Parallel

Chapter Two

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“C’mon Stella, why don’t you want to run?”

“Because, I have given you my reason a dozen times”

“But that’s not even a reason!”

Stella let out a slight groan as Michael kept nagging about her running for class president. As a matter of fact, he had been at it for about two weeks now, and that was before the commencement of the elections had been announced.

It wasn’t as though she didn’t want to run for the post. She actually didn’t have any suitable reason for not wanting to do it, she just didn’t want to. She was popular enough, her grades were top notch, and also, her outspoken character and nature spoke quite highly of her. She had won the school debate three times in a row and even won the interstate quiz competition for her school once. So it wouldn’t be a shock to anyone if she decided to run.

Of course, it was her decision to make, but everyone still expected her to do so. Her last debate was a topic that had something to do with politics, even the school principal has said she had the brain of a brilliant politician after he watched her perform.

Michael was still standing by her seat and was still going on and on about it. He had been her sear partner since grade one. They got along very well and agreed ninety percent on whatever they talked about. Clearly, school politics wasn’t a part of that ninety percent.

He was like her best friend, if she didn’t already have one. Her name was Sophie, and as far as anyone was concerned, she was Stella’s best friend.

She had Sophie had been friends since they were little, living next to each other since birth. They had both gotten very fond of each other and tended to do everything together. As the years went by, Stella’s parents had originally been scared of their daughter’s closeness with Sophie at a point, the fact that their daughter could actually be gay didn’t seem so rosy to them. They held nothing against the gay community, at least that’s what they said. But they still found it extremely uncomfortable to see their own daughter as one of the gay people.

Their fear continued to linger on, until they found our about Michael, although they had been surprised she never mentioned him to them once, but it didn’t matter now that they knew about him. They had always tugged at her to go out with him more often, not that she didn’t want to, but she knew what her parents were trying to do and it wasn’t going to happen. She liked Michael a lot, but not in the way they wanted or were hoping.

Michael was cool, smart and quite decent, his dark fluffy hair also made him look very cute. Whenever she thought about it, she always told herself he wasn’t bad, but she just couldn’t see him other than her best friend, well, her second best friend to be precise. Most times when Sophie was around, all three of them hung out together, and it always fun.

Michael on the other hand, wasn’t so sure if he knew what he was doing or feeling. His mom had asked him several times if he had feelings for Stella, he never knew how to answer her question, not because he didn’t want to, but because he also didn’t know if he did or not. She was sweet, intelligent, outspoken, very smart, she wasn’t the prettiest there was, but she was pretty, amongst other things, they also got along very well. Still, he wasn’t sure if he had feelings for her or not, and he wasn’t certain if he even wanted it or not.

He kept talking on and on, making futuristic plans of how things would go. How she would do great in office and how he would manage things for her, but she didn’t seem to be listening as she was pretty much lost in her own thoughts.

It had been two months since she last saw Sophie, at least, physically. They did video call one another on a regular basis, but that wasn’t quite the same as seeing her in person. She would be coming back today and they already planned out how and where her day would be spent.