The Halves that Halved me in Half

Melt My Heart Stone

It was the summer of 2006 and I was lying on my best friend’s bed. We were talking about her uncle and his family who had been visiting from Maryland and came to check out the area in Concord. She had told me how they were thinking about moving down here for the rest of the summer and because her uncle had found a job down here in the area. She mentioned that there were seven of them but one of them had already married, her cousin Mariano, the oldest who was 24 already. Then there was the dad whose name was also Mariano and was my favorite of all. The mother, Rosalia, who was very reserved and had a serious face most of the time, and whom I less talked to. There was the middle child named Josh, 13, he was very strange and liked to carry other peoples babies and used at least 10 bottles of spray a month. He was quite a character. Last but not least, the youngest and only little sister, Tiffany, 8, who was very cute and childish. And last the Grandmother, whom they called by her last name, Enrique. She was very pale and had really orange reddish hair. They were all looking for a place to settle in and had finally found the perfect place. A home that belonged to other people we knew, but were moving to South Carolina. The house was located in Southern Chase and it was utterly big and spacious.

On a Friday morning of a warm June, they were already unpacking and moving in. My friend had called me up Saturday night, and asked me if I wanted to go help her uncle finish unpacking the rest of their things into their house and spend the rest of the day with them. I didn’t say no because meeting my best friend’s family would be a pleasure for me and helping them out would be better.  Came Sunday morning and we were making our way over to the kingdom hall to congregate with more families and brothers to listen to a very important talk the elder brother was going to give. We were 10 minutes early before it started and so that gave my friend some time to introduce me to her uncle and the rest of the family. I wasn’t all that anxious to meet them because I really wasn’t good with meeting people, but I did anyways for my friend. I said hello to the dad and it wasn’t that bad because he did most of the talking and I just listened. While we were chatting I had noticed he was chewing gum, so I asked him for a piece. He pulled out the pink Extra bubble gum. I had never tried it in my life so I was kind of scared of how it was going to taste. I ripped it in half and saved the rest for later for when the first half ran out of taste. He told me that, that was the only type of gum he liked to chew on because it was original and all the other gums made him mouth cringe. I thanked him for giving me that piece and right off I knew that we had hit it off well. I then met the mother, but didn’t get good vibes from her because she had greeted me with an awkward greeting, like “why are you saying hi to me.”  From there on in general it was really nerve-racking saying hi to her. But I had to act nice because it would benefit me in the future.

I then met the middle one next; he was one year younger than me and had braces. “Yikes!” I thought what a loser. He gripped my hand to say hello and very sudden and very fast he shook my hand jerking it away. I was very odd struck at his sudden movements, sure enough was glad that he let go, because his hands were warm and full of sweat. I think my presence made him so nervous, he couldn’t help but sweat and fumble over his words. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out, but them at last he managed to ask, “Why do you have frizzy hair?” I was speechless and didn’t know what to say, I was really worked up about his comment that I managed to angrily ask, “Why do you have braces and very sweaty hands?” I didn’t want to wait and hear a response for the meeting was about to start and I was going to be late getting to my seat. I really didn’t care to speak to him because of how rude he was to me. Two weeks went by and I hadn’t said a word to him. One day I was hanging out at my friend’s house and for some reason our conversation led on to talking about him. She mentioned that last weekend her cousin Josh had spent the night and she did not sleep at all that night because he would not quit bothering her to give him my number. He kept talking and persuading until she finally gave in and agreed to invite me to the house when he was there. I did not want to but she said it was the only way for him to leave her alone and quit bugging her about me. So I said “okay I’ll come but I am not gonna talk to him, I am going to spend the whole time with his little sister.”

So that coming weekend I was over at my friend’s house and he was there I tried to completely avoid him at all cost, but my plan failed for as soon as I walked in he came over and said let’s play UNO. “I love UNO” I said to him. And we all gathered and played together. Later that evening we were alone outside and he was asking me all these weird questions like have you ever watched this show with a character named ‘lardy’ in it, and what my favorite color was and about my family and all. His small talk made me feel sorry for him and made me like him more than when I first met him. When he asked me if I liked the Killers, my eyes got the size of walnuts and my smile got so big, I started to sing one of their songs called “Mr. Brightside” he was laughing and joined me into singing. He called me lardy for a good long time after I figured out that it was some fat little character of a T.V. show. I got so mad at him, but in the end I did not mind because I was in love with him. He melted my heart to stone and little things like that did not bother me anymore I appreciated them instead and took them as compliments. We became really close friends and hung out almost all the time that we could. We would play manhunt, UNO, charades, listened to music, and best of all wrote love letters to each other.  We were somewhat innocent to the word ‘LOVE’, boyfriend, and girlfriend. We kept it clean, cuddly, and simple; for I remember one time before they moved away, we were in his basement playing hide and seek and we hid together under the liquor bar. We hid together on purpose because we wanted to give each other our first kiss. When we were there we chickened out and didn’t kiss at all. He told me he had never kissed a girl before, and I told him I was scared to get my tongue stuck in his braces. So we said we would just hold hands. I regret not kissing him, for a week later he was gone and out of my life never to be heard of again. Only thing left are memories of how we spent a summer and a year together learning from each other and small things, like the way he did his hair and the hair spray he used. I will forever remember him with all my might and lock up those wonderful moments in a tiny box and place it in a corner of my heart.