Baskadia

When did we fall out of love?

“Ting!” message sent.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to save a damsel in distress and I always knew the right way. See, in the bedtime stories, his name was prince charming, the knight and shining amour, and my name was prince (well, it’s not my real name, but it’s what my parents called me) and by the rule of “you can be anything you wanna be”, I became the prince. I practiced my sword skills with forks over breakfast, wrestled through the pile of foam when being bathed, my parents loved it. I was put in the corner in nursery for kissing this one girl during the afternoon sleeping period coz she was beautiful (sleeping beauty, get it?).

So when the transformation started, I wasn’t scared. The hand holding, so tight her fingerprints passed through mine, the heartbeat sounds clearly echoing from the chest, the putting up with the taste of coffee just so we could go on dates (and I swear to God, I don’t like coffee). We went on dates, I pretended they were battle fields, fighting through the fears to say “I love you”. Finally, I became victorious, she said “I do”.

There’s a lot of things that are ok when you’re a kid that cease to be when you get older. Tell your wife that you can no longer replace the empty containers of her favorite yoghurt flavor in the refrigerator or you can no longer make a quick stop at the store to grab her a box of chocolate on your way back from work. This is the most important rule of the game, never tell anyone else that you’re playing. Don’t tell her why she no longer wakes up to sticky notes on her forehead, even though she hated it. It’s kinda like fun exiting the party hoping no one will ask him why he’s leaving, or tell him to stay just a little bit longer. Don’t tell her why she no longer hears the heartbeat echo through the chest. Pretend to take the pill, don’t swallow, instead hide them. Hide them in the promises you made, till death do us part, you and me till the wheels fall off. Pile them up, for you know that day is coming....and boy, believe me it’s coming.

I became the prince, and he’s a coward, he’s weak, he waves the white flag at the first sight of a sword. He stands close to the door at the party. There is no warrior in him, there never was. This is one thing I can do to help you, I can run, I can leave and trust me I won’t make a scene. This is the best thing about knowing the right way and the wrong way to save a damsel in distress, you can also choose the latter.