Title: The Thirteen O’ Clock Love Story

Chapter 1: The Question of Her Enigmatic Infatuation

“I’m actually going to have a trip in Los Angeles next week. So I was just wondering, if it’s okay with you. I’d really like for us to meet in person. You and I have been online friends for more than two years now. I think it’s time we finally meet.”

Sara looked at her screen in shock. Surely, she was dreaming. Her deepest fantasy couldn’t be happening. Surely, in just a moment, someone would shake her and remind her that she was a crazy shithead like what her best friend usually would do when she was daydreaming.

Surely, she was only seeing things because she ate too much.

But nothing was happening. The clock’s ticking had never been louder in her life as it was in the passing moments. Or was it the beating of her heart?

Sara met him in a chat room hosted by her own university for students who were History majors more than two years ago. In the first week they had conversed online, she was under the impression that the person hiding behind the username of Peachblossoms25 was a girl. After all, peach blossoms were flowers.

In general, girls were usually the ones who use flower-usernames.

What guy in his right mind would use that as his username in the first place, correct? Not unless he was gay of course. But she was assured that Peachblossoms25 was a guy who didn’t swing in any direction but straight.

She was curious to find out if the word “fuck” had already existed in a so-and-so year. She was too lazy to search it herself. That was why she went and tried to ask people about it in the chat room she heard where she could get her answer immediately. After all, there was no harm in trying.

He, whom she thought was a she back then, was the only person who gave the correct information. From then on, they started talking about the mundane subject of History which consisted of a lot of blah-blah-blahs.

She didn’t believe that that kind of “chemistry” really existed online, but when she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her conversations with Peachblossoms25, she thought she was insane. Worse, she thought she was actually a lesbian and was only finding out that fact at her age.

She didn’t really want to be nosy or to be rude to the person by just suddenly asking about his gender neither did she want to appear stupid for asking about it since the username obviously indicated that Peachblossoms25 was a girl.

She went through the agony of sleepless nights and sleepy mornings just because of that. She was scared of the answer Peachblossoms25 would give her all because of the crush she had for the person until finally she couldn’t take it anymore that she mustered up the courage to ask it.

Just before the clock struck one on April 29, the infernal bastard sent a laughing smiley face to her and told her that he was a guy, a straight one at that. And if she wanted confirmation about him, she only had to see and ask the head professor of the Math department of her university.

She wanted to burn her computer at that point. There she was suffering while he was happily oblivious to everything. But again, curiosity got to her. She found out that he was an international student who received a doctorate degree in History, an alumnus of her university, a good friend of the head professor of the Math department and was someone who happened to be a British American, living in London, just 5 years older than she was.

Then on, their online relationship as acquaintances became friendship. Weird as it would seem, the two of them agreed not to send pictures to each other, not to talk to one another using microphones, not to see each other using webcams and not to contact each other except through a messenger or e-mails.

She was the first one to put that rule between them. She was too insecure while he, on the other hand, had a lot of confidence. Perhaps, he only agreed to that rule just so she could have her way and be at ease with him.

But even with just those lines of communication, Sara became closer to him in the two years that went by. He became her confidant and her sanctuary in almost everything that her crush towards him became an intense infatuation.

She realized that her feelings were in such a state because dating no longer interested her. She would rather stay in her apartment, log on and talk to him for hours. Of course, she never confessed her feelings.

There was so much mystery surrounding him that she asked the head of the Math department about him. Naturally, she didn’t ask too much, afraid that she would give way too much of how interested she really was.

She was hopelessly infatuated. She didn’t dare name her feelings as “love,” because how could she? She refused to believe that love could possibly blossom in the world of internet. Such a concept did not exist in her vocabulary.

The closer they became to each other, she not only became more fascinated with him but her feelings for him continued to grow as well.

But now, she literally did not know what to do or to say. So, she just waited and hoped that he would think she was disconnected.

She screamed. The idiot buzzed her and shattered the silence. “Hello? You still there?” she saw him ask.

“Oh, what the hell am I supposed to respond to you, Dominick? “ Sara whispered in front of her screen.

Author’s Note: Ah, my very first fiction after a very long hiatus. My birthday passed and I am now officially years old.  Anyway, hope you readers of mine had as much fun of reading it as I had writing it.