Falling for My Old High School Bully (Complete)

Chapter 16 - Confession Time

"At first I was only meeting with you under the bleachers for lunch to get you like me so it would be believable when I asked you to Prom. I knew you wouldn't say yes while you hated me. It was all part of the prank, but after having lunch with you every day and getting to know you I started to like you for real."

Hearing that was a big shock and Emma's eyes widened. She couldn't believe he had liked her too back then when all these years she thought she must have imagined the connection between them. She thought she was the only one that felt it and it was all fake on his end.

"But," she asked, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion. "If you liked me for real, why didn't you go to Prom with me?"

He hung his head in shame, rubbing his hands together. "All my friends were in on the prank and knew about it. I told one of my best friends that I was having second thoughts. I told him I was starting to like you and wanted to go to prom with you for real and he went and told our whole friend group and they all started giving me shit for it and laughing at me."

He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. "I should've told them to kiss my ass and just gone with you Emma, but I was too big of a pussy and for some reason I cared what all those assholes thought about me more than what you thought about me. After seeing my friend's reaction I played it off like I was joking around and asked another girl to Prom at the last minute and she said yes."

Emma sat there processing all of this before asking, "You actually wanted to go to Prom with me? For real?"

"Yeah I did. After that kiss something changed and it became real for me. Then when you saw me with that other girl at Prom and I saw you run out of there crying and you texted me that it had been your first kiss I felt like such an ass. The guilt was eating me up inside for a really long time."

She studied his eyes and could tell that he was being sincere because there was so much hurt and pain in them.

"So it sounds like both of us have been carrying around a lot of guilt and anger for the past seven years about what we did to each other. Maybe it's time to finally let it go and move past it," she said softly.

He gave her a pained smile and let out an exhale and said, "Yeah. I think that would be nice. I'd love to let all of it go and move on."

"Me too," she whispered.

"We both made big mistakes," he said, looking into her watery eyes and brushing a stray hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear.

He leaned forward and kissed her lips softly and then laid his forehead against hers and whispered, "I'm sorry."

That made her eyes water and she got choked up.

"I'm sorry too," she sniffled, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug.

He held her and rubbed her back in silence for a while before he finally whispered, "It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Releasing all that anger and guilt feels like I'm free."

She pulled back looked into his eyes and smiled. "We're both free. No more guilt or anger for either of us."

"That's right," he smiled, leaning forward and pressing his lips softly to hers, gazing into her eyes with a warm smile as they both sat there enjoying the moment, until it was finally time to head back.

They threw their trash away and he held his hand out to her and she took it, weaving her fingers through his and clinging to his arm as they walked. As she looked up at him she could feel her walls coming down and the ice around her heart starting to melt. She knew she was starting to fall for him and it was scary but it also made her feel more happy and excited than she had felt in a really long time.