Under One Condition

Chapter One - Determined to change

I have to do this, there is no other way, and I just don’t have that kind of talent. As I approached him I felt my breath getting heavier and my heart was beating so fast it became almost like nothing. I hadn’t talked to him for god knows how long. I wasn’t embarrassed even though all his friends were staring and laughing at me. I knew I couldn’t dress but that wasn’t my fault, I looked down at my bright green pants and watched my feet shuffle forwards. I didn’t want to seem like a wuss so I lifted my face and stared straight at him. I stood right there at the centre of all his friends, I almost couldn’t hear myself through all the laughter surrounding me.

‘I need help.’ I stared at him pleadingly.

‘We can see that.’ One of his friends managed to force out between a laugh, I ignored him and continued to keep my eye contact with Jonathan.

‘I can’t do that.’ I felt my shoulders sag almost immediately, my heart returned to normal and so did my breath but my head was filled with questions.

‘Why not?’ I demanded. ‘Why? You’ve had heaps of experience!’

‘No I haven’t, I only picked girls not fixed them.’ He turned to walk away but turned his head to the side and looked at me before he left. His friends followed him and they kept turning around to check me out. I failed.

I guessed that he knew I wasn’t going to give up so he kept avoiding me for the rest of the day. Friends and girls always surrounded him but he always seemed distant. Me on the other hand was never with anyone, we were complete opposites but we understood each other the best, or at least we used to. We were best friends in primary school, I was always the lonely one and he was always adored but he never enjoyed it so he came to me to find peace. But for some reason that I never figured out he went to join the attention when high school came, maybe he grew to miss the attention. Thinking about the past hurt because back then it was a life I had grew fond of, I needed to find more friends so I needed his help. The day was over and I spotted him with a girl down the corridor, I overheard her confession being rejected but that was already normal.

‘Heartbreaker.’ I turned the corner and he sat down with a sigh.

‘Why do want to change?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Then don’t.’ I thought about it but decided I wouldn’t give up.

‘I will change and if your not willing to help me I’ll go find someone else.’

‘There isn’t anyone else.’

‘Someone’s mighty confident.’ He sighed again and got up. ‘Are you walking away or are you running from a job you might fail at?’

He turned to me and looked like he wanted to say something but he shut his mouth and left. His footsteps echoed through the corridor and tempted me to scream.

‘I won’t give up! You will help me!’ I didn’t realise how desperate I sounded until the halls screamed it back at me. He put his hand up beside him and waved a goodbye that looked like the one he waved when he left me at high school. I felt the tears threatening to fall but they didn’t, I wouldn’t give up.

The whole next week I followed him around, his friends found this most entertaining but the girls didn’t. They thought that I had become a seriously obsessed fan of his, they all wanted him to choose them as a next hot model but he never did. You see, he had this talent, he would choose some random girl in the school and he would say that she has everything to become famous and then she would. But he hasn’t said a girl’s name since a year ago when ‘that’ happened. It scared him more then anyone that it might happen again.