Zacky and Grace

I am just a normal teenager... for the most part. I go to high school in Las Vegas, Nevada and to most I am considered a weirdo. Just because me and my friends like to goof around a lot and don't care if we make complete idiots out of ourselves, that makes us weird? I am into heavy metal music, older bands like Iron Maiden, Megadeth and Mercyful Fate. I play the guitar, and if I do say so myself, I'm pretty good. I like to wear black and band t-shirts, so I'm a freak. I have a group of friends who are like me, but I've never had a girlfriend, not one that I actually liked anyways. Just that whole 'go out with a girl for three days then pick another girl'. The ones that you never even talk to, but yet, you're 'going out'. I'm only fourteen though, so I have plenty of time. I'm in no hurry, but I still think it would be nice to find that one girl that I love and that loves me. My friends don't know that though.

One day, I went to lunch and got in line with my friends as usual. My one friend, Damien, was waving to these two girls who always sit by themselves, just the two of them. They sat at the table right next to ours, so I noticed that it was always just the two of them, but I never got a good look at either of them.

"Dude, who's that girl?" I said nodding my head in their direction.

"That's Jessica, she's one of my best friends, she's a year older then us." he said, acting stupid, as usual.

"No, not her. The other one." I said, punching him on the arm.

"Oh! That's Grace. I'm friends with her too, but I haven't known her for that long. Her and Jessica are best friends."

"We should sit with them today. It won't be weird or anything, right? You said you're friends with both of them. It's always just them two, they look like they could use some company."

"Um, okay." Damien said, a little bit confused. "We'll sit with them today."

While we went inside to get our lunches I kept thinking about that girl, Grace. She was really cute, and just from the way she looked, she seemed really cool.

We paid for our lunches and then went over to the table where Jessica and Grace were.

"Hey Jess, me and my friend Zacky are gonna sit with you guys today!"

"Okay, Damien! You do that!" Jessica said, she seemed just as crazy and stupid as Damien.

Jessica stood up and introduced herself and Grace to me. She was making all kinds of weird hand motions and shit. It was almost like she was dancing or something. I could tell that she was a weird girl, and I hoped that Grace wasn't as bad.

"Hey Grace, I'm Zacky. Zacky Vengeance." I said trying to act all smooth, but she just giggled and looked down at the table.

I hoped she didn't think I was an idiot or something, I think I might really like her. I noticed she was wearing an AC/DC dogtag, they were another one of my favorite bands. We seemed to be a lot alike. It seems like we like the same music, we dress the same, and we're both best friends with a crazy person.

Lunch was over now, so I headed off to class with Damien, and Grace went off with Jessica.

"Did I do something wrong? She thinks I'm a freak! I'm so stupid" I started saying to myself as me and Damien were walking down the hallway to our next class.

"Dude, what the hell are you talking about?" He asked me, still confused.

"Nothing, just... nothing."

"Wait! You like her don't you? Grace, I mean." he questioned me.

"Shut up, man!" I replied, a little bit embarassed.

"No, I'm sure she doesn't think your a freak. She's probably just shy. You guys seem to have a lot in common." This was the first time I think I'd ever seen Damien being serious.

I gave him a dirty look, then turned the other way and smiled to myself at what he said.

When I went home that night, I couldn't stop thinking about her. I was going to get her to talk to me. I'd do anything.

The next day at school I couldn't wait to go to lunch. When the lunch bell finally rang I headed straight to the cafeteria, not waiting for Damien like I usually do. When I got there, I didn't even get in line, I went straight to the table where Jessica was sitting, to find that Grace wasn't there.

"Is Grace here today?" I asked Jessica nervously.

"Yeah, she's here. She's probably just late again. Do you like her or something?"

"Maybe.." I said quietly, almost inaudibly.

"Don't be shy about it. She likes you too, she told me yesterday. Don't tell her I told you though, she'll get all mad."

I smiled. "What did she say?"

"Geeze, you really have a thing for her don't you?" She said, and I started to feel like an idiot. "She said that she thinks you're really cute, and that you seem really cool. She's not going to act like she likes you though, especially if she doesn't know you like her too. She's really shy. I'm like the only one she talks to."

I could see her walking towards the table out of the corner of my eye so I tried to be cool, so she wouldn't know we were just talking about her.

Once the four of us were all at the table we started talking, just about anything we could think of. Then, out of no where Jessica shouted "You two should go out!" pointing to Grace and I.

Grace gave Jessica a look which made her quickly change the subject.

I was starting to think that maybe Jessica had just made all that stuff up, and that Grace didn't really like me.

As the weeks went on Grace started talking to me more and more, a little bit at a time. I called her once over Christmas break just to see how see was doing, and to see what kind of presents she got. At this point we'd been talking for about two weeks.

Once we got back to school after Christmas vacation, I finally worked up the courage to ask her out. I didn't ask her in the best way, but she said yes.

We still hadn't talked too much other then in school. As the weeks went on, I felt we were starting to grow closer.

On Valentine's Day, I called her for the first time from my phone. Her dad answered, so I was a little bit scared. I asked her if she wanted to go to the movies with me, Damien, Jessica and Jessica's boyfriend. She seemed like she didn't want to go, so I had Damien get Jessica to talk to her about it.

That night we all met at the movie theater. We went in when the movie was about to start and took our seats. Once we were seated and the lights started to dim, I put my hand out for her to take and she held it. This was the first time we had ever made any physical contact, I was scared to try and touch her hands because Damien told me that she liked to headbutt people and I didn't know if he was joking or not. We were holding hands for the first time and it felt amazing. I couldn't concentrate on the movie at all, and I really wanted her to kiss me.

When the movie ended we all stood up and went outside the theater. I wanted to hang out with Grace some more, but her mom came to pick her up as soon as it ended. I started getting worried again that she didn't want to be with me.

I left with Damien and we went back to his house to hang out. I told him about how I was worried if Grace really liked me or not. He decided to call her house.

I couldn't hear the whole conversation, but I did hear him ask her why she didn't kiss me. As soon as I heard that I ran over to him angrily and took the phone off of him.

"Hello?" I said nervously

"Hey."

"Did you like the movie?" I asked her

"Oh, yeah. Did you?"

"Yeah. I really liked spending time with you today."

"I liked spending time with you too." Hearing her say that brought a huge smile to my face.

"Really? So, maybe we could hang out again sometime, you know, other then in school. But, for now I have to go because Damien's being stupid."

"Yeah sounds good. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye." and with that, I hung the phone up.

I was suddenly really happy, and didn't care about anything else that was going on.

As time went on we started to talk a lot more in school, and outside of school on the phone. I could tell we were getting closer, but we still hadn't done anything besides hold hands, and I really wanted to kiss her.

One day, we were in the halls, she met me down at my locker as usual, and I told her that I wanted to kiss her. She seemed.... shocked to hear me say that. I think she was nervous. I asked her if she wanted to kiss me here in school or wait until some other time outside of school. She just shrugged and went off to class. I started getting that worried feeling again, the one about if she really likes me or not, only now I wondered if she wanted to be with me since I already knew she liked me.

After that class was over, she met me at my locker again. We were alone this time, none of our friends were there, so I slowly started leaning in towards her. Once our faces started getting close together she pulled away.

"What's wrong?" I asked sadly.

"Nothing." all she said was 'nothing'.

We both walked to class in the opposite direction.

It was the last period of the day, so I wouldn't get to see her again. It was Friday too, so I wouldn't get to see her until Monday.

Over the weekend, I didn't call her incase she was mad or something, and I was secretly a little scared.

When we went back to school on Monday morning I waited for her down by my locker. She never showed up and she always meets me there, every single morning. Now, I really was scared and I didn't care if my friends could tell.

She wasn't in school at all and I couldn't help but think it had something to do with me.

I was sitting in third period and decided I was going to go for a walk, so I asked my teacher if I could use the restroom. He said yes, gave me the pass, and I left the room. I couldn't concentrate, not that I paid attention in class anyway.

As I started walking down the hall very slowly, I saw a familiar body. It was Grace.

"Hey, where were you this morning?" I asked, happy to see her.

"I had an orthodontist appointment." She said, and I felt relief take over me. I was so glad that she wasn't skipping school because of me.

"Oh, okay. Well I gotta go back to class before Mr. Brown gets mad that I 'took too long'. I'll see ya later."

"Okay, bye."

I walked back to class feeling a lot better then I did when I left.

When the bell rang for the end of third period I headed to my locker to see that Grace was there waiting for me. I was a little bit confused, since she's never there before me.

Once I got to my locker, I opened my mouth to ask her what she was doing, when I was interrupted by her lips against mine. It was a soft, quick kiss. Our lips just barely touched for a brief second, but I felt like I was on top of the fucking world. After she kissed me, she smiled at me and walked away.

It may have been a small, soft, quick kiss, but it was amazing, truly incredible. Most people would probably consider that nothing, but to me it meant everything. I was so happy for the rest of the day. I knew that things between me and Grace were starting to get serious. I started to think I might love her and never want to be without her.