In English, we were tasked with writing a five page short story. I didn’t really have any intentions more than writing a corny stereotypical high school romance story. In a way I wrote it as a bit of a satire to express my own thoughts on how unrealistic and superficial they usually are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Long Last
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\tIt\u2019s cold, I pull the sheets back over myself. I scrunch up into a ball, my eyes opening, staring at the clock beside my bed. Eight twenty-nine. The digits blinking in my face. Waiting for the imminent monotone screeching to begin. Eight thirty. I cup my hands over my ears and get up. The muffled alarm still blaring in my periphery. I trudge out of my room and down the stairs, my arrhythmic thumps, the only sound in the house. I walk through the kitchen and slowly open the fridge. The soothing electronic humming echoes around the room. In a sea of random vegetables and sauces, in the smack middle of the third shelf, is half of an apple pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BEEP, BEEP! The hair on my arm shoots up. I snatch the tray and slowly shut the fridge and hurry into the den. I hop into the walk-in closet, grab a beanie and stretch it on my head. I open the hidden door inside the walk in closet behind the wall of my unused hoodies and squeeze through it into the outside, between two cherry laurel hedges. The beeping now louder, I glance towards the street. A massive truck, with two burly men hauling in a massive box through the driveway across the street. I walk out onto the sidewalk and try to nab a look at my neighbors\u2019 house. I have known my neighbors, the Johnsons for most of my life. Their daughter Zoe and I have been really close friends even though she\u2019s popular and I\u2019m not. I\u2019m embarrassed to say this but I\u2019ve had a crush on her since the sixth grade. Five whole years of holding it in. She\u2019s too good for me though. Four point GPA, two sport varsity student athlete who also found time to take part in an entrepreneurship club and the school newspaper. While I\u2019m a mediocre student with no confidence. She\u2019s rejected every single person who\u2019s tried to ask her out. I walk back inside once I realize that I\u2019ve just been awkwardly standing there. The smell of maple syrup wafts through the air, travelling from the kitchen to my nose. I walk to the source and sit down at the kitchen island. I pull a plate from the rack and scoop a couple pancakes onto it and then squeeze a little syrup on them. My mom starts talking to me. I tune her out. 5 minutes pass. Clap. I snap back in, my mom stares directly in my face and tells me to plan for the future and study for finals, and if on cue my dad enters the room. I take this as my exit and bolt upstairs to my room. I hear a loud argument from the study. My sister screaming \u201cGive me my frickin phone back before I beat you\u201d at my brother, while he further aggravates her by saying \u201cCome and get it\u201d back at her. My mom yells at me to come back down and kicks me out the door with a stack of tupperware containers she had borrowed from the Johnsons. It is really cold. I hurry over next door and knock on the door once. The door vehemently opens, with the warm inside air blasting me in the face. Standing directly before me, is Zoe. A skinny girl roughly 5\u2019 5\u2019\u2019 with dirty blonde hair wearing a University of Oregon hoodie and sweats stands at the door leaning on the doorframe with her arms crossed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She then proceeds to ask, \u201cHey Mike, how are you?\u201d Not knowing what to say, I respond to her \u201cI\u2019m good, my mom told me to return these to you,\u201d and hold the boxes out to her. I\u2019m shivering. She motions to grab the boxes, but invites me inside instead. I walk into her kitchen and lightly place the plastic boxes on the countertop. \u201cIs it okay for me to be over here right now?\u201d \u201cOf course,” she says. \u201cMy parents aren\u2019t home.\u201dShe tells me to sit down and walks into the kitchen. I hear her stash the containers away and stare at the numerous family photos scattered about the room and walk toward the acoustic guitars in a hanging in a holder bolted into the wall. I lift a guitar then pull it forward off the rack. I sit down at the table and start strumming randomly. I don\u2019t know how to play the guitar. She walks out of the kitchen and sets two mugs of hot chocolate down on the table and drops a bag of mini marshmallows down next to them. She then grabs a handful and slides them into her mug. She walks over to the rack and grabs another guitar and sits next to me. She starts playing \u201cI\u2019m Yours\u201d and sings. I put the guitar down and start singing as well. We go on from song to song until we run out of new ones to sing. Without thinking I ask her; \u201cDo you think that you would maybe want to perform together with me for the talent show?\u201d Almost instinctively she says \u201cyes\u201d with her face beaming at me. The talent show was a massive school event to which everyone came to. Performing in front of everyone had always been a struggle for me, but I\u2019m making forward progress now. \u201cMaybe we can rehearse at around 3:45 at my house?\u201d \u201cOk,\u201d I reply. My mom calls my phone right at that moment and I rush home after thanking Zoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sit in my swivel chair in front of my PC monitor and open up Netflix. I sit in front of the screen watching old romance movies and telling myself that real life doesn\u2019t work that way. There\u2019s no way that she would see me as anything more than a friend. She could literally have anyone in the world. Time flies while I\u2019m in deep thought. I force myself out of the plush comfort of my chair and stumble as my numb feet struggle to support my body. I stretch over to my phone and check my messages. I see: 20 new messages from Zoe, asking where I was today. My clock reads 4:30. I panic, realizing that I am 45 minutes late and fly down the stairs and out the door out to her house. The door is unlocked so I just walk in. I see her waiting inside with a dismal face with the guitar in her lap staring out the glass back door. I creep in and lightly close the door. I walk in saying \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry, I lost track of\u201d—\u201cDon\u2019t worry about it,\u201d she interjects. She starts riffing before asking me: \u201cCould you drop me off at a party tonight? My parents took both cars today.\u201d I nod and we start playing again. As we start to wrap up, she asks me \u201cSo what song do you want to perform?\u201d Not having a response, I reply \u201cI\u2019m not sure, how about you?\u201d She shrugs back. At around eight p.m, I drop Zoe off at the party and hang out at the local starbucks to get some schoolwork done. An hour later, I get a call from her telling me to come and get her, and that it\u2019s urgent. I choose not to question her and I drive back and park my car across the street from the mansion. I spot her in the corner of the backyard surrounded by boys trying to court her. Se sees me and runs to me. We immediately head back to my car and get in. I start the car and floor the gas. When we pull into my driveway, she says \u201cI have something I need to tell you.\u201d Once I get out of the car, she pulls my hand and drags me through her front door, up to her room, and from there, out onto the roof. I Lie down on my back, and she lies beside me. Sniffle. She wipes her face and grabs my hand. It\u2019s wet, and cold, and sticky, but I just let it sit there. I open my mouth and start to speak. \u201cDo you want to go out with me?\u201d No sound comes out of my mouth. I decide to try again. \u201cHey Zoe, I was wondering, if y\u2019know, if , maybe you wanted to go out with me.\u201d She doesn\u2019t say anything. \u201cWell it was worth a try,\u201dI think. She rolls onto her side, next to my ear, kisses me on the cheek, and wraps me in a hug. \u201cSo yes?\u201d I say. \u201cShut up,\u201d she giggles. The next day we decide that we are going to sing \u201cI can\u2019t help falling in love with you\u201d and sign up to perform for the contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A week passes, and the day of the contest arrives, and we start rehearsing backstage. I am lost in her eyes. Blue, not like the sky or the seas. Blue like fire, burning ever so bright with life and tenacity. She snaps me out of her trance and holds my hands and whispers to me, \u201cNervous?\u201d \u201cOf course,\u201d I whisper back while twitching my hand over and over again. She slides her hand right before my eyes and leans in. I feel her warm breath, like an inferno which brings my freezing skin back to life. She lightly kisses me before removing my blindfold and backs off bashfully. We are called up to stage, and I she heads on up. I wait for a second then follow suit. The massive crowd is unnerving but Zoe looks me in the eyes, the blue burning through me pushing me to rock. For the next three minutes, I forget about everything. We bow and walk off stage from a roaring crowd back into our dressing room. I stumble, dazed back into the room and hug Zoe. She holds me like a bear, but I don\u2019t care that she\u2019s crushing me. I am in heaven.
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