It Was A Whole Thing | Herophine

First Love

You know that feeling when you see someone for the first time and you just... know. You just know that that someone is going to change your life. Change everything. Change you.

That's how I felt when I met her.

Josephine.

My next door neighbor, Josephine.

My classmate, Josephine.

My first love, Josephine.

I first met her when I was barely eight years old. She and her parents moved from Australia to London because of her dad's career. I vividly remember that day. It was dreary, as it always was and still is in London and I was playing footsies with my best friend, Felix, at the back of our house. We started hearing some noises from the house next door and we got curious because it's been months since the said house was abandoned. There was a birch tree in our back yard, the branches stretching out towards the neighboring house and so Felix and I decided to climb the tree and snoop around. I was excited knowing that it'll be less creepy now that there will be a new family occupying the house.

"Hey, you're gonna hurt yourselves if you fall from there!" A girl's voice startled both Felix and I and we lost our footing and grip on the tree and ended up falling on our bum on the other side of the our fence.

I stood and turned to where the voice came from, prepared to blame the girl, when I see her. I bit my tongue and swallowed back all the nasty words I was to throw at her. She had long blonde hair and she was so tiny. Her eyes... her eyes were a peculiar shade of blue and grey.

"You startled us!" Felix barked when he finally got to his feet behind me. I elbowed him to shut him up. I didn't want to fight with our new neighbor. No, in fact, I wanted to be friends with her.

"Hi, I'm Hero. I live next door. And this is Felix, he lives three houses down the road," I introduced ourselves with a smile that I had hoped didn't look creepy.

"Oh," she whispered and a cute blush crept over her cheeks as she eyed Felix and I. "I'm Josephine," she said.

And from that moment on, the three of us became inseparable. Felix and I were her bodyguards. No one would dare to bully or make fun of her if they didn't want to get on our bad side. I knew Felix only saw her as his sister and I was very grateful for that because I was already starting to develop more than a brotherly love for her. I didn't tell her though, not wanting to make everything awkward between us. We were just kids anyway.

Everything changed though when we got to middle school. She started hanging out more often with a group of bitchy girls and less and less with Felix and I, until she finally stopped coming around altogether. Even in school, she would no longer acknowledge us. Felix had no problem with it, unlike me. He said it was bound to happen since Jo was starting to grow into one of the pretty hot girls in our school and that she must have thought we were dragging her down with us. He probably had a point, especially when he and I started hanging with the delinquents; we learned to drink and smoke and cut classes.

What Felix didn't know was that ever since I've started wanking myself, I've always imagined Jo. And let me tell you, my young mind was the most imaginative and wildest when it came to those private moments in my room. Harmless, right? It's not like I was peeking on her through her bedroom windows that are directly across from mine. I couldn't count the number of times I've wanted to but I just couldn't. I respect her too much to stoop that low with my obsession for her.

I hated seeing her dating douchebag after douchebag. I hated seeing her make out with her latest play thing in the hallways or under the stands out on our school's field. I hated hearing rumors about her and her intimate moments with those pricks who had nothing else better to do than talk about their conquests.