Apple Blossoms

Conclusions

Conclusions

Mom got home around half past seven. I went outside to see if she had brought back any dinner. She was holding a large Subway bag in her hand and was in the middle of setting down her purse when I grabbed the bag away from her. What can I say? I loved Subway.

“Where’s your father?” she asked me. I simply shrugged but she must not have seen it. “Noelle, where is your father?”

“I said, I don’t know.”

“Teenagers must talk in their heads. Who knows when they say the things they claim to have said,” she muttered to herself walking up the stairs. “Noelle, your father isn’t anywhere upstairs!” she called.

“Yeah I know!” I called back a little irritated that I wasn’t getting to eat my sandwich in peace. “He isn’t anywhere downstairs either. I have no idea where he is.”

She came back down the stairs home phone in hand. I could hear her dialing the numbers.

“Neil? Where are you? At the office? What are you doing there?”

Before she could say anything else, I seized another home phone and pressed the on button. This way, I could hear everything my dad said. If he was at the office it had to be something about the problems going on.

“Well, I came here to see what I could do to sort out—,” he had been saying but my mom cut him off before he could say anything else.

“Noelle, put down the phone. It’s rude to listen to other people’s conversations.”

I quickly turned off the phone suddenly remembering that when someone picked up the phone while someone was on call, it made a beeping noise. I sighed in defeat. Now I was never going to figure out what was happening at the hospital.

When Mom was done with the call, she came back to me and asked, “Why’d you try listening to my conversation with your father?”

“Because I want to know what is happening at the hospital and with Dad. Please tell me?” I tried to pull of the puppy dog eyes look but obviously, it didn’t work.

“Nope, it’s nothing you need to worry about.” She walked away before I could protest.

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I was watching T.V. the next morning when the doorbell rang. I expected it to be Dad coming home. He had slept at the office that night which he occasionally did when there was a lot of work to get done. So when I opened the door to see Collin standing at my doorstep, you could tell how surprised I was.

“Oh, Collin, what are you doing here?”

His hand rubbed his arm nervously and he wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Collin?”

“Um, hi, Noelle. I just came to tell you something.”

“And that is?”

“I’m sorry for my behavior on Friday.”

I rolled my eyes at him and said, “Now you come back and apologize? Why would you act like that in the first place?”

“I don’t know what came over me. I guess I was just jealous.” He hung his head in shame.

“Jealous?” I scoffed. “Jealous of what?”

“Jealous that Ethan liked you and that you liked him back. Remember in eighth grade? I still love you, Noelle. But you obviously don’t like me like that. and after Friday, I’m afraid you don’t like me at all. Please accept my apology. I swear, nothing like that will ever happen again. I understand that you don’t like me like that. I just want you as a friend.”

I stared at him. The only thing I had even heard from the entire speech was that he thought Ethan liked me and that I like him. “Ethan and I are just friends. Why does everyone think that we like each other?”

“Well, it’s pretty simple.”

“No it isn’t! I have no idea why everyone keeps saying that and they won’t explain it to me.”

He let out a small sigh and asked, “Can I come in? I’ll explain it to you.”

I let him in and we both sat down on the couch. “Alright, please explain your messed up logic.”

“How do you know it’s messed up if you haven’t even heard it yet?”

“Because there’s no way that Ethan likes me and I certainly—.”

“Denial,” he coughed out before I could finish my sentence.

I gave him a look saying, and what do you know about liking someone?

“I love you, remember?”

It caught me off guard that he could say that as casually as if it was just a fact that he had stated. “Collin, we were in eighth grade. You didn’t actually love me. if you had loved me, you wouldn’t have done what you did.”

He hung his head in embarrassment. “I’m sorry for what I did. I was just mad because I had no clue what was going on in my head. The feelings I had for you though, those were true. And they still are. I still love you, Noelle, but I know you don’t feel that way about me. And you better not feel that way especially after all the harm I’ve caused you.”

I stared at him dumbstruck unsure of what to say.

“Don’t worry about. Look, the entire world knows that you and Ethan like each other. Why don’t you just embrace the feeling and go tell him?”

“How do you know that I like him?”

“Because, whenever I say the name, Ethan, your eyes light up like a million fireworks going off. Same goes for Ethan. Plus, he’s your best guy friend. I guess someone took my place.” I expected him to sound bitter when he said that, but he just laughed it off and seemed to be okay with the idea. “You know that whenever a guy and girl get as close as he and you are, it always ends up in a relationship.”

I shook my head. “If I liked Ethan, which I’m not saying I do, but if I liked him, he would never like me back.”

“And why not?”

“Because what’s there to like about me?”

“You really want me to name out the entire list? Because there are too many things to like about you. And if you don’t believe anyone else, believe me, because I’ve fallen for you. I would know.”

I took a few moments to figure out how else I could prove him wrong, but nothing came to mind. He seemed to see that because the next thing he said was, “There’s nothing left to prove me wrong. You and I both know that I’m right; even you don’t think that right now. You’ll see soon enough. I’ve got to go.”

We both stood up and I led him to the door.

“So, am I forgiven?”

I shook myself out of my trance and nodded. He smiled and I gave a small smile back. I wasn’t really paying attention to anything going on around me because of the battle raging in my head. Pretty soon, it was going to give me a headache.

Ethan like me? Not possible, no matter what Collin says, it’s not possible. I’m just regular old Noelle with nothing special about me. What guy would be crazy enough to fall for me? Well Collin was, but forget Collin.

Whereas on the other hand, there are a lot of things that any girl would like about Ethan. He’s tall. He’s pretty hot if I do say so myself. Ew, why’d I just think that? Stupid self! Anyways, he’s super sweet and the best guy friend any girl could ask for… My thoughts trailed off thinking about all the other amazing things that Ethan had going for him. Suddenly I came to a gigantic conclusion to the war.

I like Ethan Hand.

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A/N: FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol, I'm as happy as y'all are that she finally figured out her feelings for him. Now they just need to kiss and it's all good ;P Comment, vote and fan!! :) 

xx

Nisha