Too Young

Chapter 22:Confession

"What?!" I thought to myself as I heard him continue my sentence and I saw Leah watching us "W-What?" I said "Was I...not clear?" Lee said "Yeah 'cause right now I'm confused" I said "Well I guess I have to tell you huh" he said "But not here" he said and he started walking somewhere "Then where?" I said following him "Anywhere but here" he said "Maybe your place?" I said and he stopped for a second "You wanna talk there then?" he said looking at me "Sure" I said and we walked to his place "You first" he said as he held the door for me "Thanks I guess" I said going in and he followed behind me shutting the door "So..." I said sitting down "What did you say back there?" I said as he sat down "Well...I...I like you" he said and silence filled the room as always and I was speechless "And I know it's stupid to say that 'cause I mean you might not like me back and the fact that after this we could be awkward more than usual and everything would just crumble down just because of a stupid feeling" he said and I speak as I was thinking all of the scenarios that could happen after this "You know I an sorry for doing this to you I'm sorry for dragging you outside your own home and all this crap that has lead us to this damn pos-" I interrupted him as I started speaking "No don't you say fucking sorry as it's not your fault for all this shit that has happened and what I wanted to say back there was that I...I like you..." I said and this time he was speechless "And I know the awkwardness could rise but I don't care anymore!You know why? Because one way or another we would do this damn talk and the awkwardness would just rise one way or another after this and we can just forget it and just talk to each other like normal people!" I said shouting at the very end and making an echo go across the room and suddenly I had a impulse to just hug him and I did,instead of him saying back off he just held it,the person I knew that made their own heart stone cold just changed, the old him was back and I knew this was a sign of a new beginning,a beginning that shall change everything."I...I...I love you" he said slowly and through an open window a white cherry blossom came in and it changed to dark pink as it landed on the table "I was right, it truly is a new beginning".

Few Days Later
I was sketching a bird when suddenly it flew away "I was too slow" I said sighing "Sorry" Lee said "It's fine besides I was close to being done anyways" I said looking at my sketch "Looks perfect" he said "Maybe not that perfect but let's see once I digitalize this" I said "You've been interested a lot recently 'bout digital art huh?" he said "Well since I was assigned to do the poster for our play this week I had to engage in digital art and surprisingly I'm good at it" I said "There's the annual Sakura festival today" he said and my eyes widen "Thank you so much for reminding me!" I said "What?" he said "I joined a contest there to see who can draw the best and the winner gets a drawing tablet and I want it" I said standing up "So you going there?" he said "Yeah and can you come with me?" I said "Why?" he said "Well let's just say I need someone to be my charm" I said "Is that what I am to you?Just a object that you use?" he said and I was speechless "Uhh" I said "Just kidding I was gonna go there anyways as I to joined a writing contest there 'cause Zachery told me too as I'm kinda running low on money" he said "Right, did you get the barista job yet?" I said "Yeah and I'll start on Monday so I'm not sure if I can attend some of the meetings" he said "Don't worry I'll fill you in if anything interesting happens in the meetings but for the meantime let's go ahead and go to the Sakura festival" I said and we started walking to the park nearby for the Sakura festival.We reached the Sakura festival and both Lee and I were amazed with the cherry blossom trees all around us "So beautiful" I said holding out my hand as one cherry blossom fell on it "So you have an idea for what you're gonna draw?" Lee said "Kinda" I said looking at the blossom "It'll probably go good 'cause its you drawing it" he said "Yeah sureeee" I said sarcastically dropping the blossom "It will trust me" he said "Fine wanna bet on it?" I said "Don't have a lot of money so I'm not gonna bet" he said "So I win" I said and we continued walking around checking out the kiosks,taking pics and waiting for our competitions to start.Eventually my drawing contest started and I was called to go up the stage with 3 girls and 2 boys.The time started and I immediately started sketching a cherry blossom tree with the cherry blossom itself falling down.After a while I had no idea what to do and Lee saw me struggling and from the loud cheers going on I was able to interpret what he was mouthing "You can do it" I thought to myself interpreting what Lee was saying and after a while I decided what to add next to my drawing.Two people,one girl holding out her hand to catch the falling blossom and one boy looking at the tree.I finished sketching and I immediately proceeded to coloring without even thinking of what colors I'll use and after a while I finished and placed my name and signature just in case and as soon as I finished a bell rang ending the time for us to draw and color.The emcee walked upstage and congratulated us for participating and took the drawings and handed it to the judge "Please stay upstage while our judges are deciding which is the best drawing" the emcee said.After a long time they finally decided the best drawing and they started saying the 1st and 2nd runner up which was the 2 girls and after a drumroll they said the winner "And the winner is.....Xandra Winter!" the emcee said and I was shocked and in good sportsmanship after I took the prize I shook the hands of the contestants that participated in the contest.We left the stage ad I went to Lee "Great job" he said "Thanks" I said "Told ya it would be be good" he said "You didn't even see it" I said "Maybe I did maybe I didn't" he said and our conversation was cut short as he was called upstage for his contest "Good luck!" I said before he went upstage.The participants were 4 girls and Lee was the only boy in the contest.Like the drawing contest I had they were given 10 minutes to write their hearts out about what the cherry blossoms symbolize it their own perspective and after the 10 minutes starting from the left the participants shall tell what they wrote to the audience.The timer started and Lee immediately started writing as fast as he can and even before the time reached 5 minutes he was already done and he started practicing how we was gonna say silently so the other participants won't overhear his work.The timer stopped and the first girl was called to go near the mic and say what she wrote.The first girl sounded dead and we couldn't even hear her half the time,the second girl was just like the first one but we couldn't even at all hear her almost as if she wasn't speaking,the third girl was understandable and such but her piece seemed unfinished or maybe even lacking something,the fourth girl was just great and it shook the audience when she started actually feeling what she wrote and I saw Lee just being calm and not giving a crap but even though I know when he is nervous and he rarely isn't so it's historical to me when I can see signs of him being nervous.The last girl ended up getting a loud cheer from the audience shouting her name and one even said "I love you!" to her and she sat back down on her chair and Lee got up and threw his paper "The hell" I thought to myself as he took the microphone out of the stand "Do you know what is a cherry blossom?It's something beautiful that last for such a short time" he said pacing on the stage "But why is it like that?Why such a beautiful thing just last for a short time!Its so infuriating seeing a beautiful thing just die in front of you!But I'm not here to tell what a cherry blossom is,I'm here to tell you what a cherry blossom symbolizes in my perspective" he said as he stopped pacing "For me it symbolizes a lot of things and I'm only going to say three of them.One of them is a new beginning,why?The answer is simple their sudden color change can mark an end to a story and also mark the beginning of a new chapter,a chapter of love,pain,suffering,joy and other things but these stories always have an end they don't last forever...there is no forever...." he said as his voice got softer at the near end and as he took a glance at me for a moment "The other thing that cherry blossom symbolize in my eyes is death.Yes it sounds grim but trust me it makes sense as like what I said about how cherry blossoms represent new beginnings there is no forever it just doesn't exist and if it did why should things die?The simple pink can easily turn white and dead in just a few weeks,a few moments and it's scary to think about how we can just fade away so easily so we might as well not only cherish the beauty of cherry blossoms but cherish our life...." he said and he just got emotional "Sorry" he said bringing his voice back to normal "The last thing that cherry blossoms symbolize to me is...love.They are beautiful at first then suddenly they die just like a normal love story it starts off beautiful then suddenly it flops and your heartbroken and the truth just leaves you hating the world as your sweet story turned bitter..." he said and he looked at me and he looked down and I felt as I did something wrong "Why did I pick these three things that cherry blossoms symbolize?It's simple they all have one thing in common and to explain it easier I have a quote.Everything has an end,whether its sooner or later you just have to deal with it as everything will end in a single heartbeat and then.....you lose something you held dearly too...." he said and he wiped something off his face and I knew what it was and he just smiled at me and I smiled back.They announced the winners and Lee won the first prize and he went downstage after the others have gone down and I went to him and immediately hugged him "Why were you getting too emotional?" I said letting go of him "I guess I connected it to what we have right now" he said "Hey it's fine" I said "But we promised to just erase it from our minds" he said "But still...I also just can't erase it so easily" I said sighing "Guess we're in the same boat..." he said "Anyways wanna celebrate before its night?" he said "Sure why not" I said and we went to a nearby restaurant and ate waiting for night for the book signing and show that's gonna happen tonight at the Sakura festival.Lee was socializing talking with our classmates that were also in the festival checking around while I recalled on what happened after we confessed.

AN:This whole paragraph is inside Xandra's head just to clarify some stuff.
So the confession changed some things but Lee and I were able to just find a solution to the change for a bit until today.At the day we confessed Lee and I kept on talking on what to do so much that I passed out on his couch and he brought me blanket and placed a pillow on my head as he slept at his room.The day after that I woke up confused and embarrassed as I just slept in his house by accident and he just shrugged it off saying "You passed out,what could you do?" and he and I had silence before I opened up a conversation and even that didn't last long and eventually I decided to leave his house and go back to mine.My parents weren't worried as Leah convinced them that Lee and I had to do something for the play and I couldn't let him stay in our house as it was messy so I proposed an idea that we do the thing we have to do at his house which sound confusing to me at first but made sense when she explained it thoroughly.The day after that and the days that have come before this day was us just talking about what should we do in this situation and Lee proposed an idea to just forget about it and act like nothing went down between us but I guess we couldn't forget so easily...

AN:Back to the real world
"Why does everything have to be complicated?" I said under my breath and I didn't notice Lee was beside me sitting on the fountain "Almost time" he said looking up as the sun slowly went down "We should probably get the books signed" he said getting up "Yeah" I said before I got up.The place where the book signing was taking place wasn't packed and in fact Lee and I were the only one there early.The book signing started at 8 and I was able to get my book signed first by my favorite author and shortly after that the show began with acts of samurai fighting for their homeland,a bittersweet love story and the best one yet the rebirth of a normal man into a God.Lee and I were very interested with all the acts so much that we even lose track of time.The show ended with fireworks in the shape of cherry blossom trees and in a moment Lee and I joint hands together by accident and I just held it never letting go of him as I know everything has an end and we must cherish every moment in life we have "Lets never ever try to forget what happened between us" I said "Agreed" he said and the fireworks kept on coming until it looked like they made a path with cherry blossoms surrounding it.

The End Of Chapter 22
AN:Finally an update also hoping you guys liked the new cover as I wanted to change it to match with the events that happened and expect that to happen (the cover changes) to my stories 'cause why not and that of course I wanna match them into the events and such anyways I came close to getting 3000 words and I hated it and maybe this book would go to 25-30 as I'm gonna lay off the fast paced stuff and that would ruin my entire life that I based on fast paced stuff but that's still unclear so yeah.Thanks for reading and uhh I'm gonna need some rest after this chapter and plan out what I wanna happen to the story.