Resting his shoulders against the shade of a tree, Niko blended in with the sorted tans and browns outside the inner building. I took off my hat so he could notice me. As he came nearer I saw he was wearing his trusty old hat, the one that was a shade darker than his hair. His eyes squinted in the sunlight, and he bent down to say hello.
"It's been so long," I said with a half hearted smile, which dimmed noticeably with his glance. He looked down, observed me, than raised his head up again. Glimmering in soft rays, his smile reached the tip of his lips.I remembered our newspaper boy from way back when. The attire was more than suitable for many of occasions, but the coffee cup in his hand and the New York Times tucked under his arm, completed the readiness and burst of both curiousity and motivation.
"You seem well," he prodded.
Not knowing what to say, I nodded, and gently lay down my copy of some paperback. He picks up the book and glances through it. His eyes dart from page to page, while his fingers shuffle contently at the old worn out printed paper. Simultaneously, he looks up to notice the reactions on my face, as if to show signs of approval.
Lifting up his hand, forking over the book, he says "Are you always reading this rubbish?" With his English accent.
"I think I read what I want", I reply, not defiantly nor convincingly.
He peers over to see me shifting my ankles, swaying from side to side, like I always do when I find something delicately amusing. Not wanting to admit it, I cautiously, turn my head so as to conceal my lop sided grin. He finds my amusement astoundingly hilarious for some reason. A burst of laughter comes from his direction, as he shakes his head. Niko always saved his words for later and let his expressions speak for themselves. He swung his hand over and picked up my pinky with both his index and thumb.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Your hands...your hands were always so small," he quickly lifts each finger to notice something, but decides to dismiss it.
"Let's go for pizza," he says instead, smiling and nudging me towards the direction of the pizza store.
There he decided on a large pepporoni slice, while I got garlic knots to pick at. We get a seat by the window, to watch some shoppers go by. After taking some bites of his pizza, he looks up at me and starts to stare.
"What?" I ask.
"You're always thinking about something...what're you thinking?"
"Nothing..."
He arches his eyebrow up.
"Just college loans and stuff...you know".
"Ahh...yes the college student's eternal backside ache. Have you applied for one?"
"I need to"
"This is for college this year?"
"No I'm backed on my loans. So I couldn't take out more. Now they say I owe them money"
He laughs.
"Is it the same in London?"
"Pretty much, except you dont apply for the loans there, you can talk to your counselor to get it done. I got mines doing my work for me...it's really great. They bend over their backsides for you, and then you can kick em in the end".
There is one thing you should know about him. Niko couldn't hurt a fly. When a few of us tried to kill this grasshopper to spill out it's guts, Niko defended it as if it was his own blood.
"If you say so." I reply. "British guys are charming..."
"You mean the British guys have a soft spot for you"
"Hah"
"No, it is true. I showed your picture around. They all find you to be a cutie, but I think we knew that when Gopie started following you around. You could always see a trail after you of a short Indian kid, and then followed his adoring fans"
"Yea, that was pretty weird," I admit laughing. "It felt like the duck duck goose trials. I was waiting for one of them to make me it".
"....Why were you so upset that summer?" he asks.
"What do you mean?" I look up to see his face, surprised.
"You know what I mean..."
I give him my puzzled expression. He brushes the hair off his eyes to look at my face. He placed his hat to the side.
"Well...I always saw you when I walked down the commons. You would come to school a few minutes early to just sit there. It seemed like you didnt want to be bothered...Like you were..."
"In another world?" I added.
"Captivated by something. It gave you this sunken glow. As if you could see the despair streaming off your face.."
"Maybe I was just sad about something slight that happened."
"You couldn't be this sad about something so small..." his voice rose softly and then fell..settling down. His eyes met mine, and he continued as I glanced away.
"You read everything. You wrote beautifully. I mean I still have some of your work hanging in my office. You could simply touch down anything with the swift ball of your pen, and capture an experience. But the great work, the compassion that it took to compose it all, all became without that appreciation for it. It was almost as if..." he looked down, contemplating through his thoughts.
"It was almost as if you were a bare robot writing devoid of the joy for it all," he finished off.
I stared at the wall. The words hit right into my heart. It felt like that at times. When I was composing down a work of art, a mechanical appeal for the process of writing, paralleling with a thirstless hunt, unfullfilling to me in the end. I scratched off whatever masterpiece I had at hand.
"I didnt mean to intrude on any personal matters..."
"No, no...It's alright. You have a magic with words that I couldn't resist answering your questions any how."
"I gave him a reassuring smile.
"So...what was it?"
"A plague that hit me in the storm when I was about five...I didnt know the kinds of affects it would have on me until later..."
So me and Niko talked. We talked about the weather, about our current standings, and about how to fix up this problem. He told me then what I'll tell you now.
"You should always appreciate every little thing in life. You should love every person that walks through that door into your life, because they have changed it in ways you wouldn't find affordable. You've been blessed with talent, beauty, and the remarkable ability to make people admire you from afar..and want to know what makes you tick up close. Don't destroy that. Build everything you can on that. For the person who has tormented you, or for the man who has let you go, there will always be another to take their place. In the end, they are the ones who will fully miss out".
