My name is Marlee Ashton Hunt. I am 19 years old and I live at the Royal Academy of Dance. I've lived here for 9 years. I go home on holidays and for a few weeks in the summer. I've danced all over England and even for the queen and her family. All my life I've had to make sacrafices to get what I want and to do what I want to do.
When I was 10, I had to leave my best friend so I could come to the dance academy. He is very successful now. He's in a band and most of you probably know who he is. His name is Louis Tomlinson. We've been best friends since I could remember and I left when I was 10. We wrote letters to eachother and talked on the phone. Last time I saw him in person was about 3 years ago.
He auditioned for the X-Factor. He made it far but I only watched up until week 6 or 7. I remember the night he told me he was autitioning. I had been sitting in my room that I share with my friend Cameron. I call her Camie because she and I have lived together since we both moved and joined the dance school. She is about 5'4" and she is really skinny and has dark red hair.
We had been sitting in our room doing homework. I had been working on Chemistry and she was working on Geometry. I was about half way done with my homework when my laptop showed a video call. I answered the call not looking to see who it was. I worked on finising a question before I looked up and saw Louis.
"Hey Lou" I said. He looked like he was going to cry or something and I knew exactly what he looked like when he was about to. His family and home life wasn't all the greatest and sometimes I would find him crawling up the old tree beside my window at my house to come see me. He lived down the street from me and sometimes he would be crying and he would stay the night. I always listened to him when he told me what was going on. I broke my heart to see my best friend sad.
"Hey Marlee. Um...Are you alone right now?" He asked. His voice was hiding something.
"Hold on." I said as I turned to Camie. "Can I talk to Lou alone?"
"Yeah definately. Let me grab my Geometry and I'm going to head down to the lounge to see if there is anyone there who would like to study with me." She said. She gathered her books and put on her boots. She walked out the door and shut it tight behind her.
"Louis what's wrong?" I asked him. He looked at me with his blue eyes.
"I have to tell you something. I'm going to audition for the X-Factor" He said. He looked at the his hands.
"I'm happy for you" I said. I really didn't want him to go but I didn't want to be the reason he never got to live his dream.
"Marlee..." His voice trailed off.
"Louis please look at me" I begged him. He looked back up at me and I could see tears running down his cheeks.
"I don't know when I will get to see you or talk to you next." He said. I could feel tears running down my cheeks. Whenever I saw Lou cry, I always wanted to cry.
"Marlee, there's something I need to tell you. We've been friends for a long time and you know me better than anyone else. This is going to be hard to say but I need you to know it. I know we're only 16 but I mean it when I say this. I love you Marlee. Not just a friend type of love or a sibling love but love love. You have always been there for me no matter what." Louis said. I started to get really upset right then. I didn't know what all emotions I felt right then.
"Lou you can't just tell me you love me then go off for God knows how long and you don't know when we will get to see eachother again. This is already really hard on me but now it's even harder." I said. I was angry at him for saying that. He couldn't just say he loves me then go off and not know when he was coming back.
"I'm so sorry Marlee. I know this is hard on you already and it's hard on me too. I didn't mean to make it harder" He said. He started to cry a little harder then.
"Louis please try to calm down. Everything will be okay. I promise" I said. I didn't know if that was a promise I could keep or not. He started to stop crying.
"Marlee I didn't mean to make you mad. I just have had these feelings about you for the longest time and I thought I would out-grow them but I didn't." He told me. His blue eyes were now red and puffy.
"Lou I'm happy for you I just wish I could be with you right now. It's been 3 months since the last time we saw eachother in person and I don't know how I can deal with not knowing when I will see you or talk to you again." I said. I heard footsteps in the hallway right outside our door. I looked at the time and it was the time when we have to be in our rooms. We didn't have to go to bed we just had to be in our room.
"Louis I have to go. I'm happy for you. I guess I'll talk to you whenever. Bye" I said. I didn't even wait for him to say goodbye I ended the call right then. I closed my laptop right as Camie was walking into our room. She set her books down and looked over at me.
"Marlee what's wrong?" She said as she took a seat next to me on my bed. I looked at her then I looked back at the bedspread.
"Louis is leaving for the X-Factor." I said. She pulled me into a hug and I burried my face in her shirt. I started to cry harder and harder.
"Don't cry. Everything will be ok" She said as she stroked my hair. "Did he say anything else?"
"He told me he loved me. I didn't say it back. He said that he loved me loved me. Not just friend love or sibling love but real love. He said he's had feelings for me for a while but he thought he would out-grow them but he said he didn't." I said as I started to cry even harder.
"Calm down. Everything is going to be ok. Shhh don't cry" She said in a calming voice. She is always calm and she keeps me calm and calms me down when I need it. She rubbed my back and continued to soothe me until I had stopped crying. She let me go and she moved back so she could get a good look at me I guess.
Just then my phone went off and I picked it up to see it was a text. I opened it and it was from Louis.
'I leave tomorrow for boot camp. I'll talk to you whenever I get the chance. xx'
I closed out the message and put my phone back on my bed side table.
"Come on. We have a lot of homework to finish before tomorrow and we have a long rehersal tomorrow for Pointe." I said. Camie went back over to her bed where she worked on her geometry and I worked on my chemistry. I still had history, english, and some ASL homework left to do. Yes I take ASL because I always wanted to learn sign language and when I moved here I decided to take it.
I stayed focused on my homework. Louis's words kept running through my head.
'I know we're only 16 but I mean it when I say this. I love you Marlee. Not just a friend type of love or a sibling love but love love.' I tried my best to push him out of my mind that night.
That was three years ago and I remember that night perfectly.
