Autumn begins

The love story starts

Doris was sitting in the park again, enjoying the view. Or rather, the stalking a particular person. She  sighed, the person she so dearly watched was so engrossed with what he was doing that he didn’t even notice Doris’ persistent stare.

Doris was the new kid in town, having moved here some time ago because her father got a transfer. She had been nervous about going to school, afraid that she may not make many friends as she was too chatty and awkward at times, but to her relieve she found she was unnecessarily fretting. The students in her high school were friendly and they didn’t mind that Doris talked like a speeding train or that she was in general, a weird giraffe-fy kind of person.

By lunch period on her third day, she had made many new friends and found herself sitting in the cafeteria among a group of new friends. They chatted easily, talking about movies and music like regular teens. That day she also had her first music class.

Doris really had a knack for music and she had to take something to get enough credits so she’d rather it be music than some boring ancient mythology class.

She bustled into the class excitedly and managed to draw lots of attention to herself as she managed to drop the stack of books she held in her arms, being the clumsy goof she was. That’s when she saw him. There was a boy sitting in the back corner of the class, hunched over a piece of paper on the desk, drawing furiously and steadfastly ignoring everything else.

Everybody else in the class greeted her and introduced themselves but that boy. In fact, the last two rows were completely empty but still he opted to sit at the back of all, far away from everybody else. Doris could not see his face as his long, shoulder length and extremely soft looking chocolate locks hid his face perfectly. Doris didn’t think much of it at first, maybe the boy was upset or something.

The class went on smoothly, Doris made an instant fit into the crowd and the teacher loved her instantly. The moment the teacher left, the boy practically ran out of the class, a plastic bag full of art supplies swinging on his arm, ignoring Doris completely even though Doris was standing near the door. Doris frowned at that, feeling slightly offended.

She found that she shared two more classes with the boy, Biology and Algebra. In every class, the boy remained so silent and detached he almost didn’t exist. Doris was surprised when she heard his voice in Biology, surprised that he wasn’t mute, when the teacher asked him to explain something. His voice was deep and smooth, like caramel.

Doris asked her new friends about this mysterious boy who kept all to himself. “You mean, Keyren? He never talks to anyone, so don’t bother”, a short, chubby girl called Shida told him. “Yeah, he does not talk to anybody and he has no friends. He comes to school but he’d rather be all alone”, another girl called Mira told him. A third person, Sunny nodded furiously and added, “He looks upset and angry all the time, too. Nobody dares go near him.”

Doris felt that was sad. Being the adventurous person she was, Doris set out to explore the local park first thing Saturday morning on her first weekend there. She was delighted to find that the park was large, with a decent jogging track. It was autumn, the leaves were all red and gold and falling gently all around him. She was jogging when she saw something that surprised her, the all mysterious and quiet Keyren was there.

Doris stopped, surprised beyond words. Keyren looked like such a bad boy in school that she could never have expected what she saw. The boy was surrounded by so a crowd of animals, mostly stray cats and dogs. He was petting them and feeding them food. Curious, Doris hid behind a tree and watched him.

Keyren talked to the stray animals, his voice loving and kind as he asked the how their week went. If anybody bullied them. If they were hurt. The one or two animals that were injured he treated with outmost care, as though he didn’t want to cause them anymore pain. He brought a first aid kit, which he used to clean the animal’s wounds so that it didn’t get infected.  

The animals ate and then sat beside him as he took out his art supplies from a plastic bag. He sat and began to draw, occasionally stopping when a new cat or dog came by to feed them. Gone was the air of anger that surrounded him at school, he looked like an angel, calm and serene here.

At noon, Keyren left after bidding the animals goodbye and telling them he will be back next week, same spot, same place. The animals actually looked sad to see him go. Doris jogged back home after that, shocked that Keyren was such a kind and gentle person actually.

The next day, she saw Keyren bringing his grandmothers to the local church. He watched them carefully, making sure the frail looking old ladies had a place to sit and that they didn’t fall down anywhere. Doris’ heart filled with warmth. Keyren took really good care of his old grandmothers. Keyren also volunteered to read to children at the orphanage, afterwards he played games and sang with them. This he did every Saturday afternoon.

Thus Doris’ new Saturday routine began. She went out early, hid behind a tree and watched Keyren feed and treat injured animals. She watched intently as Keyren drew at times, his face scrunched up in concentration as he did his artwork. Then she continued her stalking of Keyren at the orphanage.

Doris was falling more and more in love. Keyren had very delicate features and a beautiful voice that Doris loved to hear. When Keyren laughed with the children Doris felt her whole world light up.

One day, the lady in charge at the orphanage approached her, saying that she had noticed Doris stalking Keyren. Doris had the grace to feel ashamed before using the opportunity to find out more about Keyren.

The lady told Doris that Keyren was often bullied at school when he was very young, being painfully shy and artistic in nature. That’s why Keyren put up his bad boy attitude at school and ignored everybody. Keyren felt that if he just ignored everybody and looked angry all the time, everybody will leave him alone and he won’t be bullied anymore.

How can anybody bully such a sweet and kind person was beyond Doris. But then, people were often cruel and uncaring, picking on the weak to feel superior. That’s why Keyren helped the stray animals, he felt sorry for them as they were also often bullied by cruel humans and were too helpless to fight back.

The next week, Doris pinned a note she had written on a red leaf that fell that morning to the tree Keyren always sat at. When Keyren arrived, he frowned at the note as he read it. Doris was so nervous, he hoped that the note would cheer Keyren up.

I think that it’s great, what you do. I’m so sorry there are complete idiots who bullied you. You have a great heart and you will always be more awesome a person and a better human being than those scumbags.

Love,

Your self-appointed stalker and admirer.

 She took a breath of relieve when she saw Keyren smile to himself before looking around, finding the mysterious person who had left him the note.

Keyren took out a pen and scribbled back a reply before pinning the note back to the tree. When it was noon and Keyren had left, Doris hurried over to see what Keyren had written there.

Glad to know somebody thinks that highly of me. I’m sure you have a great heart too. Hope you will come out and meet me soon. I wonder who you are…

Love,

The person you’re stalking.

Doris never felt happier in her life.

xxx

Over the next few weeks, Doris kept on her stalking, but she grew more and more careful, afraid of being caught. Keyren always looked around, trying to find who it was who was watching him. Keyren looked disappointed when he couldn’t seem to find the person.

A few weeks later, Keyren left a note he wrote on a leaf on the tree, same as Doris did before. Doris went away at noon, scared that Keyren would hide somewhere and watch who took the note. She went to the hot dog cart at the corner and spent quite a while there before casually sauntering back to the tree.

Just come out and meet me, please. I wanna get to know you.

Doris ran all the way back home, trying to get rid of the jitters she had. She ran straight in and found her partner-in-crime, her sister, and spilled the whole story. “So what do I do? Do I meet him and ask him out? How if he doesn’t like me?”

Her sister rolled her eyes at her before smacking the back of her head. “You fool! He clearly wants to meet you! And you clearly want to ask him out. Just go meet him already, I’m sure he’ll be fine, he asked you to meet him, you know?”

So next week found Doris sitting by a tree with a gloomy look upon her face, watching the autumn leaves fall. She caught one and scribbled a note on it for her love. When Keyren read it, he looked sad and he sat down looking dejected. The animals seemed to sense he was upset and they came up to him, rubbing themselves against his legs and body to console him. Keyren didn’t reply this time.

You are a perfect angel with a heart of gold. I’m just some normal teenage girl, and I love you so much. So much that I’m afraid to come before you, for I am not worthy of having such a kind gentle person by my side.

Doris’ sister made fun of her every day, calling her a loser and a coward. Doris couldn’t reply to that. She was being cowardly. She was afraid of rejection, afraid that Keyren had put a different image to the person writing those notes than who she really was.

She just opted to watch her love at school and at the park as the days grew colder and the last of the autumn leaves fell, leaving the trees bare and no more notes to tell of words of love.