Sunshine in my Heart

The throbbing pain in her head seared throughout Mishti’s body as she slowly opened her eyes. Sunrays were beaming right down on her from the bay window in her room. She groaned and turned over, hoping to shut away the light forever.

Mishti couldn’t think of why she had such a bad headache. She hadn’t had one like this in so long, but all of a sudden this morning she had one. Then it hit her. Last night. Her heart raced as she remembered the events from the night before.

After she hadrun away from Nick left the dance floor, she had walked outside as quickly as she could. Unknown to her, Emily had been on her tail and had followed her all the way outside.

Not even asking a question, Emily went and got Laura to take them home. It was already starting to get kind of late since Emily did have an interview the next morning bright and early.

Mishti hadn’t even spoken the entire car ride home nor did she speak once she did get home. All she had done was immediately change out of her dress, into her comfy pajamas, and snuggled under the covers. She had fallen asleep almost constantly from the all the tiredness and excitement of the day.

The colorful comforter she had in her hand was only half way on the bed as she sat up. She pulled the comforter in hopes that she could snuggle under it for another half an hour. To no avail, it ended up dumped on the ground.

Mishti sighed and ran her fingers through her long hair. She decided a shower would be the best thing and proceeded to slowly get out of bed. Going into the bathroom, she turned the shower on and stripped down. The hot water soothed her as she lathed her hair with the fruity shampoo.

She tried to push the thoughts of the major problem out of her head, but it wasn’t working. Her mind kept coming back to the boy who she had run away from last night. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how he must have felt. She felt awful knowing that he must be confused as hell right now.

Her heart sank as she kept going over last night’s scene. She had basically led him on and then let him down at the end. She was a terrible person. But she had reasons for the way she felt like this. Reasons that she did not want to be reminded of.

Pulling the towel to her chest, she stepped out of the shower. The next twenty minutes consisted of changing into a pair of comfy jean shorts and a green cami while blow drying her naturally wavy hair. She wasn’t sure what the plan was for today so she opted to wear something comfortable.

Mishti looked up startled as she heard knocking against her door. “Come in!”

The door opened slowly and Emily walked into her room and shut the door gently behind her. The blonde looked at her with a shy smile as she sat down on the bed and looked at her expectantly. “How are you?” Emily asked hesitantly.

Mishti sighed. She wasn’t even sure if she could answer that question. Her mind was racing with thoughts that she didn’t even know how she felt at the moment. “I have no idea.” She walked over to her bed where Emily was sitting and joined her on the queen size bed.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Emily asked as she played with the fringes on the mesh pillow that was sitting on her bed.

“I don’t even know why I did that last night,” Mishti said softly. “The moment he kissed me, I just panicked and fled.”

“You do realize that Nick is nothing like Tyler?” Emily reminded Mishti gently.

“I know, I know,” Mishti said as the memories flooded her mind.

10 Months Earlier

Mishti’s leg shook up and down as she tapped her fingers on the wooden desk. It was the first day of high school, freshman year aka the dreadful year of high school. She had signed up for all the difficult classes in hopes that it would scream Outstanding Achiever on her high school transcript.

Her eyes scanned the room nervously. It was her only class that she would take with upperclassmen, the oh so scary juniors and sophomores, Honors Algebra II. She had taken the Geometry class over the summer making her ahead of her class.

The last warning bell rang throughout the school as one boy slid into the classroom at the last minute. The teacher shook his head but admitted him in. “I hope this won’t be a tradition Mr. Fullington.”

Mishti watched memorized as the boy showed his hundred watt smile that seemed to light up the whole room. “It won’t be Mr.Ryans. I can assure you that.” She stared at the boy as he let his eyes wander throughout the room before settling on the empty desk next to hers.

The mystery boy smiled and made his way to the desk. Mishti watched the blonde hair, blue eyed hunk saunter across the room, talking to his friends and winking at the pretty girls along the way.

He glided into his seat and glanced at Mishti before facing the front of the classroom. He did a double take at her and gave her an easy smile. He pushed his bangs out of his eyes and gave her a smirk. “Hey. I’m Tyler.”

That’s all it had taken for her to fall head over heels.

Mishti slammed her locker shut and let the loud clang echo throughout the halls. The hallway was crowded with students changing classes and talking to their friends. She readjusted her notebook in her hand before making her way to class.

“Mishti!” a familiar voice called out from behind her. Mishti turned around a smile spread across her face. She watched Tyler leave his friends who were watching him with a careful eye and walk towards her.

Ever since he had introduced himself in her Algebra class a few weeks ago, he had been a constant person in Mishti’s life. He would text her almost every day and would say ‘hi’ to her in the hallways whenever he would see her. Her friends would squeal enough for her since an upperclassman was talking to them.

Tyler had even invited her to his football games and had personally made sure she had the best seats in the student section. Mishti and her friends had been seated with the juniors and seniors at all the games, which apparently was a huge deal for freshman.

He leaned his body against the lockers and crossed his arms. “Hey Mishti. You have any plans for Saturday night?”

Mishti tilted her head to the side. “Saturday? No not yet.”

“How about I take you to the movies then?” Tyler asked with a smile.

Mishti nodded her head. “Okay.”

She couldn’t believe she had been so stupid.

Emily’s eyes got wide as Mishti delivered the news. “He asked you to be his girlfriend?!” Emily screeched.

Mishti laughed. “He did! I didn’t even see it coming!” It was true. After the movie had finished, Tyler had taken her out to ice cream. Mishti had glowed as she watched girls at the movie theater turn and look at her jealously. She never thought she would have this much fun with him. The hell she had gone through for taking Geometry in the summer seemed worth it now.

Her happiness was innocent enough back then.

Mishti walked into the school bathroom and went into a stall. She closed the door and leaned against the cool door. She fished her cell phone out of her bag and opened it to check the voice mail she had gotten during first period.

Loud voices entered the girls bathroom as she punched in the code for her voice mail on her cell phone. She pressed the phone up to her ear and began to listen to the monotone voice. The monotone voice drowned in the new voices that were now speaking outside Mishti’s stall.

“Were you at Sarahs’ party last night?” asked a voice who Mishti recognized to be Clarissa, a junior who was just as popular as Tyler.

A loud bubble popped from bubblegum before a response came from the other girl. “Of course I was. Tyler was going because the entire football team was and he wanted me there.”

Mishti froze. She also knew that voice. A brunette beauty whose name was Amanda. Even the young freshman knew who she was. She was the girl. The girl that all the boys would do anything to hook up with.

The sounds of perfume being sprayed filled the air as Clarissa replied. “I can’t believe he’s still with that frosh girl. Wasn’t he going to dump her weeks ago?”

Amanda laughed. “I know, that’s what I said. But apparently the bet with Ryan is that he has to be with for her an entire month before getting his money.”

“Did you see the way she looked at him when they were walking together the other day? She was looking at him all adoringly and Tyler was trying so hard not to laugh,” Clarissa said with a slight giggle.

“She actually thinks that Tyler is in love with her,” Amanda laughed. “Tyler calls me every time he comes back from a date with her and says that whenever he was with her he would be thinking of me.”

Both girls laughed and closed up their bags before leaving the bathroom. Mishti let the tears escape from her eyes as the girls conversation played and replayed over and over in her head. She was just some girl that Tyler had used. He never liked her and never saw her more than a nuisance.

All the kisses, smiles, laughter, I love you’s, good times she had had with Tyler had been fake. They never meant anything to him.

It was all a joke.

Mishti could feel the tears coming back as she relived the pain from months ago. She gingerly touched her eyelids in hopes of making them stop. Emily moved from where she was sitting and leaned over to give her a hug. Mishti gave up on trying to stop the tears and let them flow.

“I know Nick would never do that to me,” Mishti whispered. “But I just can’t…I can’t.”