Setting: A quiet street corner in the city on a bright, quiet Sunday morning.
The sun is just rising, shedding a warm golden light over the pavements.
Nearby, a local Baptist church sits framed by tall green trees, its courtyard filled with neatly parked cars and bicycles as the soft sound of a morning hymn echoes from inside.
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Seth: (Pants softly, maintaining a steady, rhythmic pace as my running shoes hit the quiet concrete sidewalk. I am wearing my athletic gear—a black running jacket and shorts—with my hood pulled down against the cool morning breeze. My muscles ache slightly from running blocks away from my dorm, but the physical exertion is the only thing keeping my over-stressed engineering brain from crashing. I take a deep, crisp breath, trying to shake off the lingering exhaustion of the week.)
Seth: (Slows down my pace into a light jog as I turn a wide corner onto a peaceful, tree-lined avenue I don’t normally visit. I reach up and lightly press my hand against the zippered pocket of my jacket. Beneath the fabric, I can feel the hard, sleek edges of your purple star hair clip. I’ve carried it with me for two straight days, searching every single hallway on campus Friday and Saturday, but you were completely nowhere to be found. The total absence of your presence all weekend had left my chest feeling unusually empty and disorganized.)
Seth: (Wipes a bead of sweat from my forehead with my sleeve. I lean against a nearby concrete light pole for a moment, catching my breath while my eyes wander across the street. The faint, soothing sound of a choir practicing catches my attention, their harmonious voices drifting out into the morning air. I look up and realize I am passing a beautiful local Baptist church. Families in their Sunday best—men in pressed barongs and women in elegant dresses—are slowly walking through the open gates, chatting quietly in the serene courtyard. I pull my jacket collar higher, feeling completely out of place in my sweaty running clothes, and prepare to speed back up to jog past the area.) Get faster updates on novelping(.)com.
Seth: (Suddenly, my eyes brush past the neat row of bicycles parked along the church’s white iron fence, and my feet instinctively freeze flat against the pavement. My breath completely catches in my throat. Parked securely at the very end of the metal rack is a beautiful pastel-purple bicycle. It stands out like a bright piece of candy against the quiet brick walls of the church, glinting softly under the early morning sun.)
Seth: (Stares at the purple bicycle from the sidewalk, my heart doing a sudden, violent double-flip against my ribs. I take a hesitant step closer to the iron fence, my logical mind instantly spinning into total confusion. I’m actually not entirely sure if it has anything to do with you—purple is just a color, after all, and we are quite far from the university campus. I tell myself it could easily belong to another churchgoer, a completely different student, or someone who just lives in this neighborhood. I try to reason with myself, using math and logic to dismiss the coincidence, but my hands are trembling anyway.)
Seth: (I stand there on the pavement for what feels like an eternity, completely frozen. Just the mere possibility that you might be inside this building makes my morning fatigue completely vanish, acting like a shield that pushes away all my heavy academic anxiety. I pull the zipper of my pocket down just an inch, my fingertips lightly brushing the polished plastic of the star clip. I remember how fast you walked out of the 7-Eleven on Friday night, and how mad I was at myself for missing the chance to hand it right back to you.)
Seth: (A sudden, blinding blush rushes up my neck, turning my entire face a bright, burning pink as the church’s wooden entrance doors creak open a bit wider, revealing the bright, warm light inside the chapel. I frantically look down at the ground and step back into the deep shadow of a large tree by the sidewalk, my defensive walls instantly going up. I am completely bewildered and terrified by how much power the mere thought of a total stranger has over my physical reactions. I grip the hair clip tightly through the fabric of my zippered pocket, my mind racing in total confusion as I stare at the church steps, completely unable to decide whether I should jog back to my room or stay hidden here just to see who walks out.)
Seth: (Just as I am about to give up on my confusion, turn around, and jog away to escape my own racing thoughts, a movement by the side entrance of the courtyard catches my attention. My breath completely stalls in my lungs. Standing right there near the edge of the chapel steps, holding a small hymnal book against your chest, is you. You are wearing a beautiful, flowing white Sunday dress, and your dark hair falls completely freely around your shoulders, entirely lacking the star clip currently hidden in my pocket.)
Seth: (Before I can even think to duck behind the wide trunk of the tree, you unexpectedly raise your head and glance over toward the quiet avenue. Right through the narrow gaps of the white iron fence, your beautiful, calm eyes lock right onto mine across the distance. Time completely stops for the second time this week. My heart hammers violently against my ribs as I freeze in place, completely caught out in the open in my messy running gear. The look of pure grace in your eyes shatters my independent exterior completely, sending a wave of unfamiliar, intense heat rushing straight to my face.)
Seth: (Completely overwhelmed by the sudden panic and the intense, confusing twist in my chest, I break the eye contact after a split second. My face burning a fierce, bright crimson, I quickly yank my hood up over my head, spin around on my heel, and break into a frantic, high-speed dash down the sidewalk. I run as fast as my legs can carry me, sprinting away from the church grounds without looking back, completely bewildered by my own chaotic behavior.)
Seth: (After sprinting blindly for two whole blocks, my lungs burn and my throat feels completely parched from the intense panic. I abruptly stop right outside a small neighborhood convenience store, resting my hands on my knees as I gasp for air. Still trembling from the unexpected eye contact, I push open the store’s glass door and walk over to the refrigerated section. I grab a cold bottle of water, paying the cashier with white knuckles while my mind continues to reel in total confusion.)
Seth: (Steps back outside onto the quiet sidewalk, twisting the cap off and taking a massive, desperate gulp of the freezing water.
I rest my back against the store’s exterior wall, slowly pressing the cold plastic bottle against my burning, flushed cheek to force the blush down. This story is hosted at g.com.
My hand stays buried inside my jacket pocket, tightly gripping her hair clip.
I lean my head back, completely lost in total confusion about why my heart is pounding this hard, still entirely unaware of what these heavy symptoms actually mean.
Seth: (I look down at the cold water bottle in my hand, watching the condensation drip onto the pavement. My engineering mind is always used to solving problems with absolute numbers, formulas, and logic, but right now, nothing makes sense. Why did my feet freeze the second I saw that purple bike? Why did my heart beat so fast just looking into her eyes across the fence? I slide my fingers back into my pocket, tracing the smooth plastic shape of the purple star hair clip. It feels heavy in my hand, like a mystery I don’t know how to solve.)
Seth: (Suddenly, a massive wave of realization hits me like a bucket of ice water, making my stomach drop in pure embarrassment. I blink blankly at the empty street, my fingers freezing over the plastic hair clip. I don’t even know her name. I have spent days over-analyzing her schedule, panicking over her glances, and stubbornly hiding her lost property in my pockets—but to me, she is still just a complete stranger. She is just a nameless student from the education department whom I simply call ‘Purple Star’ in my own head because of that single hair clip. The absolute absurdity of my intense physical reaction to a girl whose actual name I don’t even know leaves my logical mind completely stranded and frustrated.)
Seth: (I take another long sip of the water, forcing myself to stand up straight. I pull my hood down just a bit to let the cool morning breeze hit my warm face, desperately trying to convince myself that this whole situation is just a fluke. ‘It’s just burnout,’ I repeat the words quietly to myself, trying to build my independent walls back up. ‘You’re just tired from coding all weekend.’ I take a deep breath, pushing the hair clip deeper into my pocket as I look back down the empty street, completely terrified of tomorrow morning because I know I eventually have to go back to campus—and I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to face her if our paths cross again.)
[ END OF CHAPTER 6 ]