An Unfinished Story I've written a LONG time ago.

This is a story I've never bothered to finish. I started it nearly a year ago, and haven't written for it since. I'll post it anyway.


I've never been the type of girl who was boy crazy. Yes, I've had a few little crushes, but none of them were serious --- that is, at least until last school year.

There are so many things in this life that is unknown. Unknown species, consequences, answers, and an unknown future. A lot of people would do absolutely ANYTHING to know their future, but I don't exactly want to know mine. It just seems so much better to not know what to expect and just live your life free handedly. I know this because I have done it myself. I'm still living life the way I did, and I'm pretty happy. Don't get me wrong, I've never been "wild," but you know, I still have fun.

Through all of the things that can make you happy--- family, friends, food, instruments, and that special person --- I'm lacking one of those. I'm lacking one of those because I've taken the two people who were special to me for granted. I remember when I first met Nathan; we were in the sixth grade. I've always hated him for all of the years I've known him. He was known to annoy me and I despised him for it. I always shooed him away when he came near me; I'd say, "Get away from me!" when he'll try to even just talk to me. I know you're thinking that I must be an ignorant, mean girl, but I'm not. The most surprising thing about this is: I fell in love with him. I know, right? I've always hated him, and I ended up being in love with him. It all started on that one day in 9th grade.

It was my brother's team's last football game. I've never been to one of their games, so I agreed to come. Just as expected, we came there early and I got to chat with my brother's teammates along with my best friend. My best friend, Paula, liked a guy from that team. His name was Charles. He had straight, shiny brown hair that passed his eyebrows, milky white flawless skin, and gorgeous brown eyes. At this time, we both likes Charles, but her like for him was gently wearing away. I never knew that this would happen again, and I was hoping it wouldn't, but it was better this time. We didn’t argue just because of a boy. Nathan was there, too. They looked eerily similar. He has milky white skin, gorgeous brown eyes, but he had curly, brown locks. It didn't seem to bother me that he was there, though I really hated his guts. As my best friend and I walked up, Charles greeted us, "Hi, Paula," he said turning to her, "Hi, Leilani," he smiled at me. Paula reached up to Charles and hugged him. She was a hugger --- very friendly to people, too. I was a hugger, too. I just didn't want my brother to see me hugging a guy in front of him. Both of my brothers are very protective of me.

The game soon began and I was cheering and cheering for them the best I could. My brother was one of the best players of the team, even if it was just his first time playing football for a team. He's the one that scored when other couldn't. He was very good at sports. When the game ended, all of us were disappointed of the results. They lost the game, and it was weird, because they'd win games --- when my friend and I weren't around.

The next two weeks pass by, and nothing happens. There's no explanation for their loss, whatsoever. But during home period, one of the players, Nathan, had talked to me about it. He leaned over to me, looking at me in the eyes as he talked, "Leila, you know why we lost the game?" Being polite, but confused, I asked, "No, why?"
He turned around to look if anyone was there, and leaned in closer to me so not a lot of people would hear. "'Cause you were there…" he drifted off, but looked back again, "…I was distracted."
One of my classmates over heard, who have been my friend for two years and said, "That's so mean!"
With that, the bell rang for first period. I had to stay in there, because that was my first period. It's so weird how he and I have the same home period and 1st period.

Throughout the class, he just ignored me. He didn't even talk to me, and he usually did. It made me wonder why. I told my friends about what he told me, and first, I thought it was mean, but then, I took it as a compliment.

It really is hard for me to look back at this, because it's the first time in my life that I've felt loved --- except for my friends and family, of course, and it hurts how much time I've wasted by not doing anything about it. It really hurts so bad. I feel so guilty of the whole thing. I know, it still seems weird to you that I'm in love with the person I used to hate so much, but I really never got the chance to talk to him and you know, get to know him. Throughout the school year, he's sent signals indicating that he does like me. He'd always hug me, or make an excuse to hug me, he'd always come to the place where I hangout and hang out with my friends, he'd sit close to me, he'd said the three words that I've longed for in a very long time, "I love you." He'd always look me in the eyes when he said that. He'd also find some lame excuses to say those three words to me. Even the small things! He'd say "I love you" for letting him borrow my pencil, for sharing my food with him, for helping him out with home work. But the way I reacted to it was the worst part. I never said "I love you" back. My friends knew I loved him, it's just that, they knew I found it hard to say those three words to a person of the opposite sex. Those three words mean so much to me, that's why I find it hard to say. He eventually found out that I liked him, but did nothing about it. The school year ended, leaving us to separate ways. He's moving to California. We lived in New Jersey. On the last few minutes of that school day, he hugged me tightly. I felt the warmth of his body in mine, and that mesmerizing scent that was so familiar to me. He buried his face into my ears and whispered, "I'll miss you, Leila." There were almost tears in my eyes, "I'll miss you, too, Nathan." The hug was prolonged than it should've been, both of us not wanting to let go. I see Charles walking towards us and he froze. The reaction in his face killed me. He looked upset, and almost shocked. I never knew that it would come to this, but I think Charles likes me too.

Nathan and I both pull away from the hug, and smiled at each other. He took my hands in his, and he saw Charles, his best friend. We both walked over to him, and I saw his facial expression shift from an upset face into a smile --- a fake smile. We said hi to him and Nathan just talked casually with him. It was obvious that Charles was avoiding making eye contact with me, or even looking at me for that matter, because he was really attentive to what Nathan was saying. Nathan may not have seen it, and Charles may not have noticed, but I see the despair through Charles's glassy eyes. At this point, a new unknown has emerged in my life. I have no idea what'll happen.

It was the first day of my high school life. The day I've dreaded the most. It would've been fine if I had Nathan by my side, but this year, he wasn't. All I had was Charles, a friend that I'm not really fond of talking to. I remember all the details of this day. I cried multiple times. I cried because first of all, I was scared. Second of all, everything being new was too overwhelming. And lastly, thinking about the way that Nathan would be walking the same hallways as I did if he was here, and the similarities of his features to Charles just made me break down. As I broke down, my hands flimsily fell against my side, my knees weakened, and my vision started to fade to black. I felt someone catching me. It was Charles. I never thought he'd do this --- EVER. He'd be the last person I think of caring about me. It just doesn't seem like him. He was always the one who'd joke around and "be funny." I hated that about him. I wished that he was nicer, and maybe we're just in some crazy dimension right now and my wish magically came true. As I felt myself falling down, the air rushing through my hair, I can hear his voice amazingly clearly. "Leila," he said as he managed to catch me on time, "Are you okay?"

I squinted my eyes in a struggle to identify who he is and let my brain assess the information. "Nate..." I trailed off as my eyesight closed in and eventually faded to black.

I started hearing muffled voices again. It was my friends: Charles, Paula, Danica, and my brother, Peter. They were all crowding all over me, but the face that I saw first was Charles’. I don’t know why, but I felt my lips curl up into a tiny smile, and I saw his slightly curl up too. I felt someone’s hand in mine, and when I looked to where it led up to, it was Charles. Why is he doing this? He doesn’t like me! I know he doesn’t. He caressed my cheek with the back of his hand and looked me in the eyes, “You’re in the hospital right now,” he said sincerely, “You had a nervous break down and I carried you up to the Nurse’s office, and they sent you to the hospital.”

My eyes widened as he said the words from that sentence. Hospital? Nervous Breakdown? WHAT?! And I don’t even believe that all this is real. It seems to be not real. Because I’m not the type of person who gets nervous breakdowns, and of course, Charles doesn’t act like this towards me! Was this all a dream? But if it was, why would I be dreaming about Charles being nice to me? I wanted to get these questions answered, so I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

For the moment, I just laid there, on my hospital bed, itching to get away from this place. But for some odd reason, I feel a bit of security. I feel safe having Charles by my side. I look down, and see him sleeping, still holding my hand.
My eyes were closed, attempting to sleep. Suddenly, he looked up at me, stood up, and kissed me. Then, he just sat back down, laid his head against the bed, and went back to sleep. I was shocked, and now, really confused. Why did he do that? Seriously, the series of events happening right now is not making any sense.

The next morning, I woke up, and Charles was still there. I smiled and said, “Hey.”
He shot up from his seat, smiled from ear to ear, and exclaimed, “Leila!”
He went to my side and hugged me tightly. I looked at his eyes and it showed the most sincere of the feelings that I’ve ever seen in my life --- not even in Nathan’s eyes that I’ve seen this. He seems like he really likes me, and judging by the actions that he’s been doing lately, I’m guessing he does. I want to ask him about the ‘kissing’ incident last night, but I might just keep that to myself. His eyes were full of love, affection. I just wanted to ask him one question. I’ll go right ahead and just say it.
“Charles,” I started, “do you have anything you want to tell me?”
He looked around, shocked, and he was blushing. “Uhh,” he put his hand in the back of his head, “n-no. Not-not-really.” He stuttered.

It’s been weeks since I’ve been at the hospital, and I’m kind of confused about the situation I’m in right now. I’m really not sure if I did like Charles, or I was just in love with being in love. I just need something to prove to myself that I do like him, and I might have that opportunity soon enough. I’ll be going out with him tonight. Well, not actually going out, but with a couple of friends…who are couples. I might say it’s a group date, but I don’t know if Charles would call it that.
He arrived with his black Yaris outside my door. He politely got out of his car, and opened the passenger seat for me. He’s a real gentleman, as far as I know.
We met up with our friends at Dave & Buster’s. We ate dinner first and started playing the games. I started off with basketball, which I loved, and I knew that Charles loved too. He was part of the team for two years and running at our school. We had a blast. His adorable face was full of laughter and joy. It was so nice to see.
We’ve almost played every game that was playable at that restaurant until I wanted to pull him aside and tell him something. I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to me and to a secluded hallway. I made sure no one was there first. “Is there anything wrong?”
I inched closer to him and brushed the back of my hand on his cheek. “No, there isn’t anything wrong. I just wanted to try something.” Without thinking about the consequences I’d have to face later if this didn’t work out, I kissed him and tried to not think ---- just do everything by instinct. Then, he kissed me back --- something I never thought that would happen. My lips curled into a smile as we both pulled away slowly. “Yup,” I said, “that’s definitely something.”
There was an awkward silence for a moment. I turned the other way slowly as I felt Charles’ hand interlace into mine. I smiled and blushed, making sure he didn’t see. We stayed for a little while more. I’d glance at him every now and then to see him smiling and being shyer than he’s ever been. That was one of the best nights of my life. I really didn’t want it to end


P.S. None of this really happened.