Falling Hard

Chapter 4

Sprinting up the stairs, I dash to Katie's door and began to bang on it. I have to share the good news with her! Suddenly, the door flung open to see Katie with a look on her face that says she's ready to kill.

"What the crap—" she exclaims. "Oh, hi Vanessa," she interjects herself and greets me a cheerily. Continuing on, she asks, "What brings you here?"

"I've got good news," I say with a smile. Inviting myself in, I walk into her room and close the door behind me. "But I didn't want to tell your whole floor too."

Moving towards her bed on the right side of the room, she motions for me to follow. We both take a seat down on her blue and purple tie dye comforter.

With a wide grin on my face, I start explaining, "So I went to the atrium this morning to get lunch... He was there!"

"Who was there?" She asked, eager to hear more.

"Tyler!" I exclaim. Whoops! I think I may have said that a little too loud. I look around as if I can see the other people on her floor looking at me.

"So, what happened?" she questioned.

Adding further explanation, I say, "Well, I was walking out of the convenience store where we can buy like lunch to go... Of course, I wasn't watching where I was walking, so I rammed right into Tyler. Once who we each had ran into, we greeted each other, and he asked if he could join me for lunch."

She smiled, "Ooh! Moving up in the world with him Vanessa. Maybe he'll invite you to go to a party with him sometime. He is a football player..."

I slap her on her arm hard enough for it to make a noise. She screeched, "Owe!"

"You deserved that," I joked around with her.

As she rubbed her arm, she looked back at me and asked, "No, seriously, do you want to become his boyfriend?"

Looking down at the ground, I mumbled back at her, "I don't even know."

"But you were so happy when you came in here to share the 'good' news with me. What happened?" She turned the conversation to an even more serious tone.

"He's a football player," I began.

"Yeah! That's the whole point!" She got a little excited.

"That's the issue. I don't want to be just some girl that's a one night stand. The football team is known for that. Please don't tell anyone this, but I haven't even kissed a guy before..." I trail off.

"Look at me," she said, gently grabbing my chin to turn my face towards her. Continuing on, she told me, "That is nothing to be ashamed of. If anything that's honorable because you've been waiting for the right guy instead of changing boyfriends as often as you change socks. Also, if all he wants is a one night stand with you, then he's not even worth your time. I've only known you for a couple days and I already know that you're a prize to be had. You're beautiful, kind, caring, generous, loyal and any guy would be extremely lucky to call you his girlfriend. Don't let anyone tell you anything different. If a guy is pressuring you to do something that you don't want to do, he doesn't deserve you, so don't waste your time." She pauses to breath for a few seconds. Going even further, she says, "If you like Tyler, go for him. Try it. See if it works. If it doesn't feel right or doesn't work out, oh well. Don't let yourself miss out on an opportunity if you want it because later down the road you may question what would have happened if you would have tried it out."

As Katie finished her encouraging speech, I felt a wet, cold substance flow down my cheek. I realized what it was, a tear. I was crying. Not knowing what to say back to her, I just reached over and hugged her as a thank you.