6. Blasts from the... Present, I guess!

I want to tell you something about boredom.

Why do I want to tell you about it you ask?

Well, the answer is simple. Because it nearly drove me to insanity that day. Real talk, not even messing with you.

There was nothing I hated more than sitting by idly not doing anything, but the world was against me in every way. A series of misfortune happened just because I forced my hand into not sitting uselessly when that was what I was supposed to be doing. But I'll get around to that in a bit.

My stupid broken wrist wouldn't let me do anything. At all.

I couldn't write because hello, I use my right hand to write and the said hand acted like an enemy of mine. I couldn't cook, I couldn't wash, basically, I was crippled.

Okay, let me start from the beginning, I realize I sound a bit... strange.

I didn't go to school the next morning.

For some reason, in the middle of the night, my wrist decided to wake me up with an immense amount of pain. I thought maybe I'd accidentally slept on it or something but that was highly unlikely since I was extra careful when I went to bed after the heart to heart talk with my mom.

Anyway, so something happened to it to cause pain to shoot up everywhere right in the middle of my much-needed sleep. Because of that, I shoved a handful of pain killers down my throat just to make it stop.

Bad idea.

I couldn't move out of my bed the next morning. Even though the pain had let out, my head was super heavy as if a whole building was placed on top of it. Courtesy of the medicines I presumed.

Even long after mom left for work, I still had to waste time just laying around the bed to wait it out and I hated every minute of it.

By the time I managed to drag myself out of the bed, it was already around eleven in the morning. Slowly, I made my way to the bathroom. I needed a shower, pronto and shower always bring energy to the body.

Have you ever for some reason, any reason at all, it doesn't matter which one had your dominant hand completely useless and because of that you had to rely on the hand you normally wouldn't use for anything other than helping your dominant hand?

No? Well if not you should try it sometimes. It's fun.

Not.

First, there was the whole ordeal of removing my clothes. Second, there was the actual bathing while trying to avoid any drop of water getting inside my cast. And then, the process of washing myself with soap and all that.

I nearly quit the whole thing.

And when it was finally all over, I came out only to find out I had absolutely nothing to do than just sit around, eat, watch Tv and sit around some more. To top it up, time was moving to an almost painful speed of a crippled sloth.

I thought I was gonna pull my own hair out just so I could have something to do and when the idea began to sound more ideal, I decided to do something else before I could lose my mind. With the pocket money mom usually leaves for me, I decided to take a bus to the shopping mall for some house supplies.

*****

There are things in life we take for granted. Small, simple things which normally we wouldn't even think about. Things like a simple walk through the town or just having to meet new people even if you don't know them. Between my school, home, homework, and school again, I never quite enjoyed a stroll through the busy town and as soon as I got out of that bus, I planned on enjoying every last bit of it.

The warm sun and the small wind against my skin was everything I needed as I walked a four-block distance from where the bus had dropped me to the shopping mall. Upon arriving, I expected it to be a lot quieter seeing as it was in the middle of the day during a weekday but that was not the case. The mall was buzzing with activities and I enjoyed every part of it.

So, deciding the food items would be my last stop, I took more of my time going through different shops and outlets just for the fun of it. I should have known the bad luck was just around the corner smiling at me with the promise to ruin my day.

Although, now that I think about it... Was it really all that bad?

Remember what I said a little while back about a series of misfortune happening? Well, this is what happened.

My happy-go-lucky mood continued even after I was done with my perusing the entire of the shopping mall and finally arrived at my last stop where I happily went about getting myself some potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and most importantly, oranges.

It didn't end there.

Even with standing on the long line of customers like me trying to scan their many items in their carts, I was still having the lingering effects of appreciating the day.

Everything went from that mood to me being pissed off as hell when my beautiful big oranges came crashing down on my legs because my stupid phone decided to ring, and my stupid mind decided that it would be okay to try and get it out of my pocket with my left hand while balancing everything else on the crook of my fractured arm.

My misfortune didn't end with just my oranges on my legs. Oh, no. One of the bags decided it was high time to tear and the rest of my potatoes followed and started rolling down on the floor in front of me.

In my haste to save something, anything, my phone fell out from my clumsy hand to the floor and my legs tripped on the bloody orange causing me to stumble forward head-first.

I yelped.

If anybody ever fell before which I assume everybody had, you would know that in that moment of confusion when you're falling to your possible death, or broken ribs, or head concussion, or just a burst of pain, you would know that the first thing your body would do would be to try and cushion the fall as much as you could, and the only thing that would help with that, would be your arms.

Now my situation was a little more complicated seeming one of my arms already had a fractured wrist and a half-empty pack of vegetables and the other, rather useless one might I add, was already confused with the decisions on which thing to try and catch first between the potatoes, oranges, the phone, or the owner of the body in question, resulting in my flying forward without anything to cushion my fall.

Almost at the last moment, I raised both of my hands forward which resulted in me slamming on the guy a few feet away with everything I've got. Head, hands, packages of vegetables, and everything.

Whack!

"Ow!"

"Oh, my God! Miss, are you okay?"

That came from my victim who helped a lot in diverting the pain I would have had if I would have actually fallen on the concrete floor than the hard muscles of his back.

The pain was still there considering I did hurt my arm, again, but I imagine the floor might have had been a tad bit too much for me.

I raised my left hand to massage my nose since apparently, it wasn't just a head-first but face -first as well while I brought my crippled arm on my chest to soothe the oncoming ache as I prepared to give thanks or sorry to whoever the person was.

Before I said a thing though, his soft, almost cold hands clasped around my shoulders in the attempts at steadying me. I looked up, this time definitely to say thank you for his generosity and gentlemanly for despite me being the one to crash into him, he still wanted to help only to be met with the stunning but worried eyes of the equally stunning man.

Grey.

No, calling his eyes just grey would not be doing them the justice they deserved. His eyes were not just plain old grey. They were solid and bright and at the same time soft as if they were pencil drawn. If you look closely enough, they were the combination between ashes and smoke, burning everything to the ground. Including me.

It was getting hot.

His hands got too hot on my arms so I flinched away.

"Um..." I blushed.

Seriously I blushed in front of him.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I bumped into you."

"No, no, it's fine I'm just glad you are okay. Here, let me help."

The guy helped me up and then went ahead on helping me pick up my scattered vegetables from the floor while I stood there appreciating just how good looking he was.

Brown hair maybe a shade or two lighter than my own which I imagined a few hours ago was combed to perfection, but now being outside and with the small wind, a few strands peeked out here and there. Thin, but muscular at the same time. Definitely spends his time doing some sort of sports or probably gym and he was definitely older than me. Two, maybe even three years older.

I hadn't even realized I was shamefully profiling him in my head until he came and stood in front of me with a smile. "There you go. Everything is accounted for."

"Oh." I looked down at my bags on his hands, and as he said, all my vegetables were filled in them again. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

While he bestowed me with a million-dollar smile, and hold me hostage with his eyes as he looked at my own, he slowly took my hand on his and placed a hard, film object against my palm.

I didn't know what it was, I'm not sure I cared about knowing what it was. I was happily ready to level in his eyes for all eternity for all I cared.

"Do you need any other help?"

Only then did I look down on my hand. My forgotten phone sat there, unbroken to my relief and I just had to appreciate again just how well-mannered and put together he was. His ancestors must have come from some kind of nobles or knights or whatever ridiculous title that went with somebody like him.

"No thanks, I got it. Thanks again for your help. I gotta go now."

I didn't want to keep on lingering there to avoid looking like a freak or whatever, so as I said my goodbyes, I already started to take slow steps back away from him.

He only smiled again and raised his hand to wave.

"Bye," he said.

I definitely hoped to see him again sometime.