The Winds of Change

Tyler, a socially awkward kid who was always interested in the fantasy aspect of life rather than reality. His parents could never understand why, and his father would always question his son’s ability to be able to find a good friend group and even a girlfriend, for his other brothers Eric and Aaron had already been dating their girlfriends for about three years now. Tyler was indeed only in his third year of high school but that didn’t stop him from trying to find girls who would be interested in him. Wanting to make his father proud of him, he’d try all sorts of different things, and even if it was acting like someone else Tyler tried so very hard. Yet whatever he tried no girl would like him, sure there were a few that liked him as friends but none that like liked him.

On his way home, Ty was walking past the soccer fields watching a few of the games that went on while walking past. Wasn’t long before he ended up walking into a girl who was stopped to watch the sporting events. She dropped all her books that she was holding. Looking at Tyler with a poisonous look she went down to pick up her property, Tyler too bent over to help trying not to make eye contact. But Tyler was a kind soul and couldn’t not apologize otherwise it would hurt him more than it would hurt her.

“I’m so sorry.” the girl didn’t say anything she continued picking up her property in quiet before stopping and looking up at him.

“Your apology is accepted, and thank you for helping pick my school supplies up. Most of the guys I know wouldn’t think twice about helping me.” not seeing why’d they do that Tyler didn’t know what to say, he’d always say the wrong thing at the right time and that’s what would severely damage his relationships with people. He was trying to figure out what to say next and the girl couldn’t understand why he was making confused faces.

“Are you ok? It looks like you lost something important” Tyler liked her voice, it was a kind and sweet voice that could easily change from sweet to sour. And at this point if he said the wrong thing he’d probably never see her again.

“My names… Tyler West.”

“Nice to meet you Tyler West, I’m Amy Crow.” beaming inside knowing that he didn’t screw anything up he stood and handed Amy the remaining school items to her. For a moment they stood in silence creating an awkward setting until Amy chose to break the silence.

“Are you ready for school to be over with?” You see, it had already been more than half the school year and they were getting ready for summer break with only three months left to go.

“I guess I'm more happy that I won’t be a target.” Amy raised an eyebrow at that but before Tyler could say why, Amy’s bus had arrived and she had needed to get on it otherwise she’d be walking home. Looking at Tyler and getting ready to say goodbye, she noticed that his eyes were a very dark brown, almost dark chocolate. It was nice meeting him and she didn’t want to leave yet but it was more important to her to get home and finish up any school homework. She said bye and mentioned that they’d continue this conversation tomorrow, agreeing Tyler said bye and proceeded on home to where his family was awaiting him. 

The rest of the day had seemed to have gone past like lightning. All he could think about was Amy and her sweet voice, golden blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and her tanned skin. Soon enough it was the next day and Ty was somewhat excited to get back to school and see Amy again, but as he got to school, the first thing that happened was his three bullies jumped on his straight away. Not literally jumping on him, they just started poking fun at him and they were following him around the school. That was until he ran into Amy, happy to see Ty she had a big smile on until she noticed the jocks who were following Ty. So Amy grabbed Tyler by the arm and dragged him away from the jocks while sticking up her middle finger at them and all the jocks could do was stare wide eyed at what she had done.

When they were no longer being followed Amy stopped and let go of Tyler, she noticed that he was wearing a black t-shirt with a weird looking tree on it and plain jeans. Curious as to what the symbol was she asked.

“Oh, this symbol is from a fantasy kingdom called Gondor. Their part of the Middle-Earth universe.” Amy didn’t know what Middle-Earth was and Tyler almost shouted the word ‘what’. This made Amy laugh.

“What’s so funny?” 

“Your reaction at me not knowing what Middle-Earth is.” Tyler explained that she needed to watch the Lord of The Rings movies to understand and that’s when Tyler froze in place and turned red for Amy had stated that maybe she needed someone who knew the movies to watch them with. Ty didn’t know if this was a request for him to join her or not, but he didn’t know what to do or say. Amy could see this and she tried to make it a little more obvious.

“Maybe someone who loves the movies and could help explain them.” Tyler was going to miss his moment soon, and he was trying to act fast. He had never been outside of school with a girl he liked and it was scary since he didn’t want to do anything that would scare Amy away. 

“You know what, here let me give you my address and I’ll see you tonight at seven ok. Don’t be late.” Amy wrote her address down on Tyler’s hand and let him alone to think over what had just happened. ‘Did she seriously tell me to come over to her house’ he thought to himself. There was no hiding the very giddy grin on his face, it was a miracle that this had happened. So as he went about school for the rest of the day, what he learned was pushed to the back of his mind for all he had on his mind was watching Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring with Jessa, the girl he had now acquired feelings for. Those feelings were strong and seeming to be prosperous.

After school Tyler had returned home and was now getting ready for his date tonight. He had told his parents so they knew where’d he be and at that time he’d most likely get home at. His dad offered to give him a ride but honestly it wasn’t very far to walk and Tyler was more than willing to walk all the way there and back. It would have taken him about half an hour to get to where he was going, if he cut through the forest. So he ate his dinner a little earlier and left the house with his dad shouting as he left.

“GOOD LUCK BUD!” and he was going to make sure he did. It was nice to walk through the forest and have time to think before his nerves would kick in as soon as he got to the house. Finally he had arrived and found the house relatively easy. Knocking on the door it was Jessa that opened it and beckoned for him to come in. Her parents were out of town so it was only herself and Tyler there. She had gotten everything set up and all that she needed to do now was put the popcorn in and get some drinks ready. Tyler waited in the livingroom where they were watching the movie. It seemed that her parents must have been quite successful for there looked to be some expensive item and the car outside was a Jaguar. That’s what Tyler’s assumption was, it didn’t mean it was right though. 

Finally Jessa had come from the kitchen into the living room and she sat on the couch turning the movie on. Tyler went to sit on the chair beside the couch but Jessa patted the seat beside her letting him know it was ok to sit beside her. During the movie, Tyler was surprised at how quickly things had escalated for all this started with bumping into her and now he was watching a movie he loved with her. 

Three hours later the movie had finished and it was time for Tyler to get home. Escorting him to the door Jessa waited with him until he was ready to go.

“So, how’d you like the movie?” Ty asked.

“It was quite interesting. Very fantasy like, I can understand why you like it so much.” Tyler would always tread carefully with the things he liked for most of the time he’d get to much into it and that would turn others completely off. But he would mention one thing to Jessa.

“My favourite part of the whole thing, is when Sam comes home to Rosie Cotton and finally plucks up the courage to talk to her.” Realising what he had said he had just ruined the whole thing for Jessa.

“Ah sorry.”

“For what?”

“I just gave away the ending, not cool.” Jessa didn’t care, she was fine with Tyler letting her know how it ended.

“I didn’t invite you over just to watch the movie you know?” Tyler didn’t understand the message she had just given Tyler until he was finished tying up his shoes, he stood and before he could ask what she meant, she had brought her lips to his and they kissed. Never kissing before, Tyler hadn’t really known what to do but Jessa was more or less leading. It was deep and passionate and when they had to break for air Tyler turned as red as a tomato. He opened the door and was about to leave but before he did, he came back for one last kiss letting her know that he felt the same way she did. This made everything that much more glorious and sweet. They knew they loved each other but for know they weren’t going to tell each other and they definitely weren’t going to tell anyone about their relationship.

So Tyler left to go home and Jessa went to get ready for bed, both smiling the biggest smiles they had ever had planted on their faces. Tomorrow they’d see each other and tomorrow would be a great day.