How Did We Come Together?
Chapter 3: WHAT DID I DO?
THE WEEK WAS FINALLY ENDING! IT WAS FRIDAY! I couldn't help but smile uncontrollably as I walked into 1st period. I saw him sitting in his desk; he was looking for something in his backpack so I just walked over and sat down.
"Hey you!" I said cheerfully. He looked up from his backpack; his blue eyes making me melt. A smiled slowly emerged on his face as he looked up at me.
"Hi!" He had such a strong accent that I couldn’t take it. It was like music to my ears. It didn’t help that we still didn’t know each other’s names. We would guess every day and still be wrong. It was like we knew each other since we were little and could talk about anything but when we tried to say each other's names, we froze. I looked at him, trying to figure it out. "Is it Michael?"
"Nope. That is one of my friend's names though. So you are closer than you were when we first started this." he laughed. “Are youuuu…..Veronica?” I shook my head no. I started to laugh, “We are never gonna get each other’s names. Just tell me it, please?”
I rolled my eyes and smiled at him before I went into my backpack to find my notes. We have been trying to guess each other's names since that first day we started talking. One of us would get it eventually...Hopefully. As I thought about more names and started to day dream, I felt something hit my arm; it was his notebook. It turned out to be "our" notebook or that's what he wrote on the front after he scratched out "GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS". He didn't really have the best handwriting but it was cute that he tried to write so I could understand. There would be times when I would have to read the sentence over and over again because I couldn’t figure out one word, then I would ask him if I was still confused. He’d usually laugh at me then mouth the word or try to, still leaving me confused. That was what we ended up doing most of the class, but today wasn’t like a normal day. As he pushed his notebook towards me more, I could see he wasn’t looking at me. I took the notebook anyways, trying to get his attention but he kept avoiding my eyes. As I read what he wrote, I understood why.
“Don’t be mad at me, but I can’t talk to you anymore. It definitely isn’t you, and it isn’t me. It’s just a long complicated story that is too hard to explain and I don’t want to bring you more into it if you don’t need to be. I’m sorry…you made me smile every day for this period and I’m going to miss talking to you. I hope you really don’t hate me…I’m truly sorry I did this to you…”
I stared at his writing for most of the class. I could read all the words; I just didn’t know what to think. I barely know this kid but I enjoyed every second I talking to him and he is now telling me that he can’t even talk to me. WHAT THE HELL?! That was crappy. I could hear the bell ringing, but I didn’t move. I just stared at this paper, wondering what the hell I did. He said it wasn’t me, but what else could it be? I could feel a hand on my shoulder, I still didn’t move.
“Can I walk you to your next class?” he voice was rough, like he didn’t want to write what he did but he couldn’t change it, it was like he had to. I slowly started to move, but I was still in a daze. We talked every day, first period since the semester started. As I kept thinking about all of this, I didn’t even notice that he was holding my hand as he walked me to 2nd period. I could feel him squeezing my hand tighter as we got to my next class. I started to pull my hand away to walk into class when I got pulled back into his chest. I backed away and looked up, “I just wanted to let you know...” he looked at his hand still holding mine and smiled, “My name is Lucas, Luke for short.”
I tried to smile, but couldn’t fully, “My name is Eva Marie, Eve for short.” I pulled my hand away, starting to walk into class, “It was nice talking to you, Luke. I wish I could say we could talk again…” As I walked to my seat, I looked back at the door and saw his smile slowly fade from his face. I looked into his eyes and that was the last time I thought I was ever going to see those beautiful blue eyes again. The whole rest of the day, everyone thought that I was sick, or was going through depression, or something else.
Then out of nowhere, I heard the voice of my best friend, “Hey Eve. What happened with that boy in your first period? Did you tell him you wanted to hang out, WHAT DID HE SAY?!”
I didn’t look up at her, she kept asking questions until she realized I wasn’t answering, “he was probably to blown away that you asked him to even answer, wait…are you okay? You haven’t even laughed at anything I said. You usually laugh right away when I start talking like this. Did this boy do something where I should beat the crap out of him?!”
I shook my head, still looking at the ground. She lifted my head so she could look at my face. “He doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. I don’t know why I’m kind of upset, I barely knew the kid but I was starting to like him, at least as a friend.” I looked back at the ground.
“So what happened? Tell me EXACTLY what he said.” I went to my backpack and pulled out “our” notebook, I didn’t give it back to him. How could I? He didn’t ask for it and saw me put it in my backpack. He didn’t even try to stop me from taking it. I flipped through the pages where we had endless conversations about music, hanging out some time and just random things. As I went through all of them, I realized something. I stopped dead, thinking out loud, “OH MY GOD! LUKE!”
I made Ivy jump back, “WHAT? ARE YOU HURT?!?!?! DO I NEED TO GET A TEACHER??? WHO’S LUKE?!”
I shook my head so fast my vision got blurry, “NO! Luke is the guy’s name. And that loser! He wrote me his schedule to see if we could ever hang out.” I went back to nearly the beginning of the notebook, finding it written out, barely readable.
Ivy looked at me like a deer in the headlights, “And how is that going to help us here?”
I looked up with a smile on my face, pointing to the schedule, “Its Friday which means…” I scrolled my finger down to find Friday, stopping when I found it, “he has soccer practice at the pavilion until 6:30 and then he is meeting up with his band for at the park near your house at 7, but they go to a friend’s house near there after they meet up at the park. He told me to meet him there yesterday…”
“Are you saying what I think you are saying?” Ivy asked with a smirk. I nodded with that same smirk on my face that she had. She started to laugh, “we are gonna get in so much trouble.” After school, my mom let me go to Ivy’s house so we could do homework, which meant that we would do as much as we could before 7 to find out where Luke was.
It was time…
“Ivy is your car suppose to sound like that?”
“What do you mean?”
“It sounds like its dying…” I couldn’t stop laughing at her facial expression.
“ARE YOU JOKING?!”
“Yes! Your car sounds fine; I’m just trying to distract my mind from what we are doing right now…” She looked over at me to see that I couldn’t catch my breath.
“Eve, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
I looked at her without even thinking, “We have to do this. You can’t just be friends with me and then not tell my why we aren’t anymore or why he isn’t going to talk to me anymore.” She nodded and pulled up next to the park. I could see a bunch of kids still there, but then I saw him. I hid my face even though I know he wouldn’t be able to see me from where we were parked. Soon enough his friends showed up and they all started to walk to a car near us. I ducked so he couldn’t see me, but I could feel eyes still watching me. I turned to Ivy and lifted my hand for her to see
She held it in hers, “why are you shaking so much? Are you okay?” I nodded even though I knew that I wasn’t really okay. How could I be okay? This guy can’t just walk into my life and then all of a sudden leave, but right before he leaves he has to hold my hand and tell me his name is Luke. WHY?! I didn’t notice but we started moving.
“Are you sure you want to do this? We could go back to my house before we get closer.”
“No, I need to know why.”
The next thing I knew we were there. We made sure we didn’t follow to close to their car so they didn’t think we were following them and we weren’t too far away where we could lose them. Ivy pulled next to the curb. “We could still leave.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt, “I’m not running away…I have to. I need to know why.” She nodded and let me walk to the door. As I got closer, I could hear music, not like music you hear on the radio that is already on cds, no it was live music. I could hear guitars, and what sounded like a drum set. I started to day dream and think about what I was really doing, “okay, you know what you are gonna say. He needs to explain why and you are not leaving without finding that out. There is no turning back now.” I could feel my hand reach for the door and could hear the knock but not realizing I was the one knocking. I still had time to leave, but my hand went back to knock again. As I reached for the door again, a guy opened the door. I started to freak out and lost my train of thought.
“Umm…hi, can I help you?”
“Uhhh…yeah. By chance is there a guy named Luke here?”
The guy turned and yelled, “Luke someone is here for you! AND THEY ARE REALLY HOT!!!” The guy looked at me and winked, I could feel my cheeks blushing. “You can come in if you want.”
I shook my head, “It’s okay. I won’t be here that long.”
He nodded and said Luke would be just a minute. We exchanged smiles as he walked away; I could feel my heart racing, beating through my chest. And that is when he appeared in front of me…Here goes nothing, right?
"Hey you!" I said cheerfully. He looked up from his backpack; his blue eyes making me melt. A smiled slowly emerged on his face as he looked up at me.
"Hi!" He had such a strong accent that I couldn’t take it. It was like music to my ears. It didn’t help that we still didn’t know each other’s names. We would guess every day and still be wrong. It was like we knew each other since we were little and could talk about anything but when we tried to say each other's names, we froze. I looked at him, trying to figure it out. "Is it Michael?"
"Nope. That is one of my friend's names though. So you are closer than you were when we first started this." he laughed. “Are youuuu…..Veronica?” I shook my head no. I started to laugh, “We are never gonna get each other’s names. Just tell me it, please?”
I rolled my eyes and smiled at him before I went into my backpack to find my notes. We have been trying to guess each other's names since that first day we started talking. One of us would get it eventually...Hopefully. As I thought about more names and started to day dream, I felt something hit my arm; it was his notebook. It turned out to be "our" notebook or that's what he wrote on the front after he scratched out "GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS". He didn't really have the best handwriting but it was cute that he tried to write so I could understand. There would be times when I would have to read the sentence over and over again because I couldn’t figure out one word, then I would ask him if I was still confused. He’d usually laugh at me then mouth the word or try to, still leaving me confused. That was what we ended up doing most of the class, but today wasn’t like a normal day. As he pushed his notebook towards me more, I could see he wasn’t looking at me. I took the notebook anyways, trying to get his attention but he kept avoiding my eyes. As I read what he wrote, I understood why.
“Don’t be mad at me, but I can’t talk to you anymore. It definitely isn’t you, and it isn’t me. It’s just a long complicated story that is too hard to explain and I don’t want to bring you more into it if you don’t need to be. I’m sorry…you made me smile every day for this period and I’m going to miss talking to you. I hope you really don’t hate me…I’m truly sorry I did this to you…”
I stared at his writing for most of the class. I could read all the words; I just didn’t know what to think. I barely know this kid but I enjoyed every second I talking to him and he is now telling me that he can’t even talk to me. WHAT THE HELL?! That was crappy. I could hear the bell ringing, but I didn’t move. I just stared at this paper, wondering what the hell I did. He said it wasn’t me, but what else could it be? I could feel a hand on my shoulder, I still didn’t move.
“Can I walk you to your next class?” he voice was rough, like he didn’t want to write what he did but he couldn’t change it, it was like he had to. I slowly started to move, but I was still in a daze. We talked every day, first period since the semester started. As I kept thinking about all of this, I didn’t even notice that he was holding my hand as he walked me to 2nd period. I could feel him squeezing my hand tighter as we got to my next class. I started to pull my hand away to walk into class when I got pulled back into his chest. I backed away and looked up, “I just wanted to let you know...” he looked at his hand still holding mine and smiled, “My name is Lucas, Luke for short.”
I tried to smile, but couldn’t fully, “My name is Eva Marie, Eve for short.” I pulled my hand away, starting to walk into class, “It was nice talking to you, Luke. I wish I could say we could talk again…” As I walked to my seat, I looked back at the door and saw his smile slowly fade from his face. I looked into his eyes and that was the last time I thought I was ever going to see those beautiful blue eyes again. The whole rest of the day, everyone thought that I was sick, or was going through depression, or something else.
Then out of nowhere, I heard the voice of my best friend, “Hey Eve. What happened with that boy in your first period? Did you tell him you wanted to hang out, WHAT DID HE SAY?!”
I didn’t look up at her, she kept asking questions until she realized I wasn’t answering, “he was probably to blown away that you asked him to even answer, wait…are you okay? You haven’t even laughed at anything I said. You usually laugh right away when I start talking like this. Did this boy do something where I should beat the crap out of him?!”
I shook my head, still looking at the ground. She lifted my head so she could look at my face. “He doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. I don’t know why I’m kind of upset, I barely knew the kid but I was starting to like him, at least as a friend.” I looked back at the ground.
“So what happened? Tell me EXACTLY what he said.” I went to my backpack and pulled out “our” notebook, I didn’t give it back to him. How could I? He didn’t ask for it and saw me put it in my backpack. He didn’t even try to stop me from taking it. I flipped through the pages where we had endless conversations about music, hanging out some time and just random things. As I went through all of them, I realized something. I stopped dead, thinking out loud, “OH MY GOD! LUKE!”
I made Ivy jump back, “WHAT? ARE YOU HURT?!?!?! DO I NEED TO GET A TEACHER??? WHO’S LUKE?!”
I shook my head so fast my vision got blurry, “NO! Luke is the guy’s name. And that loser! He wrote me his schedule to see if we could ever hang out.” I went back to nearly the beginning of the notebook, finding it written out, barely readable.
Ivy looked at me like a deer in the headlights, “And how is that going to help us here?”
I looked up with a smile on my face, pointing to the schedule, “Its Friday which means…” I scrolled my finger down to find Friday, stopping when I found it, “he has soccer practice at the pavilion until 6:30 and then he is meeting up with his band for at the park near your house at 7, but they go to a friend’s house near there after they meet up at the park. He told me to meet him there yesterday…”
“Are you saying what I think you are saying?” Ivy asked with a smirk. I nodded with that same smirk on my face that she had. She started to laugh, “we are gonna get in so much trouble.” After school, my mom let me go to Ivy’s house so we could do homework, which meant that we would do as much as we could before 7 to find out where Luke was.
It was time…
“Ivy is your car suppose to sound like that?”
“What do you mean?”
“It sounds like its dying…” I couldn’t stop laughing at her facial expression.
“ARE YOU JOKING?!”
“Yes! Your car sounds fine; I’m just trying to distract my mind from what we are doing right now…” She looked over at me to see that I couldn’t catch my breath.
“Eve, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
I looked at her without even thinking, “We have to do this. You can’t just be friends with me and then not tell my why we aren’t anymore or why he isn’t going to talk to me anymore.” She nodded and pulled up next to the park. I could see a bunch of kids still there, but then I saw him. I hid my face even though I know he wouldn’t be able to see me from where we were parked. Soon enough his friends showed up and they all started to walk to a car near us. I ducked so he couldn’t see me, but I could feel eyes still watching me. I turned to Ivy and lifted my hand for her to see
She held it in hers, “why are you shaking so much? Are you okay?” I nodded even though I knew that I wasn’t really okay. How could I be okay? This guy can’t just walk into my life and then all of a sudden leave, but right before he leaves he has to hold my hand and tell me his name is Luke. WHY?! I didn’t notice but we started moving.
“Are you sure you want to do this? We could go back to my house before we get closer.”
“No, I need to know why.”
The next thing I knew we were there. We made sure we didn’t follow to close to their car so they didn’t think we were following them and we weren’t too far away where we could lose them. Ivy pulled next to the curb. “We could still leave.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt, “I’m not running away…I have to. I need to know why.” She nodded and let me walk to the door. As I got closer, I could hear music, not like music you hear on the radio that is already on cds, no it was live music. I could hear guitars, and what sounded like a drum set. I started to day dream and think about what I was really doing, “okay, you know what you are gonna say. He needs to explain why and you are not leaving without finding that out. There is no turning back now.” I could feel my hand reach for the door and could hear the knock but not realizing I was the one knocking. I still had time to leave, but my hand went back to knock again. As I reached for the door again, a guy opened the door. I started to freak out and lost my train of thought.
“Umm…hi, can I help you?”
“Uhhh…yeah. By chance is there a guy named Luke here?”
The guy turned and yelled, “Luke someone is here for you! AND THEY ARE REALLY HOT!!!” The guy looked at me and winked, I could feel my cheeks blushing. “You can come in if you want.”
I shook my head, “It’s okay. I won’t be here that long.”
He nodded and said Luke would be just a minute. We exchanged smiles as he walked away; I could feel my heart racing, beating through my chest. And that is when he appeared in front of me…Here goes nothing, right?