Are You The One For Me?

Are You The One For Me? (10) - Edited.

CALLISTA'S POV:

'This was such a bad idea,' I sobbed to myself. 'Why the hell did I have to go and be friends with Eric in the first place? Why can't I just know when to stop? Why can't I just learn my lesson already? Why do I keeping going back?' I shook my head and thumped it against the stall a few times. 'Why do I keep trying to be happy? Why can't I just understand, it's not going to happen! Why, why, WHY?!' I kept on banging my head against the stall, not caring how much it hurt; my heart was hurting ten times more than that.

If Niya was there, she would've told me to just tell Eric the truth, but she would've been wrong - again. Telling Eric the truth wouldn't have changed anything. It would've only added to the problems. He would've pitied me - and if there's one thing that I hate other than mean people it's mean people giving me pity and feeling bad about my issues even though they created about half of them - and he would start acting like Dylan had when he found out how I felt about him. I would once again be ignored and avoided as if I was a full on plague and my heart would be broken all over again. I couldn't take that again. I couldn't tell Eric the truth. It'd just be the same.

But, it wasn't. What I thought was wrong, actually. As it turns out, Eric is the exact opposite of Dylan.

►♥◄

The rest of the day sped by so fast, I had no idea when the bell rang for my last class and how I made it outside the building.

I was walking with my head down and my binder pressed against my chest. The thick wind blew my hair left and right, obscuring my vision and causing me to trip over a tree root. My binder crashed down to the ground along with my knees. My papers started flying through the air and I struggled to grab at them all before they disappeared from my sight.

There were still some people left over, but I didn't expect them to actually get down on the dirty ground and start helping me. I was as invisible as the wind to them. I was there, present and all, but not seen nor heard by any.

One person did start picking up some papers that had flown into the street after the wind had died back down. That one person knelt down on the ground next to me and handed over the papers. I looked up to thank them and noticed it was none other than Eric.

'Why did we keep meeting like this?' I wondered aimlessly. 'What was this? A sign? Could this mean something?'

Against my best wishes, I decided I had to find out.

"Eric," I greeted him. "I..." Eric didn't even look at me though. He just picked up a few more pieces of papers for me, shoved them into my binder, pushed the binder towards me, and then pushed himself off the ground and started walking away. "Eric, wait!" I called after him, scrambling to my feet. "Please, listen to me!"

He stopped. His body was tense and his hands curled into fists.

"Why should I?" he barked back. Eric spun around and got close to my face. "What more do you have to say to me? What more you could possibly do to make me feel worse about myself?!" I flinched back at his tone and almost stumbled over my binder, which I had left on the ground. Eric's hand shot out and he grabbed my arm before I could fall back. All the anger vanished from his face and sadness replaced it. "I like you Callista. So much and all I wanted was to prove that to you, because like I said before I'm not good with words around girls. So, I thought it'd be better to show you how much I cared about you, but as you can see, that also went out just as bad. I don't want you to be scared of me. I want you to be comfortable around me. I want us to be friends again. But, most importantly," Eric hung his head, but peered back at up me through his eyelashes and bangs. "I want you to want me" he whispered. "just like I want you."

The weight of his words made me crash down to my knees. Eric went down with me.

"Eric," I breathed. "the reason I was avoiding you had nothing to do with you. It was because..." I looked up at him with puffy, tearful eyes.

"Because?" Eric pressed, squeezing my shoulders.

I sighed. It was a lot to get out and I didn't like talking about my failures. While some people went parading out, groaning and moaning about their issues, I tried to keep mine quiet, because I didn't need all that extra attention that came with those kinds of things.

"When I was younger," I started out slowly. "I had this huge crush on Dylan. That's done now though," I tried to make eye contact with Eric, but the pressure was too much and I had to look away. "I just don't like being near him because it just reminds me of how I used to feel about him, and I really don't like going back to those days," I hung my head this time and fiddled with my fingers. "He-he probably hates me now for what I've done with him and-and I know he didn't like it when you wanted to be friends with him. So, for him and because I didn't want anything else to go wrong in my life, I stayed away from you." I looked up then and whispered, "Even though it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my whole life. And I am so sorry for hurting you, Eric, it wasn't my intention at all," I shook my head and tried to blink away the hot tears that were coming fast. "I just didn't want to get hurt all over again."

I tensed, wondering what Eric's reacting would be to all of that. Before I could look up and find out for myself, Eric's arms grabbed me in for a hug. I was speechless and couldn't help flinching back against his touch. But, I settled down into his arms within a few seconds and found myself wrapping my arms tightly around the back of his neck.

"I'm so glad you told me the truth, Callista." he told me.

I couldn't believe it. How could be he so happy?! I just admitted to having feelings for Dylan and ignoring Eric because of that. I expected Eric to get really, really pissed off like he did that day in the cafeteria. Well, I didn't expect him to start swinging at me, but I didn't think he'd react this calmly either.

"Dylan told me," Eric stated simply. "During lunch."

"W-what?" I felt like I couldn't breathe.

Dylan...helped me? I was more upset than happy that he would do such a thing for me, of all people.

At that same moment, Dylan started walking out of the school. His eyes were on me. I stared back for a few seconds, taking in his features, then on instinct I quickly averted my eyes, but I still continued watching him through my eyelashes.

Eric pulled me in for another hug and this time I wasn't taken back by it. I inhaled in his scent and ran my fingers through his smooth locks. My eyes were still glued on Dylan as he walked past us. I still couldn't believe what he had done. He had given up his friend for someone he didn't even like.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you like that." Eric whispered in my ear.

"It's OK. And I'm sorry I didn't just explain everything to you earlier." I whispered back, nestling my face deeper into the crook of Eric's neck.

Eric pulled away from me then and stared into my eyes. This time I wasn't afraid and looked right back into them. The wind started picking up again and Eric had to keep moving back locks of my hair as they blew across our face.

"Hey, promise me if you ever have anything to say to me - good or bad - you'll tell me." he said.

I smiled. "I promise."

"Good." Eric's arms slipped around me again, making me feel content all over.

A/N: Whoo, another ch. all done & over with. Yep, so BOTH Eric & Callista have expressed their feelings for each other - FINALLY, right?

Well, they're not going out YET. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm cruel. But, we'll see where I'm going with this soon enough. =) Gosh, I wish there was a way to make a evil face emoticon. I so need one right now for this.

Oh well, gotta live without it I guess. =(

JK. Next chapter will be up soon guys, promise. =)