EGMY
 |
| The day you pranked us |
Hello, Taylor.
How are you?
You've met new people, made new friends, found someone by your side and I know that life is going well for you.
Me?
I've met new people and made new friends too. Life is not all that great for me but I'm still alive and well.
Hey, do you remember the times when....?
...you said hello to me first when we were still in elementary school, but you were too shy to say it in person so you wrote it in a book instead? From then on we started passing messages back and forth, just like that. The 90's classic way.
...it was made public that you had a crush on me and I'd blow you off whenever you try to come close? I know I know, I was mean, but I was a child, so please forgive me for my juvenile behaviour.
...we were in the same class in 6th Grade and we were sitting in a group together with Cara and Thomas? It's a pity I don't remember much of our jokes now. It's been 9 years after all. I do remember that you were infamous for being the latecomer every. single. day. When Cara and I were on duty for latecomers, we would always see you arriving at the most ridiculous hours and we would chide you for it. As prefects, we were supposed to have blacklisted you by then, but we would always let you go because, you're our friend!
...we had a farewell party for you after school and we munched on greasy, to-die-for MacDonald's burger and frummy* fries for lunch, blew a cake for you, slammed your face in it, and everyone started chasing everyone around trying to "paint" their faces with cake. Before your party officially started, Jessica, Chris, Winston and I were rehearsing our song that was written just for you. I've played this song so many times it's already screwed and jammed into my brain forever. No matter how rusty my piano skills have gotten, I would never forget how to play this song. In fact, it's always the first song I play whenever I play the piano. I remember our little small group gathering in a circle, with Jessica resting her head on your lap, me just staring at you and pondering on a myriad of possibilities. Of what, I don't really remember anymore. No one said much, no one cried, not even you (you were close to crying, we all knew, just admit it. :P), but there was an air that whispered sorrow and melancholy. Then, rain started pouring heavily, as if God was crying on behalf of all of us, you included. It was time for me to go home, I grabbed my school bag and said my one last goodbye and left, my heart filled with an aching despair. I ran out into the rain, and into a shelter, stood for a whole 5 minutes, glanced at my watch and without a second thought, ran back into the school, where you were still seated 5 minutes ago and
...we hung out together at Pavilion and watched New Moon together and had an amazing time. We were taking pictures in front of a ginormous Christmas tree and cheeky you wanted to surprise us from behind but Ms. Photographer caught you on camera so your plan failed, sucka! I was so happy that I got to hang out with you even after you left school. It meant that you've never forgotten us. There was a period of time where you'd brush us away whenever we tried to talk to you. We knew it just wasn't you, but we didn't know why you did what you did. We believed that you would come back to us one day and you proved us right.
...it was the end of high school, the end of SPM and we had a friendly gathering at the Renaissance Hotel. You lied to Cara about not going to the dinner, instead you were flying off to Italy on that morning, and that you told her to have fun and to leave earlier because you heard your mum said it would be jam around there. Cara took a ride in my car and when we got there we were just sitting in the car on the lookout for familiar faces before we got off, my dad asked me if that tall lanky person over there was Taylor, and I vehemently denied it saying that he was on his way to Italy. My dad and I argued for a full 2 minutes and when I looked closer (squinted) I realised that the person did resemble you, and on even closer inspection (slit-eyes), I gasped in shock for it WAS you! We immediately got off the car, said goodbye to my dad, and hunted you down to give you an earful about it. You even tried to feign innocence by showing the text messages saying that you never lied, literally. That, was the prankster you.
...I came back after being away for a year and you gave me a surprise visit at the airport, along with the others. We lost contact for about 2 years (although we did Skype quite a bit) and I was appalled when I found out you planned the entire thing. You have no idea how much it moved my heart. We hung out a lot, slept over at your place, had one of those rare heart-to-heart talks with you (in the attic!), went to the night market together, and when I foolishly said I didn't know how to pump gas (I'm not blonde I swear), you offered one too many times to accompany me there to help me. Do you know how much I love you for that? No, you probably don't. :)
...you took me out to watch the Conjuring even though you've watched it already. You insisted on watching it with me just because you knew I really wanted to watch it. Then you took me to the BurgerLab because you knew I wanted to eat it. To be honest, my heart was swelling up with love for you, because let's be honest here, which kind soul would do that for me?
...you'd vow umpteen times that one day you'd have a body like Jacob Black (Twilight) and whenever we saw you, you're just the same old skinny you that we remembered. We would all laugh and tease you about it, and proceed to give comments on how slow you eat because really, what kinda guy eats like a snail? We would recall the old days where we would always urge you to eat faster because 20 minutes was all we had for recess and clearly, 20 minutes was insufficient for you to finish a small plate of nasi lemak. So much for Jacob Black huh?
This is on a personal side note, because you probably don't know this, but when we knew you were leaving soon, we had a project and our goal was to have that one song that was written for you back in 2009, recorded professionally as our personal farewell gift to you. It may or may not mean a lot to you, but to us, the song held a lot of our memories together. I still remember the number of times we drove back and forth to the studio in PJ just to get things done. I still remember my lousy driving that flew everyone from side to side with my
Now we have all grown a little older, and a lot more further apart. I feel like we don't know each other anymore. We don't text each other anymore, we don't ever meet up anymore, and even if we did, it was just filled with awkward silence and empty conversations and all I could think about was what sort of crap conversational skills I could come up with to fill the awkward silence. Now, I only
But I miss you.
I miss you, you stick figure. So much. Unknowingly, you'd been in my life since primary school, and had always been there, though you left halfway through high school, but you were still kinda, sorta, spiritually, mentally there.
How did we ever come to this point where we behave like strangers?
I miss the lame you. I miss the prankster in you. I miss your damn stick figure. I miss how you would remember all the little things that I would never have bothered to mind myself with. I miss how you'd always care for each and every single one of us because that's just who you are.
I hope you're just as I remembered you to be, only even better now, and you'll probably only continue to be an even better person in the future, to the best you can be, because, well, you're Taylor.
Lame, Funny, Witty, Diligent, Conscientious, Kind, Straight-laced, Honest-to-goodness, Generous, Benevolent, Altruistic and so many other words that will only seem shoddy next to the beautiful person that you are, inside and out.
To me, you are always the same stick figure that I love, and will always be.
Happy Birthday, Stickman.
xx Pau xx
......Okay, I feel like I'm writing a love letter now.
Sorry for the long post, I was just reminiscing on the old times and started feeling waves of nostalgia wash over me.
P.S. Names are completely fictional.
Pau Chub
*frummy = freaking + yummy
P.S. I'm leaving to the airport in an hour or so, and I'm don't know what to feel. Excited? Nervous? Elated? Ecstatic? Just a whole jumble of emotions! Okay, I gotta get back to my last minute packing. Good Riddance!
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