The Smirking Jerk (Blake's POV)

Chapter 95

Chapter 95

I had to know this day would come.

If I'd always hoped that the outcome of me pinning for Lexi for all these years would be her loving me back eventually, I had to know that at one point I was going to have to be honest about the extent of my obsession with her.

If there was anything I could compare it with, it might be with people being fans of celebrities and ended up dating them, and the celebrity seeing the weird shit their now partners used to do because they were fans.

Kinda like that.

I'd done weird shit over the years because of my unrequited love.

I wasn't proud of most of it.

The truth was, from the start I should have approached Lexi and tried to actually be friends with her, not just collect her trash and put it in a box.

Because I now had to explain what was in the box.

And there was no logical answer for it.

So I told the truth. "I have issues," I admitted, putting the down the box I'd been holding by the door and made my way slowly to Lexi.

It shouldn't be this difficult to be honest. I'd kept the box, I'd kept the torn school picture, and the discarded eraser, I'd kept the broken hair pin and the scrap piece of paper with her signature. I'd kept her ring. I'd kept all of these things. I was the one who did it.

I should be able to own up to it.

Lexi loved me. She would forgive me, right?

"If by issues you mean stalker than yes, I think that's the correct explanation," Lexi replied, looking at the little box in her hands. "Why do you have all that stuff?" she asked softly, looking a little shocked.

She wasn't running away screaming though, so that was a good sign, right?

"I..." I started to say, trying to think of the right thing to say, trying to find a way to explain this without sounding like I was brushing it off, like it was no big deal, like I wasn't creepy for keeping those things. I pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think of some way to not make her run away. "I wanted to give it back to you," I said, because there was no right way to explain all of this, no way to excuse it, "well the ring at least, the rest I would have gotten rid of it or buried it somewhere..."

This would have been easier if I had worked up to it. If I had been the one telling her this and explaining it.

Actually, I would have preferred just giving her back the ring and getting rid of the rest, just to not feel like a creep, but it would have been omitting the truth.

And I shouldn't be doing that right at the beginning of our relationship. If I wanted this relationship to succeed, I needed to be honest.

"That still doesn't explain why you have all that old crap," Lexi replied,

"I'm glad to see you're still as unobservant as you were," I replied, smiling sadly.

She couldn't make the connection, one that should probably be obvious at this point.

She underestimated herself too much. Always.

"Blake, seriously not the time to kid around," Lexi said, not that amused.

Time to be really honest. Time to tell her all the truth.

Unable to look in her eyes, too afraid of what her reaction might be, I started to say, "my first day of school here, when I was still eleven years old, there was this little girl in a green dress who inadvertently picked me and smiled at me... and after all these years she finally gave me a reason to smile too." I'd walked up all the way to Lexi, and saw the school picture, which made me smile.