If Only You Knew

Chapter 6

" Hey. Charity?" I say the moment I see her in school. She looks tired, well she looks tired all the time. She gives me a dead look and says " Yes?" I say " I'm sorry I said that to you yesterday. I didn't mean to say what I said. The thing is my tongue works faster than my brain. Please don't take me seriously. I didn't want to hurt you intentionally." She says " You talk a lot. Quite unusual for a boy." " Huh?" I say stupidly. Wasn't she pissed with me because I was being mean? She's confusing. She says " I have biology lab and it's quite far from here so if you'll excuse me." Okay I still think she's hurt.

I stop her saying " Is there any way I can make it up to you?" She stops and says " If you could take back your words I would appreciate it." and she walks away.

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"It's practically impossible to take back what you've said." I say to Ian. Ian says " Stop thinking practically." I give him a dead look saying " Your not helping." He says " Bro. She's a girl. You get her something nice or a rose and she'll be happy." I sarcastically laugh saying " Yeah. A flower or a 'thing' will make her happy. You know she could think of all this in another way? And besides she's not like all the other girls. She's weird, a loner and different. I only want to take back my words because it hurt someone and I feel guilty about it." Ian says " You don't like her? I thought you did." I give Ian a dead look and I say " I will never like her in a million years." Ian says " Alright. Any idea on what she likes? Like favorite food or album or anything at all?" I say " No. I don't know anything about her." Ian says " You should probably just talk to her privately, outside school about this then. If you have any other ideas please use those." and so I do what Ian says.

" Hey Charity!" I say before she exits school. She turns around and looks at me with that poker face. How can anybody be expressionless all the time? She gives me a dead yes and I say " Can I talk to you outside school after I finish my photo editing?" She says " I'm busy. Maybe some other day." I say " It will take a few minutes." She says " I'll see you after your done then. Send me a message." I say " I don't have your number." She says " It's on your contact list. Search for it." and she leaves. When did she save my number?

I have lunch and then do what I always do after school. I finish earlier than I normally do and so I message Charity. I get a message back saying

I'm actually in school rite now.
Meet me at the football field.
Charity

I walk towards the football field and I spot her watching the best female footballer in our school. Her name's Lyla and she's amazing at football. She's also had the record of being the only popular girl in our school who doesn't have a boy friend. Everybody wants to date her but she isn't interested in any one. I don't blame her as half of our male population in school are the biggest players.

I walk towards Charity and say " What are you doing here?" Charity says " Just watching at how dedicated she is in the sport. The entire team finished practice half an hour ago but she's still here practicing. No wonder she's amazing. She's not a born footballer. She trains so much everyday that it's easy for everybody to say that she was born one. I wonder what her name is. I guess I'll go ask her now." I say " Her name's Lyla Fisher. She's a junior and the only junior to be a team captain in our school." Charity says " Oh."

After Lyla has finished practicing she leaves the football field. Charity then says " So you wanted to tell me something?" I say " Yes. I'm know you don't want me to say this to you again but I'm going to. I'm sorry for what I said and no matter how annoying you find it I'm going to keep saying it because I feel guilty about it. I'm sorry." She smiles and then slowly starts laughing. I say " What's so funny?" She says " I don't know." and she smiles. Then she says " I might have not liked you in the beginning but the more time I spend with you I''m actually changing my perspective about you." That's a good thing right?

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" It was better than I had expected it to be." I say. Ian says " At least it's over." and he passes me a bottle of coke. We play 'Paranoid and Confused in War' for another two hours and then give our eyes a break. I check on my phone and I've received a few messages. All from Charity. This is the first time she's messaging me.

Hey

You busy?

Because I'm bored and my mom wants me out of the house with a friend.

And your the only person who I know about that can act like a friend.

I reply saying:

Hey

I'm actually at Ian's

She immediately responds saying:

Oh okay.

But then I think about getting to know someone like her. I know nothing about her and I could get to know her.

So our conversation goes like this:

Where do you want me to come?

The mall near our school.

What do you want to do at a mall?

Pretend like I'm shopping

And why is that?

Because my mom wants me to go and do something teenagers our age do.

Okay. See you in 10mins.

Ian says " Who was that constantly messaging you?" I say " An old friend of mine."

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" So what do you intend to buy?" I say. She says " I don't know. My mom gave me a 100 dollars and she won't let me in unless I come home after spending some of the cash." I say " You could spend it on food." She says " Excluding food. Anything but food." I say " Just go buy what girls buy. Don't you like shopping? I've heard of a lot of girls who like shopping." She says " Well I'm not those girls."

We roam around almost the enitre mall until I'm exhausted. Yes I'm exhausted not her. She says " I didn't find anything that I could buy." I say " Well tell your mom that." She says " My mom won't believe me." I say " Well then buy Chrstmas gifts. How did I not think about that before?" She sarcastically laughs and says " For who?" I say " Your parents." She says " I've already done that." I say " Why?"

We start walking around after a while and then I get into this new store. A music store. The music store in this mall has all sorts of music. From the 20's to the 90's, you want it? They have it. They also happen to sell instruments here and on Holidays they have a live band come and play.

I browse through some of the latest music while Charity heads to the section where they keep instruments. I happen to look at Selena Gomez's latest album and I decide to buy it because my sister keeps talking about it and I could get her this for Christmas too.

I continue looking around, classical, jazz, pop, rock, blues, until I stop and look up at Charity playing the violin. Charity plays the violin?!

There's a small crowd formed around her and I avoid going through them. So I just listen and watch her play. Her expression changes when she plays the violin. She looks beautifully sad and she plays the violin really well. I'm not a very emotional person but just watching her like that and listening to how she's playing makes me want to cry. Is that weird?

When she's done the people around her clap and she says Thank You with a beautiful smile. And I thought she could never smile.