Becoming Me

I

-  15 Years Ago -

"Gabriela has a little boyfriend!!!"

"I do not! Stop!" I felt my cheeks burn from embarrassment as my cousin yelled for the whole house to hear.

"What's his name? Have you held hands yet??"

"Stop JC!! You'll get me in trouble with Mama!" I was now on the verge of tears as I couldn't handle the teasing any longer coming from my older cousin.

"Fine. I'll stop. Just tell me his name.."

I looked from one corner of the room to the other to be sure the coast was clear, and no adults were around. I lowered my voice to a whisper and cupped my hand to JC's ear just to be safe.

"...His name....is Mason..."

Before I knew it, I had been shoved away as JC took off running and hollering,

"HIS NAME IS MASON EVERYBODY! GABRIELA AND MASON ARE IN LOVE! THEY'RE IN LOVE!!!"

- 8 Years Ago -

"Mason, I think you're absolutely silly and if you don't stop fooling around you will get into some serious trouble one day."

"Yea? I think you're a liar. Liar, liar, pants on fire. The only way i'll get into trouble is if you told on me and I don't think you'll do that."

"You wait and see I'm telling Ms. Havican!"

"No you won't, my mom told me you think I'm cute so that must mean you like me. That means you won't tell either."

My cheeks flushed as I stood in shock. My dark brown eyes were opened wide as I stared into Mason's hazel ones. I was frozen like a statue.

"...well you must've heard wrong because I think you're ugly and I don't like you," I quickly turned on my heels and walked away to lunch.

- 5 Years Ago -

We were watching The Nativity at our Catholic school for about the hundredth time. It was for our religion class and it was the end of the day. Our eighth grade year was coming to the end and I was running out of time to land my first kiss. Mason and I started dating about a week ago but all we do is hold hands at school. We went to the movies once, but it had to be a secret or else my parents would get mad (I'm not allowed to date until I'm sixteen).

I rolled my eyes as I thought about that stupid rule.

I really liked Mason. Maybe I even loved him. Anyway we agreed we wouldn't date again until high school. We were going to two different schools. He would be at Exeter, the boy's boarding school, and I would go to Huffington, the girl's boarding school. They were on the same campus, but we wouldn't see each other in classes or dorm anywhere near each other.

So things could change between us.

That's wicked far away though, so today, we planned on our first kiss. We'd do it after the movie by his locker before we went home.

*the bell rings*

"Okay class, we will continue what is left of the movie tomorrow and don't forget that we will be writing reflections after it is done tomorrow! Please remember to bring paper and a pen!"

I quickly grabbed my bag and ran out of the room. I scurried down the hall until I spotted Mason patiently waiting by his locker.

I stopped briefly to pat down my uniform skirt and tidy my tie. Mason looked up and smiled at me. I felt butterflies fly through my stomach as I came closer to him. He reached for my hand and pulled me a little close to him. It wasn't his first kiss, but it was mine.