A Little Love

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teen Talk High School

BY: Nicole Lee

Love -- a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker.
~Author Unknown

"Is the ground wet? My flip flops feel funny."

"I don't know, go over there and check it out."

"Are you kidding? There are sprinklers! I'm not getting wet!"

"Look, it's our lucky day.... They turned off."

I knew it would be one of the best days of my life. I had a date with a guy who I seemed to have liked forever. It was really only about a year, but with our schedules and separate set of friends, things never seemed to work out. He was so perfect! He was nice, cute, and overwhelmingly sweet. Every time I saw him, my stomach filled up with butterflies. I had a special feeling deep in my heart -- tonight was the night! Tonight would be the night that he asked me to be his girlfriend. And I would say YES!

We went to Baskin Elementary, past the school, past the basketball court, right next to the playground. There was an empty field with a nice number of hidden trees a few yards away. And although I didn't know what he was planning until that night, it was perfect. He made me walk in circles for what seemed to be the longest time. He said that he needed to find the "perfect spot."

A few minutes later he stopped, and I knew that this was the spot that he was looking for. Although I could have sworn that I had seen greener patches in the field, I knew that it didn't matter what I sat on as long as I sat next to him. Right when I was about to sit down he said, "STOP." I looked at him with a confused look as he placed his backpack on the ground.

He smiled as he unzipped his backpack, not his normal smile but a silly smile that he would always make when he laughed or was excited about something. All I was thinking was, "Oh God, what is in that bag?" When he popped out a square-shaped object, I smiled although I hadn't quite figured out what it was yet. Then I realized it was a blanket; it was as if he had read my mind. No one had ever done anything like this for me. It was like my own personal fairytale, but it was real!

We sat next to one another on the blanket for a while. I tried to look at the stars, but I couldn't keep my eyes off him. I would look at him, and then turn back to the sky before he could see me. I did this for a few minutes until he caught me. He would just laugh at me; I would have been embarrassed except I would see him doing the same thing out of the corner of my eye. He was not one of those guys who made me blabber to try and keep his attention. We didn't have to talk at all; I could just stare at him and not feel weird.

As we were lying there looking at the formations of stars above our heads, he leaned over and whispered a question in my ear. It was the question that, at the time, I thought would complete my life. He said, "I'm sorry that this has taken me so long, but I was wondering if you would like to be my girlfriend?" I was so happy, I swear that I could hear an orchestra playing Handel's "Hallelujah." I grabbed his face and gave him a huge kiss! He smiled at me, and we both began to laugh.

I couldn't wait until school started again that following Monday. I felt like a thirteen-year-old girl with her first boyfriend. After only a few days, writing "I love Brandon" became like a second signature to me, and no paper within arm's reach was safe from being branded.

The following Saturday was his sixteenth birthday. I reminded him frequently that I was a month and three days older than him just to see the annoyed expression on his face. The Thursday night before his birthday, I went to the pet store and bought him a goldfish. No one understood why, and most people thought that it was a stupid gift, but he liked it and that's all that mattered to me. It was a joke between the two of us from before we got together. One of the things he had said to me was, "I need you like a fish needs water," and ever since then we had an obsession with getting a fish and naming it Herbert. When I was around him, I was happy, and when I wasn't around him all I could think about was being around him.

This was the first time in my life that I actually felt like Cinderella. I'd always seen those cute movies where two people fall in love and are together forever -- that's what I felt like. Yes, I am young, and there will most likely be a handful of guys that make me feel that way in the future, but he was the first one, and that makes him so special to me. Although I shared many happy memories with him, it is hard to smile now because we are no longer together. Luckily for me, although it was a heartbreaking experience, we are still good friends. There are so many things that I wish he knew -- I wish he knew how much I still love him, I wish he knew that even though we're back to calling each other best friends, I will never see him that way again. I wish he knew how hard it is for me to keep from crying every time I see him with another girl. And although it is hard for me to admit, I want him to find happiness, even if it's not with me anymore.

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