Random Writing

Coming of Age Story

A/N: This is a story I had to write for my creative writing class. James is one of my favorite OCs so this was pretty fun to do! It's 2,360 words and most students in the class only wrote about 800 words, so it's clear to see that I got carried away lol. Also, I had to write in first person POV, which is something I'm not used to, so that was a challenge! Enjoy :)

***

She was gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. She stood out among the crowd of teenagers, all with their sluggish movements and tired eyes, just trying to make it through the day. Priscilla was different from these people; she was practically glowing every time she walked down the hall. It seemed that, despite whatever mood she was in, she still had this aura about her, one that drew everyone, and I mean everyone, in... everyone including me.

I'm not sure how long I'd had a thing for Priscilla, but it had definitely been ages. I think I only really began to notice my fascination with her my freshman year of high school, but now, as a junior, this was starting to feel hopeless. I was lucky in one aspect, though: Priscilla and I had been friends since our first day of high school.

It's a bit cliché, really; she was a cheerleader and I was a football player. However, "football player" is a term that I'm using loosely here. It was more like a bench player, with my small frame that had yet to reach puberty surrounded by kids that had practically already grown into men- seriously, it makes no sense how some people had literal beards. I don't even know why she chose to talk to me in the first place. Maybe she found it funny that I was always on the bench? That I wasn't as tall or as strong as any of the other boys, always being picked on for my small stature?

Either way, it didn't matter. I was no longer the scrawny kid I once was, but rather just as strong as the other guys. I was 5'11', though if you'd ask, I'd say 6'0' (it was close enough, and girls like tall guys anyway), and, as my mom put it, I'd "really filled out." Now, the first time she told me that, I thought she meant I had gotten fat or something, but I later realized that she was just trying to tell me I didn't look like a little boy anymore. It wasn't only my mom that noticed either. All of a sudden, other girls at school were trying to talk to me, saying things like "Oh, James, what are you doing this weekend?" while batting their eyelashes in a way that made me think they were having a stroke, or "Hey, James, why haven't you asked me out yet?" I don't understand the appeal, but these girls suddenly saw me as a potential boyfriend. But not Priscilla.

Priscilla's taste in guys was... interesting to say the least. I couldn't tell you the countless amount of guys she's been infatuated with only for them to break her heart a few months later. I've been there through it all, coming over to comfort her, trying to get her to finally stop all that crying. All this time, she'd been with guys who saw her as nothing more than another body to hook up with, failing to notice the guy who'd treat her much better than that, who had been right in front of her all along.

Was I not good enough? I realized something one exhausting night after I'd finished consoling Priscilla over yet another guy: I was stuck in the friendzone. It's a terrible place that no guy ever wants to be caught dead in, but here I was, and I'd been there for two years. It was on that same night that another thought came to mind: maybe Priscilla still saw me as the same pathetic boy I was when we first met. Maybe I needed to change.

And so began my transformation. Usually it's the girls that do that sort of thing, right? But I was desperate, so change was inevitable; I couldn't stand just sitting by and watching all these other guys steal Priscilla away from me. I spent the first three days observing Priscilla's exes, watching how they interacted with everyone else, and I came to find that they all already had new girls that were clinging to them... seriously, I will never understand why these are the type of people girls are fawning over, but if I want a girl of my own, I'll just have to adapt.