Chapter One: Twisted Squares Cont'd

He had skin the colour of milky chocolate, almost lickable in her opinion. The deepest of brown set eyes that had depths unfathomable- that is whenever she got the chance to look directly at them. Ah, but she had not fallen for all those “looks” first. Physical characteristics for some unknown reason had never really appealed to her, nor grabbed her fancy unlike most girls her age who would swoon over the hottest guy to flash a set of washboard abs. Her response was usually a curt “meh”. Not even her own mother could figure her out on that aspect.1

What had made the key difference for Winona was the fact that he had, to put it bluntly- a brain. He was articulate. He would think about things, sometimes too excess, but nevertheless, he would argue things through in a concise manner. Provide advice and be willing to talk about nearly any topic. He showed an understanding and opened her eyes up to a world she had thought never existed- in her opinion now the real world.2

No, no, no, they had not had sex! She knew that was what most people would think as soon as she said this description to anyone. Why was it that everything now days had to be about sex?3

Winona sighed.4

At times she wished it had even been close to that. But there wasn’t even a kiss if she was being truly honest here. At best there was a hug. Not even brought on by his motivation to do so, but hers. A key to realising that maybe the situation wasn’t the way she had hoped?5

In any case, he was essentially to her a free spirit. Unbound by virtually anything. He would travel and love to travel anywhere, doing anything from rock climbing to scuba diving. All the things she secretly wanted and had longed to do, but until this point lacked the courage to do so. Furthermore, she hadn’t found anyone with the same interests as her in that regard.6

Most of her family had been the quiet conservative type. They preferred staying at home, watching television and chilling out on the couch rather than being out there and exploring what was the world. They had always regarded her as somewhat as on oddity for wanting to be out there, doing things. She could not accept boredom and this she had been told on numerous occasions would be her downfall.7

But there he was this guy, Cameron, standing there showing her, telling her, that it didn’t have to be that way at all. She had gotten to a point in her life at the time where maybe, just maybe her family might have been right. But no, he had showed her this was far, far from the case and that was what initially attracted her.8

Winona sighed again. Because of that she had now come to dislike anything that was presented to her that could offer her a glimpse of a long sought dream or desire. Just look at how well this situation had turned out.9

She recalled the many nights spent tossing around in bed, wondering and writing whether this was “something” or nothing. She would run down the same lists, and come to the same conclusion “just friends”. Well that’s what she convinced herself of.10

“Ready for the fun part?” She whispered to herself in the mirror.11

The fun part was, the year before, she had known Cameron- as the barest of acquaintances. At the time, his attentions were preoccupied with another girl name Myra. They spent most of their time together, coming out only on the occasion to speak with the rest of us. No one knew what was going on. Some choose to ignore it, blissfully. Others, like Winona, choose to see that certain things were developing. She was under the impression that they were either at the beginning throws of a relationship, where everything is lovey-dovey or they were in a relationship. At the time she had had no doubts in her mind as to the certainty of their immediate “coming together”. This had been the major reason why Winona had kept him out of her sights. For all intents and purposes he was taken.12

She was not the type to cheat with someone or try and give them any motivation in order to sway that way. That was sheer stupidity in her opinion. The fact that people still succumbed to doing that disgusted her in the most and that her mother encouraged it in her under the reasoning of “well you never know, he might just realise the girl his with isn’t good enough compared to you”, disgusted her further.13

It was not until her birthday, when upon having sent invitations out to everyone he accepted. She was naturally shocked, seeing as she had assumed that he didn’t even know her name, let alone want to come to her birthday. There was his reply in her inbox “I would be delighted to come”.14

And that he was. It was a brilliant night, though what disturbed her was the non-appearance of Myra. This had rattled Winona at the time, but she had let it slide, seeing as it was her birthday, the one day in the year where, hell it should be all about you.15

Upon the end of the evening she had said goodbye to him by offering her hand, to which he looked at it in a form of disgust and offered a hug instead.16

“Actually, that was the only time where he offered to hug me.” Winona mused out loud.17

It was that hug that would initially spark something, who knew, at that time he saw in her a potentially good friend? She shelved that night way in her memory.18

Upon returning from the holiday break however, there was one distinct difference in the atmosphere- Cameron and Myra no longer spent every waking day together. In fact they could not stand the sight of each other. Myra would go to any lengths to avoid him and Cameron would do the same also.19

It lead to great suspicion in Winona’s mind to only which she could think of one conclusion. Some disagreement must have happened between them. Could one of them have wanted to start a relationship and the other not? Or had they already been in one and someone said something to break it off? Who knew? They weren’t telling anyone anything.20

What she did know was that in that year Cameron and herself began exchanging conversations. An improvement from the year before. They were scant at first, general. But over time they became more and more frequent, lengthier and detailed. Through that year they grew to know each other better.21

Winona found herself organising group activities deliberately to invite him along, so she could get to know him more.22

“I was the one who took the initiative again. How could I have been so stupid not to see?”23

Oh, Cameron came along; to nearly everything he could, which left her feeling confused over his intentions.24

But it was the happiest time of her life at that moment, Winona mused as she swirled her finger in the water in the vanity. For once she saw a prospect that was both scary and amazing. She was high on the euphoria of love and didn’t even know it.25

It was until one sunny afternoon that he came to seek her advice on what to do about a potential girl that he liked that everything came crashing down. It was also at that point Winona made the decision that something had definitely gone amiss between Myra and himself and that maybe he had found some other potential girl he was interested in.26

She had hoped against hope that it was her. Why she had hoped that, she cursed herself for realising that if the potential were to come up she’d take it.27

So she encouraged him. She encouraged him wholeheartedly to take that leap forward and ask that potential girl out. Life is all about taking a leap, hearing the “yes’s” as well as the “no’s”. You just never know, so why not give it a try?28

She had probed him all afternoon to find out who exactly this girl was. It was not until after she returned home to check her email inbox that she got to see who this girl was.29

Cameron was interested in her best friend Fiona.30