Teen Romance Fantasy

Side story 2 (Er)

I had known Christian ever since kindergarten. Back then he was already weird. His habit of not talking wasn't something that suddenly appeared in middle school and to be honest, I used to hate him for it. Christian was always the special one because he was cute and smart and quiet. All the adults were head over heels in love with him but I was just the ugly child with Xerosis. Even though I had known Christian for all these years, I never wasted my time on actually getting to know him. I had my friends and Christian... well... he had no friends. Nevertheless, it didn't actually seem to bother him all that much.

Throughout elementary school I stayed away from Christian as much as possible but I did notice that he was missing a lot. When we got to middle school, his situation got especially bad. Christian had been missing the entire first week. When he came back to school, everyone had already formed friend groups. For the first time in my life I thought that Christian might have seemed lonely. However, it wasn't me who noticed. In fact it was Kadir.

"Do you know that Asian guy who never talks?", he asked me at school, while we were enjoying our lunch break in a secluded classroom. Kadir was really handsome. Wherever he went, people would follow but he didn't like this kind of attention.

"Oh you mean Christian. Yeah, I've known him since elementary school. He's always been weird."

"So his name is Christian. I don't think he's all that bad. I asked him if wants to work with us on the science project."

"What?!", I asked as I almost chocked on my orange juice. Was Kadir for real? I mean, this was Christian who we were talking about. That dumbass hated everyone and everything. Why in the world did Kadir think that it was a good idea to let Christian join us?!

Well, Kadir didn't want to hear me ranting about Christian, since Christian already agreed (he nodded because he didn't talk) to join us. I eventually gave up and accepted that I would have to work together with none other than Christian Foster. I told myself that it would be fine since Kadir was with us but guess who suddenly decided to be sick the next and who suddenly decided to actually come to school for once. Yeah, Kadir was sick and I was all alone with Christian. Why did fate hate me so much?!

As expected, Christian didn't say a word and neither did he look at me, when I told him that we were in the same group for the science project. Even when our teacher handed us our papers, Christian kept staring at the table.

My blood began boiling because I realised that I would have to do all the work by myself. I knew that it was a bad idea to get myself involved with that freak. To make matters worse, I understood shit about what we had to do. Why was the task written in such a complicated manner? I slammed my head on the table and gave up without even trying. We were doomed or so I thought. Suddenly Christian pulled out two pieces of paper from his bag and put them right next to my face where I could see them. Within seconds I realised that what he handed me was the solution to our science project. Christian had already done all the work at home and not to mention, it was perfect. I knew he was smart but I didn't know he was that smart.

This was the first time I started questioning Christian and his attitude. The next day I walked up to Christian at the beginning of lunch break and asked if I could copy his biology homework. Without batting an eye he handed me his folder with everything that was inside. Christian was friendly.

"Kadir is still stick. Do you mind if I eat with you?"

He shook his head rapidly. At some point I even worried that his glasses could fall off but they never did. They stayed in place on his perfect tiny nose, even when his brown hair covered his eyes.

It was a game of endurance. Every day I tried talking to Christian and I had no idea why. Most of the time he didn't say a word but slowly he began opening up. It started with a simple Good morning and even became a How are you. Without realising it, I began considering him a friend. Christian never ate at lunch break but his mother made the best Korean food in the world for him, even though you could smell it from miles away. I did what every normal person would do. I ate it for him. How was I supposed to understand the reason why he never ate anything? I guess it should have been obvious but it took me an entire year to realise how his absence at school and the fact that he never ate anything were connected. It also took me a year to realise that he was getting bullied.

As his friend I of course tried to help him but I guess I just made it worse. In sixth grade a rumour had been going around that I had a crush on Christian. I denied it every time. I didn't have a crush on Christian. I just thought he looked handsome when he smiled and I regretted that I was never there for him when he really needed me. Instead it was her who rescued him.

-

"Just don't look at her face and you should be fine."

"I wasn't planning to."

Really? Why is your face this red then? Why are you talking so much about her? I thought you hated girls.

"I'm surprised that you're so cautious of what Sarah thinks of you. You're not usually like this."

"It has nothing to do with her directly. She kind of helped me out once. I just didn't mean to be so rude to her. That's it."

If she's no one special to you then why do you act like this?

"If you say so. We have chemistry after this by the way. Why don't you try to apologise to her before class?"

"I guess I could do that but-"

Suddenly the door to the classroom was opened and of course it had to be Sarah.

"Oh my god, I'm so damn sorry. I didn't think anyone would be in here. Actually, I was just wondering, have you seen a black purse somewhere? I think I left it here."

That bitch. As if the entire situation wasn't awful enough, Christian ended up finding her purse. She seemed so overjoyed as if Christian had just proposed to her.

"Thank you so much Christian! You're a lifesaver!"

Too close. She was way too close to him. Couldn't she thank him from the other side of the classroom?! Besides, why was he looking at her face? He didn't see it but he was looking at it.

I could already tell back then that Christian saw Sarah differently. If he had to choose between me and her, he would have chosen her. He loved her. I never stood a chance since the moment she came into his life.