Love, Your Storm

LETTER TWO

LETTER TWO

It wasn't until about November of Sophomore year that I started to notice you more. I'd catch you smiling at me every now and then. To be perfectly honest it was getting a little creepy after the first week. You'd be creeped out too if the popular jock randomly started smiling at you.

You didn't start talking to me until February. I had learned to live with the creepy smiles and odd moments where I'd catch you staring because we both know that I wouldn't confront you about it. I was too afraid that I was misinterpreting your looks.

I still remember the day we started talking, just like it was yesterday. I won't ever forget; it was the day that I truly realized that I was wrong about you. I realized that you weren't just a jock.

It was a little cliché. I was trying to find the last 50¢ to pay for my coffee and those stupid quarters just didn't want to be found and I was holding up the line and the girl behind the counter was huffing and I was apologizing profusely. You, being the knight and shining armor you are, came to my rescue. You slipped your hand past the contents of my purse, that were spread out on the counter, towards the cashier with a light smile.

I'm pretty sure there was a collective sigh of relief from everyone in that coffee shop when I finally took my coffee cup and sat in the far corner by myself. I liked to go there to escape from the little downtown apartment I lived in with my mom not too far away. I often went, like then, while my mom was at work. I enjoyed reading when I sat in that little café on the corner of East Broughton and Abercorn.

I had been so lost in the book, I think it was Jane Eyre, that I didn't notice you slip into the chair across from me on the other side of the table. You were probably sitting there for five minutes before I turned and jumped at the sight of someone sitting with me. I remember how you made me blush when you chuckled at me. That was the first blush of many more to come; not that I knew that at the time.

I remember everything that we talked about. Time seemed to fly by as I talked to you and learned the little things about you. Your favorite color is red (my go-to question to ask someone I'm getting to know), you have your father's hazel eyes, you're very protective of your little sister, and you're not afraid to indulge yourself in an actual conversation about things of actual importance but you'd never be able to have that kind of conversation with 'the guys'. It was the little things that made me feel guilty for judging you so quickly because I stereotyped you without knowing the facts that make you who you are.

I didn't know it then, but those little things are the reasons I fell for you... and I fell hard.