An Unsuspected Love

“She texted me? Oh my God, she texted me!” I announced out loud, although no one was listening. 

I got up from my bed and paced back and forth, scared to open the text. We hadn’t spoken in almost a year, what could she possibly have to say? I sit back down, my sweaty hands shaking out of nervousness, as I open my messages. 

I tap the screen and quickly pull my finger away as the text opens reading, “I know we haven’t talked in a while but I just wanted to say I’m sorry for what happened that night at the Christmas party.”

 What do I say back, do I even respond, what if I don’t accept her apology? But I do, of course I do, I miss her so much. She was my best friend, it was always Sydney and Bella. The fight was stupid and my fault. I got jealous and she had no reason to say sorry, I should be the one to apologize. I look around my room contemplating what I should say back to her, as I notice the fake white rose she gave me that night as a gift, before our friendship ended. 

I stare at it remembering every vivid detail of that night, and it’s like I was there again. We’re sitting together, I can feel my heartbeat racing again like it was Christmas night, my hands hot, as I clench them turning my knuckles white. Our screams pierced the silence, created by everyone else at the party after they stopped their conversations and listened to ours in disbelief. 

“The only reason you guys are friends is because of me,” I denounced. 

“Well, she’s a better friend to me than you ever were!” She argued.

“She’s ruining your life, you’re not even the same person anymore. You’ve changed so much, I don’t even know who you are anymore. And if I’m such a terrible friend then drop me, Ryleigh can be your new best friend,” I snapped. 

“Fine,” she threatened, “Maybe I will, and if I’m so different why are you even my friend anymore?”

So it was settled, we weren’t friends anymore. It was completely silent now, no one dared to talk, or it was just that they were speechless because everyone thought us two were best friends until the end. 

I snap back into reality, I’m in tears now, after remembering and reliving one of the worst nights of my life. I look down at my phone, it’s turned off now. I set it down on my bed and stand up to go look in my mirror at myself, as I always do when I cry. I watch a few silent tears fall down my cheeks like two small streams in a forest. I look down and see the shaking in my hands has spread to my legs like a horrible disease. All of this because of a stupid text? At that moment, I decided not to text her back, yet. 

I’ll sleep on it and decide then what I should do. 

I wake up the next morning ready to text her back, almost excited. I grabbed my phone knowing exactly what to say because I had dreamed about it all of last night. I often dreamed about her because I obviously missed her but I was too petty to apologize first, thank God she did. I pressed onto the messages app and swiftly opened her text. 

I wrote back, “No, the fight was my fault and I’m sorry you should have to apologize, but I appreciate it.” 

I gaze at the two lonely messages as if she would text me back immediately, half way hoping she would. 

After seconds surprisingly, she replied saying, ”How are you?”

With no thought at all I replied, “I’m good but I miss you, how are you?”

Why would I say that? “I miss you?” What?

“I miss you too,” she typed, “and I’m good, update me on your life.” 

So I did, I told her about my new girlfriend and that I really liked her and everything else that was new in my life. I then asked her the same. She gave me a full detailed run down of her life and just like that it was like no time had passed at all and we were best friends again. We texted all day, for days. Then, one night she asked to facetime me, and I of course said yes. We then began to facetime every night and play Minecraft, share our memories of each other, or just talk until the sun came up. We facetimed so much my girlfriend started to get jealous of her. 

One night when we were facetiming she asked, “Do you want to come over tomorrow?”

I replied yes and the next day I got dressed in one of my favorite outfits. I found myself wanting to impress her and look good for her, why? 

The next day after I finished my online classes in school I headed to her house as soon as I could. We played Minecraft and for some reason I wanted her close to me and I think she did too, it must be because we missed each other. I laid on her chest and listened to her heart beat rapidly while we played Minecraft. I went home and called her and we fell asleep on facetime. 

We started to hang out everyday going back and forth from each other's house each day. Then, my birthday came up and I didn’t want to have a party, I’ve never liked celebrating my birthday so I didn’t want to do anything big. My family wanted to have a party so my parents invited family members to the house, my sister invited some of her friends, and I invited one person, Bella. My sister, Sarah, told me that she invited some of my friends over too. I was distraught, I just wanted it to be me and Bella. I asked her to stay the night so it could be just me and her. 

The day of the party arrived and I got dressed, with the help of Sarah who picked my outfit out with me. She always had better style than me, it was almost like tradition for her to assist me when picking out my birthday outfits. I asked Bella to come early and she did, but she had to take one of our friends, Kennedy, to my party so Kennedy came early too. 

As soon as they showed up Bella was acting different, why? She wouldn’t sit near me, instead of my bed she sat on the floor. When more people started showing up she wouldn’t even talk to me. She only would talk to Kennedy. What if we end up in a big fight again like last time? Her and Kennedy have a history of talking bad about me behind my back when we weren’t friends. Immediately that is what my mind went to. 

I sat by myself in my living room clearly bothered and that’s when I got a text from Bella, “What’s wrong,” she asked. 

“You’re acting different.” I stated. 

“I’m sorry,” she wrote back “come into your room and hang out with me.”

So I did, I walked down my hallway into my room where she was, sitting on the floor at the end of my bed. I sat next to her and put my head on her chest while she wrapped her arms around me.

 After just seconds, Kennedy came up to us and told us to come with her. We followed her until we were apart from the rest of the group whispered, “Mariah just asked me if you guys liked each other.”

Bella and I looked at each other in surprise then we looked back at Kennedy. 

“What?” I demanded, “I have a girlfriend!” 

“And I’m straight!” Bella stammered.

Kennedy laughed and said she knew but she thought it was so strange and that she should probably tell us. The rest of the party we distanced ourselves from each other. 

Once everyone had left but Bella she grabbed her bag and pulled something out of it. “Here” she smiled “I brought you one of my shirts.” 

My face was beaming when I thanked her and went into my closet to give her one of mine in return. We put each other's shirt on and sat on my bed together. We were still distanced but we sat together and I started to play with her bracelet getting ready to build up the courage to ask her why she was being distant. 

Finally, I muttered the words, “Why are you being weird again?” 

“You are too,” she replied, “but I’m sorry”

I told her I was sorry too and she scooted closer to me. My wrist was hurting so I layed down, so she did too. I put my head on her chest again, (it was my favorite place to be lately.) Then I looked up at her and our faces were as close as they possibly could be. Our lips touched lightly together, but neither of us said anything. We stayed there for what felt like forever but also only seconds at the same time. 

“Bella?” I said quietly. 

“Yes?” She questioned. 

“I think you know what I’m going to ask.” I answered. 

She whined, “Just say it.” 

I hesitated, “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes.” She grinned 

Her soft, delicate lips touched mine while I moved my hand onto her cheek and felt the warmth on her skin. At that moment the world stopped and there was no one else but us. It was perfect, she was perfect.

I checked my phone to see multiple missed calls from my girlfriend. I knew what I needed to do. I texted her telling her that we needed to break up and I was sorry. I set my phone down and decided to worry about that later, I can’t ruin this magical night. 

We stayed up exploring the feelings we had just discovered we had for each other, until we fell asleep in each other's arms, holding on so tightly to each other as if someone was trying to pull us apart. As she drifted off, I kissed her forehead and drifted off with her.