Being Celeste (2 page)

“How about...
that
guy!” said Kate,
pointing to a really slender tall man, getting into his car.

“Five out of ten,” I replied, giving her a
curious smile.

“Really? Seven!”

I knew she would give him a high score. I
never really got her taste in men. That’s why she gets accidental kisses.

“Seven, but...he’s so-”

She interrupted. “He’s cute. Look at that
face: it’s warm and clean shaven. I bet his eyes close when he smiles. And
those legs. You know what, let’s make that an eight.”

We both laughed, she was partly right, now
that she put it like
that
. All of a sudden, what seemed to be some spice
to a slow morning, a minibus parked right in the centre if the mall complex and
unloaded guys in blue and white uniform, it looked like a soccer team.

“A soccer team?” asked Kate. “I didn’t know
there were soccer matches on Monday.”

“Who cares,” I said, “Bonus points for us.”

Kate giggled. They were all fit, there must
have been about twelve of them, just pouring out of the bus in identical
outfits. They were headed for the supermarket.

“There are so many of them, where to start?
How about...
him
?” I pointed at the one in front. He had caught my eye in
an instant. He was so gorgeous! and really tall. I couldn’t make out his
features because they were walking towards the supermarket and away from our
window, but I was in love.

“Four!” shot Kate, without hesitation.

“What?” I turned away for a moment to look
at her, standing aimlessly behind the mannequin that was wearing the funky
winter outfit. I don’t think the band of boys moved her at all. She was
probably still hung up on the dude she gave an eight. “Ten! Take those glasses
off Kate,” I demanded. I looked back at the car park area, they were gone, into
the supermarket I guess. I would wait for them to come out again, so that I
could spot my soccer stud. I wish I could go in there and see him up close. I
wondered if we needed anything in the shop from the supermarket. But Kate would
see right through my plan.

“Check out maroon shirt,” said Kate. She
had the sweetest voice, Kate. “I think I’ll give him a three out of ten.”

“I agree, three it is,” I said. “What’s
wrong with him is that he’s shorter than me. I think I’d be intimidating.”

“I don’t mind short guys.”

“But you just gave him a three?”

“Because he
is
a three!” she protested,
further pointing at him.

“Wops! It’s five past eight, time to open
up shop.”

Kate hurried to the door all obediently and
flung the door to the boutique open. She hated being late. It was time for the
public to see her pink outfit. I went for the coats and hung them on a rack at
the jacket’s section. I had a sense of pride knowing that people are going to
come on in and scoop them up for the winter and make me some money. I
straightened them up and tagged them. Kate was dusting the counter. It seems only
like yesterday when Kate and I were just kids. We’ve known each other since
pre-school, but we only became friends in senior primary school when we were
both working on a science project as partners. She was always very neat and
organised in class, her pens and pencils facing the same direction, her books
in a neat pile in her desk, her handwriting flawless. I on the other hand was
the complete opposite of her, I don’t really care much about organisation and
all. I’m not uptight. I never thought we’d ever be friends. I wonder what she’d
think of me now if she ever found out the things I used to say about her in my
mind. They were not mean comments, but you know...in case one day she woke up
with superpowers and she could read minds. No! Then she’d discover the comments
I’ve been making about her pink Monday outfit. Let that never happen then, let
it remain in my head where it belongs. Dear Kate and I have been inseparable
ever since we discovered that we could actually make this friendship thing
work. We completed secondary school three years ago. We wanted to go to
university, or some sort of tertiary institution like everyone else. But we
just couldn’t decide what we wanted to major in. Besides, we never wanted to be
separated, so I made the suggestion that we kick it in my parent’s boutique for
a while, while we discover ourselves and the world, and maybe one day we’d find
out what we wanted to study, the both of us. The ‘discover ourselves’ part of
the plan included getting boyfriends and going on dating frenzies. Becoming
women, real respectable women with direction and poise, so I thought. It’s been
three years however, and here we still are, looking for that direction, and
that thing that we both want to study at university. My parents don’t mind that
I’m not in university. They only care that I’m interested in the family
business. I know this because they told me. I saw the shine in my father’s eyes
when I told him I’d manage the shop. He was just retiring, so this meant he’d
spend most of his days, sleeping at home or going on exciting adventures at the
cattle post, alone. Kate and I were, and still are the dynamic duo at the shop,
reeling in customers like hotcakes.

I was still busy tidying up and organising
the clothes on the ‘on sale’ table when our first customer of the day rushed
in. I didn’t notice he was in the shop, seeing as I’m always wrapped in my
thoughts when I’m not talking to anyone (obviously). He was wearing a blue and
white soccer outfit. Before I could wrap my head around his presence and
realise that he’s one from the soccer team featured in our stalking craze just
a while ago, in walked my soccer stud, right behind him. Number 27...oh, number
27! I didn’t realise that my whole body had frozen over and my face had gone
all stupid looking. For a long time I was just looking at the gorgeous man
who’d come to have a look at our store. He had the most perfect face I’d ever
seen in my life, all manly and bold. Those sweet and sour eyes and built, tall
body just towering over us like an angel. He was on his phone, texting I
suppose, waiting for his mate who was talking to Kate over at the counter. My
eyes were still stuck on number 27, but I could see with the corner of my left
eye, Kate pointing at me. I immediately woke up from my coma and noticed that
number 27’s mate, number 13 was walking up to me, holding a piece of paper in
his hand.

“Hi,” he said, a warm smile washed over his
face. I just wished number 27 would come on over and join him. He continued,
“I’m here to pick up a coat for my coach. Here are the details.” He handed me
the piece of paper.

I don’t think I’d recovered yet because the
nice guy had said
hi
to me and I didn’t utter a single word. I think at
that point I’d forgotten that I had the ability to talk. I mean he was cute,
but number 27 was
hot
. I don’t think I’d ever been in that sort of
situation before, surrounded by good looking guys. I don’t think good looking
guys ever enter our shop anyway. Kate and I always follow them around instead.
I hadn’t practiced for this encounter. I wonder if Kate can sense that I’ve
gone all solid and robot-like. I turned my back on him and walked over to the
coat rack as my eyes scanned the piece of paper

“Just give me a minute, dude,” I heard him
say, number 13.

“A minute, I have to make a call, I’ll wait
for you outside.”

Was that him replying? Number 27, it
was
him. What a lovely voice he has. So deep and pronounced and frothy and rugged!
Oh I just want to live in it forever and ever. I wonder how he looks when he’s
talking. I missed it, looking for a damned coat. Maybe he has dimples or
something. I missed his facial expression when he plays the impatient mate who
has to make a phone call. I missed everything. Argh! I hate coats...but that’s
stupid. I grabbed the order and turned to walk over and hand it to Kate to ring
it up. I saw with the corner of my eye again, number 13 smiling at me. He must
have been one kind soul, wondering why I was ignoring him. But I wasn’t
ignoring him. All this beauty was making me panic. I gave Kate the coat and of
course, I should have known, she was having the same ordeal as me. Except she
remembered how to talk, unlike me, disabled in that department! She was all
flustered looking and had on a weird smile, almost like it was forced to hide
the panic. This is not good. We can’t both panic at the same time, who’s going
to run the shop then? Number 13 was just as tall as number 27, except his body
was slim. He had followed me to the till point. I almost ran into him as I turned
to run back to my table and pretend to be organising clothes until he left.

“Thank you,” I heard him say to me.

I just soared over to my table, I didn’t
even flinch.

“Is she okay?” I heard him say again.

Shit!

“Sh-she’s fine!” Kate replied with a squeaky
voice. It had gone from sweet to squeaky. “She just eh, lost her voice.”

I was looking over at them.

He turned to face me and said, “Oh, sorry
about your voice. Is it a cold?”

I don’t know how it happened, but I managed
to nod and force a smile on my face at the same time. My eyes wandered back to
my table of clothes but then I saw number 27 quickly enter the shop again. He
walked over to number 13. Someone knock me out right now, for I cannot take
this agony anymore! I couldn’t feel my legs. I
was
in love, mesmerized.

“Hey, I’m done,” said number 13.

“Sure,” replied number 27.

After number 13 said his thank yous to
Kate, they left. I felt the breeze of their motion brush across my face, number
27’s especially because he was on my side, and I breathed it in. How
refreshing. We waited until they were gone far enough and Kate and I just went
crazy.

“OMG! My gosh, they are so handsome!” said
Kate. She was jumping up and down, with trinkets of tears in the corner of her
eyes.

I was jumping too. It’s a miracle that my
voice came back. After a while though I stopped and said, “Gorgeous? But you
gave number 27 a four earlier.”

“I know, and I take that back.”

We both laughed like crazy. The laugh had
incorporated relief, excitement, and sheer gratitude for being graced with
attractive first customers.

“Number 27 did seem a bit like an arrogant
arse, but he
is
hot, you’re right,” continued Kate. “I couldn’t contain
myself all that time they were in here, did you see me, Celeste? I was about to
explode. I wanted to freeze time and walk over to you and point out that there
were two hot guys in the shop, in case you hadn’t noticed. But then you came
over to me and you looked all frozen up.” She paused and laughed hysterically,
a little too hysterical, I think. Although Kate had handled the present
situation better than I, by not losing her ability to talk, I don’t think she
was handling the aftermath well. I thought she was about to bounce off the walls
with glee. “You couldn’t say anything Celeste. The poor guy was so nice and
well mannered and you just ignored him. That was hilarious. If only there were
security cameras in the shop so that you could see yourself,” said Kate. She
then went on another elevated hysterical laugh, it had some cackling to it, but
not in a malicious way. Her mouth was so wide open, I thought she was going to
swallow me and everything in the shop. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
Ah, Kate! one of those people who laugh and cry at the same time.

Oh, but don’t listen to me. I was in there
laughing with her. It was funny. I’d been so stupid and immature. I mean they
were just people, soccer players even, they were normal. What’s the freezing up
for? It was funny. I also found myself, mouth wide open, releasing my
ridiculous laugh for all to here. I wonder what the neighbouring shops were
thinking in the complex. It was rather quiet in the mornings. They were
probably thinking that we had captured a couple of wild parrots or crows and
they were screeching out, demanding we let them go. But we didn’t care. This
one would go in the history books.

“Oh but did you see their uniforms? They
belong to the university soccer team. They must come all the way from the city.
I wonder where they’re going to play,” said Kate, wiping the tears from her
face. “They go to the university. Let’s
facebook
them, I’ll get my
phone.” Kate rushed to behind the counter and started pressing at the dials on
her phone to access the internet.

“But we don’t know their names,” I said,
the excitement dying down from my body. “How are you going to find them?”

“Easy, I’ll just search for the university
soccer team page and I’m pretty sure they are members of the page,” she
replied, feeling rather proud to be familiar with technology. “There, the
soccer page! Come see, come see!”

I hurried over and we both starred at the
screen as if our lives depended on it. Man! Kate could be a spy or something.
It’s scary the way she’s cool about searching for people we hardly know on
facebook. But I’m not complaining, work your magic Kate.

“There they are,” she said. We were looking
at a picture of the whole soccer team. “Number 27 is called Taboka.” She
paused, waiting for my reaction. I love it! “Number 13 is called Thabang. Hmm!
The two Ts.” Kate handed me the phone and said, “My gift to you Celeste.”

I was in another land where I was already
planning my wedding and changing my surname. When she gave me her phone, I
immediately went to number 27, Taboka’s
facebook
page. “What do you mean
my gift, don’t you want to have a go?” I finally said, noticing how selfish I
may be being, hogging the phone.