Deadly In Love

Chapter 8: Confessions

That Monday, I told all of my friends what happened, and they started asking for details and saying that I had the best man ever.

“And then he made a really corny joke about his mom, don’t ask, and oh my god I love him.” I said, pulling on an imaginary curtain hanging from the sky in front of me. All of my friends stared at me in shock, confusing me. “What?” I asked.

“You love him? Did you two say I love you to each other last night? How could you leave that out?” Someone said.

“Yeah, what do you mean ‘what’? You just dropped a big bomb on us!” Someone else added.

“What? I didn’t say…oh. But it wasn’t an ‘I love him’ I love him. It was just a casual ‘I love him,’” I said, realizing what I had said, and slowly realizing that I had meant it. “Ok, so maybe I do love him, but what do you want me to do, run up to him and say it like a second grader?” I added.

“No, wait until you two are being flirty, or on a date, or on a walk, or talking, make sure it’s the right moment, and say it.” Said Tina, as if it was common knowledge.

In art class, I asked him to come over after school, and we decided to meet up at the end of the day and walk to my house together. I was giddy with excitement until the end of the day. My stomach fluttered every time I thought of the conversation, or even of him. My forehead went hot when I looked at the time. My eyebrows scrunched up when I realized that there were 10 minutes left of math, I hadn’t completed a single problem, and I had spent almost an hour daydreaming. Come on Lacy, this is the last class, just finish it, you got this.

I walked out of math class and met Banner in the hallway. He hugged me and we walked to my house holding hands. He had spent about the first half of the time trying to get me to give him my bag. I couldn’t help but think about what a gentleman he was. Wait, if I tell him that, we’ll start flirting, and I’ll have my chance to say it to him. I took a deep breath.

“You’re such a gentleman. Should I start calling you sir? Are you going to start calling me ma’am? Cuz I prefer babe,” I said. He chuckled.

“You have to curtsy every time you see me. Milady.” He said. We arrived at my house and I grabbed his bag and hung it up next to mine. I told my mom we were here and we went into my room, closing the door behind us. He kissed me. “What’s wrong? You seem distracted.”

“Well, nothing’s wrong. In fact, this is a good thing. But I want to tell you something. Sit down.” I said, sitting down on my bed.

“I’m scared, this sounds serious.” He said, sitting down next to me. I suddenly turned red, and started shaking. I was so nervous, thinking about all of the things he could say when I put myself in such a vulnerable place.

“You’re shaking. You look like you’re about to cry. I’m getting worried, what’s wrong?” He said, placing his hand over mine.

“What I wanted to say is…what I wanted to say is…” I hesitated for a few seconds, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to build up my courage. “I love you. But you don’t have to say it back. Don’t feel pressured. Actually, you know what, I’m sorry, I don’t know why I told you that, if you want to break up-” I said.

“I love you too” He interrupted, smiling a smile that I had never seen him smile before. He looked like a child opening a Christmas present and getting the toy they had wanted for years. He hugged me tight, more like an attack than a hug. I was still stunned in shock, but after a few seconds I hugged him back. He kissed me, holding my face in the palms of his hands. I smiled my child-on-Christmas-smile. “I love you so much. And if you couldn't tell, no I don’t want to break up.”

I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t thought that he would react like that. I thought that the best case scenario would be if he just awkwardly said it back. I looked up at his face. He was blushing and smiling ear to ear. As his smile slowly faded, he pushed my hair behind my ear, staring into my eyes. He looked back and forth between my eyes and my lips. I slowly leaned in to kiss him. He kissed me back, leaning so that I fell back onto the bed. We kissed softly on my bed. We sat up a few minutes later and I wiped the lip gloss off of my face. Then off of his.

“What do you want to do? Just talk? Or we can watch videos on my phone,” I said. I reached into my pocket to grab my phone. He stopped me gently with his hand and pushed the phone back in.

“We can just talk. Hey, I wanted to ask you something. You used to be best friends with Casey, right? What happened? I don’t see you two together much anymore,” He asked. The happy look on my face quickly disappeared. I bit my tongue as I thought about the fight.

“She used to try to tell me what to do all of the time, and if I didn’t do things her way, she would get mad. One time that happened and she got mad, so she went to sit with Marlee. Then, for a while, every time I disagreed with her on something she would go sit with Marlee. And you know Marlee, how she does anything anyone tells her too. Eventually, I decided to confront her about it and we fought. She stormed out of the room, and we just stopped being friends after that. That’s how everyone found out that I liked you. Once we stopped talking, she went around spreading rumors about it,” I said. We talked for the rest of the night, throwing in some kisses.