I was walking down the street, headed towards my house. I was holding hands with Brandon, the varsity basketball captain, and my first serious boyfriend. The sky was a beautiful blue with no clouds to take away from the suns glory. My house looked like a tapestry against the lighting the sun cast upon it and I could not picture a more peaceful scene than this. I looked at Brandon as he droned on and on about his practice from yesterday. It’s hard to explain how my mind works when he talks about sports; I still care about what he says, but while he’s talking my mind wonders off into its own little world. Then when he asks me if I was listening I say yes and paraphrase what he says.

It had been a long day at school that evening and all had went well. My English teacher gave me a B plus on my report on Anne Sexton, my history teacher gave me an A minus on my report on World War 1, and I made the school spring musical “The Wiz”. Overall, life is going great I have friends and family that care about me and soon I’ll be off to college. I have a bright future ahead of me and nothing can stop me, not even the Grim Reaper himself.

I looked at Brandon and smiled. We had been dating for about four months at that point and I thought things were going great. We had arguments every so often but not to many and they rarely lasted over three days. I can’t stay mad at anyone over three days unless they really did something to upset me. As far as our relationship went, I’d say things where looking good. We studied and played sports together, he’d always let me win at basketball and I’d play some volleyball with him during the summer. He was never any good at anything that required extra brain power so our study sessions actually helped him get his grades out of the “barley eligible” range.

When we arrived at the front of my house, I paused before unlocking the long white picket fence to take a deep breath. I always did this before I walked into my front gate, I never really knew why I did it, I just did. I pushed open the big door of the fence but Brandon opened it the rest of the way and held it open for me. As I walked under his arm I kissed him lightly on the cheek and said goodbye. In return he kissed me passionately on the lips for about five seconds before he realized that it was time to go. His cologne smelled like chocolate as he hugged me, he knew I loved anything chocolate.

He said goodbye one last time and gave me a kiss on my forehead before turning away and walking towards his house. I already know that he’ll do his homework and wait patiently for me to call him. I was never sure about certain things but there was one thing that I was certain of, I loved him. I was scared to say it out loud so those words stayed locked up in the secret compartment in the back of my brain. Not to be opened until absolutely necessary.

So what? I love the guy, I thought to myself as I pushed the front door of my house open just enough for me to slide inside without letting the dog out. Okay, it can’t be that big of a deal… can it? I mean he loves me too… I think. We’ve been together for a while now and honestly, I don’t want to live without him ever again. So many things for a teenage girl to worry about, yet that was the only thing on my mind. I had never felt this way about ANYONE before. Among my family I’ve always felt detached and alone. I never really understood what love itself felt like. I know, I know that I’m only in high school and maybe this isn’t the love everyone makes such a big deal of. All I know is that right now, Brandon is the only guy I want to be with and ever want myself to be with.


Crap…. I have a ton of homework.