A brand new life

It was one sunny afternoon, I saw him, smiling at me while I was staring at his hands and face full of wounds and his body covered with dirt and some blood. He defended and saved me from those jerks who tried to bully me due to my weirdness –I think. I felt my body froze, my heart beating faster with blood and heat rising to my cheeks, a feeling I could never ever understand, as he walked closer and closer towards me.

I fought what I felt and tried to hide how my body reacted as he touched my face and asked “Are you alright?” with his husky voice. I was speechless, my mind went blank. Suddenly, I felt tears run down my eyes, I got embarrassed and my face went red like those tomatoes. Immediately, I stood up and said “Y-yes! I’m fine! Let’s go to the nurse’s office now!” while wiping those unwanted tears away from my face. From then on, I understood what falling in love feels like and what love really is.

He’s my classmate, a popular, cool, handsome, kind, rich, smart and just the typical “prince” that you could ever wish for. Then there’s me, the “ice princess” of our school, known to have the “death glare” which has the power to turn you into ice –as if. His name is Alex, my name is Alex too. Both of us have the same birthdays, both 14 yrs. Old, and I just noticed that we've been classmates for 11 years already. Is it just coincidence? Or is it called fate and destiny already?

            I watched him sleep like a baby on the bed in the nurse’s office. I felt guilty for making him suffer just because of someone like me. As I stared at his angelic face, his eyes fluttered open. I panicked as he looked at my face, then around him, “Where am I?” he asked confused. Maybe he forgot that he collapsed, I thought to myself and answered shyly “At the nurse’s office”. My eyes were glued to him, I can’t seem to look at anything else. He narrowed his eyes on me saying “Why are you staring at me like that?”, I said nothing and started blushing, “did you fall for me? Joke!” he added with a chuckle. I blushed even more and covered my face, “Why would I? You idiot! I was just staring into space! Don’t assume anything” I shouted without even knowing if what I just said made any sense, then ran away in lightning speed.

            I sighed in relief when I finally got to see the sight of books. “At last! The only place I feel comfortable to be at, the library”. I’m not really good in dealing with other people so I just lock myself in the world of books, maybe that’s the reason why they consider me as the “ice princess”, because whenever someone talks to me I just stare at them until they go away. I don’t know, I just suddenly freeze when someone talks to me, I’m just not used to it. It's like I become nervous without me even knowing it. Maybe the reason why is that I grew up in a broken family, so I just lock myself in my room and do what I do.

So yeah, back to the story, I loved books ever since I was a child it’s also the reason why I met my best friend, Judy, who also loves books. She’s a happy-go-lucky girl and I loved her very much. Sadly, we parted ways when we were still in 7th grade but we’re still communicating in some way or another.

I reached for a book, but it was too high for me, to my surprise a familiar voice whispered “You should ask for help, fellow Alex”, I turned around and saw him! “Alex!” I said, shocked. “It was mean of you to just walk out in the middle of a conversation, Al” he said with a pissed voice. We ended up talking to each other, sharing our interests and just everything we could talk about, I was even surprised that I didn't feel any hesitations. I found out that he was a fellow book-lover too and I enjoyed his company. Unexpectedly, I opened up to him much easier than my best friend. I thought that maybe, just maybe, I will be able to experience this so-called "girlfriend-boyfriend relationship" even once in my life. I hoped...

He was the one who encouraged to me to be more open to others, to have self-esteem and to just have fun because we could only live once. I never believed in myself, I guess hanging out with others was a new thing to me, but then I was quite happy because Alex was always there for me guiding me on what to do and what to not do. We started to get closer and closer to each other as time went on and my feelings for him grew into something uncontrollable .         

             It felt like a dream to be close to him but then I needed wake up. Other girls were bullying me even more, this time telling me to “Stay away from OUR Alex!”, “You don’t deserve to be by his side, ugly!”. At first, I just ignored all of them, my feelings for Alex were that strong, but as time went on it got worst. “I can’t handle this anymore!” I said to myself, pissed off “this is killing me already”. My expectations hurt me, I'm assuming and I guess I'm the only one hurting myself. "This needs to stop" I declared.

 So, I decided to go back to my old life and shut myself in my own world –again. Alex noticed that I was starting to ignore him, so one day he confronted me why, I just told him to stay away from me with teary eyes. I ran away again, like last time, but the difference now is that Alex would not come after me anymore, no one would. I felt like giving up, but then I realized that I still have one person, Judy, my best friend. I called her and told her everything that happened. She got upset and angry, of course. But there’s this one thing that hit me about what she told me and this was “So, you will just continue your old lifestyle? Always hiding in your shell? You already, finally, found someone whom you could love and you won’t even fight for him? Wake up, Al! You can’t always wait for something to happen and just come your way, take initiative once in a while”. I thought deeply about what she said. But I don't want to expect, expectations hurt. I've had second thoughts, but I really, atleast, want to tell him how I feel before returning to my old boring life.

 So, I looked for him, his friends were confused and told me that he looked depressed and went to the convenience store to cool down, so I ran there. I finally saw him, those angelic face again! I ran across the street without thinking twice, “Alex!. I .!”. BANG! A loud noise occurred and I fell unconscious.  

            I heard screams and saw feet running from one place to another. Everything was just a blur when I opened my eyes, my head was spinning, my body aching, and I saw blood scattered everywhere, then fell unconscious again.

There was a bright light “Am I in heaven?” I said sobbing. “Yes, you are” said a manly voice like those movies in reply. I just cried, “But, h-how am I suppose to co-confess my f-feelings to Alex?!” my voice was shaking. “Wait! What? Calm down, Al!” now a familiar voice replied with a shocked voice.

I turned around and saw Alex –it’s like dejavu. My eyes grew big “You-you’re dead too?!”, he laughed “Silly Alex, of course not! We're in the hospital, idiot” he said while wiping my tears. I looked around me, he’s right! YES –wait! He…he heard me! I blushed, embarrassed and couldn’t do anything but cover my face -again.

He just patted my head gently saying “Don’t worry, I love you too” he said with a crooked smile. My heart skipped a beat, “What? But I’m just a stranger to you, right?! There’s no way that you’ll like me…”, “Not really, I’ve watched you since 6th grade and ever since I saw that smile of yours, I fell in love with it, I mean YOU” he blushed. The first time I have ever seen a prince blush, what a precious sight. “But—”, “NO” he cut me off

“Don't be dragged down by others, don’t listen to them, do what you want, believe in yourself, no one can ever be you so be proud, love yourself, because I love you for who you are.” He pressed his lips against my cheek. Was that what you call “peck”? I thought to myself as I touched my cheek smiling like crazy. We looked into each other’s eyes and saw a future we never imagined would actually happen. From that day forward, my new life just began.