The Troubles of Growing Up

Chapter 3

I just sat there, staring at her.
"I'm really sorry. I wish there was something that I could do. It's really tragic to hear something like that."
"Why do you care to comfort me?"
"Because Andrew talked about you so much. He cares so much about you and I care about him. He kept trying to get me to talk to you but..."
She sat there with a loss of words.
"I can't explain why I didn't. You seem very kind hearted and you seem like my type of guy but." She paused. Neither of us said anything. Then she said "I was worried about my reputation." She sat and stared at me. I saw a tear streak from her eye. I felt bad. She rubbed it away. "I'm sorry. Andrew was just such a good friend and I just..." 
"Just stop" She did. Then I saw her beautiful eyes staring at me. "I don't need your comfort. Please, just leave me alone." Another tear fell from her eyes. "Maybe I wasn't trying to comfort you. Maybe I was trying to get you to comfort me." She was fully crying now. I felt so bad. The guilt must have crossed my face because she said."Don't worry. It's not you. I just want to try and grant his biggest wish."
"What's that?"
"You don't know? You out of all people should know. He wanted you to find a girl. A nice girl." I had told Andrew that I had no interest in any girls at the school but I guess he didn't listen. He never does. "I don't need a girl in my life."
"Too late." She tried to smile but she was still crying. I placed my hand on her back and she grabbed me. She placed her face against my collarbone and she sat crying. I could feel my shirt slowly soaking with her tears. I felt awkward because I had the most popular girl in the school crying and soaking me out of all people with her tears. I looked around and saw the school normal. We sat there for the rest of lunch talking about life and how much we missed Andrew and talking about our memories with him. Then she started to open up to me. She told me about her life and how much she hated being popular. That surprised me. She had so much fun with her friends and she said she cared about her reputation. For about ten minutes we sat there before I noticed people looking at us and talking to each other. I started to feel uncomfortable so I asked her to leave. She looked at me and asked "What did I say? Whatever I said I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."
"I'm not upset I'm just paranoid. I'll talk to you after school if you want."
She looked relieved. "Ok, see you then." She got up and walked away. I felt bad that I was happy she was gone. But I was so uncomfortable I just had to get rid of her. After school got out I started walking home. As soon as I left the property, I heard her behind me."Josh!" I didn't want her around me so I just kept walking. "Josh! Wait up!" At that point I was already annoyed so to try to get her to leave me alone I made a big deal about putting my headphones on. I held them inches above my head and slowly put them on. Big mistake. She ran up to me and put her arm around me. I stopped and stared at her. She knew exactly what I was thinking. "Fine. If you won't talk to me then I'll leave you alone. I thought you wanted to be friends."
"Well you thought wrong." Bigger mistake. She looked at me with the most heartbroken eyes and she started crying and pushed past me to go home. I hated myself already, but this made me despise myself. All she wanted was to be kind to me. To be friends with me. To be more. I knew she liked me. But I didn't feel the same way. I had never felt love before. I couldn't because I didn't know how. The next day I tried to find her but she wasn't at school. I even talked to her friends to try and find her. They just yelled at me for talking to them saying she was at home and I wasn't good enough to talk to any of them. That was why I always hated them. That day was very frustrating. I started feeling angry and guilty about yelling at her. She was gone for another week before I messaged her over Facebook saying I was sorry. She responded   'I really don't care I found someone new' I thought she meant she found someone to replace me. The next day she was in school again. I didn't bother trying to talk to her. Then at lunch I saw a new girl in the school. She was sitting alone. I thought about what Charlotte said. Andrew just wanted me to have a girl in my life. So I picked up my tray and sat in front of her. She looked into my eyes and I fell in love. "Hi." Her voice. I started to like her. "Hey."
"I'm Haylee." I sat there staring at her. Admiring her. "You ok?" She giggled. That was it. I didn't know how or why but I was in love. I smiled but in the slightest way. She pushed her hair behind her ear and smiled as she looked down and then back up at me. Still smiling. We sat staring at each other. What seemed like an eternity turned out to be about 7 seconds. Finally I said "Josh."
"What?" She replied
"My name. Is Josh."
"Oh. Pfft. Don't know what else that would mean."
We both had a laugh at that. We talked for the entire lunch period and I learned so much about her. She was amazing. She liked the same music as me the same youtubers. We had so much in common it was almost as if she was me. I had fallen so far in love I couldn't believe it. She was everything I had ever wanted. I went home that day feeling inspired. That quickly changed. My sister Paige came in. She has never said anything nice to me. Or done anything nice. As expected she came in to yell at me. "What have you done today? Have you helped clean the hou.."
"I DON'T NEED YOU COMING IN HERE YELLING AT ME!!" She looked at me with a disgusted look on her face. "Every day you come in here and yell at me. I'm sick of it. My only friend is dying in the hospital and you're going to come in here to yell at me. Can't you just be nice for once?"  She left the room. She came back an hour later and said "pack your bags for a week long trip."
"Why?"
"Because mom said so."
She left the room. I got out of my seat and followed. I asked my mom if Paige was messing with me and she wasn't. My mom told me to pack a week of clothes. I asked why and she said "Because, we're going on a trip. It's a surprise."