Focus
It was the beginning of September and school was about to start. But I had to skip the first fortnight of school since I was in China celebrating a holiday. As I was going to stay in China for two and a half weeks, I spent the first two days recovering from jet lag. On the third day, I decided to visit my friends, and while I was there, my mom phoned to tell me that my uncle was going to drive me downtown. I was to meet my cousins, Michael and Jake, and eat lunch with them. By noon, my uncle dropped me off at McDonald’s, and my cousins greeted me with bear hugs.
“Bro, watch the ribs,” I said.
It looked like they had missed me for the past two years.
“It felt like you have been gone forever,” Michael told me when we were eating.
“I know right. It has been two years since the last time we saw each other,” I responded while I was texting a friend of mine.
“Who are you texting?” Jake asked me.
“Just a friend,” I said.
After we finished eating, Jake phoned my cousins, Julia and Jack, to see if they were free in the afternoon. As they were free, we decided to hang out at my other cousins’ condo.
On our way, we bought some snacks and drinks, just in case they did not have any. Even though it was September, it was so hot that it felt like I was in the middle of the Sahara Desert. It took us quite a while, and when we got there, I was sweating so much from the heat that it felt like I was surrounded by a bubble of sweat. We took the elevator up. As we were getting out, I was reading stuff from my phone and suddenly my right foot slipped backwards, and my entire body tipped forward and I fell. When I stood up, I noticed a piece of paper with my footprint on it. “Looks like I slipped on that,” I exclaimed. Then I noticed a tiny crack next to the home button on my screen protector. “Damn it,” I thought.
“That’s why you shouldn’t go on your phone while walking,” Jake said.
“Shut up,” I groaned.
When we entered my cousins’ condo, it felt as if we had entered a paradise, a room with air conditioning. When we cooled down, all five of us started to play a game that was basically the Chinese version of Mobile Legend. Time flew by so quickly that when we realized, it was already dinner time. So we wrapped up the game and walked to Pizza Hut for dinner. When we were halfway there, I got a phone call from a friend in Canada. During the phone call, I almost bumped into a person, which prompted my cousins to scold me once more. When we got there, we ordered two large pizzas and five medium drinks, and when the pizzas came, the size looked like medium pizzas from Domino’s.
On our way back, Julia’s parents told her that they wouldn’t be home for the night, so we all decided to have a sleepover.
Even though we called it a sleepover, we basically just played games. Around midnight, while Michael and I were in the kitchen having some drinks, my friend facetimed me from school in Canada. While I was busy greeting him, suddenly I spilled the drink all over the floor and created a mess, which took me at least fifteen minutes to clean up.
Finally it was time for us to go to sleep. As I was the guest, my cousins generously offered me the top bunk. Julia, who was in company of some gallant teenagers, was given the bottom bunk. So Jake, Michael, and Jack had to sleep on the floor.
I was lying on the top bunk, checking my phone when I felt an urgent need to use the washroom. So, I decided to get down from the top bunk. But, as my eyes were still glued to the screen of my cell phone, I didn’t notice Julia sitting up on her bunk, so instead of stepping on the lower bunk, I set my foot on her shoulder and slipped down the bunk, plopping on my cousins, who were playing games on the floor. Unfortunately, my butt landed right on Jake’s face, pressing his glasses into his eyeballs and breaking the frame, which scratched his cheek. I was lucky as his eyes weren’t hurt.
Even though the scratch was only minor and was taken care of with bandages, I learned a lesson that day. I decided to always focus on one thing at a time and never do things inattentively.