Second Chances (Brett Talbot)

Monstrous Things

I furrow my eyebrows at what he's telling me.

Why would Brett want to tell me about a girl he liked who sat behind him in Bio...

Oh...

I sat behind him in Biology... But he can't be talking about me. He must be talking about after I left.

"I couldn't get her out of my head," he continues. "So I told myself that I had to make her hate me so I couldn't be tempted at all. I had to make fun of her and mock her. I made her brother hate me and then her and her brother finally left the school."

I'm not gonna lie; he sounds like he's talking about me. Am I going crazy?

"I thought I would be relieved, but it hurt so much. My grades started to slip. Instead of A's I was getting low B's and even a C. I wasn't giving my best at practice." Brett picks up a larger piece of gravel and throws it across the parking lot almost as if in frustration. "I was just counting down the days until I could see her next when we played her new school in lacrosse. Then when the day came, I saw her again and I was overjoyed, but I knew I still had to keep her from having any shred of compassion for me. I also didn't deserve it. I was horrible to her for months. She deserved better, but then she found out about me at the game and then risked her life to save mine. Even though she knew how terrible of a person I was, she was so compassionate that she saved my life."

I can't believe my own ears. This can't be happening. This is a trick. He's lying. He has to be.

"I then started to take my walls down, when she was helping me when I was wounded," he goes on. "But I built them right back up when I almost hurt her when I lost control again. The next day I made the stupid move of helping her find her brother, because Satomi taught me to never leave a debt unpaid or else it might come back to haunt you later. When she wasn't scared of me after the night before, I knew I had to take my chances. I knew I'd never find another girl like her and I was tired of being responsible. So I decided I had to tell her how I feel."

I can't speak. I can't move. I feel like I can't even breathe. Nothing seems real. My world had turned upside down.

Brett, Brett Talbot has just admitted that he likes me and has liked me the whole time. I can't think. My mind is overloading. I can feel my heart pounding rapidly in my chest and I bet Brett can hear it too, but I can't do anything. All I can do is sit there and stare at the boy next to me, shell shocked at his words.

"Lily?" He says

"Huh?" is all I can say.

"Do you remember when I said I was forgetting something when we were in the woods and I cut myself off?" He asks.

I nod my head not trusting my voice to work.

"Well what I forgot was that I could finally be myself around you," he tells me. "I spent all my time knowing you just being a jerk to you to make you hate me and out of habit I just said things to you. Like all the recent comments about your uniform and stuff like that. I know that's no excuse for saying those things to you, but I'm sorry about putting you through hell for months."

"So, you... like me?" I say softly.

"Yes, I like you," he replies. "I just spent all that time explaining it to you."