Don't Forget Me (George Shelley Fan Fiction)

Not Long After

5 weeks later, on a Thursday evening, after George had been tutoring me in English, we were walking home. The level of affection had increased again last week when he decided to hold my hand as we were walking home, it wasn't even like a friendly hold, our fingers were interlocked and I remember him stroking my thumb with his own, which was comforting. So on the Thursday we were walking home hand in hand then it began to rain, we were half way through the park so we took shelter under a tree, and waited for the rain to die down. The tree was only small and even though it didn't completely shelter us from the rain, my arm was poking out of the expanse of the green leaves, getting even more wet than the rest of my body.

"George, my arm is soaking, this tree isn't big enough" I protested as I shivered inside my thin school blazer.

"Sure it is, just huddle together" he said as he put his arm around my waist and pulled me towards him.

I stood in silence feeling the warmth of his body against mine, he didn't say a word either. Even though my whole body had been shivering from the rain, my body was suddenly all tingly as my heart pounded in my chest. I so badly wanted to kiss George right there, I wanted to feel the tenderness of his lips against mine whilst his strong arms embraced me.

We watched the rain hit the floor rapidly, then gradually slow to a light drizzle. Once the rain was only falling lightly George stepped out from under the tree and pulled me after him. We continued the walk towards my house, hand in hand once again.

10 minutes later we were stood outside my house, ready to say goodbye to each other.

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest, the side of my face pressed against his wet collapsed curls, making my cheeks feel damp but I didn't mind. As I opened my mouth to say goodbye he interrupted me.

"April, I need to tell you something".

I knew it was serious considering this was the first time he had ever called me by my real name.

"What is it?" I asked with a slight discomfort.

"Uhmm" he took a moment to think, pulling his head slightly away from me and looking down at my confused face, our eyes locked for a second and his lips raised into a smile "I'll tell you tomorrow" he said as he squeezed me then dropped his arms from around my back and started walked away, smiling jokingly back at me over his shoulder.

Friday wasn't a day George tutored me on, but as I was walking home alone through the park he came out from the side path into the park and ran up behind me, covered my eyes, as I turned around to see who it was he giggled and hugged me. He walked me home from there, again holding my hand. When I remembered the previous night and what he said as he left me, I asked him to tell me.

"I don't remember now' he answered 'it can't have been that important".

The way he said it along with the avoidance in his eyes told me he was lying, it wasn't that he had forgotten, he just didn't want to say, but school was over soon and George would be leaving Weston High, with this in my mind, I left it at that and tried to enjoy the rest of the walk home.

We carried on like that for the few months left of the school year, walking home together, holding hands, calling each other by nicknames; the strange thing was that nothing ever advanced, George claimed to never remember what he was going to tell me that night and nothing went any further than friends.

The last day of term came by, meaning the last day George would ever attend Weston High and more importantly, the last day George and I would walk home from school together hand in hand, joking all the way. George phoned me up in the morning and asked me to meet him in the park half an hour before school, this was unusual as I usually walked to school with Em but I texted Em telling her about George's call and she quickly understood and let me off. Mum had suggested I bought George a thank you and goodbye present, so I'd been out the Saturday before with Em and bought him a box of chocolates. I also managed to win a bid for a signed t-shirt from his favourite band costing £60. When I saw George waiting for me in the park I burst into tears, remembering that there would be no more after school tutoring, no more walking me home, no more holding hands. He saw the tears in my eyes and walked over quickly, pulling me into him and holding me tightly against his body. I heard him sniffing and pulled away from him, to see his face was red and he was crying now too. When he saw I had noticed he was crying he let out a quiet laugh and pulled me back into him. I didn't the moment to end but shortly after he pushed me away from him and looked at me with his hands on my shoulders. He ran his thumbs under my eyes, wiping away the tears.