Kids In Love (Short Story)

Prologue

I needed to return home.  As much as it hurt me, surprisingly it did pain me, I needed to leave her.  She attempted to play off me leaving as if it were something she had expected and didn’t give a second thought about it.  Unfortunately for her, I knew her.  After knowing her for those months of summer, I knew that playing situations off as if they were nothing important was her way of hiding her pain, keeping her brave face on.

Granted, I didn’t believe that she would cry due to my leaving‒which she didn’t‒but it didn’t change the fact that she was hurt by it.  And for some odd reason, it pained me to see her in pain.

“You know how I feel about you, I love you!  And I need to know if you feel the same way because I don’t want to waste my time and energy on you if I’m just going to be used by you!” I yelled at her as she sat on that hideous-printed sofa, keeping her gaze fixated on the stained carpet beneath her feet.

She didn’t respond, and I was sure that her feelings were opposite of my own.  I wasn’t going to assume, though, I needed to know.

I took the necessary steps towards her so that I would be able to kneel in front of her to reach her eye level.  Her gaze remained zeroed in on the carpet, confusing me.  It was as if she was afraid to be vulnerable around me even though I had been with her in the most vulnerable position she could be in.

I whispered her name and used the tips of my fingers to lift her chin so that I could look into her eyes.  It surprised me to see that those bright hazel eyes of hers were rimmed with tears.  She took a shaky breath of air in, clearing her throat as a tear cascaded down her left cheek.

Using the fingertips I had to pull her chin up, I wiped the tear away gently, keeping my fingers on her cheek until her eyes met mine once again.

“Do you feel the same way about me that I feel about you?” I repeated my question, bracing myself for the worst to come.

“…I don’t know,” she replied in a hushed tone.

She didn’t know?  How could she not know?  We had been with each other every day for the past four months and she wasn’t sure if she shared the same feelings I did?

“Is that just a polite way of telling me ‘no’?” I questioned, my ankles beginning to ache from kneeling for this long.

She shook her head, “It’s not… I just don’t know,” she repeated, aggravating me.

I stood without another word and took two steps back from her.  I took in how her body looked.  She was hunched over, her shoulders shaking softly as attempted to calm herself.

“Well then, maybe you should leave until you figure it out,” I suggested, crossing my arms over my chest.

Her head rose slowly, but her eyes didn’t meet mine.  She picked her purse up off of the ground and made her way towards the door.  Before she opened the heavy door, she turned to me and let out a breath.

“Goodbye, Harry,” she muttered before turning the doorknob and leaving my sight.

That wasn’t the last time I had seen her, but it was one of the most vivid memories that I had of her.  Every detail about that one afternoon was imprinted into my brain perfectly.  That was the summer that I would never be able to forget, even if I tried my hardest to.