Aaron, James and Brent were immediately enticed that they had gathered around us with curiosity.

"Hmm. Smells like dumplings." Brent deduced. "May we have them now?"

Brent reached a hand out to take one piece but Molly was too fast for him. She at once replaced the lid, hugged the bottle tightly over her chest and turned her body in the direction where Brent would not be able to reach."No, you may not," Molly firmly replied.

"Why are you so selfish when it's not even yours." Brent gowled.

"Don't you know that we share things as if we they were our own? That's what we call sisterhood."

"Hey, guys. Let's all have them later. Okay? No need to quarrel over it." These two gluttons were always bickering. I wondered if they would grow some affection for each other with the way they interacted unrestrained. With that thought a corner of my mouth lifted.

Lunch was a riot as Molly and Brent tried to outdo each other by how many dumplings they could eat which left the rest of only three pieces each to enjoy. I wasn't that hungry anyway, having my fill of dumplings for breakfast. If Molly and Brent knew about it, they would die with envy.

"By the way, have you planned on what to wear for the graduation ball?" Brenda obviously directed her inquiry to Lizzie, Molly and me, disregarding the boys who had their own dress code to discuss.

"I haven't bought the latest summer fashion magazine with graduation gowns as special features," Lizzie informed. "There must be new designs and classic silhouettes that are appropriate for our age."

"It's best to wear clothes that are comfortable and gives a lot of coverage." I hinted.

"I agree." The affirming words came from someone unexpected. A minute ago, Aaron was conversing with James and Brent. Little did we know that he was actually eavesdropping. How did he do that? Did he have special powers to listen to two different topics at the same time?

"I once attended a party where this girl was wearing a thin-strap gown with low neckline. Her big boobs were almost coming out from the dress so she had to cover her chest everytime someone comes up to talk to her. In the end she had to borrow a brooch to clasp the fabrics together near her neck. The brooch didn't even match her gown at all which had made her looked sloppy. What hypocrisy!" Aaron related with matching hand gestures when he got to the boobs part which earned him a frown from the four of us.

It seemed like James had his own story to share when he noticed our interest."I get irritated when girls wear mini dresses then bend to pull down the hem of their dresses when they sense that people ogle at their exposed thighs and legs. They looked like they were playing tug of war with their own clothes. How foolish!" James shook his head with disgust.

I became pensive as a strange thought loomed in my mind, these guys actually abhorred public indecency or insufficient clothing. With this kind of attitude, one could easily set them apart from other normal males. Well, these guys were not normal anyway, but extraordinarily well-mannered and right-minded.

"Were you not having your own exchange? How did you know that we were talking about the proper attire to the graduation ball?" Lizzie asked askance.

"The truth is, that was our topic as well," Brent grinned. "Which brings to mind that you should choose your gown wisely or you'll have no one from us to escort you to the ball."

"Eh? What are you talking about? There are other boys in the class to escort us." Molly interjected.

"Yes there are, but not as behaved as us, don't you agree?" Brent flicked Molly's forehead with his fingers.

"You call that behave, flicking a lady's forehead? Where are your manners?" Molly raised her chin at Brent with defiance. Hmm. I near believed they were well-mannered. Maybe not this one.

"Don't you all worry, we'll make sure we wear the most modest gown in the ball that you'll be so privileged to have come to accompany us," Lizzie said with a bit of sarcasm.

When classes were over that afternoon, the boys decided to play basketball before Aaron reported to work at Tom's Cafe.

Left alone to our own devices at the benches of the basketball court, my girlfriends began to pester me about what transpired that Monday afternoon at the playground. Finally conceding, I related everything to them, including the 'peace hug'. It was useless to keep a secret from them anyway since they would try every means to extract the last drop of juicy details from me.

"How was the peace hug, did you enjoy it?" Brenda teased as she leaned over with arms folded over her thighs.

"Was his chest firm and toned?" Lizzied seconded as she peered from her bottle of water.

"Did he smell musky and spicy?" Molly asked casually as she chewed on the straw of her soda.

I felt a headache coming as they bombarded me with these questions I don't even know how to answer. In my panic, when Aaron suddenly hugged me, my mind turned blank that I have not even noticed all these details.

Rubbing my forehead, I could not help but sigh. "Frankly, I don't know. I never did notice all these things because I was more concerned about my reputation."

Brenda, Lizzie and Molly could not stop laughing from my reply. They could not understand how I was more anxious if acquaintances saw us in that manner than being aware of Aaron's feelings towards me. Maybe until now I was still in the stage of denial or had no courage to admit my own feelings for him. I was so uptight in his embrace I did not even enjoy it.

I really need to learn how to act cool from these girls.

"You were making fun of me. Have you been hugged by boys before?" I asked the girls who were wiping the sides of their eyes with the back of their hands after they have calmed down.

"I have. There's James of course." Lizzie said matter-of-factly.

"Well, I did have a boyfriend for six months during our first year in high school." Molly admitted. She was smitten with a handsome foreign exchange student from England before. Considering that she was on the plump side and Ernest was a hunk, people thought that they were not suited for each other. Just the same they became a couple due to mutual attraction. As for Molly's detractors, they were left confounded and defeated. Up until now, no one had looked down on Molly's sex appeal.

As we shifted our eyes from Molly to Brenda, who was next to answer, we waited three minutes before she opened her mouth. What came out from it was a churtle. I nodded my head after realizing something. "Yeah, right. You never had a boyfriend yet so you depended on your romance novels for some adult education. I bet they even described in detail how a man's chest feels and looks like."

Brenda tilted her head slightly then abashedly said, "Don't you think learning from theory first is safer than real-life?"