Nagging Feeling

Capital Military Academy

Inside the academy, the queue snaked all the way out to the main entrance and if not for Uncle James's help, Reid would have been one of the unlucky few who have to wake up before sunrise just to have a good spot. However, even with his backer, he was still a mile away from finishing the long process of filing for his application. He anxiously glanced at his watch every five minutes, thinking about the girl he left outside.

It was a blessing that a café newly opened across the military academy. That's why, when they arrived at the gates, Cora quickly took out a book from her bag and pushed Reid towards the military academy's entrance. "Gooooo! Look, I won't even get a chance to finish this. You'll be out in no time." Feeling uneasy at the thought of leaving her, Reid held her hand and walked with her across the street, towards the direction of the café.

Once Cora settled in, Reid let out a tiny sigh and said, "Ok, I'll be back real quick." He placed his other hand inside his pocket while the other held onto an envelope as he walked out of the café, never looking back, determined to finish this as early as possible.

It was almost sundown, and Reid was still nowhere in sight. Roadside stalls that sell midnight grubs started to set up shop. The bright incandescent bulbs that line from stall to stall served as a replacement to the flickering lights of the lamp posts that looked like a Christmas show on a breezy spring night.

Cora was a few chapters away from finishing 'The Brethren' by John Grisham when she saw a familiar face. "Coach!" she called out, but the moment her coach faced her, she thought for a minute when she noticed his company. She closed the book and placed it on the table.

"Ms. Chen, what brings you here?"

"Oh, Reid applied for the waitlist program. Hi…?"

"Cielo," the girl extended an arm. Cora shook hands with her and the nagging feeling in her heart prompted her to ask: "Have we met before?" The girl abruptly retreated her hand and replied with a shy 'no.' "Hmm, really?" she examined Cielo's face and decided that perhaps it really was their first time meeting each other.

"What are you doing here? Are you with Jenny?" the coach asked, making Cielo's ears perk up when she heard the name. "Oh, I am with Reid, Coach. He's applying inside," Cora replied and pointed towards the military academy's direction. Coach followed where her finger pointed, and a bitter smile appeared on his face.

Both ladies noticed his annoyance and asked in unison, "You didn't pass the exam, right?" The coach cleared his throat and squirmed, his eyes glued to the ceiling, "I passed," he exhaled then continued, "but I'm colorblind." Cora and Cielo smiled but didn't tease him anymore, 'So that's why.'

It was a known fact that senior highschool boys flock in the military academy every year, hopeful to get a spot in the prestigious school; however, even if you excelled on the pen and paper test, almost one third of the passers would still be shaved because of the rigorous physical exam.

Finally, Reid walked out of the academy. Cora spotted him from afar, she grabbed her belongings and excused herself to welcome Reid to the outside world.

"Let's go. It's getting dark."

"Oh, let me say bye to coach first," but before Cora could go back inside, Coach's foot stepped out of the café's door.

"Wanna hitch a ride?" he asked as he eyed the pair.

"It's ok. We can take the bus, Coach."

The coach had a smirk on his face the whole time and it annoyed Reid but he kept mum.

"Please say bye to Cielo for me, Coach!"

"Sure..." Coach said, but held Reid's arm last minute and slid a blue square foil in his pant's back pocket. "Good luck!" he winked and spanked the boy.

Reid glanced inside the café to see who Cielo was but he could only see her back which looked eerily familiar to him. He raised an eyebrow when he couldn't come up with a face or a name other than 'Cielo'. So he brushed aside his pointless thoughts and locked hands with his fairy as they walk to the bus stop.

'Ahhhh finally,' they said in their heads, smiling like lovesick fools to each other.

The pair were lucky when the bus came on time. They cruised to the farthest seat at the back and shared an earphone, listening to Pearl Jam's Last Kiss. After a while, Reid wiggled in his place, uncomfortable at the protruding object in his pocket. He hastily took it out and turned purple from rage.

Cora pulled the earphones away from her ear and grabbed the blue square foil from Reid's hand. Printed with the word "TROJAN" and a head of knight clad in armor. "What's this?" The innocent girl looked in confusion at Reid who shook in anger.

The grandma beside Cora coughed and answered her, "That's a condom. Tsk! Kids these days." The grandma stood from her seat and did not mind her safety from walking in a moving bus to find herself a new spot to sit.

"Coach Stevensoooon…" Reid said in gritted teeth.

…

Inside the cafe, Stevenson tilted his head backward as he fought long and hard over an impending sneeze. Cielo giggled at how ridiculous his contorted face looked like. She grabbed a tissue from the holder and covered half of his face, "Don't fight it," she softly said. Stevenson shifted his gaze from the ceiling to the girl across the table, "Yeah, I won't fight it," he mumbled.

He looked back at the ceiling, it showed pipes that run around the cafe giving off that industrial finish. It reminded him of the fateful day that he met his beauty. It reminded him of that ferry.

It has been more than a week since they first met at the Olympic Village Harbor. When he saw her floating and half-dead on a plank of a door, he pulled her safe into the harbor and instantly checked her pulse. He shouted for medics, and since he had CPR training, he went on and applied chest compressions on the girl.

After a few attempts, she started coughing and vomiting seawater, but when the medic finally attended them, she lost consciousness again.

Stevenson stood up to leave her under the medic's care but fell back to his place. Long slender fingers tightly grasped on his shirt, squeezing the rest of the water from it. And no matter how much he pries off himself from her grasp, she just would not let go. He let out a sigh of defeat and carried the girl with him towards a temporary emergency shelter.

"I need a bed!" Coach's voice rang louder than the rest, making everybody inside the medic's tent snap their heads to his direction. They saw who it was and promptly ushered him to a vacant bed. "I need a doctor too," he ordered the nurse as he gingerly place the drenched kitten in his arms on the bed.

"She's with me," he said straight away to avoid more questions and the doctors started to give her full physical exam.

For days on end, Stevenson stood guard by his sleeping beauty's side, whose naturally full lips were tainted brown like the dried leaves of autumn. 'That is red for sure,' he mused himself one night after the nurse gave the girl a towel bath.

The mystery surrounding his sleeping beauty's identity thrilled him. He waited all day and all night, aching to know the beauty's name.

Alas, she finally woke up from her days of slumber, yet she looked like a lost kitten suffering memory loss from brain hypoxia. "What's my name?" she asked as she looked around the spacious bedroom. It was night time, and she could no longer see what lies beyond the floor to ceiling windows, except for the soothing sound of the waves that splash from afar.

Stevenson looked at the girl, his intestines knot into a rolling hitch, 'Why do I suddenly feel greedy? Why do I want to keep her for myself?' The cello sitting in a corner captured his line of sight and in an instant, he blurted out a lie that would keep on growing as long as they were together.

"Cielo. Your name is Cielo."

"Are we related?" she further asked, pulling her hands towards her chest to calm her throbbing heart — afraid of the stranger, scared of herself too.

Stevenson scrutinized the girl, but his sight was drawn to her brown lips akin to an apple on a tree, waiting for somebody to pick and taste it. He snapped out of his reverie and moved his gaze into her big round coffee-colored eyes instead that were pleading for answers. He stared at it for a while, noticing the mole below it, which added more charm to her already lovely face.

'I'm in deep sh*t. This girl will be the death of me.'

Stevenson made up his mind, he sat on the edge of the bed and held the girl's hands.

"Yes, you… you are my wife."

Edited by Swaning