Royale Gold tissue

This is a short story, based on what I saw a few days ago at the train station.

[RAINING + THUNDERS + LIGHTNING]- 5.30pm

She had a really bad day… getting ignored by her friends and got bad news about her work.

She was waiting for her mum to pick her up. She found an empty bench,  plugged in her earphones, turned up the volume and shut the world out, completely.

She closed her eyes and drifted into space. She imagined that she was out somewhere fun with her friends and was enjoying their time laughing together.

The pictures in her head was beautiful, with shady trees above them, they had a picnic with the cool air caressing their faces. Everyone was smiling when a cloud came marching towards them, sprinkling them with cold tears.

She expected her friends to run away from the rain, but instead, they were running towards the rain, jumping with joy, embracing the rain as if they haven’t felt the rain in such a long time.

She joined them, dancing and laughing to the beat of the raindrops…

…

Her playlist came to a stop. She opened her eyes to find a frowning guy towering over her.

There was nothing left to do than gasp. Before she had the chance to push him away, he held up her phone and gave it to her, but now, with a smile plastered on his face.

He couldn’t possibly be stealing her phone by that, she thought. She noticed that it had been half an hour since she started to listen to her long 276 list of songs.

She also noticed that that guy was still there, standing in front of her, trying to pull something out of his sling bag. It was a packet of tissues. Royale Gold tissues, in fact.

She made a questioning look, which made him smile. He calmly pointed to her cheeks and said,

            “It’s enough that the sky is crying. Smile. I bet it looks pretty on you.”

She was so shocked that her lips trembled. She herself didn’t notice that she was crying because of what she had been through today. How could someone notice that?  Let alone offered her tissues. Royale Gold tissues.

She took the packet of tissues, wiped away her tears and looked up. He was gone.

She looked around and saw him already in a cab, wearing his safety belt. The cab had to make a u-turn to get out of the station so she had another glimpse of that guy before he left.

She waited. The cab turned and she saw him. He was looking at her too which caused their eyes to lock for just a mere second, and it broke. The cab was driving away.

She blinked and knew there were still a few drops of tears left at the corner of her eyes.

For some reason, she walked straight into the rain and found her way to Wangsa Walk. Those ‘few’ tears she saw earlier was a false alarm. There were still buckets and buckets of them.

In the rain, she cried her heart out…

The sadness that came from the whole day and the calmness that came with the Royale Gold tissues mushed up together. It all came out with the buckets and buckets of tears. Like they always say,

            “There is no better place to cry than in the rain”

Who knew the clash between hot tears and cold rain would feel great…

She texted her mum to pick her up a bit later so she walked on, finally catching a glimpse of the cab stand of Wangsa Walk.

Her tear glands were almost empty when her feet hit the cab stand, but her whole body was soaking wet. 

She wiped the remaining of her tears as she remembered that mysterious guy she met earlier. So she mid-shouted a satisfying sigh to the rain. As in,

“Ahhhhhhh…!!!”

She looked over at her watch. 10 minutes to 7pm and a black Ford Fiesta pulled up a few feet away. Her mum was just in time.

She started to walk away when she heard someone sneezed and sniffed. She thought she was alone when she mid-shouted earlier. Oh my God, it’d be embarrassing to have someone watch that without me noticing it!!! she thought.

She turned around just slightly… and saw the same guy from earlier.

The Royale Gold tissue guy.

She gasped just by mere breath and he looked up. He smiled and waved.

By heart, she knew she had to go there. Mum could wait for a few minutes, she thought.

She stopped just a feet away from him. She took out the packet of tissues he gave her earlier and gave it to him. She smiled and said,

“Even though I’m totally wet, you need this more than I do. I only used one, because one is all I need, just as I only needed one person to offer me tissues. And for that, thank you.”

He smiled, took just one tissue and said,

            “Like you said, I too, need only one as I only needed one person to offer me a tissue.”

She smiled, kept the rest of the tissues and walked to the car. As she closed the door, she looked back, just once more and smiled as she saw him looking at her as well.

Her mum glanced at her and asked,

            “So how was your day, wet and all?”

She closed her eyes, holding the packet of tissues, now only 8 of the tissues remain, and said,

            “It was great, mum. My day was just, great.”

She smiled warmly to herself.

Up until now, that packet of tissue remained the same.

8 of them, untouched.