OverExposed: Making Me Love You

11 years ago

I pushed my square framed glasses further up on my nose as I turned a page in the romance novel I was reading. School had just ended, letting out for the summer, and I was on my way home. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for me to be seen with my nose shoved in a book even while walking down the sidewalk. My greatest passion was reading and I didn’t really need anything else. Reading allowed me to escape into an alternate reality and forget about the drama that seemed to flood middle school. My classmates always complained how tough being a thirteen year old could be. It always made me laugh because we had it better than half of the people living in this world.

I pulled myself away from my wandering thoughts realizing I had read the same line over thirty times. Get your head out of the clouds, Alyce, before you find yourself tumbling down the rabbit hole, my friends would always tell me. Since my parents had named me Alyce Hattie, all of my close friends would refer to me as the Mad Hatter since not only was he my favorite character in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, but also because of my name.

I sighed, sliding my bookmark between the aged, yellow pages of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I had read it a thousand times over to the point where the binding was beginning to wear out and the pages were becoming weathered. I closed the book and instead focused on my walk home. It always took me at least thirty minutes to walk from the school to my house. As I was walking along, I heard the faintest sound of someone strumming their guitar. A beautiful, haunting voice travelled with the wind to reach inside my ears. My footsteps came to a stop as I stopped to listen to the words.

When you refuse me
You confuse me
What makes you think I'll let you in again?
Think again my friend
Go on misuse me and abuse me
I'll come out stronger in the end

Mesmerized by this unique, tenor voice, I found my feet turning around. Without really knowing what I was doing, I began heading straight for the source of the voice. I had walked this same path to my house for three years and not once had I ever heard a voice so beautiful singing out to the clouds.

And does it make you sad
To find yourself alone
And does it make you mad
To find that I have grown
I'll bet it hurts so bad
To see the strength that I have shown

I grew closer and closer to the voice not really caring if I ended up getting lost. Just as long as I discovered the source of that voice, I could find my way back somehow. My feet led me down a small dirt path that wound its way through the small forest that surrounded my neighborhood.

When you answer the door pick up the phone
You won’t find me cause I'm not coming home
You do not know how much this hurts me
To say these things that I don't want to say
But have to say them anyway
I would do anything to end your suffering
But you would rather walk away

I finally approached an area where the path widened into a large circle where there was a wooden bench for people to sit and rest on. It was a place where they could just relax and enjoy the quaint, but beautiful scenery. On the old wooden bench sat a young man. He appeared to be in his early 20s wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans. A tattoo on his left arm peeked out from under his sleeve as he strummed his fingers over the guitar strings.

And does it make you sad
To find yourself alone
And does it make you mad
To find that I have grown
I'll bet it hurts so bad
To see the strength that I have shown

His eyes were closed as he belted out what I assumed the chorus was. Chills ran down my spine at his voice. It wasn’t the typical sort of tenor voice I was used to hearing. It had a unique twist on it as he poured all of his emotions into each and every one of those words. My eyes drifted shut as I let the finality of his words flow through me.

When you answer the door pick up the phone
You won't find me cause I'm not coming home

He plucked the strings of the guitar one last time before letting a small smile spread across his handsome face. He raked a hand through his short, brown hair making it stick out in odd directions. He set the guitar down beside him and leaned back against the wooden bench. He had yet to open his eyes, but I was strangely ok with that.

It would be weird if he caught me staring at him playing alone in the woods. Pushing my glasses back up onto the bridge of my nose, I took a small step back to head back in the direction I came. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side at the moment. Beneath my heel, a twig snapped in half making a loud crack echo throughout the serenity of the forest. The man’s eyes snapped open and locked on with me. A pair of hazel green eyes bore straight into my soul as I sucked in my breath wondering what might be going through his mind right now. I clasped my book tighter to my chest when he got to his feet.

“Hey, I’m sorry, did I disrupt your reading?” he asked, his light voice laced with worry. My eyes widened in shock. He thought HE had disrupted ME?

I furiously shook my head while biting back a smile.

“No, I’m sorry. I was walking home from school when I heard you playing,” I quietly admitted. A blush crept up onto my cheeks staining them a deep red.

The man’s lips shifted over to one side of his face in a crooked grin. A crescent dimple framed the corner of his smile.

“Did you like it?” he asked shoving his hands deep into the pocket of his jeans.

“U-um y-yeah,” I stuttered slightly flustered. Seeing him look at me with such kindness in his eyes, especially when he was so…handsome, shocked me. Not many guys I knew would smile at me like that. Most of them thought I was ugly and refused to meet my eye. Then again most of them were thirteen, the same age as me. This man…he was obviously older. Which made my heart plummet.

“Good. Hopefully you’ll be hearing a lot more of it soon,” he chuckled rubbing the palm of his hand across the back of his neck.

A shy smile found its way onto my face; my caramel brown eyes falling to stare at the forest floor.

“Hopefully,” I quietly wished.

“My name’s Adam. What’s yours?” he inquired as he bent over to pick up his guitar from the bench. He pulled out a black bag from under the bench and unzipped it to place his guitar inside.

“Um, Alyce,” I answered watching as he zipped the guitar case and slung it over his shoulder.

“Well, Alyce, would you like me to walk you home?” he offered stepping towards me.

My heart rate sped up as my common sense suddenly kicked in. No matter how handsome he was, nor how well he sang, he was still a stranger. I took a few steps back to counter his couple towards me. Seeing me quickly step away, Adam stopped in his tracks.

“I’ll take that as a no?” he concluded with a nervous chuckle.

“Well…it’s just that…I-I don’t know you a-and—”

“It’s ok,” he assured me with a smile. “I understand. I’d probably do the same thing if I was in your position and had a strange, lanky man asking to walk home with me.”

When he put it that way, I almost felt bad for rejecting his kind offer. I shook my head free of any sort of thoughts that could lead to me changing my mind and plastered a smile on my face.

“I’m sorry. I do have to get going now.”

Adam nodded, hooking his thumbs through his belt loops.

“I’ll wait here for a few minutes before leaving. So you don’t think I’m following you,” he informed me with a wink.

“Well…I hope I can hear you play again. And on the chance I never see your face again…you should know…you have…an…amazing voice,” I quietly confessed as I felt another blush creep up into my cheeks again.

That deep laughter wrapped around me in its comforting, warm embrace.

“I can guarantee you that you will.”

I smiled and waved my goodbyes as I turned to jog back down the forest path.

I wish at that time I had known I was walking away from the man who would one day become an idol of mine.