Faults, Scars, and Guitar Strings

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

The next few weeks were the best weeks of my life. Christmas was approaching fast so it was the last week of school before we were on break. Zane and his friends were still in jail and the principal made it clear that they were not welcome back. Danes Over Bullying became the group that everyone started looking up to. Without Zane and the rest of his friends there even the popular girls grew quiet. They had no one to pick on or bully because they were the ones being left out. Bullying was no longer cool in our school. We welcomed everyone who talked to us and were happy to make friends, but we knew deep down who the original 17 were. David let us use his house for meetings which were held at least once a week. Lolita started that tradition. She wanted to be able to still spend time with us with her busy schedule. At first I thought David would hate the idea, but I think he liked seeing Lolita just as much as the rest of the group did. They were the cutest couple ever.

Dylan and I have been spending a lot more time together. I like him... A LOT. I've never thought of him that way until the day he revealed himself as being the mystery guy. The same day we almost kissed. I felt nervous around him. I've been trying to keep calm and not let him notice. We've been hanging out and sticking to what we said about not being official. He always respected my boundaries, knowing I needed to work on myself first. He hasn't tried to kiss me again since that first time at David's. I was starting to think he'd changed his mind about me, but I didn't want to believe it. Why else would he still be spending so much time with me? He said he was okay with waiting, but these last few weeks made me realize I am ready for a relationship after all. I don't want to be stuck somewhere between friends and more. Now I want to be official. The school already thinks we are together. To them we are already dating and we are both off limits to everybody else in school that might be interested. If that's not a sign that we should be official then I don't know what is. I just didn't know how to bring it up to him.

Sometimes after school we go to David's and spend the rest of the night in our secret place. I've looked up on my laptop how old some of that furniture is, and all of it is over 50 years old. Neither one of us can believe how the furniture is still in such good shape. Dylan and I grew to like the study. It was filled with books, and a lot of them were written by whoever used to live there. The couple was incredible writers too. We were moved by everything we read.

"These people, whoever they were, were amazing writers," I said.

"Definitely," Dylan said putting the book back on the shelf. "I can't believe they didn't publish any of these stories."

"It's so romantic," I added; "Writing their stories together."

"Even the guy was a romantic," he said sitting down next to me.

"It's cute, but I still like their story better," I said.

"Yeah, but you haven't let me read that one yet," he smiled.

"I will..." I said, "When I'm done reading it."

"Which is?"

"Do you like me?" I asked completely changing the subject. Who could blame me? We were talking about somebody else's love story but the only one that has been on my mind is my own.

"What do you mean? Of course I like you," he said. "I've told you that a hundred times."

"Yeah but the first day I figured out you were... you, we almost kissed. Then David caught us and you revealed at the assembly that you couldn't live without me. Then at the hospital we talked about it again and we agreed to be somewhere between friends and a relationship. I know you haven't tried anything because I said I needed stuff to work on, but does it look like I've been having a hard time lately? You haven't even mentioned going further yet. We cannot stay in this between phase forever. Eventually we will have to make it official. How much time were you giving me? Why? Why is it that we still only hang out? I really like you! I have since that day and I'm finally ready and I've been waiting for you to bring it up again and if you really liked me then-"