Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

     It was a school night and I was crawling into bed and I had a text message from him. We made small talk for a little while and then he just came right out and asked me if I wanted to be his girlfriend. I had to think about it because I knew he’d had a reputation and I didn’t want to get hurt. But of course I didn’t think very long before I said yes. I just felt this rush of happiness... And then I ran into the next room to tell my mom. I stopped short at my doorway. 

     I needed to accept that I couldn’t run to her and tell her good news anymore. She would have been really happy for me, she’d always wanted me to date him. She always thought he was so cute and nice. God, I missed her. But I was trying to be happy, I mean this was good news, I was supposed to be happy. After going back and forth and wether I should be happy or not, I fell asleep thinking about Connor.

     The next few months were some of the best and worst. I’m not going to go into all of the details of the relationship. But let’s just say, he was my bestfriend. I loved being around him, I loved the way his voice sounded in the morning, I loved him. I loved him in a different way. It didn’t matter if we were dating or not, I just loved him. A lot of people say that you can’t love someone at this age, it’s too young. But love is all around us. It’s everywhere. There is no age limit. I just can’t describe the way I loved him. Sometimes I find myself starting to think, “what if their right? What if it is just silly to say that I love him.” But I believe in young love. I’ve come to the conclusion that they just don’t understand. 

     So there was a lot more to the whole me and Connor thing but I’m gonna go ahead and save you the lovey dovey moments and skip to the end. Connor just so happened to get kinda jealous kinda easily, he always accused me of flirting with other guys. So what, I had a lot of guy friends? Anyway, I always tried to catch him flirting, but the funny thing is, I never once did. Not. Once. Which is really weird because he had the worst reputation. He’d always flirted with other girls while he was dating. It was so just weird to me. He’d told me he changed, just for me. One day, I was in a bad mood and he was accusing me of liking Tanner. It was in science class, he was helping his best friend (that was girl) with something on the worksheet we were dong. All I saw when I looked over was them laughing together and I just automatically got really mad. How could he accuse me of flirting and go off and do that? I was just picking a fight. It was a stupid, meaningless, little argument. 

     Every Wednesday night, all of the kids from my school went to this little Youth Group Church thing we referred to as Element. I couldn’t go that night because it was hard to drive all the way out to the island and back twice in one day and that day I couldn’t get a ride from a friend. So. Didn’t go. That same night, one of my good friends that I trust and know isn’t a liar told me that Isabel and Connor were saying stuff about me behind my back. It wasn’t even anything super bad but just the thought of them talking about me while I wasn’t there made me go off the deep end. And the thought of my very best friend taking his side over mine? I mean, hello? What is this? BEST FRIEND > HOT GUY. Isn’t that written somewhere in some girl code handbook?! The next morning, we broke up. And then all hell broke loose. 

     Isabel, my former best friend, that I had known for my entire life, made my life at school a living hell. It was so terrible. She flirted with him, all day every day. I had to sit back and watch this. It was pure torture. She attempted to turn everyone in that tiny, little school against me. She stuck a big, fat label on Kelly and me. This label read: PREP. Which was just fine with me. And of course, the one person I wanted to run to was gone. I couldn’t go curl up in my momma’s lap anymore and just cry and tell her how horrible it was. I would never be able to do that again.