Chronicles of Ms. Single

I stared at his face with a frown on my face. He said it again, "You’re becoming my world…" in that annoying voice. He had a grin on his face which would make you think that he never took anything seriously. "Uh, that’s nice." I reply in an emotionless voice. I go back to typing my report and staring at the computer screen.

Yes, you probably think I’m mean. You probably think that I’m a man-hater or whatever word you’re thinking of right now. But, I encourage you to not judge so quickly. After all, you don’t really know me yet, do you?

This guy I’m talking about is one of my co-workers. Let’s call him Mr. A (for annoying). He’s new on the job, obviously thinks he can befriend anyone and joke around whenever he wants. He’s not aware of the set of unwritten rules that he has to follow in this job. I mean, it’s practically my third year and I don’t even like speaking up in meetings, much less try to joke with anyone.

And this man, who has not even earned our respect yet, wants me to what: 1. Be nice to him or 2. Pretend to flirt with him and even worse, 3. Laugh at his jokes?

He is messing with the wrong person. I don’t know what he did next as a reaction, but thanks to the fact that I simply didn’t care, it wasn’t much of an issue.

I managed to finish the report before he could do any more damage and casually ran out of his office to the safe solitude of my desk.

My name is Becky. I’ve been working as a guidance counselor for the past 3 years in a private school in my hometown. It is a quaint life indeed. I graduated at the top of my class in college at a university in the city. Afterward, I immediately got back home.

My parents then bullied me into taking this job so that I could "have something to do with my life" as they put it. So now I am a disgruntled guidance counselor to disgruntled teenagers. It is just the job I wanted in my hellish nightmares.

"You’re doing it again…" a voice said from afar. I turned my head to look at the face of the only person in school that I trusted, Mrs. B.

"You’re staring into space with a frown on your face…again" she exclaimed with a smile on her face. "Well, you would too if you had to deal with what I’m dealing with…" I said in a high-pitched voice.

"Alright, alright… calm down…" she said. You see, there is something utterly weird in living in a very small town where everything is predictable. Most of the people who live here marry early and have huge families that may be impossible to feed. They are the type of people who disappear suddenly and come back with babies in tow and a marriage certificate. The whole marriage first before pregnancy is becoming a distant concept to my neighbors.

There is also the growing popularity of becoming refugees or overseas workers. A few years ago, the people who went abroad were people who really needed to. Now, the actual dream of parents is to let their children leave home and earn money from anywhere but here.

And so you would now say that people like me, who are single and not overseas workers are a minority in this town. And that’s where the problem arises. Up to a few months ago, when the last of my single kind magically got married and is now in the midst of popping children, I was a happy single girl who spent most of her money on clothes and the spa.

Now, I am serving two roles: a single girl (seemingly old maid) who they can’t wait to marry off to anyone, and the only single girl that single guys can flirt with.

So, being young and rebellious is not the way to go in this place. You can imagine how weird I feel towards flirting co-workers and everyday questions of, "When are you getting married?"

So that afternoon, when I got off from work, I made sure that I wouldn’t have anyone tailing me again for another walk home. I pushed my glasses back and combed through my bangs as I casually walked home. It was then that I saw him coming towards me.

He had the same disheveled hair he had in high school and the same sling bag. He smiled as he got nearer and I couldn’t help but smile back. It’s just that, after everything else that was said about men and love, no one even knew that I was feeling something for this guy I could never have.

And I’m determined to keep it that way. "Hi ma’am!" He greeted me with a smile. "Hi G!" I replied, with the sweetest smile I could muster. If only I’d get this stupid glasses out of the way.

Okay, I haven't been writing for so long. There's so much work to do and I'm just a little bit crazy so I started this story. What do you think? Is it a story worth reading? Your comments are the only things that keep me writing, so please write back to me, ok? Thanks!