How Tom Holland Stole My Heart

Every Story Has Its' Beginning

   So here's the beginning. Something that everyone and everything has. 

   My beginning? It starts way back to when my family and I lived on the outskirts of Edinburgh, but we would always go to London to visit my grandmother, the one and only, Maggie Smith. We would always stop at this little sandwich shoppe Greggs and on Tuesday afternoons I would always see this family there. There was a little boy in there who was maybe my age. 

    Our families would pass each other so much, we decided to keep in contact and possibly have playdates together or whatever it is that moms plan for their toddlers of four; I wouldn't know. Whenever I visited my grandmother during the summer, we would always see a lot of each other. When I moved to Sussex and started my school, it became harder to keep in contact. I was nine, I think, the next time I reunited with the Hollands and that was when Tom and I really became close friends. I met Harrison and his family and my little brother Timothy adored Charlotte. 

   I should probably introduce myself. You've probably been confused about who the narrator is. My name is Elayna Hopper. The middle of middle children. I was born on April 12, 1996, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Actually, I wasn't the only one born that day. I'm the middle of triplets as well as a younger and older brother. Timothy, who I just mentioned, is my younger brother by four years. My eldest brother, Thomas, (I know it's kinda weird being in love with someone who has the same name as your brother) is older than me and my sister by three and a half years. My sister Everleigh is older than me and Elissa is younger. We were all born on separate days since I decided to take my sweet time coming into the world. But it doesn't really apply to the story and I'm honestly just rambling on, leaping farther down a rabbit trail. 

   Changing back to the main subject, the older I got the more I saw of Tom and the Hollands. I was a friend from the beginning and it actually helped me with my acting career. When Tom got in Billy Elliott, it was so strange almost. My sisters and I had been doing ballet at a young age and we got to be some of the ballerina girls in the production. Tom always had extra practices since he portrayed the character, Micheal. This inspired me to pursue professional dancing and acting as a career at a young age. Being that my grandmother is Maggie Smith, I was already two steps forward in the acting world. That's how Tom and I really got close. 

   We would always rehearse auditions together and he helped me learn gymnastics for harder roles. Looking back on it I must admit, those meetings for practice were what really brought us closer together. I remember one evening after school, I went to his house, I must've been 17 or so, and we were goofing around in the backyard on the trampoline mat; just being teenagers, the both of us sharing to each other the everyday troubles of school work and being bullied. We were both misfits, but we both managed to surprise everyone in the end. I remember that fall afternoon, it was a rough day and this girl had bullied me pretty badly. I went to the Hollands' and Tom and I was just sitting on the trampoline mat. My face must have painted a shade of upset because he asked me what was wrong. I told him about the girl who had slut-shamed me and put posters in my locker claiming that I was a whore. I remember breaking down right in front of Tom even though I tried not to so hard, pouring my bleeding heart out right in front of him. 

   I recall saying, "I fuck everything up. I'm an ugly slut."

   He said, "I know you're drowning in anxiety, and I know you have so much love in your heart. So please just give some to yourself Elayna." 

   He said it with so much love. And that's when I felt it. 

   Not some sexual arousement or tension. Not the lust to kiss him and make each other moan.

   A jolt in my heart.

   Just a little spark of something that could grow to a monstrous size.

   And that is the beginning my friends. The beginning of a love that was a painful, yet enlivening love. This is the story of how Tom Holland stole my heart.