Before Me, Him

Chapter 18

- Some weeks earlier - 

     It was ten am when I woke up with the annoying noise of the city's cars. I get up from my bed slowly and get dressed. Soon after I go down to have my breakfast. My mom is already at work and my dad is just sitting on the couch, reading his journal.

     - Good morning. – I say getting absolutely no response from him.

     As I go into the kitchen I see a small note from my mom: "Good morning sunshine. I bought your favorite cereals yesterday so make sure to eat them! Also you have some leftovers from yesterday's dinner for lunch. Love you, Mom".

     That tiny but thoughtful note created a smile on my lips and, afterward I start arranging my breakfast. As I ate I realized that today is the day Luke wants to go to the movies. He's been asking to go for quite some time now but I always refused due to having to study for classes. Yesterday was the last day of my high school career, now I'm officially unemployed until I start studying in a college.

     Luke is a college guy, a freshman aiming to become a lawyer someday. I met him two years ago in high school since he is only one year older than me. We've been dating for around five months now.

     How did we begin? 

     Well, I was at the school's library one day and he happened to enter it with some friends. Back then Luke was very popular with the girls: his short light brown wavy hair with some dark blonde natural highlights and his charming smile; his dark brown eyes and his mulatto skin tone and toned muscles were very complementing. He has a Brazilian heritage even though he was born and raised in Hollum. Since it is something really rare around here he got all the female attention he needed.

     Nevertheless, I went to the library to rent a book while he happened to go there to finish an assignment for English class. I passed by him without even paying attention to his presence so I assume that, back then, that disturbed him. Once you get used to being treated in a certain way you can end up with favoritism a lot over your head. That was his case: if you were a female, you would try something with him; or so he thought.

     The day after, during the lunch period he came to me and started trying to chat with me. Knowing what was my class, my name, my age... I just ignored his presence, back then I knew that being seen with him would only bring me nothing but trouble among the girls. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I cared about the girls, but I didn't care about Luke either. I just wanted to have a peaceful high school life, without confusion.

     In the first week, every time he saw me around school he would come to say hello just to be greeted with nothing. I wouldn't give him any type of information about myself so he ended up figuring out the pieces of the puzzle by himself. At the end of the second week, he already knew my name, my age, my class, and my schedule so, from that day onward, his presence became more and more persistent. Someone must have snitched it out to him.

     It was only after three months that he managed to get some contact with me. "Good morning Luke" I said to him while looking at him. He was so happy that during the rest of the day he appeared with a smile on his face. All that just because I said "good morning". As if that would make someone that happy.

     The next three months I would chat with him in my most normal state: I would only talk when necessary only wasting my "Latin" on the extremely necessary words to socialize. And then, out of the blue, six months after he had first seen me in the library, he confessed. "I love you" he said. "Can I take you on a date?" he asked. "You're beautiful" he stated. I didn't feel anything for him, at all, so I straight away refused his proposal.