Falling Helplessly

Six - Here comes the sun

"Year ten began as did Ella and Alfie's love story. I still remember the exact date they started everything it was February 6th. Me and Ella had this stupid idea to set her and Alfie up on a date. As soon as your mum laid eyes on him at the beginning of the school year, she once again fell for him, but back then she didn't even know of my friendship with Alfie or Henry for that matter. 

I messaged Alfie for what must've been the first time in a year or so and asked him if he'd want to go out on a date with Ella, he replied immediately, but Alfie being Alfie said that he would but that he wanted a couple of months to get his head round it and sort himself out before he started something. 

During that time, they never did speak. Instead, they'd both do subtle things around school for one another to show the other they were still there waiting, that they still liked them. Ella would smile whenever he walked past, Alfie would smirk and look into her eyes. When he knew she was worried or feeling anxious around school he'd slowly but subtly walk close to her and sometimes brush her arm with his to make sure that she was okay before giving her a reassuring smile, though no words had been exchanged yet, they were already connected through unspoken love. 

Ella and Alfie started growing closer over the next few months and in the summer holidays leading to year eleven is where their love story truly began. Alfie had finally mustered the courage to ask her out and broke the silence between them, his couple of months had turned into a whole school year, but to be honest I think that's what made them work because already they liked the other enough to wait for them. 

The morning of their first date, Ella came round to my house stressing, she didn't know what to wear, she said her makeup wasn't working and her hair didn't look right. I just laughed at my best friend and pulled together an outfit of my own for her and then told her to sit down to which she eventually listened and then allowed me to do her hair and makeup for her and finally she was content with her appearance, though she was half an hour late for the date at this point to which she was frantically messaging Alfie and apologising to him as I walked her into town. He simply laughed and said she was fashionably late of course and that's when I knew they were destined for one another.

 For their first date, they got the train together to London, went to the cinema and then he took her for lunch. Then they walked back to the train station hand in hand, until they stopped walking and Alfie for the first time kissed Ella. 

Ella and Alfie arrived back in their hometown where I was impatiently waiting for them to hear how it went. Imagine my surprise when they got off the train and walked over to me leant in each other's embrace, they kissed goodbye and then Ella ran over to me flung her arms around me with a huge smile on her face, it was the happiest I had seen her in a long time. 

We got a taxi back to my house and she spent the night at my house, both of us getting drinking in celebration of how well the date had gone as she spent the whole night gushing over Alfie. I remember every word she said, she looked at me dead in the eyes, grinning from ear to ear and said "Jodie, I've liked him in secret since year eight and now we're dating. I'm falling for him already Jodie and I've never felt this hopeful about the prospect of the future, but if my future includes him maybe, just maybe everything will fall back into place and we can be free together." 

So I replied to Ella slightly tipsy at this point may I add and said "You two are perfect for each other, more alike than you realise and Ella, he would go to the ends of the earth for you just to see you smile." 

The main worry that Ella had was what others would think of her being with Alfie. Ella thought that her and Alfie came from very different worlds because Alfie in high school, was always one of the popular boys, with girls throwing themselves at him, whilst Ella kept to the side-lines, staying clear of drama ; she wanted no part in his popularity but she'd later learn that she needn't have been worried as like I'd already told her they were more similar than she ever could have imagined, more perfect than she'd ever know. 

Throughout the summer, Ella and Alfie embarked on a secret romance, travelling hours away so no one they knew would see them together simply because they didn't want this happiness that they had found together in their little bubble to be destroyed by those who wouldn't understand. No one knew of their relationship for a while other than me, Becky and Alfie's best friend, Henry. 

That summer was the start of an everlasting love. Your mum finally found a spark of hope in her life, she was fifteen and living in a dream world with him, until she returned home each night only to be plunged into the nightmare she'd left behind hours earlier."