He Loves Me

Chapter One

My name is Evan Campbell and I'm 19 years old.

It's a regular Thursday morning when I wake up at 6am am to get ready for my 9-7 shift at work. That seems to be my normal shift on Thursday. I wake up to my alarm. God I hate getting up this early. I'd rather just stay home. I drag myself out of bed and walk to the shower. Still half asleep. While in there begin thinking about work today. How busy it will be, if It'll be busy at all and all that jazz. I wash up, clean myself, finish showering, dry off and put on my work shirt with black dress pants and black shoes. I walk back into my bathroom and do my hair. I do it everyday. You'll know why later on in the chapter. I walk out in to the living room. It's quiet. My roommate must not be up yet. I walk to the fridge and start making breakfast. While getting breakfast I hear my roommate in her bedroom getting ready for work also. We both work the same time today. She must be getting ready too. I continue to get breakfast out of the fridge.

"Good morning, Evan" I hear as I'm getting Honey Nut Cheerios with yogurt and a strawberry-banana smoothie out of the fridge. I look over and see my best friend and roommate, Laura, walking out of her room.

"Good morning, Laura. How are you?" I say happily as I mix the Honey Nut Cheerios with the yogurt.

"I'm alright. I've got a lot of stuff going on at work today. We're redecorating the entire store. It's going to be crazy today. There's a lot of heavy stuff there. That should be fun." she says.

"Best of luck with that" I say back.

Laura is 21. She works at a home furnishing store. To her credit she's always had an eye for that sort of thing. She actually decorated our entire apartment when we moved into this place. It's a bit pricy but that's why we work such long hours. Luckily we both have weekends off because we work so much during the week. Sometimes we work on the weekends here and there but it's rare that it happens. I can't imagine my life without her. She's my best friend and I love her. It sucks that we don't get that much time with each other but it's how we avoid being homeless.

Laura and I have been best friends since I was in kindergarten. Laura was in 2nd grade and my class had 2nd Grade Buddies, as they called it. I was paired with Laura. We became such good friends that we never grew apart and have been best friends ever since. We have been living together since both my parents died mysteriously and unexpectedly when I was fourteen. I came home from school one day to four police officers telling me that my parents were dead.

Fun fact, both my parents would be 40 today. October 5. They had me when they were 21. They were high school sweethearts. They were married right out of high school. My dad proposed to my mom at their graduation. They were next to each other in last names. My dad walked across the stage first. When my mom did, he asked her to marry him. Three years later, I came along. They were so in love. They were the definition of what parents should be.

I'm an only child and Laura was all I had. She and her family gladly welcomed me to their family. We moved into this apartment after we graduated from high school. Laura went on to college to study business management and I started working right away. Because of a mild learning disability, I'm not college material.

"You working till seven tonight?" I say as I begin eating.

"Yep, you?" she asks.

"Seven also" I answer.

"Please eat something when you get home. Ok? You haven't been eating much recently. I'm getting a little concerned about that" she says.

Laura has always been very nurturing towards me ever since my parents died. I'm so happy to have a best friend like her. Sometimes I jokingly call her mom when she gets on my ass about something. All in a loving way though. What are best friends for.

"Don't worry, I will" I assure her.

Laura starts making her usual breakfast, a bagel with strawberry cream cheese and an orange-mango smoothie. We sit eating breakfast for a few minutes. Laura and I always wake up together and eat breakfast together. It helps both of us mentally prepare for the day ahead. That and it's really the only time we get with each other.

"God help me not to look at Ryan all day today" I say half joking and half serious.

"Evan sooner or later you're going to have to tell him how you feel about him" Laura says.

"There's no way I could ever do that. No chance in hell that he's gay and even if he was he probably doesn't even feel the same way I do. No one ever did. Why would he?" I say to her.

Ryan is a guy that I work with. He's the top cart runner there. Which means he gets carts from the cart returns and brings them back inside. He's not the strongest looking guy that ever lived but holy shit when he starts pushing the carts to the lobby he can easily push fifteen to twenty-five carts and it just makes him that much hotter. Front end management talks about him like he's the greatest thing to ever happen to the store. He can keep the cart lobby full of carts even on the busiest days. You know what, I guess he is the best thing to ever happen to the store. Little does he know that he's the love of my life. That's why I do my hair everyday. I'm gay if you haven't figured it out yet.

"Last night I was working until nine and he was working until ten and he was wearing a white athletic shirt with black skinny jeans. He looked so fucking hot pushing all those carts into the lobby. I could not take my eyes off him" I explain to Laura while blushing like a little boy.

"If you never tell him you'll never know for sure" she says in an assuring tone. "Have you ever talked to him?" she asks.

"We've spoken to each other a few times and know each other's name but we've never really sat down and talked. I'd give anything to have a full conversation with him. I feel like he and I have so much in common. Probably just wishful thinking" I explain to her.

"Look. You'll have to tell him sometime. Plus how am I going to be your Groomsmaid of Honor if you two never get married?" she says with a smile on her face.

"Groomsmaid of Honor?" I ask with a smile on my face and a laugh.

"Yeah, that's what I signed up for when you told me you were gay" she says with a laugh.

I'd actually love to have Laura as my Groomsmaid of Honor. I can't imagine anyone else in the part besides her. Even if it is a made up thing. She's everything to me. We continue eating and talking when it's 8:30.

"Well it's 8:30. I should get going to work" I say.

"Yeah I should too" Laura says. Laura and I get up and put our coats on. I grab my backpack and Laura grabs her bag and we walk out the door and walk down to the parking garage.

"I'll see you tonight ok, Evan?" Laura says as we get to the parking garage. Me being the gentleman that I am, I always hold all the doors for Laura. We get to the garage and start going to our cars.

"Sounds good. I'll see you then" I say back.

"Have a good day, Evan. Love you" Laura says with a smile.

"Thanks, Laura. Have a good day too. Wanna do something tonight? It's been forever since we went out and did something" I ask as we get to our cars.

"I would love to, do you have anything in mind?" Laura says.

"Wanna see a movie or something?" I say.

"I'd love to. Wanna see A Star Is Born? I hear Lady Gaga and Bradly Cooper are awesome in that" she says with a smile.

"Sounds awesome. It's a date. I'll meet you back here at Seven. We'll eat dinner tonight and go to the 9pm showing" I say with a smile.

"Awesome. I'll see you then, Evan. Love you" Laura says

"Love you too" I say.

We start driving to work. We wave at each other as we go to work. I'm so grateful to have a best friend like Laura. There's no way I could ever thank her enough for all she's done for me but I'm still so happy she's my best friend. I love living with her. Now if Ryan and I could just get together. I guess I should make peace with what I have and focus on my life with Laura.