The love life of a fourteen-year-old Christian girl who goes to a public school may not sound all that interesting, but once you hear about the heartbreak and secrets that fill her heart, you'll be unable to stop reading.
This story is a dramatizat...
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 7AM ——————- I'm on my bus ride to school when I get a message from Leo.
Leo
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I think of you every time I see it.
It gives me butterflies. I text him back.
Victoria I'm so glad you like it 😊 You should give me something to remind me of you whenever I see it!
Leo Im not sure what I could give you baby, but I could give you a kiss whenever you want.
...woah. How do I respond to that? A boy I just met telling me he wants to kiss me. Is this normal? Is this a red flag? I mean, things are supposed to come before this. There's steps to this. Aren't we supposed to hold hands? Hug? Or am I just inexperienced? I snapshot the message and send it to Elizabeth accompanied by a simple message; "!!!" I shakily text up a response.
Victoria Thank you Leo :) Im flattered. I don't think I'm ready for a kiss just yet, but eventually, yes 🤭
I hope he doesn't feel embarrassed. It's super sweet and flattering, honestly. I've never even had my first kiss yet, unless you count the 'kiss', if you can even call it that, my seventh grade boyfriend Jacob forced onto me in the cafeteria. I feel like he just unlocked the cage of butterflies in my stomach. Leo wants to kiss me. Leo wants to kiss me.
Leo Now I'm embarrassed. I'm such an idiot. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.
Victoria Leo! You're not an idiot! Don't feel embarrassed. It's flattering. I'm not uncomfortable. Thank you so much.
Did I do something wrong? Should I have just said 'thank you' and moved on? Did I make it too big of a deal? I just wanted a bracelet or necklace to remind me of him. Am I making a Mountian out of a cupcake crumb?
Leo I'm nervous now.
Victoria Don't be nervous Leo! It's too bad we won't have class together today. But I'll see you tomorrow and Thursday!
Right now, we have a block schedule because the upperclassmen are taking finals of some sort. On Mondays and Thursdays we have first, second and third period, which for me is biology, algebra and Spanish. On Wednesday we have all of our classes, and on Tuesdays and Fridays we have fourth, sixth and seventh period with fifth period being lunch. Each class is two hours long. It's a mess and I'm having a hard time keeping track of the classes I'm going to each day myself. Anyway, because of this whackjob schedule, I won't see Leo until Wednesday since we have all of our regular classes then, and on Thursday I have Bio, Algebra and Spanish.
Victoria Since you won't see me until tomorrow, here's some photos of me so you can still see me :)
I send him two of my best recent photos of myself, and it's not long until I'm spammed with heart emojis. Everything from ❤️ to 🥰 and 😻. Of course, there's Spanish compliments. "Bonita," "Linda," "Bella," and he even sends me a photo of himself. He sent me one of himself the other day, but it was an old photo and he's changed a lot since then. This one looks newer, more recent. I go to type up a compliment to respond to the photo he sent me, but the bus stops and we all unload off the bus. Me and Leo don't see each other today; I consider going to meet up with him at lunch, but me and Elizabeth are having fun and I don't want to force her to third wheel. I''ll see him in Spanish class tomorrow', I think. 'I should do something to flirt with him when I see him.'
************** Wednesday, March 29th 10AM ————— Elizabeth and I are about to be late to class. We ran into a friend and lollygagged, which is rare for us. Usually we are the first students in the classroom, but today we're the last. We barely make it in before the bell rings. "Hola, chicas. ¿Como estas?" asks Señora A as she prepares the projector. "Bien, ¿y tú?" I respond. "¡Bien!" Elizabeth and I make our way to our seats and, low and behold, Leo and Chris are in their typical seats at the table by us. "Hola, Leo!" I smile. "Hola, Victoria!" he smiles back. "¿Como estas?" "Muy bien por que tu," I compliment. I'm proud of myself because I don't even need a translator to tell him that I'm happy because of him. I grab my notes out of my backpack and type up the answers to the questions on my screen, but it takes me longer than it should because I'm constantly switching to my Google Translate tab to talk to Leo and turning around to read what he says, but I don't mind it. At one point, his screen reads "sorry I keep interrupting you." "It's okay! I like talking to you!" I type back. I finish up the assignment and make small talk with Leo. The teacher instructs us to go to Blooket so we can play a Spanish trivia game about what we've been learning this week; foods. I speed through it and I'm on the leaderboard the entire game. This unit is pretty simple to me and I love competitive learning, so this is right up my alley. In the game, a phrase or name of a food is on the screen in English and you have to tap the correct Spanish match, and the more you get right, the more points you get. I'm good with matching Spanish to English. Leo's English is rusty and minimal, but I do love that he's trying. On Tuesday, as the teacher was going over Spanish the names of each food, Leo was saying the English one. Because of his struggle in English (which is fair because English is a very hard language to learn if you weren't raised speaking it), he struggles on some of the questions, so he leans over to me to ask. "Victoria," he says softly. I love the way he says my voice, his thick Hispanic accent filtering it. The 'V' is so soft it sounds more like a 'B', and he gently rolls the 'R'. '¿Si, Leo?" I ask as I turn. He shows me his screen, the phrase in English is "What's your favorite food?" He points at the red phrase that reads "¿Cuál es tu comida favorita?" And I nod. "¡Si!" I smile. He asks for help a few more times and I love it. I get second place on the game and the teacher gives me a piece of candy. I get an idea of something cute to do with him. I scrounge around in my bag for a pen, but to no avail. "Elizabeth," I whisper, "you got a pen?" She grabs one out of her bag and hands it to me. "Give me your hand," I tell Leo in Spanish. He reaches his hand across the gap between our tables to me. I take his hand in mine and write my name on the top of his hand with a heart next to it. He takes the pen from my hand and repeats on my hand with his name. We're rushing because class is about to end and everyone is packing up, so the 'e' in his name is a little sloppy, but I love it.
Shortly after the game of Blooket ends, the class is over. Leo and I stand out front of the door and communicate through the translator apps on our phones. Chris comes up and gives me a quick fist bump; he's become a fun friend, a wingman to Leo. "What class do you have next?" I say in Spanish. It's one of the phrases I learned earlier this year. "La clase de ingles. ¿Y tú?" "La clase de historia." "Si. Adíos, y hasta mañana, linda." "Adíos, Leo! Hasta mañana," I say, and I put out my hand for a hi-five. It sounds so casual, but we have acquired a strange tradition to hi-five before we part. He hi-fives me, but we both rest our hands on each other's for just a minute. A split second of barely holding hands and it sends me for a loop. We make eye contact and smile together. We release our hands and turn. "Adíos," we say one more time before separating. I turn around to giggle with Elizabeth but she's gone. She's already left and started walking to history class. I speed walk the halls and find her in class. "You left me!" "You needed alone time," she laughs. "Oh, shut up," I giggle as I take my seat and find a pencil stuffed in my backpack. "Did you see the way he looks at you?" "What do you mean?" "I can show you the world," Elizabeth begins quietly singing the tune from Aladdin. "Quit it," I scoff. "Shining, shimmering, splendid," she continues.
