The Beginning

Some love stories are short stories, but they are short stories all the same. This is what I think about when I think of my short love story. I can’t explain to you exactly when I fell in love, or how it happened. It just did. And it was wonderful.

            In my attempt to tell you about my story, I should share some information about myself. I’m insecure and shy. Some people would disagree about the latter, because I seem to know everyone and everyone seems to know me, but I’m not really good at putting myself out there. I’m a bookworm, and much too girly for my own good. I would spend every day in a dress if I could. I’m also one of those girls who shied away from things that could potentially get me in trouble, a goody-too-shoes you could say.

      That’s something that makes this story so cliché. This is one where the good girl falls for the bad boy. What is it about bad boys?

     Summer was right around the corner and kids started to get impatient. Warmer weather was rolling through and we were stuck another month in classrooms, teachers were cracking down.

        I was settling into a spring routine with my best friend, Katey, of after school walks to Starbucks, a study hour, supper, and repeat the next day. Add in a sleepover on Friday nights, and this was happening almost every week.

      Before I had Katey my weekends usually consisted of me hanging around the house reading books while Bobbie played video games with his friends.

      There are two people in my life that make up for all the things I lack. The first person is my twin brother Bobbie. He’s outgoing and funny, always loud and hasn’t touched a book since the second grade. If I ever ran away from mud, he ran towards it. He stood up for me when I was too shy to do so for myself. He was allowed to pick on me, but no one else was allowed; he made sure of it. While I kept to myself, Bobbie was friends with everyone, always having someone new to hang out with.  

     The second person is Katey. She brought out the crazy part of me; she was part of the few people who ever saw that in me. For all of the things that I don’t like, she does and vice versa. I don’t like jam and peanut butter together, but she could eat it by the bucket-full. She hates cheese on anything except pizza, and I could add it to everything I eat. She likes shorts and t-shirts, I like dresses.

       And because of these differences, everyone was shocked that I had fallen so hard for someone so completely different from myself.

      During the winter time, my parents kept Bobbie and me on a short leash, hardly letting us go out, constantly wondering what we were doing and where we were. With summer coming fast though, they easily let up and we were out far more often than we know they would have liked.

        It was one of the warmest days in May when Katey asked me if I wanted to go out for lunch with her and her boyfriend Jesse. I happily obliged, willing to tag along with my favorite couple.

       “Landon is going to come for lunch too, is that ok?” Katey asked me as we waited by the back doors for Jesse, and now Landon.

      “Yeah, of course!” Katey wasn’t really asking though, she just turned a statement into a question in case it wasn’t ok with me, but it was.

       “Hey Katey, hey Brighton!” Landon said as he and Jesse walked up. Jesse bumped into Katey and she laughed. I smiled at Landon and the four of us walked out of the school together.

        We walked around the block to the McDonalds and sat in a booth, keeping up an easy chatter and talking away. Katey and Jesse slid into one side of the booth, so I was left to sit beside Landon.