Six Feet Under The Stars

My first week in Arizona wasn't really nice. I spent the days inside my room, either to arrange my stuffs or just sit and look at all gifts my best friends gave me before I left and a picture of four of us after junior high graduation. I was still feeling beyond sad to know I was far away from all my best friends. Knowing we wouldn't be together for next four years and even when high school graduation made me felt sad and disappointed.

As much as Mom couldn't stand me kept locking myself inside my room, she broke into my room and dragged me out from there. Just like a little girl, Mom brought me to a park near our house where we found some kids playing football. Mom said I could be their friend, I didn't even know how. We just sat on a bench there watching the kids playing football until one of them looked at us and walked to our direction.

`Hi, Mrs. Barone,` he greeted nicely.

`Hi, John. You're playing with your friends?` Asked Mom as that John boy nodded.

I raised my eyebrow as I looked at this John boy. I met him once he visited my house to give some cupcakes his mom had made. He was nice though, and this lanky boy has a serious deadly gorgeous smile.

`Caroline, this is John, he's our neighbor.` Mom introduced John to me as I nodded. I said a simple hi to John as then Mom told me to play with John.

`We're playing football over there, uhm, I don't know if girls like football,` John shrugged his shoulders. `But I'll introduce you to my friends!`

I looked at Mom with a kind of I-don't-wanna-be-here but Mom pushed me anyway. `I'll see you later on dinner time, Sweetheart.` Said her as she waved to John and I and went home.

I stood beside this John boy without doing anything, just starred at some kids who were playing football. John didn't even ask me to do something, he just did the same thing I did until he looked at me, from head to toe.

`What?` I asked him

`Uhm, nothing.` Said John as he scratched his hair. `What's your name again?`

I rolled my eyes and introduced myself once again. This time, John introduced himself too as he asked me to follow him to meet his friends. Once we got to the field, four boys stopped their game and looked at us. They all had nice appearance so I didn't really afraid to be there.

`This is Caroline, my new neighbor,` John introduced me as then he pointed at his friends one by one. `That's Garrett, Jared, Pat and Kennedy.`

`Cool. Hi everyone.` I said. The boy named Pat then ran to me as he asked for a handshake. He then offered me to play with them. I actually wasn't really good in playing with balls but I joined them anyway. They were my first five friends in Arizona and that was last until now.



I made a lot of friends in Tempe, Arizona and most of them were John's friends too—he's really good in introducing someone—but still, John, Jared and Pat were my best of best friends in Arizona. If I could say, they really did replace Alex's, Jack's and Claire's place when they're so far away from where I was.

After being best friends for about four years, I could see something different in John that I couldn't find in anyone else. Everyone had been cared to me but not as cared as how John did. John showed his sweet and lovely side to me, which I couldn't just ignore him to not have a crush on John Cornelius O'Callaghan.

`You're a real sweet guy, you know that?` I told John as I chuckled lightly and that boy showed me his super sweet smile.

`I know,` he blushed. `And you’re so lovely, you know that?`

`No?` My cheeks tinted pink and that made John chuckled.

`What about, I love you. Do you know that?`

There we had a short silence. I thought John was confessing his feeling to me—if that’s true I would be the happiest girl in the world, but I didn’t wanna be too confident. As I thought he just loved me as a best friend, I smiled and casually said `I know, I love you too.`

`Really?` John now moved a bit to face me.

`Yeah, who doesn’t?` I giggled. `Everyone loves me, everyone loves you. You love me, I love you too.`

John groggily smiled as he asked, `Do you love me the same way I do to you?`

`I don’t know—is yours different?`

John didn’t answer my question. He just laid his back to the couch and pulled me to his embrace. He didn’t say any words but his hand moved to stroke my hair. I felt comfortable as I leaned on his side, silently kept waiting for what he was going to say.

`Carol,` John suddenly called as I turned to see him. John got his eyes locked to mine and we were doing such a staring contest—I would definitely win because I couldn’t just not stare at his gorgeous eyes. Seconds after that, John cupped his hand on my cheeks as his face got closer to mine. I could feel his breathe tickled my nose and soon, I could feel his soft lips on mine.

The kiss didn’t go so long. John pulled away and showed his sweetest smile to me as he once again caressed my cheek. `I love you like I want to be with you forever. I love you like I will never let you go. I love you like I’ll take care of you more than a best friend would do. I love you because you’re perfect as someone I would like to share my life with. That’s my love for you, Carl.

`Answer me, please.` John held my hands, ignoring my warm red cheeks—I was sure it’s because of his lovely sweet words he just told me. I closed my eyes because I couldn’t stand of any staring contest anymore. I could’ve just melted here if I had to look at his eyes again in this moment.

John paused a second before groggily asked, `Will you be my girlfriend?`

I didn't have to wait for another moment to confess my own feeling to John. I smiled shyly and moved closer. As I got my hand on John's face, I kissed him once again, a little longer. Between our kiss, I whispered to my O'Callaghan boy, `I love you, I wouldn’t say no to you, John.`