3: The Incident

In order to know what happened to end our friendship, I must teach you what started it. In 7th grade, I was 13 years old and a different person than who I currently am. As I've told you, I was still pretty active on the social front. While I had started to recluse, I still actively gained friends and enjoyed spending time with people. I didn't have nearly as many friends as I did in elementary school, but I did have a small handful of nice, respectful, and good hearted kids.

Amongst these kids was a girl named Carly. She was my muse, and I adored her with my whole heart. While I never told her at that point, I had fallen for her during the first month of school, and I don't think she had caught on. Day after day, time passed and I slowly felt a strong urge building up inside of me. A desire to create a real bond, something genuine and important. Something that no matter what, couldn't be shaken.

On that day, I decided I would work as hard as I possibly could to make Carly my girlfriend.

Now, I know this may seem absurd–– and it most likely was–– but to my childish brain, falling in love was something I could make happen as easily as opening a door. I thought it would take absolutely no time and through my efforts, I would make her fall for me without having to break a sweat. At least that's what I thought. I say that, because making a girl fall in love with you when you have no redeeming qualities is not a simple thing. It's something that takes time, and something that I frankly didn't realize just how much effort it would take.

Every day, "Good Morning Carly! <3" just for a smile and a "Hi!".

Every afternoon "See you tomorrow!" just for a "Bye Bye!".

But for me, that was more than enough. I mean, I had talked to her more than that–– we had classes together–– and we even hung out together, but the thing is after a month and a half, It was November and I felt that I had made no progress at all.

I went home one day to see my mom on the couch. She didn't look like she usually had at the time; she sat with a smile on her face, head raised high, and I even heard her laughing. As I continued forward, I saw a familiar face, but the body was not familiar at all. I heard a woman's voice; The woman sounded rather chipper and happy to be talking to my mom. As I passed the column, I heard my name and came to a dead halt. I was not in view of them, but they were in clear view of me. I quickly hid back behind the column with my ears open to listen in.

"Oh my, your son is such a dear!" The woman said.

"Why thank you, and your daughter has been quite an influence on him, he has been so happy and active lately" My mom said as they both gave small chuckles.

"But my, I am sure that my daughter acted the same way at home as she acted around your son. She is always so moody and gloomy around the house, like she's waiting for something or someone but that thing never comes. I worry about her, she scares me. She says she has friends but I never hear her talking to anyone at home, the only one she talks about is your boy."

"Oh my! Such a sweet girl I feel so bad for her," My mom replies. I look around the corner and as I do my mom finishes her prior statement "That poor Carly!"

As my mom says Carly's name, I accidentally hit my head on the column and exclaim "ow!" in a quiet voice. As I do Carly's mom calls out, "Who is it? Carly dear? I told you to wait in the car until he gets back here."

I stand up and introduce myself, "Hello, I am ****"

After a short explanation and conversation everything got straightened out and we all took a seat again.

My mom, now adjacent to me, and Carly's mom–– parallel from me–– looked at me with a sort of eager look of envy and with a curious expression. After some time of staring at me, Carly's mom speaks up–– "Hellooo~, so **** I've wondered for a while now. What do you consider your relationship with my daughter?"

Straight out of the blue like a shotgun through the front door. Man, is this woman crazy? I mean–– "Well, umm... I don't know if you should call it a 'relationship' . We are just good friends, so a friendship is a much better word. I'm sure Carly feels that way too."

"Well ****, I ask… Do you like anyone right now?" My face flared red and I started to look at the ground. "I mean, you're quite a handsome young man, your hair is well kept, you have a good face and you aren't anywhere near ugly. I'm sure there are plenty of girls in your class who you like. Or maybe you like someone else?" She smirked and looked a little cheeky, like she just said the best joke of her life.

"Well, I don't... not like someone, but I don't want you to tell her m––" I stop as I almost ruined my already bad lie.

"Oh––ho––ho," she chuckles with her hand shaped like a fan over her mouth. "Well, well, if you won't tell me then I guess I'll never know." She makes a fake frown and looks down. All the while, Mom has been standing next to her with the same stupid grin Carly's mom had.

My face flared up again, and when I looked to my right and in the doorway was Carly standing with her bag. She looked at me almost confused, and when she lined up with me, I paused. Our lines of sight met and our eyes connected, for a second, She looked like a doll, perfect, and porcelain. Her eyes glimmered a little, she smiled at me, but even through all of that.

Through the smile...

Through the Hair...

Under her uniform...

Under her skin...

At the deepest part of her soul...

I could see even from an outside level, under that big smile...

Under that smile, was a floodgate about to burst.

And for even just a moment, I thought to myself...

"Why do you look so sad?"