Mena's POV
"I hate myself so much, I keep doing everything wrong." I said to Will and punched the locker next to me.
"Relax man, she's okay, but what happened?" Will asked worriedly.
"I got carried away and I touched her thigh and well something happened last night and I guess she just felt anxious. I don't know, I'd never seen her like that."
I felt Will touch my back, "Man, do you like this girl that much? She's a bit of a handful... I mean like I'm not like trying to be like mean about it. I just mean, she's got baggage, are you ready for that?" Will asked worriedly.
I took in a deep breath and turned around to face him, realizing what I was about to say.
"I love her man, I don't know why, or how, but I just... she means the world to me. Ever since I laid eyes on her, I can't just let her down like that."
Will's expression completely changed, "Well then, that's...wow." He smiled.
"Yeah, it is, wow." I replied smiling back.
"Have you told her?"
I nodded, "I'm scared too, what if she doesn't feel that way back? I don't know if she's ready if I'm ready. I feel like I'll know when the time is right."
"Yeah, I guess so, who knows? Could be sooner than you think." I heard Will respond as he winked at me. "Oh look, Nasim is out." We both walked over to her.
"How is she doing?" I asked worriedly.
Nasim took in a deep breath, "She's okay I suppose, as okay as one can be you know."
"Yeah, I suppose." I sighed, "You guys can go on to eat, I'll wait for her."
"You sure man?" Will asked.
"Yeah, it's fine, I'll try to catch up with you later." I fist-bumped Will and they left to go to the lunchroom.
After a few minutes, Naomi finally came out. Still red, still puffy, but with a small smile. We slowly walked over to each other.
"Hi" She said softly. "Can we talk?" We both said in unison. "You first." We said again. She let out an awkward smile. "Go ahead!" I said as we made our way outdoors and to the bleachers on the football field.
"Okay..." Naomi played with her hands. "Look, I think it's pretty evident I'm not like everyone else, I'm not normal. I bring with me a lot of baggage, and that's something even I'm still learning to deal with and handle." She took a small pause."What happened right now wasn't your fault, but there are certain things we have to clear up... I'm not alway's good with the touching I mean not always I don't mind but, after last night it was just a bit stressful. I am comfortable with you, more than I ever have been with anyone in my life, but there are times I just can't deal with it. Second, as you can see, I get bad panic attacks, which is embarrassing but I do get them, and I'm still learning to control them, only Nasim and my parent's knew how to deal with them, for some reason you figured it out the quickest...no one had ever been able to calm me down so quickly, but you did. Third, I'm not good with opening up, I never have been. But I'm trying, I really am I promise. And yeah, that's me, I can't change it, if you don't want to deal with it I get it." Naomi finished her rant and sat on the bleachers, staring at the empty football field. I sat next to her in silence as I thought of what my next words were going to be.
Naomi's POV
I tried to avoid eye contact with Mena as I had just basically exposed myself to him. I felt naked, not uncomfortable, but definitely exposed. We both sat there in silence as the cold wind hit us in the face. Suddenly, my eyes met his, I felt my stomach drop. Mena looked down as he tried to find words.
