5 I Want to Make a Movie (1/2)

At dusk, the crowd of customers was bustling. The white collars dragged their tired bodies there, sat down, and had a cup of coffee while enjoying the charming twilight time.

Wang Yang and Jessica sat by the window sipping their coffees.

After watching ”Titanic”, they came to the cafe nearby without talking. The joy of the surprising reunion gradually faded away, and now they didn't know what to say. Although they were once the closest friends, sharing everything with each other, that was when they were kids. Nearly ten years had passed, and the feeling of strangeness was inevitable.

”Yang, there is something for which I must apologize to you.” Jessica broke the silence eventually. She looked at Wang Yang and said apologetically, ”When I transferred to another school, I didn't say goodbye to you. I'm sorry.” She sighed and continued, ”At that time, my father was leaving the military and planned to go to Los Angles for business. My whole family had to go there with him. But, you know, I was too vulnerable. I didn't know how to say goodbye to you, so… at last, I chose to leave a letter to you.”

Wang Yang, who was totally confounded, said, ”A letter? What letter?”

”What?” Jessica frowned in confusion, too. ”Just the farewell letter I left for you. I put it in your drawer. So you… you never got it?”

”No, what letter? I have no idea about it.” Wang Yang shrugged. The only thing he knew was that Jessica left school as if she had never treated him as a good friend. For a while, he had complained about this, and then he completely forgot about her after some time.

Jessica was stunned. Right after her father told her that they would move to LA, she started to write this long letter, as long as several pages. She wrote it and tore it, and then wrote it again. It took her more than one week to finish. Until the very last day in school, she made up her mind about the content and carefully put the letter in Wang Yang's drawer. But how come he didn't even receive it?

”That's impossible. What happened?” Jessica couldn't understand. She was so anxious as if she had lost some treasures. ”I did put that letter in your drawer, under your books… Oh, my God. I get it now. That's why! You never got my letter. You haven't read my letter, so you wouldn't know my new address. God! What went wrong?”

”Hold on, hold on, let's me think about it… There must be something I've missed…” Wang Yang rubbed his temples, trying to recall the memories from that time, but all of them were rather blurry. That day was like any other ordinary day; he went to school, entered the classroom, and found out the desk next to him was empty. Jessica took all of her textbooks away with her, nothing left. Then the teacher said she got transferred to another school. He was very upset, blaming her for leaving him without saying goodbye. During recess, he had stared at the empty desk next to him, feeling sentimental.

”Thank God that black chick finally left. She really bugs me. Ugly b*tch…””Yeah, she always acts like an ostrich, not even daring to talk. It was so boring to pick on her.””So now, who will ever talk to that chink boy? Their laughter just disgusted me so much.” Some of the bad white boys stuck together gossiping about them. And the head of those bad boys, Peter, suddenly pulled out several pages of paper and said gloatingly, ”Hey guys, look what I've found.” And then all of the white kids crowded around, bursting out it laughter mockingly. After that, he just thought those kids were too stupid, so he just walked out of the classroom.

Before long, his dream of being a director was spread among all of his classmates; many of them made fun of him behind his back. He still remembered that one time, Peter had said to him, ”Why don't you ask your ugly monster friend to be your leading actress, big director? Haha!”

Remembering all the details of the past, Wang Yang basically figured out what had happened. He asked Jessica, ”Had you mentioned anything about how my dream was to become a director in your letter?”

”Um…” Jessica pretended to think for a while. She actually still remembered every detail in that letter. She could even recite every sentence in it. A few moments later, she nodded and said, ”Probably, yes. I remember I'd written some encouragement in it. Maybe I mentioned it.”

She was trying so hard to control herself and tell herself to ”stop blushing”. As a matter of fact, in that farewell letter, she had spilled her heart, which would make herself feel so embarrassed now. That was the very first time she spilled her feelings. She mentioned that she would convince her parents to let her go to the performance school after they got settled in LA. She also said she would try her best to become an actress and ask Wang Yang to work hard on his dream of becoming a director so that they could meet each other again in Hollywood… Those words were so emotional and embarrassing. Therefore, there was no way she could forget it. In fact, she could even remember it backward.

When all of the memories were rushing back, especially when Wang Yang was sitting right in front of her, she just felt so nervous and unsettled. Was Yang playing a game with her?

”I knew it! I got it now! I figured out what went wrong now! D*mn it!” Wang Yang, who couldn't help swearing, said, ”It was Peter! It must be him! That son of a b*tch stole my letter. No wonder he knew about the fact that I wanted to be a director; he also knew you wanted to be an actress! Besides you, I hadn't told any other classmates about it. D*mn it! Screw him!”

Peter? Peter who? When hearing this name, Jessica slowly recalled a blurry face of a white kid, then she said unbelievably, ”Peter? The bad boy who had always pulled his hair up by gel? Yes! I remember that, when I was placing the letter in your drawer, he was the only kid in the classroom. And he sneered at me… Oh, Jesus! So it was him that stole the letter? How dare he do something like that?!”

Jessica seemed to be hurt deeply. At first, she sat there still for a moment, and then she scratched her hair in sadness. She remembered after she settled in LA, she was bullied in the new school all over again, then she never received any letter from Wang Yang, no matter how desperate she was. She even cried so many times when she was alone. Only after her parents sent her to the performance school and then she slowly became prettier, her nightmare was ended.

If Wang Yang had received her letter back then and kept in touch with her, how wonderful would that have been?! She was dead certain that she would be so happy about it, even if she still had to endure all the mockery and bullying from the bad kids.

It was all Peter's fault! Jessica clenched her fists, and her face flushed red. She muttered, grinding her teeth: ”How could he do this? How could he do this to us? Why does he exist in the world? I'm gonna kill that asshole…”

Wang Yang, too, was furious. If he had found out that he stole the letter, he would kick his ass for sure!

After being angry for a while, they sipped their coffee at the same time, and then looked at each other, smiling. In the smile, both of them had felt a little helpless and regretful. However, they let bygones be bygones. The past was irreversible, but it was so fortunate for them to run into each other again, wasn't it?

Putting down her coffee, Jessica was gradually recovering from the intense emotions. She looked at Wang Yang and gently said, ”Yang, I am so grateful for what you've done for me. I really am. You were my best friend at school.” She shook her head and continued, ”You don't know, when I was in LA, I had become the target of the bad kids again. Although they were in pretty clothes, their hearts were ugly. They just kept breaking my heart. Seriously, I missed you so much back then.”

She smiled slightly and cleared her throat. And then she tried to impersonate Wang Yang with a deeper voice, saying: ”Hey, you guys want to bully her? Have you asked for my permission? I got her covered!”