-----------------------------------------FLASHBACK-----------------------------------------
|ALEX'S POV|
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK – YEAR 2005
From: Alice Lewis
Yes I *instert 10 whale emojis here* be your friend. Good morning!
You may be wondering why she texted me that.. well the night before I sent her a text that has a whale figure asking her if she whale be my friend and she replied that. I found it adorable. I mean based on the stories I hear, Alice wasn't exactly the expressive and friendly kind of person. So for her to text me that, that was something. I got up and excitedly got ready for school.
To: Alice Lewis
Then we're whale friends now!! :) morning sunshine, rise and shine! :)
I texted her before I went down and had breakfast with my family. Mom asked me again if I was dating someone and I said that I wasn't, she then said she knew someone but I told her that I wasn't interested and I actually have a crush on someone so she just told me to be careful and let it go. I went to school a little bit early today since I read Alice's tweet that she was on her way to school, I hurried and made sure that we would enter school grounds at the same time. When I went down of my car I saw Alice and her sister walking down their car. I then hurried to the entrance and when I was sure that we would enter the same time, I slowed down and acted like everything was coincidence. My plan worked and we bumped into each other on our way in.
"Good Morning Alice and Carrie. Hope you have a good day" I said to her giving her my most charming smile. Her little sister, Carrie, just smiled and walked to the other building where her classrooms were located. I then looked at Alice and I swear I saw her blush before she said "Good morning. I hope you do too." I then asked her if I could walk her to her locker, only a few were here and most of the people around were the good girls and not the gossip queens, she said yes and I walked her to her locker, waited for her to grab her books and actually walked her to class. We were having small talks and she shared to me that her dad and mom were thankful that someone was actually nice enough to bring her home considering that it was already late. I was comfortable around her even though we've only been friends for what 4 or 5 days. She was easy to get along with.
"I'll see you around Alice. Have a good day and I'll text you later. Bye." I said to her, she smiled and nodded and walked into her room. I then went to my room, there I found Haley. "I thought you said you have already moved on from your little infatuation with that junior, then why did you do what you did this morning? And the walking to locker, class blah blah, plus the smile that reaches your ear? Care to explain or you can just admit that you owe me. Either way I'm fine." She said teasingly.
"Fine Hale. I owe you. Now go and check up on Jessy." I replied. "Nah, she's not going to school today, said she wasn't feeling well." Ohh so that's why Haley seemed different. She was worried about Jessy and I'm pretty sure that she would do anything just to be with her right now. They weren't official yet but they acted like a couple already. I would've suggested covering up for her if she decides to go but with Jessy's parents it's impossible for her to even take a step in their backyard. Jessy was bisexual and her parents does not approve of that. Since she was a freshman, pretty young, she obeys her parents. Her very strict parents. Haley and Jessy sneaks around all the time, I hope by the time they graduate college and they are still together, they'll overcome this and start being free with their relationship. I envy them they have a love so strong and real that I don't see anything breaking it. Haley was a good person, and so was Jessy. I'm jealous of them but I'm really happy for them too.
I got this day over with so much joy in my heart. Alice and I texted each other during class hours. We were just sneaking of course and we smiled at each other during lunch time and now that it's dismissal already, Alice and I planned to walk around the campus. I told her how amazing it felt to just be one with the school during dismissal where it's deserted so she asked me if she could join me in walking around I then said yes. I told Haley my plan and Haley decided to just hitch a ride with our other friend, Brianna.
We were walking around and I started asking her personal questions. I asked her if she was willing to be in a relationship with a girl and she said no. That kind of hurt but I didn't expect anything from her, she was a model student after all. I then asked her if she's been in love before and she said no too. Wow this girl is an angel. We continued talking about her life because I was the only one asking questions and she was just replying with answers to my questions. I guess she was still shy around me, I understood that. Around 6pm her dad called that he take an hour to pick them up so I offered them a ride again and Alice agreed. I brought them home and she said thank you and went down.
We continued texting each other and actually made a way for us to enter school grounds at the same time. It's been 2 months now and we've been texting back and forth and we've been walking together every morning. Rumors are starting to spread about this relationship of ours but we ignored it. We never talked about feelings, but things seem to level up. She started opening up about her life, her friends and her dreams. She even tells me her problems now, I was pretty sure that in the span of two months, we started trusting each other more than we trusted anyone.
However she might not feel the same way but I'm really starting to fall for her deeply day by day. It was hard not to fall for her. She was actually very very sweet and caring and just perfect. Exactly my type of girl. Smart, beautiful, innocent and a singer. We were really close now, I sometimes call her and our conversations would last upto 5 hours just talking about anything random. We would talk about political issues, environmental issues, tv shows, gossips, almost everything we could get our hands on.
From: Alice Lewis
Are you still in school? Dad fired our driver and he's going to be late in picking us up again. Already hungry and I really want to go home, can you please please please give me a ride? :( you're our only hope.
It was already 6pm and I was at Mcdonalds with my friends when I got that text I replied that I'd be there in 10 minutes. Around 10 minutes later I got to school and I saw Alice and Carrie waiting by the gate I went down and opened my door for Alice while Carrie hopped on immediately when I stopped. I then gave them food from Mcdo. Alice smiled and mouthed a thank you to me. I drove them home and when we got there Carrie just said thank you and hurriedly got out of the car, Alice however stayed and said thank you and held my hand. I swear I felt sparks. I just smile and broke free then ran to her door to open it for her. I went home and as I was about to sleep my phone vibrated signaling that I had a text.
From: Alice Lewis
Thank you so much, you're my hero. Btw, mom is starting to wonder why everytime you drop me off, you would always open the door for me, I'm starting to wonder too. Haha but thanks again. I really appreciate it that you're there for me.
I replied that I was doing that to my other friends and I just said that it was not a big deal bringing her home.
After that day Alice and I became closer to each other, instead of phone calls, we would videotalk and we would reach until the wee hours of the morning just laughing and goofing around. Our closeness even got to the point where we were on the phone with each other on New Years' Eve and we were the first one to talk to each other to start the year. It was now January and I had 5 months left before graduating. I applied to 4 schools, Princeton, Yale, MIT and University of California Berkeley. My dream school was MIT but I hated pressure and I heard that since it's the best engineering school it pressured students by so much so my next was UC Berkeley then Princeton then Yale. Anyway it was January and the school has this event where the high school students were grouped into 4 groups and had seniors as leaders then has 4 teachers as advisers. Each group contained freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. It was grouped equally. Every year we have this event, I was the chairman of the my group. I'm next in charge after the teachers. Those 4 groups would battle in sports and literary. The group who wins would get bragging rights and cool prizes.
Each group would battle in sports: (basketball, softball, soccer, swimming, chess, scrabble, game of generals and volleyball) they would also battle in literary: (classical singing, pop singing, group storytelling, declamation and debate) Each group has 120 members. 30 per year level. Then they would get 5 seniors to be the leaders, 5 juniors to be the assistant leaders then 1 senior to be a chairman. For my group I was the chairman. For the past 3 years, I've always been a part of the winning group and every year it gets better, last year my group won an all expense paid 3 day trip to Los Angels. This little joys meant a lot to us because we compete for it and we actually have fun doing this. Plus we won't have class for a week because of this event. The prizes are actually just a bonus. This is a way for us to be friends with our schoolmates and bond with them and it felt amazing.
Alice and I were from different groups. She was in the white group and I was in the blue group. She was an assistant leader in her group. I'm the captain of my soccer and basketball team. I may be fat but I was sporty, like really sporty. I was good at basketball, it was my sport. For the first day it was elimination games of basketball, softball and swimming. Whoever wins will move on to the next round, my basketball team advanced to the next round so was our swimming team, our softball team however was eliminated. Second day we have soccer, chess, scrabble, game of generals and volleyball. Our soccer team also moves on to the next round and so was our scrabble and chess team. For the board games each group had 2 representatives and it was held at the library. For the third day we have the literary competition, there Alice was the representative of her group for the pop vocal competition. I was seated at the very front and instead of cheering for my own groupmate I cheered for Alice. After the competition my friends were teasing me because I was cheering for Alice, I decided to go to the bathroom near the entrance of our auditorium. As I was walking back I bumped into Alice and I asked her if she already has a seat, she replied with no and since I was groupmates with her best friend I told her that she could sit beside her best friend and I would just sit with my friends at the back, I brought her to her seat and next thing I knew, we were being teased by everybody. They said that I purposely went to the bathroom to congratulate Alice and give her a seat but honestly it was a plain coincidence.
Alice won the singing competition and since her contest was finished, every time I had a game she would be there at the bleachers cheering for me. It inspired me more knowing that she was watching, in the end my group won the championship for basketball and I was named the player of the game. We however lost in soccer. We ended being the overall champion and I was so happy because our prize was a trip to Chicago and we would stay there for a week. We all celebrated.
The following week, Alice and I became the talk of the campus. Everyone was talking about the way I looked at her when she won, and everybody was saying that I purposely went to her and it was not a coincidence. Everyone was talking about Alice and I. They were speculating that something was going on..
To: Alice Lewis
Hey I know it's late and we already said our good nights but I couldn't sleep. Couldn't help but think about the rumors in school. I don't want it to be awkward between us. I mean you became one of my best-est friend, and I don't want to lose you because of this stupid rumor D: D: D: )':
From: Alice Lewis
What made you think that you would lose me because of that? Stop worrying :)
To: Alice Lewis
You said before that you don't do this kinds of relationship and I'm afraid that this might affect whatever we have. I'm really sorry Alice. I just thought that maybe because of the rumors you might actually stay away from me. I really don't want that to happen.
From: Alice Lewis
Don't worry, it doesn't affect me. Again, stop worrying. Good night!
I replied with a good night but I still couldn't sleep. I really didn't want this night to end without me saying how I really feel for her.. It's now or never.