I lost contact with both Adrienne and Jackie from that point on. I no longer chatted with either of them online nor did I ever call Jackie thereafter. The only thing I thought about the rest of the year was anything that pertained to finishing my sophomore year of high school. I got through the remaining months of school relatively unscathed, except for a two-week relationship with another girl who lived even farther away from me than Adrienne did—Philadelphia; I broke off that relationship for the reasons that I had been just a rebound and it was only a relationship in name and not in practice.
The summer came and I was free to do anything again, as long as they were within my parameters as a fifteen-year-old. I hung out at the mall and chilled with friends during the summer months. We frequented Jack-in-the-Box and watched miscellaneous movies. There was nothing simpler, especially for me who had no other obligations except to live. I also had to attend summer school at the local community college, but only as preparation for AP Chemistry during my upcoming junior year. The other over-achieving students did the same. That class had been so easy for me that one of the older students in the class thought that it had been my major, but I informed him that I was still just a high school student.
My weekend routine had stayed the same: wait for someone to call with any hint of a plan and then roll with the punches. One time my friend Justin had called (or maybe it was the other way around). He and a few other friends, Mike and Patrick, were going to hang out at the mall and literally just do nothing there. In some ways, the four of us, along with a few other friends, had become the new, younger generation “F.O.B. squad” at the school. The word “F.O.B.” had been created in reference to people who had been “fresh off the boat,” meaning immigrants. At that time, it referred to the Filipinos who did not hang out with the larger “Filipino American” group, and those who spoke the language and otherwise were the “gangsters.” I was far from considering myself a “gangster,” but I had been close to the original group since before my brother had graduated at the end of my freshman year. My group took his group’s place as they all left.
I do not recall how exactly I got to the mall, but it must have either been Mike or Justin who picked me up. Patrick had already been at the mall with his girlfriend Stephanie, and we were to meet them up in front of the movie theaters connected to the main mall. It had been around sunset when we arrived and the tall shadows of the buildings shaded the walkway towards the theater entrance.
After having met up with Patrick and Stephanie, Stephanie then decided to go into the movie theaters to check on a few things. She had just recently been hired and had a few questions to ask the friendly folks of AMC Theaters. Because Patrick and Justin had been busy talking with each other, Mike and I were directed to look after Stephanie, so we followed her into the main lobby of the theater.
Stephanie entered the many doors before us. Mike walked ahead of me to open up a door and let me walk through first. I obliged his action and walked in behind Stephanie who had started talking to someone at the front desk. Mike followed behind and stood to my right, just a meter or two directly behind Stephanie. A few others walked in to actually watch a movie while a couple more people crowded the front counter.
On both sides of us, there had been nylon barriers preventing guests from freely walking to their desired movie without first presenting their tickets. To our left, however, were two females: one was a worker and another a potential worker or someone with a complaint. The theater employee had bent over the counter, which had been waist-high, in order to show some paperwork to the other young woman standing to her right, which was my left. Mike noticed this as well, obviously keeping an eye on our friend Stephanie with his peripheral vision.
Once Mike saw what I had been looking at, he actually let out a silent “hey” which prompted me to look at him for a second, though barely rotating my head. At this point, I may have already been staring for at least a minute or two.
A moment after Mike’s realization of the beautiful girl behind the nylon barrier, the very subject of our attention looked up towards the young lady standing beside her. Then, as if something had triggered her to notice, she looked in our direction. At first, this action surprised us both as we had been caught staring, but that was not what induced the most reaction out of Mike. The young worker tilted her head a bit, smiled, then waved hello in our direction. To be more specific, however, she waved in my direction. This caused Mike to say, “Oh,” and move back a half step. He looked at me, who had smiled back immediately with a slight nod, and then realized that I had known her.
Immediately, my heart started pumping faster and faster. I seemed to have gotten nervous when I realized exactly what was going on. When I first walked through the theater doors, it had already begun, but by the time she waved at me, my blood was rushing all throughout my body at an uncontrollable pace.
It was the first time that I was seeing Jackie in such a long period of time. I realized at that moment that I still had feelings towards her, and then everything else came rushing back. Oddly though, the bad things in my memory had been filtered out. I was just filled with great happiness and elation at the sight of her.
Before she finished her business at the counter, we were already walking out with Stephanie leading the way. We all went with our business after that, but I do not remember what exactly that business was. It was possible that we all walked into the mall and sat at the food court for a moment, and then visited GameWorks, which was adjacent to both the food court and the theaters. Of course, it was possible that all that time I just stayed outside with one of them, talking about something.
The late summer sun had set long before that and from what I recall it was nearing ten o’clock. All of the lights had turned on and a small line had formed at the exterior door of GameWorks. I walked outside next to one of the concrete benches that also served as a plant-holder. The bench had been facing one of AMC’s alternate exits. Justin walked with me. By then, Mike, Stephanie, and Patrick were inside the food court doing something else. The next thing I remember was Jackie running out from AMC and towards the main entrance of GameWorks. Justin noticed this also and made a comment that had something to do with me talking to her and Jackie being lonely. I cannot remember exactly what he said, but I do remember that he still liked how Jackie looked and persisted with me to hook him up with her if I was not going to do so myself. As she ran by, she noticed Justin and I walking, causing her to lock eyes with me for a split second.
Moments later, she walked out of GameWorks, still in uniform. As she walked towards me, Justin walked away, giving us some privacy. We greeted each other with a hug, as if we had known each other for a while, which we had, except discontinuously. We sat on one of the concrete benches and began to talk.
Facing an alternate exit to the theaters, I sat with a leg resting on the other while Jackie sat to my left cross-legged as children do during kindergarten story-time. Then, we just started talking. The conversational topics elude me, but I just remember feeling joy being next to her. Even now, remembering that moment, I yearn for something similar.
We probably sat there and talked for half an hour. She had apparently been running towards GameWorks to help her cousins with something. At that time she was on her break, so she decided to talk to me. Also, while we were talking, we noticed some people trying to enter the theaters through the alternate exit—it had become common for people to try to sneak into AMC that way. In the end, however, they were unsuccessful because someone from the inside had spotted them. Jackie paid them little attention because she knew that they were going to get caught anyway, especially if they were going to use that door to try sneaking in.
I forget the details but I do not forget the moment. My heart kept pounding in my chest, and that had been the only time up until that point in my life that I had that sort of experience. Before that, I thought that people’s hearts only beat faster in movies and television. Since I experienced it for myself, I became a believer.
I began calling her again after that. I think she even had a new screen name once we started chatting again. It was like the old days, when I used to call her at night and she would talk to me for some time then she would have to go for some reason or another. It was almost as if we had not skipped a beat when we restarted our friendly relationship. This time around, I had hoped for a better ending.
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