Eternal Love?

My heart was racing.  His beautiful green eyes were boring into mine, from across the table, with such intensity that I could barely make myself breathe properly.  My palms started to sweat as they played with the hem of my skirt.  Why won’t he look away?  Why can’t I? I can’t do this; not with him, at least. He belonged to someone else, someone I actually care about. 

“Steph!” Vanessa shouted. I snapped to attention, “Yes?”

“I just asked you a question but you were completely zoned out? What were you thinking about?”

“Oh nothing,” I replied to my best friend, “What did you want to ask me?”

Vanessa laughed, “ I was just asking you what you thought about the English we took on Thursday.  Yolanda here thought it was the easiest test she’s ever taken.”

“Oh God, no,” I said, “that was so hard.  I swear I got an F on the essay.  I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. I bullshitted the whole thing.”

“Oh my god, me too!” My friend Ginny said. She then continued to ramble on about the hardest questions on the test but I couldn’t focus. This was Vanessa’s annual birthday dinner.  Usually, our table consisted of only girls but this year Vanessa chose to invite her new boyfriend and his brother along. 

 

Vanessa and I have been best friends, literally, forever. Our parents have known each other since before we were born because our mothers were best friends. I guess friendship was in our blood. Anyways, when we started high school two years ago we found ourselves a nice group of friends and every year we go out to dinner for Vanessa’s birthday.  Yolanda, Ginny, Vanessa, and I do everything together, but not lately because Vanessa spends loads of time with her boyfriend, Nate. 

Oh, Nate. Why does he have to be so… intense?  All it takes is one look and I melt. I feel like such an idiot. Obviously he likes Vanessa, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked her out so romantically in front their whole English class.  Ugh.  So, apparently, she was in her first period English class on Valentine’s Day and he walked in with a bouquet of flowers and a poem. He recited the poem to the whole class and she instantly agreed to go out with him. 

I’ve heard that story one too many times. Thank God she stopped telling that story after two weeks. We went to such a huge public high school that I had never formally met him before. He was just that hot guy on the football team and Vanessa was the hot girl in his English class.

I spoke to him for the first time today, and it’s been a few weeks since they started going out. 

I was in her house because I was the first to arrive, as always.  She was upstairs getting ready and I heard a knock on the door.  I told her I’d get it so I went to the door and opened it. 

There he was. Smiling an adorable smile, gazing at me with his beautiful green eyes.

“Hey,” Nate said, “is Vanessa here?”

“Yes, she’s upstairs getting ready. You can sit in the living room if you want.”  I gestured toward the living room and he smiled and went into the living room. We sat down on couches opposite each other.

He just looked at me for a few seconds, contemplating something, and then he said, “You must be Stephanie. She talks about you all the time. I’m surprised we haven’t met yet.”

“Yeah, I’ve just been busy lately and I figured you guys would want to spend time alone.”

“Yeah, I guess that was nice. You know… forget it.”

“What were you going to say?”

He smiled and blushed a little, looking down, and said, “Oh, it was nothing.”

“Oh come on. I hate it when people do that.  Just say it.”

“I was just going to say that Vanessa was right when she told me that you were so pretty in an unexpected way.” I held his gaze as he said this and I felt tingly all over.

“Why in an unexpected way?”

“I don’t really know.  It’s just something that radiates from you.”

This time I blushed. Wait. What that hell was I doing? My giggles and smiling and blushes were all very flirty. I can’t flirt with my best friend’s boyfriend. That’s not okay.

Thankfully, Vanessa walked down the stairs and skipped towards Nate, interrupting our conversation.  He stood to greet her with a hug and a kiss that I really wish I didn’t witness.  From that moment on I stayed away from Nate.  When everyone else had arrived to go to the restaurant, I made a point to not ride in the car next to him. 

However, I was the last to get to the table so the last option was to sit across from Nate. So now I’m stuck in this awkward situation and I suddenly feel like everyone is way too close to me. I needed to get some air.

I stood up abruptly and announced, “ I forgot to tell my mom something. I’m just going to go step outside and make a call.”

I rushed out of restaurant pretty quickly. I’m sure I got some weird looks but no one protested.

Once I got outside I instantly felt better. I sat down on a bench and put my hands on my knees.

So that was all I needed, to not see Nate.  If I saw him, or if I was alone with him, I don’t know what I’d do.

“Hey, are you okay?” someone behind me asked.  I looked around and saw Sam, Nate’s brother, leaning against the restaurant door looking at me with those adorable green eyes that, apparently, run in their family. 

“Oh,” I replied, “I’m fine. I just needed to get some air.”

“I thought you said you needed to call your mom.”

“Well, you got me.  I just kind of felt a little claustrophobic all of a sudden in there. I guess I can go back inside now. “ I said that but I didn’t move. I really didn’t want to go back to suffering under Nate’s gaze.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. We could stay out here a bit.”

“Good, because I really don’t want to go back right now.”

He laughed and walked over to my bench and sat down next to me.  I hadn’t noticed before but there was something about him that seemed strange, but intriguing. I couldn’t think of anything else but him. Who was I so worried about, again?

Everything about Sam was just suddenly incredibly attractive to me: his green eyes, his olive-toned skin, his lush brown hair, his hot button-down shirt, and his amazing biceps. Without thinking, I leaned over and kissed him. He responded instantly, kissing me back softly and pulling me closer to him, with his arm around my waist.

I tingled all over and it felt so amazing I couldn’t stop. I ran my hand through his hair, I wanted more.  I wanted all of him. We continued until I heard a gasp and a giggle from behind us.  I snapped my head around to see who it was.

“Oh, don’t stop on account of us.  You guys seem to like each other a bit.” Yolanda said, smiling.

“A bit?  More like a lot.”  Ginny said as she laughed. 

I blushed a deep shade of red.  What just happened? One minute I was obsessing over Nate and then next I’m making out with his equally hot brother, Sam.  There’s something up with those guys.  The combination of their eyes and their voices intoxicate me.  My head was still spinning after what seemed to be the most life-altering kiss of my life.

I’ve kissed other guys.  But none like him. It didn’t feel normal at all.  It was like I was being sucked into him and he and I were the only ones that existed. It was amazing.