To All The Boys I've Loved

Foreigners, Exchanges, and Theatre-Oh my!

 Not to let a minor flaw in my plan deter me, I collected my thoughts and greeted them both warmly. Percy seemed excited to see me, Emily not so much. I was fine with that, after all, she was my competition.

Except Emily really wasn't considering how we were completely different. She had long slender legs, naturally tanned complexion, smooth blonde hair to her waist, and the figure of a long distance runner (which made sense... considering how she was on the cross country team). She even had modelled a few times, travelling the world with her bestie to shoot for who knows what. Meanwhile I was an awkward bland bean who couldn't even walk in a straight line. She probably was quivering with fear of me winning the competition within the first week, so I went easy on her.

I spent the better part of science ignoring her (loud) flirtatious laugh and instead talked to Lilli. Every now and then I'd turn around to interrupt their conversation to ask a question about the problems we were needing to work on. I almost always knew the answer anyways, but would come up with the conclusion while talking to Percy instead of alone. He was almost always willing to help me figure something out, as long as I'd give him enough time to catch up with me by looking at my own answers. He hardly ever had done more than five of the textbook questions due to the very distracting girl sitting next to him.

While the process of flirting was moving at a snail's pace with Percy, Leo and I's friendship blossomed second semester. Leo would come to a group movie night that I had at my place once a month with him, Charlotte, and Rhea. My mom was concerned with my social capabilites, so she began to set goals for me to have at least one group of friends over monthly. I figured that this checked all of the boxes. It's not that I didn't enjoy hanging out with people, I just liked reading and didn't want to impose on anyones plans. I figured that if someone wanted to hang out with me they would reach out to tell me so, but I guess that works both ways doesn't it?

Anyways, I would have this movie night on the Friday I had off from helping the set design of the community theatre. At first, Leo wasn't invited to our chick flick filled girls night. But once he had heard about my inadequite knowledge of movies, and I had witnessed his appalled reaction to the new information, I began to invite him to join our movie nights. That way he could make sure my movie education was in proper order. One time both Charlotte and Rhea had cancelled, but Leo still showed up even though I had warned him that it would just be the two of us. For some odd reason, I was nervous that night.

As winter melted into spring, the community theatre's production of Our Town was having its grand opening night its three week run. Since I couldn't get Rhea or Charlotte to come with, and I was too nervous to ask anyone else to do so, I went alone to see my set in action.

During the production a newsboy walks onstage, tossing the papes, and then exits. It was at this moment that my opinion of 'love at first sight' changed. I honestly cannot describe the exact emotion. When the actor walked on, we made eye contact (I was sitting mid house) and then time slowed. Butterflies erupted in my stomach as I watched this guy toss a newspaper offstage. I waited the rest of the night to see him again, but he didn't ever grace the stage-probably was one of the ensemble members that was borrowed from the high school.

Wow. I probably just saw my soulmate and will never see him again. I didn't have a program, and was too shy to ask someone to see theirs just so then I could creepily look up who the newsboy was.

I returned to school that Monday. Although my life felt like it had changed, nothing seemed to have happened among my peers over the weekend. Percy texted me for a picture of my homework so then he could "double check his answers", like he always does, during lunch time. Rhea and I competed to see who could fit the most grapes in our mouths. Charlotte laughing and snapping a picture just as one pops out of Rhea.

The semester came to a close with nothing happening between Percy and I. It was silly of me to think of it being a competition between Emily and I when I very obviously wouldn't be down to sleep with him, and that he only came to me for homework. I was just blinded by his European look and charming accent. To be honest, I still would've thought that I had a chance with him if it weren't for the difference between him and Leo when talking to me. While Leo would reach out every now and then and seem entertained by my craziness, Percy would just antagonize me about my quirks and ask for homework help. While Leo wouldn't bat an eye at the accusations of us dating (we were just friends) and would continue to hang out with me afterwards, Percy would hardly associate himself with me outside of class.

By the start of summer, Leo and I had started watching movies alone. He felt like my movie education needed to take top priority now that school was done. I always thought that it would be better to read books than watch films, but he made them entertaining and worthwhile. Our friendship was nice. Taking residence on my couch downstairs watching a couple movies on a Friday night while everyone else was out partying. It was like our own little world. He hated school, so there was no talk about it, or the people inside. It was like we would pause the outside world to just watch a few movies and escape the horrors of high school for a few hours. There was no such thing as pretty exchange students, pointless homework, inhibiting anxiety, or competition with teenage models. It was through these moments that I grew to love movies. Our nights together were... nice.

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I was under the influence of drugs while writing this due to being so sick, so I hope this chapter makes sense!

Happy New Year! How did y'all kick off the start of 2019? 

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed the chapter please tap that lil star to vote for it :-) 

And, as always, I'm open to any feedback. See y'all on the 16th!