Cheers to the future

"Are you serious about this?"

Prior to this auspicious occasion of momentary madness, he was the most defensive minded person in the known world. He never wanted to make the first move, never wanted to put his pride on the line. The reason for this was something that was unexpected.

Out of the blue, he had this desire in him, the desire to reinvent himself totally, and he knew deep down, his biggest flaw as a human being was his inability to express his feelings.

He figures, the only way to do that, is to face one of his biggest fears in life, and thats confessing his feelings of "love" to Anna.

In his mind, Anna was the one, the only one worth being vulnerable for. You know the girl that each man has constructed in his mind, the girl perfect to the tee, that met the guy's every fantasy, well for him, it was always Anna.

He met her in college. Anna was a friend of a friends cousin by way of marriage. In short, they didn't meet directly. He remembered that day, the day he found serenity in a world of chaos. That sounded over the top, but that was what he felt whe he saw Anna for the first time.

He and his friend Shah (the friend who had the friend who was cousins with Anna by way of marriage) , were walking through the cafeteria that day, like any other routine filled day in college, when someone called out Shah's name. It was some chick who he's seen Shah talk to a few times before. Her name was Tasha. She was always scantily dressed and a bit too "gedik" for his taste, so he never bothered to make too much conversation with her. While waiting for Shah to finish his conversation with Tasha, he was fiddling with his phone, trying to look busy. At one moment, when he looked up, he caught the eye of a girl walking gracefully towards him. She was amazingly gorgeous. He couldn't take his eyes off of her, and she's still walking towards him.....and whats this?....now she's waving at him. At that moment in time, he was thinking what possible reason would a girl that perfectly catered to his taste, a girl that beautiful, wave to him?......

Of course she didn't wave to him

Turns out, she was waving to Tasha. He felt a familiar feeling, the feeling he gets when a girl ignores him which he didn't mind before but did at that moment because it was her. She walked past him, (she smelt amazing by the way), and proceeded to kiss Tasha's cheeks, like the Arabs do. Still feeling annoyed, he gave Shah a look that translated to "introduce me...now!", and he obliged. So, Shah immediately asked Tasha to introduce the girl to us. So it was, "Oh yeah, how rude of me, Shah, this is Anna, Anna this is Shah,....." and proceeded to him, where he shook her hand and said hello nervously. Tasha continued by explaining that Anna is actually her cousin. And that wasn't full stop yet. Anna is Tasha's first cousin's wife's cousin. So they're second cousins by marriage. But, they were already friends before that because they were classmates in high school. Wouldn't that have been easier to describe?...

He and Shah were late for class at that moment when he didn't really feel like going, but they were tardy too many times, and had to get to class. So they said goodbye to Tasha and Anna, but not before Tasha said "eyh Shah, we're still on for tonight yeah?", Shah said yes and they hurried off to class. When they got to class, he asked Shah what's he up to with Tasha tonight, and Shah explained that Tasha and her friends were going to watch the new movie that was premiering tonight, and she asked Shah to tag along. Shah immediately asked him to follow tonight, because Tasha said to bring a friend. He said no at first, but then Shah brought up the right incentive...Shah said, "Anna will be there tonight". He said OK!

That night, he would be categorised as someone who was trying too hard to impress someone he didn't even know. He trimmed his beard, put on double doses of deodorant, and wore his 3rd best looking shirt, all that for sitting in a cinema for 2 and a half hours. But he didn't care about that, he was focused on Anna, and how good an impression he would make. So, Shah picked him up, and they were off to the cinema. They arrived 10 minutes before the movie started, and thought they were late, but in actuality, the girls were late. Girls.....go figure. They came running in 20 minutes late. He didn't really care about that at all, he cared however, that Anna was nowhere to be seen in that group of "gedikness". Now he was upset. He gave Shah a look of murder. He asked Shah, and he said, "I told you that so you would come tonight dude....my bad". He was pissed. Now he has to sit through 2 and a half hours of movie, with those girls.....and not Anna.

Back to the future, and back to the story today. Despite that non-meeting way back then, they had a more than a few encounters up till today, which is mainly because, his close buddy Shah, ended up with Tasha, so when he tagged along with Shah, it was prolly a good bet that Anna was tagging along with Tasha. So they were aquainted and he thought he made a good impression through the years, up till the time when he went off to study in London, and her in Perth.

It was noonish, and he was sitiing in his dorm room in the frikking cold of merry old London, when he had that sudden desire to better himself, and call Anna to confess his love. He picked up his mobile phone, called Shah up, and asked him to ask Tasha for Anna's number in Australia. When he got the number, and keyed it into his phone, and taking in a long whiff of air, pressed the green colored button.

It started ringing. After the third ring, she picked up. He could have swore, it was the sexiest hello he's ever heard in his life.Immediately he started talking....

"Hello? Anna....umm ...its actually me, ******** from Malaysia, umm, Shah's friend, your cousin Tasha's friend, we hung out a few times..." he paused

Just when she started to talk.....he cut her off

"Wait, wait wait, before you say anything, I'd like to explain why i'm calling you"...and he did explain. He explained the sudden burst of courage and all of the above.

Again when she wanted to say something, he cut her off

"I was thinking, maybe when both of us finish our studies, maybe we could go out?...on a date?..." he continued by confessing his love.....whatever his heart felt, he expressed it, and finally he said...."So how's about it Anna? Shall we cheers to the future?" he paused feeling relieved and free for the first time in a long time.

She finally spoke and said.....

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE FUCKING TIME IT IS HERE? AND WHO IS THIS AGAIN? BUGGER OFF YOU FREAK"

She hung up.

-end-