Honestly, I Love You

“Hey, River,” Anthony called from across the park that we always met up at after Uni. My real name is Brooke but ever since Anthony and I became friends, he’s called me River. It was like my nickname.

~~Flashback~~

Anthony and I became friends in kindergarten because all of other kids never wanted to talk to me so I would mostly sit on a bench reading. One day, a small, cute, shy, boy named Anthony moved into our school and didn’t know anybody. I really wanted to talk to this kid but I was also shy. On his first day at recess, all the other kids wanted to play soccer with Anthony but he had already seen me by myself reading and started walking over to me.

“Hi…” he said shyly while looking at his feet.

“Hi…” I said just as shy as he was.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“I’m Brooke. What’s your name?” I replied and he laughed. I looked confused so he explained.

“Brooke…like a small river. I like that better. Can I call you River instead?” the boy asked.

“Of course but what is your name?”

“Anthony. Do you want to be my friend?” He asked happily. He was the first person to ever ask me that.

“Sure…” I giggled. Ever since that day, we hung out talked and slowly inched our way along the road of best friendship.

~~Flashback ends~~

“Hey, stranger,” I replied distractedly to Anthony as he sat next to our tree. I wasn’t really paying attention because the boy that I have had a massive crush on, James was with his girlfriend and my enemy, Marissa. Anthony saw my facial expression and followed where I was looking.

“Hey, don’t worry about them. You are so much better than Marissa and you know that,” Anthony said truthfully as he wiped the tears from my eyes. Anthony always knew what to say. We looked around for awhile, talking about our classes because we didn’t have any together, sharing inside jokes, and just having fun when we saw our openly-gay best friend, Taylor.

“Hey, cuties. Oo, I love your outfit, Brookey!” Taylor exclaimed. I smiled sadly at him and thanked him.

“What’s wrong, cutie pie?” Taylor asked concerned. I looked at Anthony and he pointed over to where Marissa and James were now making out. Taylor cringed, “Hey, if Man-Candy can’t see how smokin’ you are, then screw him, you are so much better.”

It wasn’t until I really looked that I noticed that Marissa wasn’t making out with James. She was making out with his best friend, Dalton! Everything seemed to go in slow motion as we saw James walk up to Marissa and start shouting, they got and into a huge fight and we all heard James say, “I’m done with you Marissa, we’re done.” and walk away, leaving Marissa to shrug and continue making out with whom I assumed was James’ ex-best friend.

I felt somebody nudge me out of my trance and whisper, “Now’s your chance. Go get your Man-Candy.” I suddenly got really determined and ran over towards James. When I reached where he was, the sight was heartbreaking. James was curled up against a wall; his knees brought up to his chin, crying while others passed him by without a second glance. I sat down next to him and he looked up at me and his expression changed from sad to shocked to happy in a matter of seconds.

“Hi...” I said quietly. He faltered a bit with his hands and smiled to himself, “Why are you so happy?”

“Because you’re here…” he trailed off. I looked at him questioningly and he explained. “I really like you, Brooke. I was thinking that maybe we could go out for dinner sometime?” he asked nervously. I giggled and quickly accepted. He did something that I never thought he would ever do to me.

He kissed me.