10 Ways to Fall in Love

It’s funny, people never realize the people with the most broken smiles are the ones who are always smiling. When someone smiles all the time look, does the smile reach their eyes? Do they have any reason to be happy? What is their life like? Something worth smiling about? Because a lot of the time you’ll see that they are smiling to cover everything up. They are smiling to hide themselves from the outside world. They are smiling to keep people out, not consciously but subconsciously. Sometimes they know they are and they wonder will anyone try to come in anyway? How hard will they try? What happens most of those times is that they are disappointed. No one tries to come in, and if they do they don’t try hard enough. So these people end up smiling alone often times.

Some people smile because they do have a reason to be happy. They have a reason to smile. That is something people who are always smiling as a façade are jealous about. They want that. The people who have a reason to smile have close friends, a happy life, something fun to do, and they know something about their future, maybe it’s where it’s leading or it’s where they want to go, but they know something.

She was merely walking down the halls of her school Poway high when she accidentally ran straight into someone. She automatically said an apology and bent down to pick up her books. In response someone told her, “Watch it bitch.” Resulting in a laugh from everyone who heard except one person named Cameron Quiseng. She didn’t let that get to her however she didn’t let the smile leave her face. It was her mask. That smile was her mask. Her outlet was her music and books, which is why you would never see her without earbuds in her ears and a book in her hand.

Cameron had never really saw this girl before. He however didn’t know many people. He was a rare breed. He was on the football team, but he was a total nerd. When he saw that girl, and saw how everyone treated her, his heart went out to her. What threw him through a loop was her smile. The smile never left her face. He didn’t get it. He always had a smile on his face, but he had a reason to smile, she didn’t. He has friends. He is on a sports team. He is in a band. He has no reason to frown, only reasons to smile. She doesn’t have a reason to smile from what he saw, which was true.

Throughout the next week he watched her, not in a creepy fashion he just wanted to find out why she is so smiley. He watched her for a week and couldn’t find a reason. She had no reason to smile. She was invisible unless she was being made fun of which she was often. He didn’t even realize she is in his history class. From the looks of it she had no friends. All he ever saw her do was read and listen to music. The only time he heard her talk was in class. That was the only time she was loud. She was always smiling. After a week he still found no reason for it. That’s when he got it. Her smile was a mask. A mask.

One day in math he spent it thinking about the girl. He didn’t know her name even. Somehow in the one class they had together it never came up. She was always called on by a nod or a point, never by her name. Out of all his classes Cameron knew math was the worst class for him to be distracted in, but he couldn’t get the girl out of his mind. There was something about the smile, the mask, how it never reached her eyes, and so much more. She was a mystery which he liked, but what he didn’t like was how she always had on a mask, however he understood to a certain extent because if he was her he would wear a mask as well.

His teacher noticed and asked him to stay a minute after class telling to go see a math tutor after school and suggested he see a student tutor named, Mercury. Cameron nodded his head in agreement and after school found himself in his school’s tutoring center asking for Mercury. He did as he was told and sat at a random table in the center only to find his tutor is the girl with the broken smile. She started to teach him, and after she got him to concentrate he learned all the material in the chapter, not only the lesson he came in for help in for. He was surprised that he learned it so well because he struggles in math. Then the center closed and the two said goodbye, her of course assuming that the one tutoring session would change nothing. Cameron however knew otherwise.

Cameron is in the hallway on the way to lunch when he sees Mercury is doing the same. He goes and taps her on the shoulder and notices she grimaces with a smile which Cameron never thought was possible thinking he was tapping her shoulder to make fun of her. She pulls an earbud out and turns to Cameron who greets her and tries to start some small talk. She is clearly surprised at the fact that someone is talking to her. The two talk until the come to where to go to the cafeteria you go one way and to go to library you go another way. Cameron reluctantly said goodbye with the drive to talk to her again because she is nice and he liked talking to her; he could tell all that from that one conversation.

The next day Cameron found her about the same place again and he talked to her again, and they kept up this pattern up for a week until someone noticed someone was talking to Mercury in a nice fashion and wanted to stop it. A random guy called Cameron out in talking to the ‘loser’ in which Cameron defended her. To say Mercury was shocked would be an understatement. Then the guy had more people backing him up. Lucky for Cameron however, his friends Zach and Nathan were walking by, saw what was going on, and unknowing of what was going on backed Cameron up.

Mercury was shocked by the encounter and gave Cameron a hug of thanks before going off into the library causing Cameron to blush because he knew hugs weren’t her style because she never received many. When she was gone however his friends cracked down on him telling him that he had to pick between being their friend and Mercury’s not because they had a problem with her, but she was honestly that unpopular. She was unpopular to the point that not popular and not unpopular people, like themselves, didn’t want to be associated with her or even associated with someone who is associated with her.

Cameron sat alone at lunch that day in the library and when Mercury was leaving early she saw him and saw his face so she approached him and asked him what was wrong. He told her after some prying in which she told him to stop being her friend and to keep his other friends; she wasn’t worth it. Then she gave him one last goodbye hug before leaving him and unsuccessfully trying to hide one tear that rolled down her check which she automatically wiped away.

The next day was the day he had to make his decision. That morning he went to say hi to Mercury at her locker and she was shocked and told him more or less that he was being stupid and shouldn’t pick to stay her friend.

Then the same guy who called Cameron out on talking to her before did the same thing again, but started insulting Mercury and her looks claiming she could never get a boyfriend. Cameron was so infuriated about the comment he claimed she did have a boyfriend, him, and when asked to prove it he did so. He kissed her. At first it was only supposed to be a small kiss, but the sensation of their lips being pressed together was so amazing for each of them that they kept kissing and even deepening the kiss. Cameron pulled away only to be pulled back to Mercury a moment later.

Zach and Nathan saw the two kissing and realized how the two were falling for each other. The real give away wasn’t the kiss however it was the way the two looked at each other after the kiss. The two guys decided to stay Cameron’s friend although his soon to be girlfriend was unliked, because he honestly loves her or was going to. They knew to be with Cameron she had to be nice; they soon found out that they were correct.

To fix a person with a broken smile, someone who is smiling as a mask the key is to find someone who is constantly smiling with reason to make their smile real.

So the boy who always smiled with reason fixed the girl with the broken smile’s smile. Finally Mercury was smiling for a reason.

Cameron was Mercury’s medication that only had the purpose to take off Mercury’s mask, and underneath was a smile that Cameron thought was the most beautiful in the world.