No Rain, No Flowers

She fell in love with the boy next door when she was just five years old. Despite Christian being 5 years older than Michelle, she would stop at nothing for him to return her love.

"I felt tears welling up again. My silence forced him to look my way. I turned my head quickly hoping he wouldn't see me starting to cry. "I didn't realize I looked so bad in my bathing suit still..." I said quietly after a beat. "What do you mean?" he asked me confused. "Your reaction to how bad I looked, you told me to put my clothes back on..." I stopped trying not to cry and let a tear fall. "Shit, Michelle... You didn't look bad.... I was just.... Shocked. You look like you're going into college. That's a far cry from what you looked like at the beginning of the summer. Guys were gawking at you. I had to decide if I should stay and keep you covered up or go and knock them out, so they couldn't look at you." He stopped simply because he ran out of air. I was smiling by this point. "Oh, you find this amusing?" he asked. I chuckled. "Well, no. It's just, I thought I had really changed this Summer. I am starting middle school this week and I am super nervous about not being the fat nerd from last year..." Christian shook his head. "You have changed drastically. When you climbed into the van this morning, I barely recognized you. We can't go for months without seeing each other anymore because I won't know who you are if you keep growing up like this."