Eternity's Promise

Chapter 7

“Please Rose! Let’s go to his party!” I beg. After talking to Tyson he said he had to attend family matters, I guess that was code for helping with the party. I found Rose after school and told her about the party. I really want her to go because she needs to find out that Tyson likes her, and she needs to stop having this terrible thought that Tyson is the worst guy on earth.

“Ugh, no thanks,” she says.

“Come on! It will be fun!” I say

“No it won’t, you only want to go because Tyson will be there,” she says.

“No, I don’t like Tyson anymore. You were right, we just weren’t meant to be, and I couldn’t force fate,” I say. I actually don’t like Tyson, and it feels great. Finally I can remove that stupid hope I used to have of us being together. I gave it a shot, know I am better without him and now I have no regrets, it’s the best feeling ever. I just want Rose to like him, I know he is a jerk, but his feelings for Rose are real, and I want them to be together. I am so happy for Rose, a great guy likes her, she doesn’t even realize the impact she’s had on him. I wonder if someone likes me the way Tyson likes Rose.

I feel pretty bad that all this time I was trying to get some guy to like me that I never even had a chance with; I changed, and became less close to my friends.  That needs to stop. From now on I will like people for their character and once I actually get to know them; that type of ‘liking’ is real, I thought I liked Tyson, but I never did, I liked what I thought I knew about him, the idea of him. Rose was right all along.

I never knew the real him, so how can you like someone if you don’t know them really? Tyson never knew the real me, how could I have expected him to like me? I guess I never really did, I just wanted him to like me, one way or another. Even if I had to act like someone completely different for him to even notice me. Even with all that, it still didn’t work.

 “You stopped liking Tyson? Good. I guess you finally realized he is a jerk who only cares about himself?” she asks.

“I learned he wasn’t for me, he doesn’t only care about himself, please, let’s go to the party and maybe you will learn that he isn’t a bad guy,” I plead. She needs to go to the party, and then I’ll convince Tyson to tell Rose to say his true feelings. Then, she’ll like him just as much as he likes her, if that’s even possible.

“Fine! But only because I want you to learn that he IS a bad guy,” she says. Afterwards, we decide to go to my house to get ready for the party. We do our hair, makeup, and put on pretty cocktail dresses. I can say we both look great.  

We drove to the Steele’s mansion, where the party was taking place. We can hear the music from all the way down the street, reverberating the windows in our car. When we walk inside, it is crowded with people dancing to the music. There is a band playing, and there are tons of snacks lining the tables and many red solo cups on hand. Once inside I frantically look for Tyson, I want to demand him to tell Rose what he told me. I am looking around for him  when my shoulder is pocked by someone. I turn around and see Aaron. He looks uncomfortable, since we haven’t talked in a while I want to talk to him but I feel Tyson telling Rose is more important.

“Listen Aaron, I’m looking for Tyson, I need to tell him-” I am cut off short because his voice goes over mine

“No Delilah! I’m tired of this. I need to talk to you, it’s important.” He says urgently, anger flowing out of each word. At that moment I had to decide whether to listen to the guy I’ve been wanting to talk to for forever or find Tyson. I decided I can always find Tyson later and follow Aaron to the outside.

Outside Tyson’s house, there are hundreds of different shaped paper lanterns and twinkling lights bordering the terrace and within the bushes. There is a pool with a fountain spewing different colored water and a Jacuzzi bubbling. The music is still audible here. I turn to Aaron, my eyebrows raised in confusion as to what could be so important.

He sighs, rolls his eyes “I don’t even know why I am telling you this. It is too late, you are too attached to Tyson…”

“I am not attached to Tyson! Just tell me!” I yell

“You don't need to be put on a stage for me to like you. I like you backstage and when you're not even trying to get me to like you, or to put on a show. I don't even know why, honestly. You've changed, been mean to me and don't even notice me. I feel like I'm doing the exact same thing that you are doing to get Tyson to like you. I find what you are doing as pathetic, yet, that’s what I'm doing. I’m being pathetic, I want you to notice me, but you never even realize that I like you. You don't notice how I treat you differently and that I simply and utterly like you. I mean, I don't know why. But, I'm tired of trying to get your head out of the clouds and-”

I cut him short, even though I loved his spiel about how much I mean to him. I can't believe I was so loved and admired by someone and I never even treated them the way they deserve to be treated, never treated them in a particular way for them to have so many reasons to like me. I never tried to get him to like me, I never gave him reasons to like me, yet he likes me. Shakespeare said "love sought is good, but given unsought better," now I know exactly what he means. I wanted to continue to listen to him say everything but I didn't want to hear him say how neglected I was making him feel, that just made my heart squeeze. So, I did the only thing I could think of to show him I like him back, for him to stop talking and for me, what I really wanted to do since he started that soliloquy. I kissed him.

I kissed him and kissed him because for once I was good enough for someone. I spent so much time, trying to get some meaningless guy to like me. So much time wasted, all Tyson ever did was make me feel worthless and not good enough. My self-esteem lowered, how I viewed myself and my character changed to conform to him, to be exactly what I thought he wanted, and that still wasn't good enough. I kissed him fervently, making up for all that time that I should have spent appreciating Aaron, he likes me for me. He's taught me that I am more than good enough for him, and that even if I change and become someone despicable, he'll put up with me because he honestly and utterly likes me.