Not Just A Pretty Face

Chapter Four

I first met Gulliver a year ago when I was on the cusp of turning 16; we were at a school hosted event, my school’s musical with some school friends, and he had come with some of his friends.  He was a couple of inches taller than I, with wispy brown hair and blue eyes.  He was extremely slender, and I knew from looking at him that he was an Inbetween; his cheeks were fixed in a permanent red colouration, he had brown spots here and there.  To make up for it, I noticed he always dressed well.

   I had been at the snack bar buying a bottle of water, and just as I had been about to pay, a five dollar note was passed over to the shop keeper.  I had looked around, surprised, and saw him with a large smile.  “So, seeing as I got you your chocolate,” he had said to me, in a voice that seemed it should have belonged to a younger male, “Why don’t you tell me your name?”

   I could remember smiling and blushing.  I think he was slightly amazed I did, and he would admit to me later on that he full-on expected a Beautiful like me to tell him to get out of my face.  “My name is Dylan Hallows,” I said, extending my hand.  I noticed his palm and mine were the same size, but my fingers were slightly longer.  “Yours?”

   “I’m Gulliver Concord.  It’s nice to meet you.”

   He had walked me back to my seat in the theatre, much to the shock of my friends.  I actually don’t remember who got the bigger shock – them at seeing me with an Inbetween, or him when he realised that my friends were all Inbetweens and Afflicteds.  They had just been who I spent time with back then, before I had met Celia.  Looking back, I think when he saw that, he took it as a better chance to get in with me if this was the crowd I associated myself with.

    We had each other’s names, so we promised to talk to each other there.  He kept his promise, and spoke to me practically every night.  He was charming, sweet and intelligent.  I enjoyed carrying conversation with him, each of us sharing our dreams and desires, and I was happy to see that most of them matched up for us.  He attended the all-boys school near the City, while I attended the all-girls school near the suburbs.  “It’s a shame you don’t live near here,” he said, “And go to my sister school.  We could walk together, then.”

   I don’t know what it was; the way he treated me, the way he made me feel.  I was falling in love at a dizzying rate.  It is true, what they say – love is blind.  When we did eventually go out (he never asked me out on a date, exactly – he just suggested a time where he was meeting with his friend, then told his friend it was off and we were just together) I could tell people would look at us and say quietly to their friends, “How the hell did that happen?”  Or, “What does she see in him?”  The entire time I was around him, I felt a sort of internal shuddering, as if my ribs were about to collapse in on themselves and I had to concentrate so hard to keep it together.  I knew what it was: physical and emotional attraction.  I felt this fuzzy feeling in my gut every time I thought of him, or whenever he was near, touching or holding me.

   On our first ‘date’, we had walked around the City for a bit.  Without the computer screen, I realised he found it a little harder to be bold and confident, and so when I tried to speak to him, I sometimes faltered.  And so our sexual relationship began that very day, when he brought me back to his house, and kissed me on the bed.

   My mum and dad thought he was great, and when Gulliver brought me home to meet his own parents, there was an instant bond.  His father especially became someone as close as a second-father to me.  I adored having them around, and they were so ecstatic when I came to visit.  “They’ll make fantastic in-laws!” mum had gushed to me when she met them too.

   My naïve little mind at the time thought this was wonderful.  I had a man who cared about me, who was kind to everyone around him, and when we lost our virginity together in his bedroom a few months later, I felt our hearts had melded permanently.  Whenever I went over to his house, that was practically all that happened.