Just Another High School Story!

Leah was really scared, tears welled up in her eyes, as she realised that she'd be alone again, but this time she wasn't scared of being alone, it was the pain of sign something familiar, the pain that you feel when yo stop doing something that you've been doing for a long time, and suddenly, with this painful realisation came another, she thought her memories with him, the initial months had been good, he'd stuck with her but slowly they both had gotten annoyed by how different the other was, one was a nerd, the other wanted to waste his life by playing all the time, one heard music that the wind brought with it and the other was just not that passionate about it; if you compare them to musical notes, then Leah felt like she wasn't fit to be played after Ethan, the sound was too jarring and confusing, she didn't like the sound right now anyway, she just wanted to be alone, played alone in a measure, held out for four beats, she needed space, she needed time, to process her health condition, often bulimia patients are under a lot of pressure, they want to get better but when the impulse to get better comes because you want to do it for someone else, recovery becomes very hard, you need to be selfish there, do it because you know it'll make you better. Leah had wanted to die because of her bulimia, and Ethan had promised to help her get better, in the end, he could only console her, and be by her side, this was her own battle and she'd fight it... looking into Ethan's eyes, she mustered the courage, and said, "I don't want to be with you anymore! Leave me alone." Everyone gasped dramatically, they'd expected Ethan to be the one who dumped her first, it wasn't just the other way around, it was actually way weirder because of what Ethan said in response, "You're crazy!" he looked like he was about to hit her. He still hadn't loosened his grip on her hand, when Shawn walked over and said, "Dude, let her go, her wrist is all red, and besides, if you can't hold your liquor, why drink so much?" After saying this, Shawn tried to get his hand off Leah's wrist, Ethan lost it and started hitting him instead, all his fury overcame him and overwhelmed his senses, in that moment, he couldn't hear Leah crying and begging him to stop, what was weirder was that he faced no resistance, Shawn wasn't fighting back, he was just covering his pretty face, Shawn's intervening was like a matchstick struck right near petrol, inflammable, Ethan had had enough of Leah's friends, something he'd been holding in since a long time was about to explode and it would leave her shattered again, she grabbed Ethan's fist, and got in between them, "Please, please, don't do this, E, I'm begging you to stop!" he pushed her away, and yelled, "Oh, so now I see why you want to break up with me, it doesn't matter to you, you've already got another man, and God knows how many more, you sure all your soccer friends are just friends, no wonder your reputation sucks, hang out with them, and play with them as much as you like, you slut!" There, the bomb had been dropped, and it had the impact you thought it would, Leah collapsed onto the floor, she knew that everyone talked about this behind her back, but Ethan had assured her he didn't care, he'd been holding it in this whole time, on top of that, she hated the word slut, she refused to believe that the guy whom she loved said any of what she'd just heard, she ran away, nearly tripping when she passed the exit, and tears were streaming down like a furious waterfall, he eyes were blurry, she didn't know what to say to Ethan anymore. His smile, originally something that made her blush became a dagger, once again, cutting deep into her heart. He knew the reason as to why she was friends with so many guys, guys didn't judge her, she didn't have to compete to be the best one in the group, she'd never had any friends, she'd even told him that.

One night when they were walking along the river in Ethan's neighbourhood, they'd had this conversation. Ethan had said, "Leah, I want to ask you something, but I know it gets on your nerves, so please be a little calm, I don't mean anything by it, nor am I trying to be controlling. I'm just super curious as to why you do so." "Sure, shoot!" Leah replied, tightening her grip that she'd had on his fingers, this was the part she liked most about dating, it was probably a month after they got together, Ethan had spent all his week at a competition, and she hadn't gotten to see him at all, yet she swallowed how dissatisfied she felt, he didn't text or call her the whole time, she wasn't someone obsessed with texting, therefore, even an IMY would have done the job, but he'd forgotten, just like they say, you can't clap with one hand, similarly, it wasn't just Ethan's fault, or Leah's fault, it was both of theirs. But from their perspectives, obviously, it was the other person's fault.

"Well, you know how all your friends are guys, and well, you are so close with all of them. I was just wondering why you don't have any girl-friends?" Leah's face changed colour as she thought of the answer, she hadn't seriously said it out loud to anyone; nowadays, all of us teenagers have gotten used to festering our feelings, we don't ever say anything, with one expectation, that the person we care about, the person or people we love will understand, so she hoped that he'd understand and he hoped that she'd take a hint, he wanted to show his disapproval but honestly not even a detector that detects minute facial moments could have possibly detected the disapproval, he kept a straight face, not a muscle twitched, he'd never admit it, but he felt insecure too. He never showed it though and hoped that Leah would understand, but what he didn't consider was that Leah wasn't confident in herself, she hadn't talked to him about it much because, well, he'd never asked, he didn't realise that he'd never asked, how she felt especially next to him, because she'd expressed how she felt he was too popular for her, though just as all humans do, he missed the tone of insecurity in her voice.