Practicing Patience with Percy

This post is part of the A to Z Challenge. Each post will be associated with a letter of the alphabet with the theme ‘Letters to my younger self’.

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Dearest 14-year-old me,

You’ll find yourself saddled with an admirer later this year. His name is Percy.

You’ll notice him when he starts to loiter around the prefect’s corridor hoping to catch you when you get to school. He’ll say hello at first and you’ll think he’s fairly cute and say hello back. You’ll forget about him until you see him again during recess when he’ll sit at the same table and introduce himself. You’ll smile and blush but you’ll be practical and remind yourself that you’re too young to have a boyfriend.

Percy will make you feel awkward because his gaze is trained on you and you’ve never had anyone’s gaze trained on you. You’ll not know what to do with this attention at first but eventually, you’ll turn it into an irritant. Irritation is an emotion you’ll be more accustomed to than abject adoration.

You’ll use this irritation to turn Percy away, cut him with your words, roll your eyes at him. In the beginning, he’ll play along but eventually, he’ll tire of your sarcastic retorts and feel the hurt you meant to sow in him.

By and by, you’ll see him less and he’ll smile at you even lesser until eventually, his smiles will turn to one of his classmates.

Dear me, he’s actually quite nice and you will not have to hurt him so with your coldness. Practice patience, dear and who knows what the future will hold for you and Percy.