Now You Know

Watching the ebony owl flap its wings gracefully in the distance, Padma could not get enough of the endearing wonderments that life provided. The bubbling gray skies might be lacking in their vibrancy but the great beauty that they emitted was enough to capture anyone’s attention. The filthy odor of the room might be clouded slightly by the fragrances of peach perfume and the damp grass hundreds of feet below but the place still reeked in its own putrid and disgusting waste. Senses were high; everything was being observed through a sharper mind.

The pound of male footsteps seeping into her ears put Padma slightly off guard. She hastily pulled herself into a sitting position at the edge of the brick, breathing heavily and staring ahead at the entrance. A blond man emerged from the staircase, landing roughly in the open space where a door would have been if required. He glanced in Padma’s direction before he turned to search through the broad selection of school owls. All the while, Padma’s heart sped up.

“Hello, Padma.”

After what seemed like hours, the male debating over which owl would be the lucky one forced into delivering his letter seemed to come to a worthy decision. He bent his long arm at the elbow and scratched the back of his neck in a circular motion. He pulled a narrow, sealed envelope form his back right pocket and tied it tightly to the thin foot of the owl he had gathered.

“Don’t feel up for much conversation then, do you?” His voice carried the fluttering essence of a gentle wind.

Padma shrugged, not desiring to speak her thoughts in utter fear that she would let out something stupid. But, just as always, instinct took all control. “Sorry, Terry.”

Trevor was his name- Terry for short. He was a fellow classmate of Padma, in the same year and everything. The two had become good friends last year when they were both part of a mutual club and had remained fairly close ever since.

Terry chuckled, regaining Padma’s complete attention. “You don’t have to apologize to me about anything. You’re not in the mood, big deal.” He plopped himself down on a clean wooden crate and rubbed his eyes with his calloused hands. “You mind if I sit here awhile? I sort of want to avoid the party. When we win a sporting match, the team gets pretty stupid, as you probably know.”

Padma looked up and met his piercing blue eyes. She bobbed her head as she kicked the floor softly with her foot. “You can stay.”

Terry smiled to himself and settled into the hard box, making the most out of what he chose as a seat. He wanted to stay.

Padma turned her head and glanced outside through the open hole in the brick. She silently took in the night sky, amusing at the first arrival of stars and the light setting of oranges and pinks. The skies were breathtakingly beautiful at this time of night.

Terry’s voice cut abruptly through the air. “You know, Padma, I…”

But horror struck and it was too frightening to finish the sentence. Perhaps it was the startle of Terry’s voice that had resulted in Padma’s fall or the workings of fate, but either way, her back smacked the castle wall with force and her legs unhinged from their grip on the edge. Terry’s voice screamed out in terror as he kicked his crate away and bolted to the window. He swung his right leg over the ledge and searched through the darkening mist for any sign of the young girl he had accidentally alarmed and made fall out the window.

He saw her figure below- about ten feet down from where he straddled the edge of the castle. Thank God she had not fallen much further. Without the landing, Padma would have definitely been lost to this world. But that was not to say that she was still in good condition.

Terry anxiously lifted his other leg out of the safety of the castle and silently plotted the quickest way to get to Padma. He could jump but that would undoubtedly put them both in danger. He could run back and retrieve his help form his dormitory so that he more easily get her back up but what if when he got back it was already too late?

There appeared to be only one quick solution. Terry lowered his feet and put all of his weigh on both of his hands. He flipped himself over so the he was now facing the inside of the castle. Thrusting his feet into the brick wall, the transferred his weight again and attempted to climb down the wall toward Padma’s location.

“Terry? What just happened?” Padma’s voice rang in his ears.

Terry’s hand slipped on a ridge in the wall at the unexpected comprehension of Padma’s gentle voice. His feet lost their tight hold and he brought his rough hands to his neck in preparation for the worst.

The blow was softer than he would have expected it to be. However, his back violently landed on the flat landing, avoiding a hit to his head. The only pain he could decipher was a pulse-like throbbing in his left ankle.

“Terry!”

“Padma; are you alright?” Terry inquired, turning his head to gaze her way. Padma’s cheek was mildly cut and purple with swelling. Other than that, she seemed okay but one glance was not enough to diagnose her state.

“I think so. My jaw hurts a little and I think that my wrist might be broken but other than that I feel fine. What happened, Terry? One minute I was up there and the next I was tumbling backwards. How did I fall?” Padma’s expression displayed her enormous shock. She was frightened.

“You were sitting in the window and I think I startled you when I started to say something. You lost your grip on the edge and fell out the window. I tried to come and get you but when you regained consciousness I fell too. I was not expecting to find you awake.”

"So you landed here?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Terry concluded, grinning slightly.

The two students rolled their heads toward the sky in unison, oddly running out of easy conversation. Most of the stars were now visible against the ominous pitch black of the night, and the sight was astonishing to innocent eyes.

The bare silence was torture. Two friends should have hundreds of things to talk about, shouldn’t they? There were few reasons why two friends could lack in conversation so why should it be happening now to two of the mellowest individuals ever?

But then, fate, just as it should, stepped in to work its magic.

“Can I tell you what I was going to say earlier before you fell?” Terry piped up, unsure as to whether or not he was making the right decision.

“Only if you want to tell me,” Padma answered in polite assurance.

Terry paused before he spoke. “I do.” He paused again, hesitance clear on his face. “I do.” He smiled openly in his preparation. “Is it wrong for me to consider you my best friend?

“Not at all.”

“Really? Because I don’t want to be without you. Your charm is too high to push away.” Terry slammed his eyes shut, his own fear pummeling him into nothing at all. He sighed loudly; in this case it was a sign of confidence. “I guess what I am trying to say is that there is something you should know.”

Padma’s head bobbed in all directions. “Should know?”

“Deserve to know,” Terry corrected himself.

“Well then,” Padma expressed. “Can you please tell me?”

“Of course. You- Padma- deserve to know how I feel about you.” His eyes never tore from her face as the truth exploded from his lips

“Terry…you don’t like me, do you?” Padma’s melodious voice broke through.

“Before I attempt to run away out of cowardice, yeah, I do.”

Padma’s face scrunched up into a firm frown as she offhandedly struggled for words. “But…”

“You are beautiful, devoted, independent, determined, funny, and clever- tell me how I could not have fallen for you as I sit here with a throbbing ankle after rushing out a window to see if you were alright. Not exactly how I was expecting to tell you but I would not have it any other way. It makes the entire thing- for me at least- a bit more memorable.”

As Terry’s voice rambled on, Padma’s eyes were brought to his white face, lost as compliment after compliment molded into her brain. She had never really thought about how plausible it was for someone to feel this intensely about her. She had witnessed it through countless individuals and couples alike but never had it crossed her mind that her day would be so soon. Sure, guys had crushed on her many times before but sitting outside in the darkest hour on a stone hard building that was part of the school castle after accidentally falling backwards out of the owlery told her that Terry’s intentions were different from those of other boy’s.

“For me as well. I want to remember this forever.”

Terry smiled and tossed his head up at the sky. “You see that star there,” Terry clamored, pointing a finger at the sky. Padma nodded softly into his shoulder. “That’s named after you. And that one?” Terry’s arm moved over to the left in an entirely different section of the sky. “That one too.”

“Are there more?” Padma asked in a loud whisper.

“More what? Stars?”

She nodded encouragingly. “Yeah.”

“Billions. Every star you see plus the ones that are invisible to us our entire lifetime. You mean the world to me, Padma; and the sky.”

Padma’s lips curled up slightly at his words but she stopped the grin with thought. “Can we give this a try? Us a try?”

“If it’s what you want?” Terry tested genuinely.

“It is,” Padma promised, tucking her head back into the side of Terry’s arm.

“Well then, my dear, happy first date.”