We Were Lost and Broken Until We Met You Guys

She wouldn't let me get close to her at all.  No matter any approach I tried, every tactic I tried, nothing worked. She was stoned faced, nothing it seemed could crack her walls down. This was going to be harder than I expected. 

I think, that this whole deal had to do with her friends. Joe was talking to her cousin, constantly I might add, and it seems like these girls really can't date guys who aren't popular nor who her friends didn't approve of. She ignored me in classes and I didn't want to embarrass her at lunch, but I kept my distance. I didn't want her to give me another reason to hate me.  

Before getting breakfast, I received a text from an unknown number. It appears my brothers did as well because Joe and Kevin rushed into my room screaming. 

"Dude, did you get an invitation? Leslie and Sam invited us to their annual welcome to high school party! Now I can hang out with Katherine!" He exclaimed. 

Smirking to myself, I opened the text and Joe was true to his word that Leslie had invited us. 
"Woah little bro, what's wrong? Why are you smirking?" Kevin asked confused. 

"Nothing Kev, just happy to be invited." I replied. Both Joe and Kevin shook their heads with their own smiles and exited my bedroom. 

How the hell can I get her to open up to me?

I guess that can wait for later. I walked down the stairs and pretty soon again began the regular routine of everyday. 

At school, my brothers and I parted our separate ways and walked by Francis' locker where she was with her cousins and some friends. She didn't look up but Leslie did and she excused herself from the group. Francis continued to talk with her cousins and getting stuff out her locker. 

I walked over to mine not even aware that Leslie was following me. 
"Why hello, Nicholas." She said smirking and I didn't allow myself to cringe at her complete phoniness and ugliness. 

"Hhhii" I stuttered and mentally smacked myself for making myself look weak. 

"Well gorgeous, are you and your brothers coming to my party tonight?" She inquired sweetly manically. 

"Wouldn't miss it. We'll be there Leslie." I assured her wanting to escape this conversation. 

"Great. I can't wait to see you all there. And I know Francis will be very happy to see you, Nick." She smirked. 

I tried not to show any signs of happiness or any emotion at all but I failed miserably. And I was pretty sure she had seen it.

"Bye." I said waving her off. She slightly glared and walked away and I couldn't help but chuckle at the way she wobbled in her heels to Francis' locker where the other girls were as well. 

I sighed and walked to class. The girl who had warned me about Francis and her not being able to date Band Nerds, Geeks, I guess you get the picture. Yeah I saw her sometimes, her name was Sally and she was kinda friends with Francis' group. She seemed nice and the times that we've spoken she's constantly warned me not to get close with Francis because she could do something to hurt me but I refused to believe that. She was probably misunderstood and confused and just needed a friend for now to lean on. 

In homeroom she was busy talking to Sally, but she had a bored look in her class. In every other class she was extremely quiet, which was surprisingly strange for her since she normally participated in everything. 

When I had a free fourth and fifth period I was with some friends- Araceli, Dante, Grace, and Aaron in the music room laughing at Dante's joke when she passed by. She glanced in quickly and as quickly as she glanced she looked away and continued to walk down the hallway. I didn't even get to flash her a smile. I just wanted her to trust me and confide in me. I guess, it's kinda crazy for me to feel this way since it's only been four days in the school year but since the moment we collided and I got a look into her delicious brown eyes I had a sensational feeling about her. And like I said even if she didn't wish to have a further relationship with me that at least we could be friends. 

At lunch she sat with some friends which two I recognized as Priscilla and Sally. Another girl was talking and from the look on Francis' face I could tell it wasn't really intriguing and by the way she had such a dull and disgusted expression on her face. Her eyes wandered to every section of the cafeteria and I could tell she was fighting with herself to not look at me. But she failed to my supreme pleasure and those soft delicious brown eyes locked with mine and making up for not having had flashed her a smile in the music room I flashed one- a really small one. Aaron was still telling his joke and the others laughing but I was waiting for her smile to come and bring those crazy butterflies to flutter in the lit of my stomach. 

She did really flash one and boy did it make my heart flutter and make my insides go insane. But she quickly looked away, I looked at her confused but she refused to make eye contact. Suddenly Priscilla turned spontaneously in her seat and glanced in the direction Francis had been looking at. She smiled sweetly deviously at me. She then turned back in her seat to face the growl but I could see Francis smiling innocently but yet I could totally tell that she was worried. Was hanging out with me seriously that bad?

Throughout the rest of the lunch period she refused to make any contact with me whatsoever and I struggled to pay attention to Aaron's jokes. The bell finally rang and I trudged to WHAP where I trudged to the seat behind Francis. She barely acknowledged me but she didn't exactly ignore me, she just looked up and cue the crazy butterflies. 

I took my seat and struggled to listen to Mr. Martin about the WWII but could you blame me? Her sweet strawberry scent from her hair and the vanilla scent from her skin was just driving me insane. In Math, there was a person between us whose name I didn't even bother remembering. So I wasn't too distracted, even though I was wondering what events were stored for me later on. Would she be happy to see me? Or would she continue to ignore me?

Finally the day came to an end and I waited for my brothers by Kevin's car. Joe came first and of course with his nose buried in his phone, and soon Kevin followed with a frustrated look. We greeted each other and got into the car to pick up Frankie from school.

Today Frankie was staying at a friend's house for a sleepover and my parents were going out for dinner, so you could say we were lucky to go to the party. Even though, I really had no intentions of going but if I wanted to have some time with Francis, I knew I had to go. 

The ride back home after picking up Frankie was strangely quiet with the exception of Joe's hands typing on the phone. 

Today was not really a productive day for me, in fact I think it was probably worse than my finding out about Jenny and Alex. Being the obvious fact that I couldn't find a way to break down francis' walls, I had no idea on how to crumble those walls down.

When I walked through the front door of the house, I was shocked, to say the least, to find both my mom and dad sitting in the kitchen eating pizza and talking. 

"Good Afternoon boys. How was school?" Dad asked. 

I didn't bother replying, my day was crap why bother bringing it up? I stormed up the stairs to my room and sat down at my desk. I didn't bring myself to do homework so I just turned the volume to my radio up and listened until it was time to get ready for the party.

When I was ready I walked out my room and waited for Joe and Kevin to come down, mom and dad had already left and Frankie was long gone. I checked the text Leslie sent me and saw that she had included Francis' number. I typed up a text and sent it to her, it said something like this;

 - Hey Francis! It's Nick. The guy in all your classes; your friends Leslie and Sam invited my brothers and me to their party. So I'm guessing I'll see you there. She also gave me your number.
-Nick

Putting the phone on vibrate, I slipped into my jacket pocket and waited another ten minutes for my brothers. Finally the staggered down with Joe's face still buried in his phone. And Kevin looking nervous for some reason. I decided not to push it and just followed them out to the car. 

Leslie's house was like half an hour away from my house and I was bored out of my mind, Francis hadn't replied and I was extremely upset. The traffic that we were stuck in didn't help the situation and when we finally made it to Leslie's it was like 8:30. 

I headed inside the house with my brothers closely following behind and was shocked on what I found. Couples were grinding in the center of the room dancing, others were perched onto the walls drinking and laughing, and others were making out with their boyfriends/girlfriends. It looked like there was a fight about to break out about two girls and their relationships with some guy. I split up from my brothers in search of Francis, but I couldn't find her in any corner that I turned. So instead I walked in search of Leslie and spotted her by the wall making out with some guy in this slutty outfit. She pulled away from the guy and smiled at me, I sensed the presence of someone else and turned to come face to face with my brothers. 

"Nick, Kevin, and Joe! I'm so happy you could all make it! Is there something I can do for you guys?" She questioned as the fake smile set in her face. 

"I'm looking for Francis. Have you seen her?" I asked. She smiled in such an annoying way and soon I saw her shift her attention around the room. 

And soon Francis appeared with a soda in her hand. Her short curly brown hair was rested perfectly on her slender shoulder and she wore big hoop earrings. On her neck lay a heart locket and she was dressed in this. She slowly walked over to us and put a fake smile on.

"Hey Francis. Nick over here was looking everywhere for you and his brothers were looking for your cousins." Leslie's annoying nasally voice rang as a smug look appeared on her face.

From where I stood, I could visibly see Francis grit her teeth and get a murderous look in her eyes, she actually looked like she wanted to strangle Leslie. And I couldn't really blame her.

"Ohhh well let me go get them." She said through her gritted teeth and stalked off before Leslie could say anything. From where I stood I could plainly see that she was pretending to look for them and so I decided to intervene in the 'search' party and walked behind her ignoring Leslie. 

But then something that made my blood boil happened. Steve, a classmate of ours, the jock grabbed her arm and pushed her against the wall and tried to make out with her. 

I could see Francis trying to pry his hands off of her but failing successfully. The next thing I see is him pulling her way and mumbling,Stupid bitch. He turned to face us and I saw the blood trailing on his lip. I smirked, That a girl, Francis I thought to myself.

Bree, her cousin, appeared and it was certainly clear that she was in a drunk state. She was dressed in this and I let my brother take care of the incident that was about to take place with Steve.  

Ignoring Leslie I stalked after Francis, on my way outside I spotted Katherine, she was with some guy and wearing this and again I let my other brother deal with Katherine. I knew that it was really up to them to talk to their girls, just like I had to talk to mine who was probably somewhere in the heard crying her eyes out.

I spotted her by some chairs with her knees in front of her face and her face buried. I slowly walked over to her and took the available seat to her. 

She didn't stir for sometime but I knew she knew someone was there next to her. She just continued to cry and I sat there patiently waiting for her to stop.

Pretty soon her cries stopped and she glanced up. 

"Why won't you leave me alone?" She questioned, her voice sounding hoarse from all that crying.  

I simply shrugged and replied, "Because you're interesting and I can see that you have stuff to let off your chest and so you need someone to talk to."
"So you're not gonna ask if I'm okay?" She asked, almost grateful.
 
"I'm not an idiot I can see that you're not okay so I'm not gonna ask you." I said tapping on my thigh waiting for her to say something. 

She clutched on to her locket and kissed it. 

Did this locket have some significant value to her was the next thought that ran through my head.  " What's that?"

"A locket." She replied in a 'duh' tone.

"I know that but where did you get it?"

"My parents gave it to me on my fifteen birthday before we were in a car accident. They didn't survive. I was the only one who made it." She replied somewhat  astonished that I she had answered me. To me it somehow seemed like her walls were beginning to crumble slowly.
 
"I'm here if you want to talk." I told her placing a reassuring hand on my thigh.
She smiled, a very genuine one I have to do, and took a hold of my hand and squeezed it.

I smiled at her and on the inside I waited for the familiar rush to take place. 

 We sat there in the comfortable silence as she held my hand and answered every question she  threw at me and vice versa.

Sitting there with her hand in mine I realized that she truly was the person I rawly pictured to be; misunderstood and confused. 

We sat side by side and pretty soon I felt myself drift away 

-------------------------------Moments Later------------------------------------- 

"Pssshhtt Nick, wake up man." A voice whispered in my ear. 

My eyes sprang open and I came face to face with Joe. 

"Listen dude, we have to drop off the girls at home. Kevin, took Bree home since she was drunk so we have no ride for us. Katherine has Bree's car and the house keys so I'll drive them home and then you and I will just walk home. 

I nodded my head and he walked away. I looked down at Francis and how adorable she looked sleeping. Her head was rested on my shoulder and for the first time she looked peaceful and I just didn't have the heart to wake her up so I gently picked her up and walked toward the gate out the yard, not even bothering to say goodbye to Leslie and the others. 

But the party was still going on, I could tell you that since the music was buzzing still loudly and more and more couples were drinking and making out outside. 

I walked to where Joe and Katherine were and greeted Katherine who greeted me back glancing down at Francis asleep in my arms. She smiled but didn't say anything. 

She opened the door for me and I gently sat Francis down making sure not to hurt her, closed the door, and walked to the other side and slid in next to her. Joe slid in the driver's seat and Katherine appeared next to him in the passenger's seat. 

The ride to their house was quiet and peaceful, I could see Joe and Katherine holding hands and I smiled glad that my brother was happy. Francis curled herself next to me, resting her head on my shoulder once more and I placed an arm around her pulling her closer to me. 

It was kind of weird the attraction I had towards her, I normally fell for girls really fast- look at Jenny. But I really do believe that I was starting to like Francis a little more than I should. My crush on her was starting to grow more, especially with the time we spent together in the yard. 

I realized that they only lived two blocks away from us as soon as Joe pulled up to their house. I quickly got up, still not wanting to wake her up and asked Katherine if I could bring her upstairs to give Joe and Katherine some alone time. 

She agreed and opened the front door for me and turned on the hallway lights. She explained where Francis' room was and walked out to talk with Joe. 

I walked up the stairs that led to Francis' bedroom and opened the door. I gently laid her down in bed and pulled the blankets up to cover her. She twisted in her bed and finally became still. 

I placed a soft and sweet kiss to her forehead and said,"I wish you liked me Francis, just like I like you."

Abruptly I turned around just about to walk out her door when I heard her mumble,"I like you Nick, possibly more than I should." 

With that I smiled and walked down the stairs and out the front door, Katherine and Joe were still talking when I got out but quickly said bye and soon Joe and I were walking home. 

From the moment I walked out Francis' house to the moment I got home to sleep I couldn't stop the smile that kept forming on my face. 

She likes me just the way I like her! were my last thoughts before I let myself be drifted off and engulfed in complete sweet darkness.