All Alone

Anonymous Narrator (working title)

Genre:  Romance/Teen Fiction  (Whoa, crazy!  I wrote a romance!  Ikr?  I was in the mood.)

Blurb:  A teenage love story at its purest.

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            I see them in the halls, walking hand in hand, smiling at everything the other says.  He stands a head and a half taller than her—the does play basketball after all—so that when they reach her class, she has to bend her Converse to their breaking point for a quick peck on the lips.  If it were anyone else, I would cringe and cry, “STOP THE PDA!”  But I can’t do that with them.  No way.  They are too absolutely perfect and in love that it just makes my heart warm.  When I see them, I can’t get jealous, even though I want what they have so badly.  I can’t help being happy for them, seeing them beam at one another like that.  Who couldn’t?

            She heads into her class, and disappears behind the door, proceeding to the middle row.  That was just how she was: fairly average, so it seemed.  Maybe a bit shy, someone who could get lost in a crowd.  Not someone you’d particularly remember.  But if you got to know her, as he did, you’d see how truly significant she is.

            He, on the other hand, is the epitome of the perfect popular: attractive and kind.  Everyone loved him.  You would definitely remember, if not for his face, but for his endearing smile.  It would be so easy to fall in love with that smile, to feel safe in it, to feel at home.

            They didn’t meet till about six months ago.  In Physics class, of all places.  They’ve been in the same grade at the same high school for the past few years, but their paths had never really crossed.  She’d heard of him, of his kindness and goodness and sweet personality.  He’d only seen her a few times in the hall.  He hadn’t noticed her specifically, but if quizzed, he might have been able to pick her face out of a crowd.  He had no clue what her name was.

            He went to church, and she liked that.  It was hard to find a guy like that in such a materialistic town as this.  He could only guess she did as well by her sweet smiles, modest clothes, and clean language (from the few little things he’d overheard, anyway).  Little did he know, she went to the very church his best friend did.  We don’t always notice how small the world we live in can be sometimes.  We tend to focus on the largeness, the vastness and the emptiness.

            But meeting in science class, can lend itself to the opportunity to meet people.  During labs, one can get up and float around, mingle, and work at the same time.  It was in this way that a conversation came up between the two off them, when they were studying the physics of a roller coaster.  Their love of roller coasters was expressed, and a new-found relationship instantaneously sprung up between the two of them.  It is quite a wonder how the best of things can start with the most humble of beginnings.

            I think that the beauty of their relationship is the seemingly incomprehensible way their personalities complement each other.  For years, she had struggled at being more open, letting go of her reserved side that was slowly dominating more and more of her life.  He had always dreamed, secretly, for someone who he could share everything with—even his thoughts that weren’t always as cheerful.  Everyone thought she was always shy.  Everyone thought he was always happy.  It wasn’t until you compute one plus one that you get an entirely new number, two entirely new people.

            In so many ways their opposites.  He’s into math and science, and she’s got language and history covered.  She prefers the couch, and he prefers a basketball court.  Yet it’s as if because of these things, they are a match made in heaven.

            From the first time she heard his name, she was interested in him.  Well, maybe not quite like that.  But as soon as she heard his name at that he went to church, maybe.  He remembers the day clear in his head when a short little brunette was wearing a cute dress and standing by her locker.  Walking by, she was engrossed in a conversation with her friend, and didn’t even notice him staring at her.  But it was the brunette’s friend that caught his eye, a girl from his junior high, and watched him as he watched her friend.

            He thought about the girl’s familiar face, as he walked to class.  He had seen her before, he just couldn’t quite put his finger on it…  Then he remembered.  It was not two days before that he had gone over to talk to a friend by the front door.  There had been a girl standing a few feet away, clad in gray sweatpants, mousy brown hair covering part of her face, staring out the window.  Her heavy backpack seemed to be weighing down her petit figure; she occasionally had to hike it back up.  That day he had hardly noticed her, only noting how it seemed strange that she was just standing there, looking outside when a bench was barely three feet away.

            He supposed that the fact he had noted her strangeness a few days before was probably part of the reason why he had stared at her so intently that day of the blue dress.  She looked like a completely transformed girl.  The mousy hair was almost glossy, her sneakers had been replaced with sleek boots, and the sweats seemed light-years away from shocking, yet modest dress she was wearing now.  Was it possible that such a beautiful girl had been hiding under those baggy grays and frizz?

            She always knew he was cute.  She’d seen his picture, and the few times she’d seen him in person in the halls, or that day by the windows, were breathtaking ones.  She had this warmth in his face that she’d never seen before, and a stature like his that was usually imposing was almost comforting in a weird way.  She didn’t know him, yet she already knew she liked him.  If only in an adoring sense.

            Physics not only have shaped the way the world works, but it brought these two together in the most beautiful, haphazardish sorts of ways.

            He remembers after the first time he spoke to her, and church was brought up, he left class and went straight to his best friend, demanding to know why he hadn’t ever said there was such a gentle creature that went to his church and he hadn’t told him.  Throwing his hands up in the air with a laugh, his friend exclaimed that he hadn’t ever thought he needed to know.  In truth, he’d never even thought of her in such a way.  This was not enough for him, though, because next he responded saying that just because she wasn’t the kind of person that people noticed, didn’t mean that she didn’t have beauty.  It was as if she wore the beauty of her spirit on her sleeve.  He adored that.  Admired it.

            Who the boy everyone loved would end up with the girl almost no one knew?  I certainly didn’t.  But fate had us all fooled.  Because sometimes the most unexpected is the outcome, and we must always be on our toes.

            Such a cute story, for the most adorable couple I know, I must say.  In some ways they are still the same way.  They have all their old quirks.  Sometimes he smiles so much that his cheek muscles ache.  She will still wear sweats when she’s in the mood.  But now that they’re together, they’ve learned to accept those quirks and make them special.  Sure they tease each other for these, but in the end, it’s those little things they love the most.  The face he makes after a long grinning session never fails to make her laugh and lighten the mood.  He loves the fact that she’s now confident enough not to care how she looks every day when she’s with him.

            The best part is the example they set.  Everyone knows who they are, now.  You can’t help but watch them as they walk by.  Their kind influence has spread, and made people realize it isn’t the physical part of a relationship that is the most important.  You can have the most beautiful love in the world and never take off your t-shirt.

            I respect them so much, and neither of them even knows who I am.  Watching their romance story unfold before ignites hope in the most hopeless parts of me.  Goodness really does exist.  Purity is still out there.  Love really can happen for real.

            And last.