Love Me Simply

I

The river was cold. Colder than when I would stick my head into the freezer just to escape the summer heat. My feet felt like blocks of ice as I walked out of the flowing water onto dry land. The sun glistened on the water body as the light of dawn began to shine.

I walked back home, shoes and socks in hand. My name is...well for the sake of the tale we'll say Andrew. Andrew Lee if you would. Living in a decent suburban home in Bel Air, MD. I'm 16 and I'm at sophomore at a local high school that could burn down for all I care. Wait I'm getting off topic. Anyways, the river was about a 5 min walk from my house so I would always go by for some peace and quiet. No one really knows about it judging by how clean it is.

I walk in the front door and the first thing that catches my eye is a shoe. The main reason? It's literally in my face. My idiot of a brother, we'll call him Alex, had just chucked his size 8.5 shoe at my head and left a shoeprint that looked like the worst birthmark in history.

"Dammit! You're always leaving the house before the sun comes up. Why don't you ever tell me when you go places?" He whined like a child when he wasn't being Mr. Popular at school. He was 5'8, had a nice physical build, and was captain of our school's track team. Of course girls were lining up to date the guy. Only thing is, he's a complete introvert at times.

My family isn't exactly the most encouraging when it comes to education so we're pretty lose on the being forced to study card. So basically, we spend our days playing games and watching anime when we're not out playing soccer or going for a jog or whatever other physical activity he comes up with.

"Probably cuz I'm afraid of even more size 8 shoes flying at my beautiful face. Either way, why are you up so early? You're always dead until at least 11." The biggest smile perked up across his face and I knew it was gonna be a long explanation.

"So glad you asked, my dear brother." Oh, brother. "The second I wake up and open my eyes, you're gone from your bed without a word to me. Unfortunately, you totally forgot something important." My eyes grew large with panic as he pulled a white iPhone out of his pocket and waved it around. "So who's this Amy chick?"

I dashed across the hall to grab my phone but of course, him being the more athletic one, he sidestepped me and continued to taunt me.

"Come oooon. Is she cute? You guys a thing or something?" The smirk on his face was enough for me to punch him in his perfectly sculpted jaw.

"She's my partner for a chemistry project. Nothing more, nothing less..."
He came up beside me and started knudging my rib cage with his elbow.

"What's this? Her contact name is Amy with like 3 heart emojis??? Totally nothing less!" I snatched the phone out of his hands at last and turned to hide my flushed face. "Bro, you could've told me you liked the girl."

"Don't you have a posing for an underwear ad or something to get to?" And with that, I walked up to my room and laid on my bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about, of course Amy ❤️❤️❤️.

Amy is a pretty well rounded girl. 5'6, long black hair, SGA secratary, glasses. What's not to like? She was gorgeous in a kinda elegant but also plain way. Not many people knew but she had a geeky side which was a complete calling card to me. We would ocasionally talk about our favorite animes or even our gamer lives. But overall, she was the perfect girl. For me, anyways.

Just thinking about her made my head do cartwheels and my heart do front flips. I was about to do a front flip myself when my jock of a brother comes in and body slams me.

"AND HE'S DOWN! ONE, TWO, THREE! DING DING DING! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HE IS DOWN FOR THE COUNT!"

He got up and started posing like an idiot until we both started laughing like the idiots we are and went down to eat some breakfast.