Sitting down on our bed, I spread out some goodies I had ordered from the nearby bakery. He takes a piece of the brownie and nibbles on it.
"Why didn't you try to make friends in school?" He asks and I shrug as I eat a chip.
"I was never exactly a loner or outcast. I preferred staying alone. People talked to me, but only when they needed help with their notes or when they wanted someone to write an essay for them. I never had actual friends. Apart from Melissa and Ivy, and I'm fine with it. You don't need many friends, you just need a few who'll stick around no matter what." I say.
"Doesn't it get lonely?" He asks me and I look away.
"Not really. There are so many people who are surrounded by people but are still lonely. Atleast I am alone and lonely." I say and he grins.
"Do you ever miss your parents?" I ask him and he just shifts in his place.
"I don't know. I mean, the memories that come to me are patches. Playing in a park, getting hit, going to preschool, it's all a blur. I don't know if I specifically miss them, but I feel the absence of parents. I don't know how this works."
Well, that's how memories work. You don't miss the person. You miss the idea of them. The illusion in your mind. Because after a while, you start forgetting things. The days, the moments, the words, they start slipping out of your grasp. You try to hold on to it but it just flows away. And soon, the person you miss is a distant memory. You create up an idea, a scenario, and associate them with it. But the real thing is not there. You look at photographs, you listen to tapes, but the main thing is the brain. It no longer processes the past the way it was, so you think of it the way you can remember it the most.
"Even I miss my dad. He used to be around all the time until three years back. Then he had to leave. He has to support a family. I understood, but not really. I mean, how can you live without a family? It sucks, you have to stay away from the people you love to make their life better." I don't know why I'm saying all this to him. There's just something about being with Alastair, he unfolds all my secrets with his gaze.
"You must have been a complete daddy's girl. It seems like you love him the most." He says and I look up when I detect the wistfulness in his voice. No matter what he says, I know he misses his family back home.
"I am. People often say, you totally resemble your father. I believe it's a great compliment." I say and he sits and he folds his big legs as he sits up straight.
Alastair's Point Of View
Happy family. Such a simple thing to want, but that's not common too. Gracie seems so pure, so untainted, like she hasn't been touched by this world. And here I am, an asshole, wanting her? How is that even possible?
Even the way she talks is not similar to mine. I swear a lot and talk shit amongst my friends most of the time. But Gracie talks so nicely, like she's narrating a story, and I can listen to her speak all day long.
She never ceases to surprise me. Even in pj's and messy hair, she looks adorable as fuck. Whenever I enter her world, I feel stupid for even being there. I belong to my dingy dorm with my sweaty clothes. But everything about her is flowers and scent and happiness. I pretend to be so strong all the time, when even I'm insecure. Fuck my life.
"I resembled my mother and her family." I blurt out and she smiles genuinely, she doesn't know she has little parts of me no one knows about.
"I'd love to meet your parents someday." She says.
"Me too." I mutter and she gives me a sad smile.
Fuck, I don't want pity or sympathy. That's why I don't let my guards down. People look at me like my dog died. I don't need any of that, I'm strong.
But then she holds my shoulder to comfort me and shit, I could be like this forever.
To change the topic, she gets up in a haste the same time I lower my feet to the ground and she tumbles forward. My hands reach out to hold her. She falls smack in my arms and I can feel her tensing up. Even I'm a bundle of nerves and I might just drop her out of my fumbling.
"Be careful." I whisper and she cautiously gets up. Gracie will probably never be a top model or even be Miss Presidency Convent. But there's so much beauty in her, one that only I seem to notice, which is turning me into a freaking puss. I love her height. They say tall guys like short girls. I don't feel that way, I find height attractive, one more point to Gracie.
She comes back in with a photo album and starts showing me her pictures. She was so freaking cute as a baby. She laughs and makes fun of her own self.
Even I feel like showing her my childhood and I pull out my phone. She looks at each picture of mine in awe and I feel special. Yes, that's exactly what she makes me feel. Special!
With her, I'm not Alastair Kerr, the football jock or the alleged playboy of the Presidency. I'm just me, all of my true self. She doesn't want to click a selfie with me to upload it or she doesn't want to be my girl for a party night. She's a gem. I wonder if she'll still stick around if she knows of all my deeds.
As I leave her house later, I sit on my bike and wave to her where she is smiling from the window of her room. And now it's my turn to think, catch me Gracie, I'm falling for you, hard.
YOU ARE READING
Steal my Heart.
Teen Fiction[Previously known as Always.] Gracie Hyde is eighteen and hasn't been in a single relationship. She wants a taste of the drug called love and wants to belong to someone without losing herself. Alastair Kerr is tired of being with new girls every ot...
