Of The Darkness (h.s)

seventeen

Harry.

It took everything I had to get out of bed to talk to Leslie's father. The nerves ate at me and I didn't even know what to say. He is the only male that I could have even thought of to ask the sort of question to. When I arrived, I tried to knock in an attempt not to wake Leslie. He was confused as to why it was me asking for him, but he allowed once I said I had a question for him.

There I was, sat in front of Leslie's father with a question on my hand. I never doubted my understanding of the certain feeling and I still stood firm to my believing, but I wanted to know the answers from someone who has experience with the emotion.

The words felt so strange on my tongue and he encouraged me to proceed with my question. It was a rush of blood to my cheeks when I tried asking him the first time, his understanding one where his daughter must have inherited it.

If it weren't for my blocked off personality, I would have been able to ask the question easier. It's my mental thoughts that always nag at me, bringing me to hate over and over again. My mind has always been hate and I never thought otherwise until now.

All I've ever think about anymore is Leslie. She's consumed every single thought and minute of my day. It's as if she's become a necessity for my life. Liam calls it the 'honeymoon phase', the time in a relationship where neither the boy nor the girl can keep their hands off the other. I don't understand the label but the description seemed highly correct.

But that's just it. I don't know what these feelings are or how to react to them. That's the reason I came to her father; for answers. The question was eight words and eight easy syllables. But it felt as though it was as long as the Great Wall of China. For me, that one question broke down my walls and made me realize something I'd never come to terms before.

"How did you know you were in love?"

My hands immediately covered my face and I ran my fingers through my hair, Leslie's beautiful smile the only thing I was thinking about. I took her father's taken aback expression as one of shock but the forthcoming realization soon settled in. He recognized my lack of knowledge in relationships and attempted to help me.

He spoke, "When I first met Leslie's mother, it was a simple friendship that developed into more. There were times where I never wanted to leave her side; much like Leslie's feeling of safety with you. It was me who spoke the words first and it took her time to understand. We were around the same age as you and Leslie, I was 19 and she was 18. Love is a hard concept to understand but the way I knew I loved Heather was when she took all the stress away. I was in school for law and I played baseball on scholarship. But when with her, she smiled and everything felt as if it was just the two of us."

His statement of Leslie's mother having a smile that washed all the stress away was the stand out. Leslie is the same way; always letting my stress go away with one smile. I was too blind to realize it in the beginning but she's always relaxed me with that smile.

"Are you in love with her?" he had asked, my hand jittering as it ran through my hair.

"I don't know. I feel so strongly about her. It's just- for so long, I never believed love existed and now I feel like I'm in love. I have never felt so drawn to someone before and I wanted to ask someone one who has been in love before," I explained, his brown eyes staring straight into mine.

"From my experience, Harry, is that you need to relax. It's clear to see you have some type of feeling for Lee and I completely support you. You are a guard, for damn sake Harry, and you can defend any harm to come her way. She looks at you the same way Heather looked at me," he smiled, raising my hopes significantly.