A Friend Named Sally

Green silky feathers, long sharp beak, and beady black eyes. This majestic creature could fly up to 500 kilometers, spreading its long wings. Yet a creature like this, is mine?

To start off this story, let's began at the very beginning. It was the morning of my first day in college. As I sat in the back of Professor Peters Historical Fiction class, I immediately noticed him. Ryo Sazaki. Black hair, deep brown eyes, and a smile to die for. As soon as I glanced his way I had fallen, deep, deep in love. Unfortunately, Ryo was surrounded by countless girls, also madly in love with him. He was the popular guy, and I was only the student at the back of the class. There would be no way I would stand out to him.

After an hour long lecture, I packed up my things to move on to my next class. As I walked down the hall, I noticed a crowd of people gathered around a bulletin board. Getting a closer look, I noticed Ryo hammering down a piece of paper, an image of a bird plastered on the front of the paper. In bold bright letters was written, "Want a Bird For the Holidays? Contact Ryo Sazaki." Ryo had a bird? That was cute of him. To even be advertising this to the whole entire school, he must have been desperate to give it to someone. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to handle an animal. If I couldn't even take care of myself, how could I take care of another living being? And based on the increasing amount of people crowded over the paper, there should be someone willing to take in a bird.

As I tried to squeeze my way through this crowd of people, I heard a lot of gossip and chatter from some girls in the crowd. "Honestly, I don't really like birds. But if I do this, then Ryo will know who I am!" Wait, what? Just a few hours ago, I was devastated over the face that the man of my dreams could never know who I am, but now this could be the opportunity to get noticed by him. I'm not sure what went over me, maybe it was the urge to finally end my years of being single, or maybe the urge to be noticed by someone I was attracted too, but a flame in my heart lit up. With the energy I didn't know I had, I dived back into the crowd, knocking every bystander stopping me from reaching the paper and Ryo.

Reaching the bulletin board, I grabbed the flyer and shouted at the top of my lungs, "I'll take the bird!" Suddenly, all eyes turned to me. I felt the stares of judgement, the crowd must have all been thinking the same thing. "Who was this random girl, and what is she doing?" Honestly, I didn't know what I was doing either. But if this was a chance to be noticed by Ryo, I would take it. And there he was, standing in all his glory. Looking at him from a distance, he didn't appear to be that tall. But now standing in front of him, I felt like a tiny, insolent speck. Yet, as he looked at me, he smiled. And at that moment I couldn't breath. Grabbing my heads and smiling at me from ear to ear, he cried out, "Thank you so much! Can I get your name and contact info? Sally is in the back of my trunk, after school can we meet up and I can give her to you?" In that moment, all I could think about was his hands, grasping mine. His warm smiling, glowing down at me. None of his words registered in my mind, so all I said was a lone, "Yes." It wouldn't be after this encounter that I realized this was one of the biggest mistakes I made in my entire life.

After Ryo gave me his bird, he instructed me with clear instructions on how I should take care of it. Proper food was needed, grooming techniques had to be used, and lots of love and attention had to be given. And I wasn't even sure if I could do all of those things. Yet, I could only try my best. Setting the bird down on the dinner table of my one room apartment, I took a long deep sigh. My apartment was already a mess, with trash littered everywhere and empty bowls and cups scattered around the apartment. And now another addition to my stress, was this bird. Ryo had named it Sally. Sally was a green Australian parakeet. Green long feathers, and a yellow tummy, it was a cute bird. But it shouldn't have been my bird. Worries filled my mind as I observed Sally, who was currently sitting in its cage, eye wide as it analyzed their surroundings. How would I take care of Sally? Could I be a good owner? What if Sally died? What would Ryo think of me if he knew I killed his pet in a day? These worries filled my mind, and all I could feel was the disappointment and look of sadness from Ryo's eyes when he finds out I killed his bird.

Trying to shake out of these negative thoughts, I tried to think of the positives. If I could successfully take care of Sally, Ryo could potentially be attracted to me. He already knew my name, so I was making good progress. I just needed to take care of Sally. It wouldn't be too hard right?

It was terrible. Water and food had to be constantly changed twice. Sally's cage was constantly littered with poop, and it took hours to clean her big, large cage. And on top of that, I also had to play and talk to Sally, caring for her constantly. Yet, I wasn't the best at connecting with animals. Her eyes creeped me out, they were beady and black, constantly staring at me as I tried to talk to her. I tried to play with her for an hour, yet she never wanted to go back to her cage after playing. It was hard work to take care of a pet, and even taking care of myself was a struggle. In the first fews days of caring for Sally, I hadn't brushed my hair, or my teeth, my eye bags had gotten darker, and I couldn't even remember when I had slept. I was constantly worried about Sally, making sure she was ok, and that she wasn't dead or sick. And on top of caring for her, I had piles of school work that professors were constantly throwing at me. If I could travel back in time, I would have never volunteered to take Sally. Even Ryo, who I had done this for, forgot about me in a day. The next day after volunteering, I had bumped into him on accident. I expected him to call my name, acknowledge my existence. Yet all he did was say a small apology, and quickly left. After that encounter, I realized all this work for Sally was useless. The guy I liked still did not know who I was.