Idiot's Guide To Falling In Love [Completed]✔

Chapter 7

We agreed to meet at Crossberry Park. It used to be everyone's favorite place when we were in kindergarten and elementary. It was mostly empty these days, only old people went there. But it was as beautiful as it had been so many years ago.

I looked around to see if I could spot Shawn. He didn't seem to be there yet. Just when I thought he wouldn't come I heard a voice behind me. "Hey Emma." I smiled when I saw him. Something about his voice made the butterflies in my stomach go even crazier. He smiled. "Do any of your friends know you're here?" I asked. He rolled his eyes at my insecurity. "They don't know. They think I went to the hospital to pick my mom up after giving birth. What they don't know is that she got home two hours ago." I smiled. Hearing about newborn babies makes me happy. "Well, I'm glad she's okay."

We started walking around the park. "And what did she have?" Shawn looked at me weird. "Uhh. A baby...?" I laughed. "No, you idiot," I said, "I mean, like, if she had a boy or a girl." I kept laughing at his response until he glared at me. Then he laughed too. "She had twins actually. A boy and a girl." My eyes lit up. "Oh my God, that's sooooo cute. I wish my parents had had another baby. My brother used to make fun of me saying that they got scared after they had me." He looked at me laughing and said, "I think I would've stopped too after having a child like you." I glared at him.

We walked in silence for a while. "So Shawn," I started, "What did you mean earlier? When we were talking on Snapchat, I mean." He stayed silent and looked around. Is it that hard admitting your feelings to someone? "Can I tell you a secret?" I nodded. "Well. Umm. How do I start?" He stopped walking and put his back to me. He started kind of jumping and moving his hands in a weird way, almost like jazz hands. "Okay, I'm sorry. What are you doing?" I said almost crying of laughter. He turned around to face me and said "I'm nervous. It's what I do when I'm nervous." I looked at him, expecting him to finish what he wanted to day. He looked at me, kind of like with puppy dog eyes. "I've liked you since we were in elementary." He looked like he was going to cry. I was probably the first person he'd told. "I've liked you since we were friends when were kids." He whispered. I looked at him. I didn't know what to say.

Back in the day Shawn and I had been best friends, but the reason we stopped being friends was because of what he did to me in middle school and he was telling me that he'd liked me since before he did what he did.

The reason that his friends and my friends were enemies was because of what his friends did, and that he had a big part in, and he'd liked me since before that. I went from surprised to mad in a matter of seconds. "So what you're saying is, when you did that to me in the seventh grade, you did it while you liked me? What kind I person does that?" He looked at me with pain in his eyes. He looked like he was about to cry, which was weird because Shawn doesn't cry. "I know it sounds bad. But, I did that because I liked you. I did that because I wanted to...I don't even know anymore. But, I didn't want to hurt you. I just wanted for you to go to me when you were hurt." I got even madder.

I tried to stay calm. It had been years since the "incident", but he had brought back the scared thirteen year old girl that still lived inside me when he said that. "What you're saying is that you put a note in my backpack saying "I'm fat and ugly" where everyone could see because you wanted me to fall in love with you?" I said while I wiped the tears from my cheeks. "You know what everyone did to me after? For weeks? They agreed that I was fat and chubby and ugly. And I knew that. Trust me, it's not like you miss being 145 pounds when you look at yourself in the mirror. Sometimes when I look in the mirror I still see that fat and scared little girl. And you caused it because you liked me. Amazing." I started to leave but said "And fyi, there are better ways to a girl's heart than bullying and late truths. You just have to be yourself. You almost got to my heart that way. But now you missed your chance. You should've just left it with the "I like you""

I got on my bike and went home. I took the long way, knowing that if I went the normal way he'd catch up to me. And I was in no mood to talk to him or see him.

When I got home I was crying. My dad tried knocking on my room door to talk to me. I didn't answer. My mom tried knocking. I didn't answer. I stayed in my room for a long time. Just crying. I couldn't even will myself to stand up and grab my headphones. I just couldn't. After about twenty minutes. I heard someone opening my door. It was my mom. "How did you open the door?" I asked. She just smiled and lifted a key. Stupid master key. "So, are you going to tell me what happened or will I have to tickle the truth out?" I nodded my head no. I didn't want to talk with her right now.

"And how about if I buy the truth out of you with ice cream." My mom knew she'd hit my soft spot. I never ate a lot of sweets but my guilty pleasure was ice cream. Specifically from Dairy Queen. I cleaned up my face and re-applied my makeup. I also changed my clothes. In ten minutes my mom and I had already left to Dairy Queen.