“I hate fishing” I grumbled angrily.
“Come on Ave, it’s not that bad” Chuck said, trying to encourage me but failing.
“But Chuck, I haven’t caught a thing” I moaned. But what do you expect from someone who hasn’t even held a fishing rod before in her life.
“Don’t worry, soon you will…I promise” Chuck said smiling. After looking at his smile, all my anger and frustration immediately disappeared into a smile back at him. He had beautiful white teeth; I could almost swear they could glow even in the darkest of nights. He also had cute dimples near his perfectly pinkish lips. I couldn’t help but be hypnotized by that smile of his. Once I caught myself staring, I immediately went back to looking at the water or else I feared I might do something totally uncalled for.
“Say, Ase” he said suddenly.
“Yes” I answered, while I avoided looking at him lest I be hypnotized again. You’d expect me to have been used to him by now after several years but he wasn’t someone you could just get used to.
“If I asked you a question would you be honest?”
“Aren’t I always honest?” I teased.
Chuck cleared his throat. “Well umm….”
“Shut up” I interrupted him, hitting him jokingly.
He laughed. His Laugh, the most loud, obnoxious, dorky laugh you could think of. But yet, you couldn’t help but love to hear it. I giggled a little unconsciously.
“Okay Ase” Chuck said, recovering from his laughter “Seriously”.
“Yes, I promise” I said. And besides, Chuck knew he could trust me. We’d known each other for 10 years and had been best friends for 8 of those years. I knew almost every secret he had even though he didn’t have too many. He wasn’t that much of a secret keeper. He was more of the sweet, honest, fairy-tale prince kind of guys. But really, what secrets would you expect from a 17-year-old star fisherman/soccer player?
“Ase, you have to look at me” I couldn’t help but change my expression. I could barely look at his smile and now he wanted me to look at his face? What type of cruel friend was he? He had curly brown hair, lovely blue eyes, soft peachy skin, an oval face and a great personality to match. How was I meant not to fall for him? I couldn’t help but want to lose control and kiss him… but I couldn’t. We were friends, just friends and we had a bond that you wouldn’t see nowadays in the world we live in. This couldn’t be messed up by my stupid selfish wants.
I had to have self control, so I took a deep breath and looked at him hoping not to do anything stupid. He smiled at me and as usual, I smiled back. He looked kind of worried and nervous which really got me wondering why.
“If you realized that you had been living a huge lie for a very long time, would you try to correct it as soon as possible? Or would you keep on living it because you were scared of the truth?” I didn’t understand the point of his question. Why was he asking it? It was something that caught me totally off guard. I wanted to ask him questions but the look on his face told me that all he wanted was an answer. So I thought of the best answer I could give.
“Well, I believe that no lie is worth living for the rest of your life. You never know, that scary truth could be the best thing that ever happened to you”. I was proud of my answer, and so was Chuck, because his expression totally changed.
“Really” He asked, just to make sure.
“Yep” I replied.
Chuck then smiled even wider than he had earlier today. He then reached for my hand which was holding on to the fishing rod. I just watched him. He then took the fishing rod out of my grip and in place put his smooth hand. What was Chuck doing? I was confused now. He could tell I was too. With his other hand, he reached for my face.
“Thanks Ase” He started “Because for years I’ve been living a lie and I think if I don’t correct it right now, I’d be messing my whole life”. His face was moving closer to mine. I didn’t know what to do because I was still in a state of confusion. He continued to come closer until his lips were on mine. I didn’t pull back; all I did was kiss him back. I gave into the temptation I had been avoiding, and it felt good. Who’d know that temptation could be so sweet, so wonderful. As my lips were entangled in his, I couldn’t help but think of butterflies. I had no idea why, but I continued thinking about them anyway.
“I love you, Aselin Cooper” Chuck whispered after suddenly pulling away from me, but keeping our distance as close as possible.
“I love fishing” I said unconsciously. Chuck chuckled a little, and so did I. Then I leaned in to kiss him again. I didn’t want this moment to end and, it seemed like neither did Chuck. Again, I thought about butterflies. But this time, I knew why.
You know when a caterpillar is finally out of its cocoon, it becomes what it was meant to be… a butterfly. When it spreads those wings that have been developing, it feels like it finally knows where it was meant to be. It was meant to be in the sky, flying and showcasing its beauty. Instantly, the sky becomes its home and love. This was exactly how I felt; I felt like a butterfly. A butterfly stuck in a cocoon and had finally broke free. I’d developed my wings and found my home and love. My love was the guy I was kissing, and my home was right here, in his arms. And now that I had found this out, I wasn’t going to replace it for anything. Instead, I was going to let things work the way they were meant to. I was going to let my wings help me be who I’m meant to be. Because I am a butterfly, Chuck is my sky, and nothing could change that. If there were any objections, well, go talk to Mother Nature.