EW17

Disclaimer: please read this series of posts starting from EW29, then backwards.

You were anxious the whole day, knowing I was with somebody else. You wished it was just some other guy, but it was your own best friend. The one with the 'feelings' and the 'almosts'.

We only met twice again before that, when I finally agreed to see you. You sat on a high stool on another part of the map, waiting for a girl in all black, save for the bright red collar popping out from under her hoodie. But that is a story for stations down the line.

I missed this stop and had to wait six minutes for the next train to take me back. I have no idea why it took forever to come, the lines of office workers and North-East Line passengers already forming.

But you waited, listening to me complain about my shoes that were wet from walking in the rain. I arrived back at this stop and walked out, looking all around for you. When I finally found you at the back of the mall, you surprised me with a Cotton On bag.

Somehow you still remembered my shoe size, and you even got me socks to change to. I was a little shy at having to accept them, but you made me remove the wet ones on the spot. You helped me put them on, a pair of socks with polka dots and navy shoes with white shoelaces.

You were meeting an old friend, asking you for advice and opinions on headphones. I tagged along, still a little shy and skeptical of having you back in my life. But when your friend came, you did something that opened up my heart a little: you introduced me as your girlfriend.

He said we looked like siblings, which was nothing new at that point. You held my hand again, but it gave me a different rush from your best friend's hand just hours before.

When the train doors finally opened at Tiong Bahru that day, somehow, my heart reopened for you too. Everything came spilling out, the hope of a fresh start and desire to have you as mine again. But so did the insecurity of third parties and the grudge against your past departures. Here is where our relationship restarted for the tenth time, along with all the trouble that came with it.