Imaginary Friend

Chapter 21 - The Confession

It was finally the end of the school day. I pushed my hair out of my face, running my fingers through the longish, black locks of mine. I looked out at the hallway as I saw high-schoolers passing me by without a care in the world. Celia must've done something that made them leave me alone, right now they would've been snickering and quietly laughing at me and my previous misfortune with Quinn. Man, when she I see her again, I'm going to have to thank Celia a million times over. She always knows how to fix everything up for me. I can't believe that I ever abandoned her when I said I'd always be with her. I'm just a bad person, aren't I?

Well, no matter that now. I will never, EVER, do that to Celia again and I apologized profusely, and she forgave me. Better yet, she hugged me in response and then told me I was forgiven. It was a perfect moment when we were reunited yet again. It was always meant to be us, wasn't it? I walked down the halls, holding my backpack over my shoulders, looking for my special girl. The door opened and I saw her, walking out of her class, her red-orange hair shining in the lights. She turned to me, her emerald eyes sparkling and her face lit up with a small smile. It also darkened with a slight..blush? That was a bit unusual. Usually I have to cast out a cheesy pick up line for that to happen.

I smiled at her and worsened her blush. "Hey, Celia! Ready to head on home and work on homework?" Celia nodded, and I could tell she was a bit flustered about something. She remained silent and walked out of the school with me, looking straight ahead. This was like the day I got invited to the party, so I knew something was up with her. She wasn't normally like this. She would always start off a conversation by asking me how my day went and how everything was going with me and then she'd tell me about her day and we'd plan out something to do together. This time, we were both just in each other's presence, completely silent. I didn't say anything to break the silence for a while, thinking she just needed a minute to put her thoughts together and come up with some conversation starters. She usually didn't have to do that with me, though.

I looked back at her, my cobalt eyes sparkling a bit. "Um, Celia? How did your class go?" I asked, trying to lighten the tension, the mood, and to break the silence. She turned back to me, a bit startled by my sudden question, I suppose. She quickly gathered her thoughts in her head, in the meantime just nodding to me. "Y-Yeah! It was great, Jack, thanks. We learned..a lot." She informed me. Silence again. This was too weird. She had never acted like this around me before. Never this flustered and silent and almost at a loss for words. She could be comfortable around me and we took the moments we had alone together as an opportunity to just relax and be ourselves. It seemed like she wasn't doing that and she was trying just for this time to be over. 

I stopped in my tracks and she stopped too. She looked back at me, wondering why I wasn't moving anymore. I looked down at the ground, seeing some fallen cherry blossoms swirling in the wind. The others, still attached to the tree, began to fall on Celia and I and they began to swirl around in the wind. This was like one of those intense scenes in the animes when the boy and the girl each would take this moment to just stare at each other. Music was playing in my head. Inspiring music, romantic music? I'm not entirely sure, but something sure was playing in my head. I looked back at Celia who had a perplexed and surprised look on her face. "Jack?" She asked, softly.

"Is everything okay, Celia? You've been acting kind of weird ever since we made up." My eyes went wide. "Do you..really not forgive me? Do you still feel uncomfortable or upset with me?" I sighed. "I'm sorry, Celia, I really am. I promise you, I will never, ever do tha-" "No!" She cried. She covered her mouth for a second as to apologize for shouting. "No.." She whispered. "It's not that. I forgive you for that, Jack, and that's in the past now. It's something else that happened..with me." I was a bit confused, but relieved to find out it wasn't me that was causing this. "We can talk about it, if you'd like, Celia. I'm always going to be there for you." I smiled. The cherry blossoms surrounded us as we just stared and smiled at each other. 

Celia looked down at the pavement, her hair flowing in the wind. Her emerald eyes were sparkling, complimenting the cherry blossoms. She tucked her loose hair behind her ear and sighed. "I was talking to Quinn about their actions and confronting them. I stood up for you, Jack, and I realized something." She took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever she was about to say to me. I was getting a bit scared, wondering what she was going to say to me. I stood in place, my palms starting to sweat. "Celia, you can talk to me..please, just tell me what's on your mind." I sheepishly begged. Celia looked at me, her lips full and beautiful. A single cherry blossom fell on the ground between us, the others swirling around us to really remind us of this moment and remind us of the spring. 

"They..in the middle of us arguing and shouting at each other, she started to question me. Quinn questioned why I was defending you and using so many positive words when describing you. She kept going at me until I admitted something to everyone and to myself that I now know to be true..Jack.." She looked at me, her eyes filling up with tears, a single tear cascading down her cheek.

"I love you." 

My eyes went wide hearing her utter those three, very sweet words. I stumbled backwards, surprised, the melody in my ear becoming more intense and playing more sweetly. I couldn't believe my ears. The cherry blossoms surrounded us in a whirling pattern of blossoms, making this whole scene just that much sweeter. Suddenly, my eyes were opened up to a whole new world. I could see everything differently now. Love..love had changed me. The love of the girl that I had known for 9 years, the love of my best friend, the love of Celia. My goodness, this girl loves me. Wait..she loves me. Am I ready for her love? She looked at me sheepishly, and I could tell from her stance and facial expression that she was a bit nervous. She mustered up the courage to smile at me and inch closer towards me, her beautiful hair flowing in the wind. "Jack..what do you say?" I looked at her...

And then I ran away.