That was how Amy’s high school first and only love closed. Not really a happy ending. Amy didn’t see her little lion again. Sometimes in the crowd, she had auditory illusions such as the sounds of someone speaking to her, saying “I’ll never leave you alone”. Although many years had passed by, her heart somehow wrenched. A long time ago, Amy once asked John why he liked her. What was his answer back then? Oh, he said, “Because nobody has ever been good to me like you are.” What a common cheesy answer. In Amy’s head, she had always objected to that line, no, John, more than anybody, I am the one who has been worst to you.
Time flew so fast and Amy didn’t even realize it until one day she got a call from Aiden, one of her seniors in high school. He was 3 years older than her and they knew each other well because he was the Student Club President before her. Aiden was about to get married, coincidentally enough, with someone whose background was very different from his. Like other friends she had, Aiden was also from a wealthy family yet his fiancée came from a modest one; they met in college. Amy didn’t know much about his future wife beside the fact that she had made her own fortune from nothing. Aiden wanted to invite Amy to the wedding in one week. Amy checked her schedule and then accepted the invitation. After hanging up the phone with Aiden, Amy stared into space for a long time. She didn’t remember how many wedding invitations she had received from old buddies; there were quite a few. Everyone she knew seemed to find the one for them. Yet she, after so many years, had not had that strong passionate “in love” feelings once ever again. The man that lived in “the same world” with her turned out to be not so easy to find. Either their appearances weren’t up to her standards or their family backgrounds were too different from hers or they weren’t smart enough or were too smart or they were just … not her type. Friends and family had introduced to her a dozen of men, every one of them was thought by others to be a good match with her. Some of the relationships she had did last for a few months before all hell broke loose. In short, she just didn’t feel satisfied, there was something that’s just … wrong, like going shopping for a dress, everything looked promising on the clothing racks until being tried on; none of them fitted, none of them pleased her. Going back and forth like that made her daunted, she ended up losing every interest in relationships, just filled up her time with work until she exhausted and fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.
A week passed by and Amy took the flight to where Aiden’s wedding would be held to attend the ceremony. She finally got to see Aiden’s bride, a gentle and shy woman whom Aiden always looked at with that sparkling in his eyes like a sky full of stars. He was truly in love, that’s what Amy thought. Amy met quite a few old friends and also someone whom she had never dreamed of seeing here. The young wild lion that year had now become a manly grown-up lion. It didn’t matter how long had it been, Amy recognized John with just a swift glance. It didn’t matter how tall had he become, how mature had he grow to be, Amy still recognized him easily. Besides, his legs were still long and toned like before, those used to be her favourite parts in his body. Amy didn’t call him; she just stood there, silently watching him from a distance, watching him talking to people, watching him laughing and making jokes, watching him sipping from the champagne glass as elegantly as any gentleman she had met. Amy ceased to see anything else but him, like she wanted to make it up for the last ten years that they were apart from each other. After a while, John left the crowd and found a quiet spot for a bit alone time, as he was about to return to the ceremony, Amy promptly called out his name, “John Wright!”.
John turned around and looked at Amy with confusion in his eyes. As he slowly recalled the girl in front of him, John joyfully smiled to her like a normal old friend to another old friend, “Oh, it’s you. A … Amy … um …”.
“Amy Kendrick,” she continued. Seeing John’s face as he tried to recall her name was like a slap in her face; it hurt yet she had to constrain her grimace expressions and faked a smile as she reminded him.
“Yes, you. Amy Kendrick!” John laughed and walked toward her to give her a friendly welcome hug, exactly like a friend. “You look nice” he added.
Amy had never thought she’d see John again, thus, this situation totally caught her off guard. Her brain sort of shut down, she couldn’t think or say anything even some of the most basic lines such as “How’s it going?”, “What are you up to lately?” or “Let’s go grab a drink sometimes”. John, on the contrary, seemed very free and casual as he asked if she wanted lunch tomorrow to catch up with an old friend. Amy nearly didn’t care about the fact that she had booked the plane ticket back to her city tomorrow and had a meeting in the morning when she said yes to him. Going back to her hotel that night, Amy cancelled both her flight and her meeting.