Last Kiss

je te laisserai des mots

July 22nd

I woke up the usual time, 5:00 a.m., for my third day of freshman year. I'm still getting used to the campus, it's huge. It's one of the largest high school campuses in Arizona. I got up from my bed and walked to the bathroom, staring into the mirror ahead of me. 

My brown, curly hair was halfway out of the bun I put it in the night before. It was frizzy, too. I can't go to school like this, I thought. I shrugged and fixed the bun. I washed my face and then plugged in my straightener. I sat on the counter to do my makeup as I do every day. My skin was clearer than usual, my hair wasn't greasy, as it always gets greasy fast. 

I put a shade of concealer that I knew was too light for my skin from the summer tan, but it was the least on my concerns at the moment. I used a lipstick I stole from Walmart over summer for a blush, and it was beautiful. It always looked so natural. I curled my lashes and put on a new mascara I had gotten, Sky High from Maybelline. I loved the way it looked. I got off the counter and straightened my hair as fast as I could, trying to make it look as best as possible. 

I still needed to make new friends, I wanted to branch out from my middle school ones. I was worried leaving my junior high school because my friends were all going to its high school, but I was going to a different one. It was known for being the first high school in the city, built over a hundred years ago. It was famous for its football program. People from other states moved to Arizona to play football for my school. I just wanted a fresh start, I think. 

Junior high was very difficult for me. I barely had any friends, even though everybody knew who I was. A lot of people didn't like me, and there was a group of boys that would constantly harass me. Whether it was for my height (I'm 5'8), or my clothes, or my grades (I'm very smart), or even my hair when I didn't straighten it. There was a group of popular girls, everybody hated them, but they would spread rumors about me for no reason.

So, coming to the new school was the best option for me.

I walked down the stairs with my phone in my pocket, backpack in my hand, and shoes in the other. I never ate breakfast; I didn't like how it made me feel.

I had previously suffered from severe anorexia, I was hospitalized. Food has always been a sensitive topic for me, and relapses occur often. 

Dizzy from lack of food, I throw my stuff in the car and sit down. My mom comes down 5 minutes later, stressed out of her mind. She always overworked herself. We sit in silence as she drives the daily 15 minutes to school. Music plays faintly in the background as I just stare out the window. I needed something new in my life. It was a constant repeat. Little did I know, 4 hours later, my life would be changed forever.

. . . 

The day drags on, every class boring. I never remembered to bring headphones, so every class was an hour of silence for me. Kids across the room would sleep or scroll through TikTok while I would just sit there, pretending I had work to do. I never did. 

Lunch came, and I sat at the usual table with my friends. Mariah, Jessica, Sophia, a girl named Madeline, and Alisa. Usually, a girl named Ari sits here too, but she wasn't there today. The lunch drags on, nothing interesting ever happens. Madeline talks about stuff that nobody's listening to, and Alisa's asleep on the floor behind her. The hot summer wind moves through the Arizona air. Sweat forms at my hairline as I fan myself with my notebook.

"Can we go inside? It's so hot out here," I say.

The group agrees and we leave our table to go sit inside at the stairwell. Its loud in there, but it's also silent. It's hot, borderline humid inside. There seems to be no excuse from the heat. Alisa scrolls through her phone and laughs, everything else in our group is quiet. 

The bell saves me from the prison of quiet. Mariah and I separate from the group, waving and hugging goodbye as we walk to math class, geometry. The class is loud. Everybody in there besides Mariah and I came from the feeder school. They all knew each other; they were all friends. We sit down in our assigned seats as the teacher talks about what we were going to do that day. I couldn't focus though; someone was looking at me. I turn my head to the right and see a boy sitting next to a girl named Teagan.

I didn't have my glasses on, but I could see and feel his gaze on me. It felt like glue, holding me in place, yet it was so calming. The class was hot, his stare was hot, everything was burning.

"I'm going to give you a number, and you're going to go to that whiteboard. Alright, everybody?" the teacher spoke. He pointed at me, "12." I nodded and grabbed my stuff as he kept handing out numbers. I walk over to the board and see the boy who was starting at me at board number 12. As I was closer, I could see him clearly.

He was beautiful.

He had brown, curly hair. His skin was tanned, and he had beautiful hazel eyes. His lips weren't full, but they weren't thin. He was my height, maybe a little taller. I could smell his cologne from where I was standing, a light lavender and musk. 

He stuck out his hand and smiled. Holy Hell, his smile was perfect. "Owen," he said. He had braces, they were purple. My body went cold. He froze an eternal heat in my body by the sound of his voice. I stuttered, holding out my hand as well. "Ally." His smile grew as a light blush began to form on his cheeks. "Your name is pretty," he says. "You're pretty," I mumble. "Thank you," he says. My face burns, body still cold. 

The teacher begins to talk, telling us to write down good qualities in a partner. We have a few listed, and I hear somebody say, "good listener." I take the marker and look at him. He's smiling at me. I blush and look at the whiteboard and see that I wrote the words "good looking." 

He looks and laughs. His laugh sent a blizzard through the desert of my body.

My body went numb, my mind began to race. I looked at every piece of him. I took it all in, I studied it like I could never see it again. His voice and laugh were the only things I could hear. 

I found out in my next period that he was in that class too. And he sat close to me. Every time I would look up, he was looking at me. He was addicting, and I had just met him. I wanted everything to do with him, and I had met him an hour ago. 

My mind the rest of the day screamed his name. It was unreal, I had never felt like this before.