Damn, You're Cute (Michael Clifford)

Prologue

*NOTE

        Hello! I'm so happy you chose my story to start reading! Just a heads up though, I am slowly editing the story for better writing. Don't worry, you can go ahead and read but some of the chapters may just have better, more fluent, writing! Again, thank you for reading <3

I'm Leah. Leah Mckenzie Rae. I'm 18, from Ocean City, Maryland but I'm moving to Sydney, Australia for my mother's work. I'm homeschooled and quite frankly, I'm different from other girls. I wish I wasn't, but I guess this is why. I don't believe in sappy love stories and cliche chick flicks. They're exceedingly fake and lead young girls to believe that all relationships start with dramatically bumping into each other and looking into each others eyes as one helps the other onto their feet. Relationships are not smooth rides. In fact, they're the opposite. That's why I vehemently hate those stories. They don't show the truth and the downright apprehension that is a relationship. Those false romances are unrealistic and move too fast.

In reality, two people meet and slowly learn to simply tolerate each other. Life goes on and other things take place during their lives like dentist appointments and school. Within a matter of time, the two share on and off moments of utter awkwardness, complete embarrassment, passionate anger, strong frustration, and painful sadness. These relationships are delicate objects that can crack, shatter, and break in seconds. They take time and can't happen within a week, although that's how movies, TV shows, and many books try to make it seem. Dating isn't perfect or easy. It's a rollercoaster, an upward climb where you work for what you want and when you finally reach that happiness that you procured at the hightest point, you drop down that steep hill and take several sharp turns. Dating is full of surprises, yet it can also be a drug. You can get so attached to that person, feel so high around them, and are able to let loose, but you know they're bad for you...Honestly, dating can be a bitch.

See, in my messed up mind where gears turn and thoughts twist among each other like vines tangled within their very own skinny, green bodies, relationships work in steps. The first step is pretty simple. You meet the poor bastard who will deal with your obsessions and interests. The two people spend time together and grow to be friends, best friends even. You bond over little things like your favorite and least favorite movies and make some similar friends. You might even have this feeling deep in your gut that you want more. You ache for his arms around you and to hear his heartbeat in his chest. This is where hell takes it's place in the spotlight, right in the center of your brain, where it can torment you. It emerges from the dark abyss that is your fears and screws with you.

This fear, this confusion...I call it the middle step: full of labels and shit you don't want to deal with. It's the point where you realize how real all of this is. It's the time when you wonder: what the hell are we? Labels suddenly define you and place you in a room that is quickly shrinking around you. You're stuck. It's then that you question whether you really want this. Do you still want that time of him holding you or is it too much? It can scare you. It sure scared me. Labels can make people change their minds and it's all because of that damn middle step. That place between best friends and dating where everyone is more confused than ever. I know because it's exactly what happened to me.

I hope to cross over into that clear, calm, final step of couples, cuddling, and cute shit like that, where I can be completely happy with whomever I love. Because although love is one huge storm, two people can huddle under an umbrella and wait it out together. However, it's a hell of a lot harder than it looks.

So, my story starts here with a new school, no friends, one quirky Australian boy with black, purple, and blue hair all in one, and, of course, that goddamn middle step...

Let's just say that I didn't see it coming.