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My Geek Prince
.
For Dee, Ed, Brian, and all the other online freaks out there. Long live internet! :p
***
"Honey, I'm off to the supermarket.
Here's a glass of chocolate milk and some peanut cookies.
xoxo, Mom"
Vanessa shrugged and threw the note into the dustbin with a grin. Now here's what she liked : no homework, all her family members gone to nowhere, and the whole apartment room was just for her alone. Carrying the glass of milk and plate of cookies, she ran to the upstairs room.
As usual, her small bedroom was already cold. She never turned her air-conditioner off when she left for school. And if her father grumbled about the electricity bills, she would just put her angel mask on and said that it was her brother Sam who's always turning his games on. No biggy.
She threw her bag on the gray carpeted floor, together with her short blue socks. And then, without minding her sweaty uniform shirt, she jumped on her bed and opened her Macbook.
Just like every other ordinary evenings, she would see the same writing on her screen. Signing in as v_sleepyhead. And she would just stick her eyes to the screen, for one whole evening, until her parents would come home and yell at her for dinner. Vanessa's world was just as far as her hazel contact lenses could see through the laptop screen. Not more.
---
Unlike other evenings, she could only see 3 people online at that moment. One was her so-called friend at gym class, one was her friend from her old school, and another was some dude which she forgot why he ended up on her contact list.
Sipping her glass of chocolate, Vanessa only yawned in boredom. Ah, why would all her friends choose to do the History extra credit assignment today, when she really wanted to chat with them, while the submission was still three weeks to go? Those poorly-achieving traitors, she thought snobbily.
While she was half over with her second cookie, a new window popped on her screen.
j.man11 hi :D
j.man11 home already?
Vanessa almost choked on her cookie. Ah, this dude again.
Vanessa knew him from a 3D Chat website, where she could chat with just any random people online. Not like other people she had chatted with there, rude people, perverts, and underaged kids, this jman dude was quite easy-going. After 3D-chatting for nearly half an hour without Vanessa ending up punching, slapping, or boxing this dude's avatar, they exchanged Yahoo Messenger IDs.
v_sleepyhead yep, so boring here
v_sleepyhead no one's ol =.=
v_sleepyhead damnit fools
v_sleepyhead n u appear offline? :p
After a long period of collecting her woman powers and releasing them to force and threaten this guy to tell Vanessa his name and so on, the guy introduced himself as Justin. They knew a lot about each other, about how Vanessa attended a pathetic school near her house in Boston, and how Justin studied in an elite school in New York, and so on. Online bestfriends? Sort of.
j.man11 roflmao
j.man11 yea, many ppl are ol n im too lazy 2 chat with them
j.man11 but now dat u're ol
j.man11 makes a difference, ehehe
Without Justin knowing, she was probably head over heels on this guy.
He was just so fun to talk to. He had the best jokes, from cheesy to crazy. And when Vanessa was trapped in detention she would just sign in on eBuddy and spit out all her feelings and chatting with him was just the perfect remedy.
But her feelings for him seemed to shallow down, when it came to one Tuesday night about a week ago.
They were just chatting as usual, and Justin asked Vanessa if they could exchange pictures.
Being forced again and again, Vanessa agreed. She sent her best (and only) picture, herself in a purple t-shirt, gray jacket and a cute blue hat with a teddy doll. Justin told her that she looked wonderful and Vanessa almost broke her apartment's roof flying when she heard that, but it all ended when Justin sent her his picture.
He looked horrible, really.
Justin, to her surprise (and mostly hysteria), was a geek with a miserable body posture that looked like he had only been fed twice a week, with zits all over his pale skin, his nose red with what he said to be cinnamon allergy, and then a pair of enormous glasses covering his black eyes. His hair was light brown, nearly orange (which was Vanessa's least favourite colour, fyi), curly, covering his dirty forehead. He was wearing a polka-dot patterned shirt buttoned until his neck, and then baggy pants, and on his stick-like right hand, was a tacky lavender watch which he was proud of ("It glows with 7 different colors," he boasted).
So now, the cliche idiom was proven.
All that glitters (even in 7 different colors) is not gold.
Vanessa yelled worse than when her friend brought her to killerjo.net.
She fell in love with a.. nerd? Geek? Eww!
The next second her mother just entered and scolded her for waking Sam.
Vanessa could only be thankful that she just knew him online.
---
v_sleepyhead pff
v_sleepyhead hahaha
---
Last message received at 16.37 PM
j.man11 hey V girl
v_sleepyhead yea? o.O
j.man11 im off to boston this weekend!!
v_sleepyhead :o
---
That ':o' thing was all Vanessa could type. Ah, was this geek implying that he wanted to meet her?
---
j.man11 r u free this saturday?
v_sleepyhead quite :D
j.man11 great! can we meet somewhere?
v_sleepyhead emm
v_sleepyhead gonna ask my mom first
v_sleepyhead where shud we meet? xD
j.man11 lets c. what about sour sally?
v_sleepyhead dat wuld be great :D
v_sleepyhead just gimme ur number
v_sleepyhead gonna b easier to call u l8er
---
"Mom, let me help you with the groceries," said Vanessa after pressing the Be Right Back button on her messenger. Her mother was home, bringing in five or six big plastic bags. After tipping Pete, the apartment worker who carried her groceries all the way to her room in the 8th floor, she got inside.
"Mom... emm, can I... go out, this Saturday?" asked Vanessa, putting in two milk cartons and some packets of Cadbury into the fridge.
"Really? Where?" asked Mom.
"Sour Sally," she said. "No worries, I'll use my own money, I'm going to.. meet a friend."
"Oh, who?" asked Mom again, making Vanessa wonder why her father would choose such a woman who couldn't just zip her mouth. "Rachel? Betty? Cindy?" And always acted like she was just in her early 20s and hung out with all Vanessa's friends. Sigh.
"Sure that," Vanessa nodded uneagerly.
"Ah, you should've told me that in the first place," Mom smiled. "Of course you can go."
"Great!" Vanessa nodded.
Just two more days and she was gonna meet Justin eye-to-eye.
---
It was Saturday.
Vanessa woke up at 11 that day. Quite a record, taking note that she usually slept at 3 a.m. and then get up at 1. She really loved Saturdays--she was free from homework, she was free to sleep at any time she want, she could just lay on her bed in pyjamas all day. Peeking through her window, the sky was grayish blue, and she could feel a friendly breeze sweeping through her curtain. Perfect.
After taking a quick bath, Vanessa dressed herself with a navy t-shirt, and then black vest, and short jeans. After a long struggle to tie her Converse, she ran downstairs.
"Morning sis," the messy Sam who was half-awake greeted her. He was still in his pyjamas, dozing lazily on the sofa, watching the same old Mr Bean episode that was always repeated and repeated on TV.
"You have bad sense of entertainment," Vanessa mocked straightly. She sat and poured a glassful of water, and then ate a plate of toast served on the table. Nice life.
"So where are you going?" asked Sam, when Mr Bean went on a break.
"Lunch at Sour Sally," Vanessa gulped her glass of water all at once and took her bag. "With friends. Just... have fun with your silly uncle Bean. Bye, Sammy!"
"Yogurt for lunch?" mumbled poor Sammy to himself, but his sister already left.
---
After cursing all those slow and hungover taxi drivers down the street, Vanessa could finally attempt to reach Sour Sally. She felt no more need of calling Justin to ask him where he was and so on. If he did--whoa, what would that boy think? She couldn't wait to meet her geek prince? Eww, so not happening.
So Vanessa just parked her Mercedes and got down. She was just 15, but every police would just believe when she told them she's already a legal 17-year-old driver because of her height.
"Welcome, your orders please?" greeted a green-hatted waitress with a fully charged youth spirit.
"Original, medium," Vanessa ordered fast. "Mochi and brownies, please."
"That would be 3 bucks," said the waitress, her fingertips ran fast on the keyboard. "Your name, Miss?"
"Kelly," said Vanessa as she paid. Lying to various cashiers from different restaurants about her name was Vanessa's secret hobby. "Thanks!"
Now, where's that geek?
Vanessa noticed all the people that entered. A couple of boyfriend and girlfriend, wearing the same couple tee. Ergh, lame. Then a fat Spanish mother with two children. And then some brunette ladies who only came to ask where the toilet in that mall was.
Clearly enough, all those people, and also all the other people who were sitting on those cute pink and green chairs, did not own the possibility to be Justin.
Ah, so not only Boston guys could 'break their watch', Vanessa frowned.
Vanessa had swallowed her last piece of brownies when she stared at her watch. Darned, it was already 1! She was here since 12. Wasn't it enough that she ate that delicious cup of yoghurt in her slowest speed? One of the janitors had stared at her table with a blood thirsty look since 20 minutes ago. But that damnit geek hadn't showed up yet. She plugged one of her earphones in her one ear and played her iPod, still whining.
Ah, what a bad Saturday. Daniel Powter was cursing and laughing at her with Bad Day through her ears.
Before grumbling any further, Vanessa turned to the glass door as she saw it open.
Ah, but this couldn't be Justin.
A guy entered, walking in a constant pace. His sea green eyes looked around impatiently, as if looking for something--or more possibly, someone. He looked perfectly handsome, his athletic body covered in a gray-black checked shirt, partly slipped into his dark jeans.
Vanessa was just about to click on Twitter Mobile and tweet about having her what-turns-out-to-be-awesome Saturday when the guy unexpectedly approached her.
"Vanessa?"
Her jaws fell open, she was sure one of those mochis in her stomach almost jumped out through her throat. She didn't even remember to turn her iPod off.
How could this guy know her name?
"Emm--yea?" she finally collected herself and answered, standing up.
"You're Vanessa, right?" the guy offered his hand and Vanessa shook it nervously. "I'm Justin."
"Holy mackerel!!" Vanessa's uncontrollable volume echoed, the loud shout she had been holding in her heart long enough just bursted through her mouth. "But that geeky picture you sent me--"
Justin smiled, and on the chair in front of her. "Well.. can I tell you something?"
"Of course," Vanessa nodded, also sitting down.
"As you see.. this is the real.. the real j.man11. The real Justin. That geek picture I sent you isn't me.. it's just a neighbor who visits me often to borrow my advanced chemistry notes," explained Justin.
"Aha," Vanessa replied absent-mindedly, not really aware of what Justin was telling her, too captivated of that princely figure in front of her.
"At school, everybody wants to be my friend just because of.. what you're staring at unstoppably," he continued a little sarcastically. "When they are asked about me all they just say was.. hot. Cool. Handsome. Charming. And so on. Nobody has ever said something about me being friendly. Or helpful. Or anything else, really..
"So I am quite a loner in my school. I spend most of my time online, and I love meeting different people on the net. I mean, imagine! The internet is the only place I can find real friends who love you for who you are.." he continued, "Whenever they asked me my picture I would just give them that geek picture and after that, they'd never chat with me anymore," Justin laughed a little. "But when I chat with you it's just different."
Vanessa's hand trembled, was it the air-conditioner or her? The way he stared at her, the way he spoke, everything in him was too breathtaking for her..
"So.. what do you think of the picture I sent you?" Justin asked. Vanessa cleared her throat before answering, "Emm, you're--I mean that guy--is just so horrible," she giggled. "So I was kind of... scared. To meet you today."
"Exactly," Justin nodded. "You knew I looked horrible but you still reply my chats anyway. When I'm alone at home, when I'm lonely, when I'm unable to sleep... you're always there. That's what I like about you."
Vanessa smiled. She was never more thankful than today, when she recalled of how her conscience always convinced her to appear offline when Justin chatted with her but instead she refused and kept on chatting. Maybe it was true, the thing that made her fall over him was just.. the real him. His friendliness, his kindness.
"I'm so glad to meet you today," Vanessa's voice broke the prolonged silence. "Thanks for coming for me."
"Me too," agreed Justin. "I really should leave now. But I'm staying over at some near place around here, so I guess I'll... meet you often?"
Vanessa nodded shyly. "Of course," she said.
"From now on we're gonna start all over," Justin walked to the cashier to order his take away meal. Again, he offered his hand to Vanessa, "Hi I'm Justin."
"And I'm smitten," blurted Vanessa without thinking further, but she coughed and quickly corrected, "I mean.. Vanessa."
"Nice to meet you," his sea green eyes met her hazel ones, and before long it was just a new feeling that clouded both of them.
Vanessa smiled. She was drowned in the song played through her earphone. Miley Cyrus. One of her favourites.
And the 7th thing, I like the most, that you do :
You make me love you..
---
v_sleepyhead is offline.
---
Thanks for reading! xoxo
---
Here's a glass of chocolate milk and some peanut cookies.
xoxo, Mom"
Vanessa shrugged and threw the note into the dustbin with a grin. Now here's what she liked : no homework, all her family members gone to nowhere, and the whole apartment room was just for her alone. Carrying the glass of milk and plate of cookies, she ran to the upstairs room.
As usual, her small bedroom was already cold. She never turned her air-conditioner off when she left for school. And if her father grumbled about the electricity bills, she would just put her angel mask on and said that it was her brother Sam who's always turning his games on. No biggy.
She threw her bag on the gray carpeted floor, together with her short blue socks. And then, without minding her sweaty uniform shirt, she jumped on her bed and opened her Macbook.
Just like every other ordinary evenings, she would see the same writing on her screen. Signing in as v_sleepyhead. And she would just stick her eyes to the screen, for one whole evening, until her parents would come home and yell at her for dinner. Vanessa's world was just as far as her hazel contact lenses could see through the laptop screen. Not more.
---
Unlike other evenings, she could only see 3 people online at that moment. One was her so-called friend at gym class, one was her friend from her old school, and another was some dude which she forgot why he ended up on her contact list.
Sipping her glass of chocolate, Vanessa only yawned in boredom. Ah, why would all her friends choose to do the History extra credit assignment today, when she really wanted to chat with them, while the submission was still three weeks to go? Those poorly-achieving traitors, she thought snobbily.
While she was half over with her second cookie, a new window popped on her screen.
j.man11 hi :D
j.man11 home already?
Vanessa almost choked on her cookie. Ah, this dude again.
Vanessa knew him from a 3D Chat website, where she could chat with just any random people online. Not like other people she had chatted with there, rude people, perverts, and underaged kids, this jman dude was quite easy-going. After 3D-chatting for nearly half an hour without Vanessa ending up punching, slapping, or boxing this dude's avatar, they exchanged Yahoo Messenger IDs.
v_sleepyhead yep, so boring here
v_sleepyhead no one's ol =.=
v_sleepyhead damnit fools
v_sleepyhead n u appear offline? :p
After a long period of collecting her woman powers and releasing them to force and threaten this guy to tell Vanessa his name and so on, the guy introduced himself as Justin. They knew a lot about each other, about how Vanessa attended a pathetic school near her house in Boston, and how Justin studied in an elite school in New York, and so on. Online bestfriends? Sort of.
j.man11 roflmao
j.man11 yea, many ppl are ol n im too lazy 2 chat with them
j.man11 but now dat u're ol
j.man11 makes a difference, ehehe
Without Justin knowing, she was probably head over heels on this guy.
He was just so fun to talk to. He had the best jokes, from cheesy to crazy. And when Vanessa was trapped in detention she would just sign in on eBuddy and spit out all her feelings and chatting with him was just the perfect remedy.
But her feelings for him seemed to shallow down, when it came to one Tuesday night about a week ago.
They were just chatting as usual, and Justin asked Vanessa if they could exchange pictures.
Being forced again and again, Vanessa agreed. She sent her best (and only) picture, herself in a purple t-shirt, gray jacket and a cute blue hat with a teddy doll. Justin told her that she looked wonderful and Vanessa almost broke her apartment's roof flying when she heard that, but it all ended when Justin sent her his picture.
He looked horrible, really.
Justin, to her surprise (and mostly hysteria), was a geek with a miserable body posture that looked like he had only been fed twice a week, with zits all over his pale skin, his nose red with what he said to be cinnamon allergy, and then a pair of enormous glasses covering his black eyes. His hair was light brown, nearly orange (which was Vanessa's least favourite colour, fyi), curly, covering his dirty forehead. He was wearing a polka-dot patterned shirt buttoned until his neck, and then baggy pants, and on his stick-like right hand, was a tacky lavender watch which he was proud of ("It glows with 7 different colors," he boasted).
So now, the cliche idiom was proven.
All that glitters (even in 7 different colors) is not gold.
Vanessa yelled worse than when her friend brought her to killerjo.net.
She fell in love with a.. nerd? Geek? Eww!
The next second her mother just entered and scolded her for waking Sam.
Vanessa could only be thankful that she just knew him online.
---
v_sleepyhead pff
v_sleepyhead hahaha
---
Last message received at 16.37 PM
j.man11 hey V girl
v_sleepyhead yea? o.O
j.man11 im off to boston this weekend!!
v_sleepyhead :o
---
That ':o' thing was all Vanessa could type. Ah, was this geek implying that he wanted to meet her?
---
j.man11 r u free this saturday?
v_sleepyhead quite :D
j.man11 great! can we meet somewhere?
v_sleepyhead emm
v_sleepyhead gonna ask my mom first
v_sleepyhead where shud we meet? xD
j.man11 lets c. what about sour sally?
v_sleepyhead dat wuld be great :D
v_sleepyhead just gimme ur number
v_sleepyhead gonna b easier to call u l8er
---
"Mom, let me help you with the groceries," said Vanessa after pressing the Be Right Back button on her messenger. Her mother was home, bringing in five or six big plastic bags. After tipping Pete, the apartment worker who carried her groceries all the way to her room in the 8th floor, she got inside.
"Mom... emm, can I... go out, this Saturday?" asked Vanessa, putting in two milk cartons and some packets of Cadbury into the fridge.
"Really? Where?" asked Mom.
"Sour Sally," she said. "No worries, I'll use my own money, I'm going to.. meet a friend."
"Oh, who?" asked Mom again, making Vanessa wonder why her father would choose such a woman who couldn't just zip her mouth. "Rachel? Betty? Cindy?" And always acted like she was just in her early 20s and hung out with all Vanessa's friends. Sigh.
"Sure that," Vanessa nodded uneagerly.
"Ah, you should've told me that in the first place," Mom smiled. "Of course you can go."
"Great!" Vanessa nodded.
Just two more days and she was gonna meet Justin eye-to-eye.
---
It was Saturday.
Vanessa woke up at 11 that day. Quite a record, taking note that she usually slept at 3 a.m. and then get up at 1. She really loved Saturdays--she was free from homework, she was free to sleep at any time she want, she could just lay on her bed in pyjamas all day. Peeking through her window, the sky was grayish blue, and she could feel a friendly breeze sweeping through her curtain. Perfect.
After taking a quick bath, Vanessa dressed herself with a navy t-shirt, and then black vest, and short jeans. After a long struggle to tie her Converse, she ran downstairs.
"Morning sis," the messy Sam who was half-awake greeted her. He was still in his pyjamas, dozing lazily on the sofa, watching the same old Mr Bean episode that was always repeated and repeated on TV.
"You have bad sense of entertainment," Vanessa mocked straightly. She sat and poured a glassful of water, and then ate a plate of toast served on the table. Nice life.
"So where are you going?" asked Sam, when Mr Bean went on a break.
"Lunch at Sour Sally," Vanessa gulped her glass of water all at once and took her bag. "With friends. Just... have fun with your silly uncle Bean. Bye, Sammy!"
"Yogurt for lunch?" mumbled poor Sammy to himself, but his sister already left.
---
After cursing all those slow and hungover taxi drivers down the street, Vanessa could finally attempt to reach Sour Sally. She felt no more need of calling Justin to ask him where he was and so on. If he did--whoa, what would that boy think? She couldn't wait to meet her geek prince? Eww, so not happening.
So Vanessa just parked her Mercedes and got down. She was just 15, but every police would just believe when she told them she's already a legal 17-year-old driver because of her height.
"Welcome, your orders please?" greeted a green-hatted waitress with a fully charged youth spirit.
"Original, medium," Vanessa ordered fast. "Mochi and brownies, please."
"That would be 3 bucks," said the waitress, her fingertips ran fast on the keyboard. "Your name, Miss?"
"Kelly," said Vanessa as she paid. Lying to various cashiers from different restaurants about her name was Vanessa's secret hobby. "Thanks!"
Now, where's that geek?
Vanessa noticed all the people that entered. A couple of boyfriend and girlfriend, wearing the same couple tee. Ergh, lame. Then a fat Spanish mother with two children. And then some brunette ladies who only came to ask where the toilet in that mall was.
Clearly enough, all those people, and also all the other people who were sitting on those cute pink and green chairs, did not own the possibility to be Justin.
Ah, so not only Boston guys could 'break their watch', Vanessa frowned.
Vanessa had swallowed her last piece of brownies when she stared at her watch. Darned, it was already 1! She was here since 12. Wasn't it enough that she ate that delicious cup of yoghurt in her slowest speed? One of the janitors had stared at her table with a blood thirsty look since 20 minutes ago. But that damnit geek hadn't showed up yet. She plugged one of her earphones in her one ear and played her iPod, still whining.
Ah, what a bad Saturday. Daniel Powter was cursing and laughing at her with Bad Day through her ears.
Before grumbling any further, Vanessa turned to the glass door as she saw it open.
Ah, but this couldn't be Justin.
A guy entered, walking in a constant pace. His sea green eyes looked around impatiently, as if looking for something--or more possibly, someone. He looked perfectly handsome, his athletic body covered in a gray-black checked shirt, partly slipped into his dark jeans.
Vanessa was just about to click on Twitter Mobile and tweet about having her what-turns-out-to-be-awesome Saturday when the guy unexpectedly approached her.
"Vanessa?"
Her jaws fell open, she was sure one of those mochis in her stomach almost jumped out through her throat. She didn't even remember to turn her iPod off.
How could this guy know her name?
"Emm--yea?" she finally collected herself and answered, standing up.
"You're Vanessa, right?" the guy offered his hand and Vanessa shook it nervously. "I'm Justin."
"Holy mackerel!!" Vanessa's uncontrollable volume echoed, the loud shout she had been holding in her heart long enough just bursted through her mouth. "But that geeky picture you sent me--"
Justin smiled, and on the chair in front of her. "Well.. can I tell you something?"
"Of course," Vanessa nodded, also sitting down.
"As you see.. this is the real.. the real j.man11. The real Justin. That geek picture I sent you isn't me.. it's just a neighbor who visits me often to borrow my advanced chemistry notes," explained Justin.
"Aha," Vanessa replied absent-mindedly, not really aware of what Justin was telling her, too captivated of that princely figure in front of her.
"At school, everybody wants to be my friend just because of.. what you're staring at unstoppably," he continued a little sarcastically. "When they are asked about me all they just say was.. hot. Cool. Handsome. Charming. And so on. Nobody has ever said something about me being friendly. Or helpful. Or anything else, really..
"So I am quite a loner in my school. I spend most of my time online, and I love meeting different people on the net. I mean, imagine! The internet is the only place I can find real friends who love you for who you are.." he continued, "Whenever they asked me my picture I would just give them that geek picture and after that, they'd never chat with me anymore," Justin laughed a little. "But when I chat with you it's just different."
Vanessa's hand trembled, was it the air-conditioner or her? The way he stared at her, the way he spoke, everything in him was too breathtaking for her..
"So.. what do you think of the picture I sent you?" Justin asked. Vanessa cleared her throat before answering, "Emm, you're--I mean that guy--is just so horrible," she giggled. "So I was kind of... scared. To meet you today."
"Exactly," Justin nodded. "You knew I looked horrible but you still reply my chats anyway. When I'm alone at home, when I'm lonely, when I'm unable to sleep... you're always there. That's what I like about you."
Vanessa smiled. She was never more thankful than today, when she recalled of how her conscience always convinced her to appear offline when Justin chatted with her but instead she refused and kept on chatting. Maybe it was true, the thing that made her fall over him was just.. the real him. His friendliness, his kindness.
"I'm so glad to meet you today," Vanessa's voice broke the prolonged silence. "Thanks for coming for me."
"Me too," agreed Justin. "I really should leave now. But I'm staying over at some near place around here, so I guess I'll... meet you often?"
Vanessa nodded shyly. "Of course," she said.
"From now on we're gonna start all over," Justin walked to the cashier to order his take away meal. Again, he offered his hand to Vanessa, "Hi I'm Justin."
"And I'm smitten," blurted Vanessa without thinking further, but she coughed and quickly corrected, "I mean.. Vanessa."
"Nice to meet you," his sea green eyes met her hazel ones, and before long it was just a new feeling that clouded both of them.
Vanessa smiled. She was drowned in the song played through her earphone. Miley Cyrus. One of her favourites.
And the 7th thing, I like the most, that you do :
You make me love you..
---
v_sleepyhead is offline.
---
Thanks for reading! xoxo
---