The Ice Prince of the Desert

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

London's POV

Our journey in the desert started at dawn. Wearing a thawb and a keffiyeh, and covering half of my face, my eyes and my dyed eyebrows were the only visible. No one could tell that I was a woman.

I experienced a camel ride tour before at the Morocco desert, and it was so fun being with friends. The excitement was there being my first time in exploring the desert and taking a lot of selfies for Instagram.

But now, after six hours crossing the Al-Farhinah desert, my body started to ache. The heat of the sun was intensifying and I felt like the air was getting thinner. I was sweating profusely like my body was on fire. I kept thinking of a huge swimming pool with crystal blue water or a bowl of strawberry ice cream or sparkling iced cold soda. I wished I could push the camel I was riding to walk faster but he was carrying load of stuff including me. Poor baby.

All I could see was the red sand dunes. It was overwhelmingly beautiful but very scary too. It felt like being secluded in the middle of the earth. It was so strange being here since I was raised in a country with lots of rain and snow.

But I have to bear all of these. For my future.

A lot of thoughts running inside my head. Mostly flashbacks. The peacefulness of the desert helped me to meditate and reflect what happened in the past.

I remembered the first time I saw Izzy. It was in our classroom during grade school. Being the most handsome boy in school, he stood out wherever you put him. Among the boys, he was the only one with jet black hair, doll-like dark eyes with thick lashes and eyebrows, pretty tan skin and a perfect white teeth. Even he was sweating after playing in the field, he still looked fresh and clean.

Yeah, I was crushing on him as early as six years old. Actually he was my very first crush. It started when I stepped on my pencil and broke the lead. He saw it and offered to give me his pencil.

"No, I can't take it." My hands holding each tip of his pencil looking at it with awe. It was color dark orange with Izzy's name on it, 'Israel Yasin' embossed with gold.

"It's okay. Just take care of it." He said and gave me his cutest boyish smile that made my heart turned upside down. I could not believe it, I think he likes me.

Everyday I was excited to go to school to see Izzy. I kept on thinking what I should give him in return. Maybe my rainbow squishy mesh ball, or my drawing of him, or a unicorn stationery or maybe... my cutest photo. No, I shouldn't do that.

I was happy that he hung out with my twin brother Harry and our neighbor Zion Petrakis. Instantly they became best friends. I felt closer to him.

During dinner, I would listen to Harry's endless chatter about his activities in a day and every time Izzy's name was mentioned, I blushed.

Two weeks later, it was my first time to experience heartbreak. I used the pencil that Izzy gave me in answering my math workbook when my new bestfriend, Claire Olsen noticed it.

"Hey London, I have the same pencil."

My eyes riveted at the gold emboss lettering of Izzy's name on her pencil. The pencil I was holding dropped on the floor breaking the lead. The same time that my heart crushed on the floor and shattered.

Days turned to weeks, months and years... Izzy was crushing on Claire. All I could do was to accept that I was not his type and support his undying love for my best friend. My affection was diverted to food. At least, food would not leave me.

Sometimes I was teased of being chubby but I just laughed it off. No one dared to bully me or else they would deal with Harry, Zion and Izzy. They protected me like their princess and that was enough for me at that time.

Izzy always hung out in our house because of Harry and that made us closer as friends. We played computer games while waiting for Harry and Zion to arrive, painting watercolors, teaching each other how to dance, watching tv series and other stuff.

When hormones kicked in, he started talking about dating, kissing and relationship. He told me about the girls he dated -- Olivia, Maddie, Julia and others. Understandably, he dated all the pretty girls in school.

His frustration was to date Claire, his long time crush. The more she protested, the more he took it as a challenge.

Cameron Talbot, our principal's son and a well-known playboy in school cornered me one early morning in the hall.

"Hi London. Guess what, I found out a secret last night."

"What?" My eyebrows furrowed. I did not like Cameron he was a bully in school. He took advantage of being the principal's son.

"Ah... about the love of your life." His eyes roaming at my body up and down.

"What are you talking about? I don't have any love of my life."

"So, Maddie is lying huh? She said that you have a long time crush on Izzy." His voice was so loud that all the students in the corridor heard him.

I was so disappointed of Maddie that she could not keep her mouth shut. Of all people, he told Cameron! Last night, we had a slumber party at her house and we played truth or dare.

"That's not true. Izzy is just like a brother to me." I defended myself, saying each word aloud so everyone could hear.

"Liar. I saw your nose flared." He leaned closer towards me then whispered. "Stop hoping. He won't date a blond elephant anyway."

He laughed aloud and left me standing there so shocked.

The worse part was, I did not know that Izzy was standing behind me. He heard everything except the ones that Cameron whispered. A blond elephant.