Blank Canvas

Chapter 1

As I walk down the halls of Ridgeview High School, I look down at the checkered floor, watching my legs carefully take step after step.With my hands tightly gripping onto my notepad, I take a glance up to the students walking towards me, then take a look at him. The guy that truly can make any girl fall completely in love with him.

Locking my attention to him, my stomach fills with emotions. Noticing him look away from the girl he was talking to, he catches my eyes staring at his. My heart races, sending a signal to my legs telling them, "Get away from the situation!". I quickly walk the opposite direction and into the girl's bathroom. Walking up to the mirror and placing my hands on the sides of the sink, I take a long, deep breath and notice the pink flush on my cheeks softly peaking through my pale foundation. Fixing my dark, long hair, I look down at the faucet, catching my distorted reflection against the metal.

"Dahlia!" I hear my best friend, Veronica, yell into my ear. I jump a little and place my hands on my chest, feeling my heart pounding against my chest.

"Vera! Don't scare me like that" I say, letting out a forced laugh and looking at her through the mirror.

"It was too easy. Hey who's the girl Henry was talking to?" Vera asks, holding onto my right arm and leaning her head onto my shoulder. I look at myself in the mirror, comparing all my features with the girl Henry was talking to. Realizing I didn't fully take her into consideration when I saw her. Noticing how my face is more round than hers, and my nose isn't as pointy as hers.

"I don't know who she was" I reply, snapping myself from furthering any more negative thoughts about myself.

I feel an overwhelming feeling take over my mind. Even though Henry and I aren't officially dating, we still have mutual feelings for each other, and thinking of him having mutual feelings with other girls makes me scared and sick.

"Where's Jeraldo?" I ask Vera, turning to my right to make full eye contact with her. She points towards the door,

"He's out waiting" She replies. I nod and begin to walk towards the door, feeling a wave of nervousness hitting me, wondering if Henry is still outside, wondering if he's still talking to that girl.

Pushing the door, I see my best friend since 4th grade, Jeraldo standing there, giving me a bright smile. Without fully acknowledging him, I quickly take a peek to my right, Checking if Henry is still there. I feel an intense feeling of nausea,

"Hey!" I say to Jeraldo, flashing him a smile, revealing my perfectly straight teeth thanks to the braces I had 2 years ago.

"How come I'm hearing from Vera that you're talking to Henry and not from you?" he asks, not giving a single twitch to give a smile back.

"I'm so sorry Jeraldo, I didn't want it to be a big deal just in case things didn't work out, and I don't need you to tell me 'I told you so' while me bawling my eyes out and watching Chick flicks" I say, grabbing onto his hands. He looks down at them, and then back up at my eyes. Gripping onto my hands before quickly pulling away, he opens his mouth but doesn't allow anything to come out.

"Come on let's go to English." I tell him as we begin to walk down the hall. I notice a shadow quickly hide behind a locker door. Me being suspicious, I have a huge urge to go see who that was, but the bell rings. I take one last look at the locker before taking a step into the English classroom. Vera and Jeraldo begin to walk in front of me, taking the lead on where to sit, which is only the last three chairs in the very front row.

Setting my backpack on the dirty school floor, I look out the door and into the empty hallway. Except, it's not that empty. I notice Henry standing outside of the classroom across from mine, reaching in and out of his locker. As soon as he turns around I catch his attention, which causes him to smile at me. I smile and wave at him and he waves back, creating an uproar of butterflies in my stomach and a feeling that my heart is about to escape out of my chest.

I watch him pull out his phone out of his front pocket, beginning to move his thumbs across the screen. I feel a vibration, looking down into my lap, I see a message from, "Henry". Before opening the message, I look back outside the door and notice he's no longer there. My thumb slides against my phone's home button, unlocking my phone and opening Henry's message which reads,

"You're looking cute today :)"

My hands begin to feel sweaty which is gross, but I feel a smile curl up that I can't control. My phone vibrates one more time which is again, a message from "Henry", which reads,

"Let me take you home after school?"

I lock my phone, holding it tightly in my hand while looking up at the blank white board in front of me. As my heart begins to race, I gain the guts to unlock my phone and reply with a simple,

"Sure!"

Before I know it, the bell rings and I feel Jeraldo place his hand on my shoulder.

"Do you want a ride home? You can tell me everything about Henry, and we can take a trip to the library so I can further my weekly read" He says.

"Shit! Jeraldo, I'm so sorry but Henry already offered to give me a ride home... and I said yes" I say, giving him a forced smile. His smile quickly fades, beginning to look around the room while I begin to pack my stuff, then his eyes lock back to me.

"Oh, yeah, of course no problem. Call or text me when you get home okay?" he says, grabbing onto his backpack strap. We begin to walk out the classroom, feeling an awkward tension between us.

"I will" I say, turning to my left to match his face. He smiles at me and waves before walking the opposite direction of me. As I continue to walk out the crowded school halls, which takes about a good 10 minutes, I see Henry standing under a large tree, looking so attractive I could melt if it wasn't about 40 degrees outside.

We walk up to each other, reaching his arms out only to have them wrap around my waist, pulling me tightly. I place my arms on his back, allowing myself to feel the warmth of his body. As he pulls away, he grabs onto my hands, taking a look into my eyes.

"You ready to go?" he asks, giving my hands a good squeeze

"Let's go" I reply, fighting every urge possible to not let my hands get the best of me and become sweaty.

We walk towards his car which I see is a bright red Lexus with rims shiny enough to be considered a mirror and tinted windows.

He opens the car door for me, getting a nice whiff of mixed perfumes.

"Sorry, it was the first car I ever got so it's not the best but hey, a car is a car right?" he says before closing my door. I sit there in shock, watching him walk around the car and into the driver's seat.

"Sorry, but I have a hand-me down car from my older sister, that she used for 4 years,which she got as a hand me down from my mom, and you're saying this Lexus is not the best?" I say while slightly raising my voice. He chuckles and runs his hand over mine.

"Hey, calm down, i'll let you drive my car around whenever you want" he says while closing the door.

"I'm sorry what? No I could never drive this" I say as I shake my head, getting a strong smell of more mixed perfumes but shaking away the thought of other girls being in his car. Either way they'd just be friends, right?

"Never say never" he replies

I turn my head to look at him, noticing that a small piece of his curly, auburn hair has fallen onto his forehead.

I place my fingertips on his forehead and carefully push the strand of hair that has fallen on his face back for it to join the rest of his curly strands. I feel him lean closer to me which means... Is he about to kiss me?? I begin to internally panic as I begin to lean towards him as well. As I close my eyes I feel as If I am leaning into nothing?

"Your hand is sweaty" he whispers into my ear. I quickly pull back in embarrassment as he just starts chuckling.

"I'm sorry" I say looking down at my lap, where my hands now rest. He places his right index finger onto my chin and picks lifts up, meeting his eyes.

"Hey, don't be sorry. You're nervous, it's okay" he says with a gentle smile. I smile back, then look out the window closest to Henry, only to see a shrub moving.. Except there is absolutely no wind outside.

"Hey, I think someone's out there hiding behind that shrub"