What does that faster heartbeat means?

“Sometimes some things are never meant to be understood but rather accepted.”

The alarm clock had been ringing several times already but Darryl was still on his bed. He’s expressionless and seems dead while sleeping. The room was messy and his bed was full of crumpled papers. It was Tuesday and he was supposed to have his 8:30 class but it’s already 9 o’clock in the morning.

“Darryl! Wake up! Don’t you have a class?” His elder sister Stella shouted from the outside of his room and knocked the door twice. But Stella never received even a single reply. She knocked it again and this time with greater force. There was silence. Stella’s face was worried and she knocks it again but still Darryl’s voice was not evident.

Stella went on her mom’s old room and she was looking for something. In the box, in the corridor, in the cabinet, “Where’s the key?” She nervously asked herself. Until she found it in one of the corners of the cabinet. She hurriedly went back to Darryl’s room and opened the door.

“What happened Darryl?” Stella asked as she went near to his brother who was sitting on his bed with tears falling down his cheeks.

“She’s gone!” Darryl said in a trembling and husky voice. In a minute or two, Stella did not utter a single word as she looked at his brother intently. It was her first time to see her brother cry and it was also the first time that her once brat and hard-headed brother held her hand, hugged her tight and cried as if a little kid on her shoulder.

“I know what that faster heartbeat means…”

The thought repeatedly ran on Darryl’s mind. He wanted to forget those moments and those memoirs that would just bring tears on his eyes and pain on his heart. But everything seemed to be very fresh still.

He remembered himself on those happiest moments in his life that seems to be just a dream. The fact that he had changed and transformed into a man and the thought that he had those faster heartbeats that confused him was a totally hard to forget.

Darryl was known to be a spoiled brat and a hard-headed boy at home and in school. Everyone seemed to know him. But an incident changed everything. This lady named Kim changed him.

Kim was one of the editors of a student publication in school. She’s a passionate writer indeed. Aside from that, she’s amazingly beautiful and alluring. Every guy would be tempted to look at her whenever she passed by. She’s indeed noticeable because of her unique beauty.

One afternoon while Daryl was puffing a cigarette stick on his mouth outside their house, her younger sister Ana just arrived home from school with a couple of classmates with her. One of them was Kim who was bringing some books and a box of cake.

Darryl was seemed paralyzed as his cigarette stick fell down and his sight was directed only to Kim.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

“Kuya, are you alright?” Ana confusingly asked her brother but Darryl was silent giving his sister no single reply.

“What’s happening to you Kuya?” Ana asked the second time around.

“I… I am okay…” Darryl said with a trembling voice with his eyes still on Kim.

“We’ll get inside because we will be making some school stuffs.” Ana said as they went inside their house.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

Kim left a sweet smile on Darryl as she got inside. Darryl seemed drowned into the deepest ocean on earth that moment.

Darryl placed his right hand on his left chest and felt his heart palpitate. His heart was beating faster and he’s definitely confused.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

That was the start of Darryl’s’ sleepless nights. His heartbeat, the face of Kim and the unusual feeling that he could never understand made him more confused. It was the first time ever in his life that he felt that way. First time of a feeling that no single word can describe.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

Darryl stood up from his bed, got a paper and pen and sat down on his study table. He seemed thinking so deep. He keeps on scratching his hair and punching the table.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

Suddenly, Darryl held the pen on his hand and started writing on a sheet of paper. He stopped and scratched his hair again and seemed confuse. Then he wrote again. Until he finally tore and crumpled the paper and threw it in one corner of his room.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

The room was messy and crumpled papers were around. Darryl was holding an envelope had put a folded paper on it. He smiled and he hurriedly stood up.

Darryl went to his younger sister’s room and asked her if she could give the envelope which obviously contains a letter to Kim. Ana happily accepted the letter and gave it to Kim.

Kim received the letter and read it.

Kim,

It took me sleepless nights before I had written this letter. The messy room and the crumpled papers. I don’t know!
I really can’t sleep every night because whenever I try to close my eyes, your face is all that I see. The faster heartbeats, your face and the unusual feeling that’s paralyzing me. I don’t know!

I believe that I can’t write as good as you do. But the fact that I had expressed this confusing feeling I have for you through this letter is a total relief. Thank you for this unusual feeling that I don’t know.
And I am left asking myself, what’s this faster heartbeat means?

Daryll

The letter made the lady smile and admitted to herself that she felt the same way too. She liked Darryl from the first she saw him and she already had confessions with the feeling to her friends.

Days pass by, Darryl who was once a brat and a hard-headed boy transformed into courageous and a real man. Kim made Darryl as her close friend. They went out to eat together, shopped, went to church and did almost everything that made both of them close to each other.

And there was silence. Darryl was on his room and his thoughts seemed endless. He smiled and noticed something. His heart is beating faster again.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

“Kuya! Kuya!” Ana was shouting from the outside while knocking the door of Darryl’s room. Darryl immediately opened the door.

“What Ana? What happened?” Darryl worriedly asked.

“Kim… Kim…” Ana in her trembling voice.

“What happened to Kim? Tell me!” Darryl asked while nagging her sister’s shoulder.

“Kim was hit by the car!” Ana cried like a kid chasing her very breathe.

Darryl ran outside their house where few meters away he saw lots of people. He ran as fast as he could to that place. Tears started falling from his eyes.

There he saw Kim lying, unconscious and with blood scattered on the ground. He’s speechless, cold sweat started to come out from his body as he stares blankly at the scene.

Darryl began to kneel down, screamed and cried.

“Kim! Why did you leave me?” Darryl screamed and howled as he held the body of Kim.

He saw Kim holding an envelope. And as he is about to hug Kim, policemen started getting the dead body of the lady while Darryl was still crying and screaming.

Everything seemed so fast. Darryl became so quit while he was still on the ground. Tears kept on falling and he started opening the envelope. It was a letter for him. Kim was on her way to Darryl’s house to give the letter when that tragic incident happened.

Dear Darryl,

It is such a nice feeling! You said it’s unusual but it’s nice. It’s the reason why I smile each day. It is also the reason why I want to wake up each morning. The feeling gave me the chance to know you better and even better each day.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

You keep on asking that question from the start. You noticed I was just silent. It was because I feel the same way too. I tried to figure out each day what it really means. From the day I met you until this very moment. I am really not sure if I can give you the right answer to your constant question but I’ll try. Who knows? I might get it right.

“What’s that faster heartbeat means?”

Darryl… The faster heartbeat means love. It means love. It is the unusual feeling that no single word can describe.

It means love. We were both happy when we were together and our heart beats faster as if its only one.

It means love! I love you…

Love,
Kim

Darryl crumpled the paper as he screamed and cried louder this time.

“I know what that faster heartbeat means…”