The water boy

image by destiny kiss


He was my room mate, he'd sit by the window for hours, we'd watch the boats dock on the Crystal ocean. He said they made him have imagination, he was jealous of the fish that claimed this vast ocean, and i was envious that the water captivated him so. My water boy. I smiled a wry smile, nervously twitching, with my ballet slippers clutched between my oil slick palms. He made me nervous, and excited, and anxious and scared. When he spoke in that deep baritone, it was like being dipped in a cup full of hot chocolate.
" You know i'll miss you when you leaver," I began cautiously, shyness is a poison for us secret social butterfly's.  I had many things i wanted to say, to spill, have my insides laid before him like a platter of desert dishes. " You have eyes like them," 
" Eyes like what?" He recycled back. The way the water changes, reminded me of his eyes, a continental, blue, grey. He was too tall for me, my mother said, he'd drown me in his size. I liked his scraggly brown hair and the beard that cushioned, angular, masculine, yet soft features, a mouth which begged to be kissed, and a tongue that offered the intensity of polite conversation. I hated the way his stretch jeans were quick sand in the floor, and i loved his caramel skin, it reminded me of toffee and werthers original.  Aidan Lloyd was half Asian, and the other part of him a concoction of Irish and West African decent. I found myself hypnotised,and caught in a web of romantic fantasies. " Eyes like the water you worship, changeable,"
" I'm a changeable person." He supplied, still there, my merman. I fixed the pudgy round glasses on their stand untop of my nose. " I wanted to give this to you," 
" A poem?" 
"A poem." I held it up, in my scared, teenage fingers. I had bushy brows, and teeth that had been claimed by braces. Yet i wanted him to see me, the way he worshiped the water. It was a a conversation that rotated in my mind, i studied my reflection nervously. Mother said i 'Bonnie Elena John' was too short for Aidan Lloyd. My frame should have been lengthier like the other girls in the ballet class. Mother had begged a space for me, so i could 'mix with money' and meet the Aidan Lloyds of the world. "  Do you want me to read it to you?" I quizzed nervously, my throat was stuffy with invisible foam. He nodded, i liked the way he nodded and all the little mannerisms that were his. In this room i felt as though somehow i belonged to him, and when his 6ft 6 frame walked through the front door, i felt full in his hugs. 
" a picture, you and me we could be a postcard
of words that speak,
a thousand syllable's 
and conversations that end with linked hands
I am your arm
you are my leg
we are fingers
on a piano
that begs to be played
So play the chords
and let our heart beat
with a rhythmic choir,"  i stood still waiting for his response. Watching as his eyes suddenly became engaged in the patterns on our Persian rug. A caramel hand stretched to the back of his neck, he rubbed at it, then licked a mouth which had gone dry.
" Is there a message in there somewhere?" 
I took a long swallow of breath. I should have just let him leave pack his stuff, my eyes darted to the Exit.  I could imagine clusters of girls gathering to Gossip about my near miss, the ballet class filled with the nonsense of 'another one bites the dust,' a song dedicated to each girl who had made a move on Aidan LLoyd.  " I guess i'll see you next semester," i said reaching for my friendship safety net, he looked up as if hit with an alarming recognition, 
" when it happens, no one will be singing another one bites the dust." At that he rose as the tide does, my water boy, i plunged forward eager for a kiss.