Present Day (Brielle)
Chapter 4 —
PRESENT DAY
BRIELLE
I walked into class hurriedly. I remember my freshman year when the reason for my quick arrival was completely different. At the time I just couldn’t wait to see him. I knew that I had been behaving like a naïve little girl for some time then. But God, I just couldn’t help it. I had a crush. We were all pretty naïve to be honest, being freshman girls and all. All of us were head over heels for one guy or another, who were usually a year or two older than us. I wasn’t totally boy crazy but there was this one guy that I just could not get out of my head. His names Marcus Demetri and he’s the most wonderful man on the planet. Unlike most of the girls who were crushing over the older guys who frankly appeared dangerous and slightly deceitful to me, I had kept to my age group. But I had known Marc since 7th grade.
He has the appearance of a miscreant and most of the teachers give him a hard time in the beginning of every year. It wasn’t just his appearance but also his family history. He lived with his older sister because his dad had left them. Their mother couldn’t manage through the loss of their father and left as well, so it was pretty easy for people to assume he was a troublemaker even though it was far from the truth.
I’d always been quite shy. I didn’t notice Marc at first, but one day he was assigned to me by Mr. Belisle as my lab partner in Chemistry for a project. That’s when everything changed and I developed an irrevocable crush on Marc.
I had eventually given up all hope of him ever feeling the same for me as the years had gone by but I still found myself drawn to him. I tried to stop my eyes from always wandering towards him but it was an act of great self restraint, the strength for which I couldn’t always muster. I was sick in a lot of ways. I buried my ever rising hopes and walked into class.
I took my seat and opened up my desk top to put my books in and that’s when I saw it. My heart pounded into my chest. It couldn’t be what I thought it was and someone couldn’t have possibly placed it there with a decisive intent. “You’re being stupid,” I told myself. Right in the middle of the opening was a single heart-shaped candy with the word “I” on it. It was probably nothing. It had to be nothing.
As I was pondering this someone walked in late. It had to be Marc. He always slept in a little too late. He was cute like that. I’d usually look up but I didn’t want to catch that look of nonchalance and indifference he always wore while coming into class. It would mean that this was in fact nothing and as much as I didn’t want to admit it. I wanted this to be something. I wanted it to be something special from him. There was that hope again, that irrepressible hope that just kept coming up. I hated it. I hated feeling this way.
The class had ended and I quickly collected my things and walked out. Lately it had become increasingly more difficult to watch Marc. It was like he was ten seconds ahead of me. I felt more like the victim than the stalker, which is why I started leaving class early so I could position myself somewhere hidden and unabashedly watch my Prince Charming.
I stood there resolutely waiting and watching for the shaggy dark mess of hair and those beautiful eyes that I loved so much. I bit my lower lip in anticipation. Finally, when everyone had left he came out with his shoulders slumped and my heart fell to the floor. He looked as hopeless as I felt and I couldn’t bear to see him that way. I wanted to run to him, but of course even I had my limitations. I was not that crazy. But my baby needed me and it killed me to turn my head away from him and start walking towards our next class before he caught me staring.
During my descent I remembered I had to switch my books for my next class and hastily ran to my locker to do so. I yanked it open and almost died of a heart attack. There in the middle of the locker was another heart-shaped candy that had the word “have” written on it. I stood there speechless.
