Chapter 1

I walked down the hall of that nasty high school for the last time ever. Both ecstatic that I was finally done and sad that it was all over, I meandered down what used to be my home, my life, for the past four years. I thought of all the times I had wished for this day, cursing school in its every being. But now, it was all done and I found myself wondering what to do next. I had applied to five schools, two of which I would rather not attend and were only there for backup. I was almost completely sure that I wanted to go to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, but there was always room for change.
The last four years flashed through my mind in a blur and I couldn't help but cringe and make a face at my memories. I had absolutely despised almost all of the people here besides my immediate friends, of course. People here...well they just never took a strong liking to me. This I could never figure out. I had always been nice to people, despite their comments toward me, and I never intentionally tried to be a bitch. But I mean, everyone has their days, right? To say the least, I was not cool at this place. Eighteen years old and I'd never had a boyfriend. I'd never been kissed. I'd never been close.
There were always boys that I had fruitless crushes on, knowing they would never go anywhere. But the entire time I was in school, there was one boy. I loved him, I was sure of it. He never gave me the slightest reinforcement as to what his feelings were, but I knew inside of me that he had never liked me. It killed me everyday to see him in the hallways and know that he'd never be mine.
He was always the most beautiful guy I'd ever seen. His hair was a mix between light brown and blonde and he had the most gorgeous, mesmerizing baby blue eyes in the world. He was exacly my type, not that my interpretation of 'my type' wasn't biased by how beautiful he was, probably about six feet tall; a perfect height for my "five foot nine". He had a medium build, all due to sports, and I remember how much I always have wanted to kiss his sweet lucious lips. I was always such a wreck around him. Whenever he came near me I lost control of myself; my face turned red, I started sweating and shaking, and I couldn't speak a legitimate sentence from the English language. But that all didn't matter to him; he never knew.
Very few of us ladies have the guts to walk up to a guy and express our feelings. For four years I had been arguing against myself internally on whether or not to ask him out. My 'no' side always won. Well today that was going to change. Only I was not going to ask him out, I was going to tell him how I'd felt about him. Whether or not he reciprocated these feelings was irrelevant. I had to tell him.
I looked down the hallway, noticing that almost everyone had scattered and spotted him at the opposite end where his locker was. He was with a group of people but it seemed like they were starting to disperse. I started walking, very slowly to make sure that everyone would be gone by the time that I reached him. I took baby steps, but giant breaths reassuring myself every second or two to make sure that I didn't talk myself out of it. My heart was racing and the veins in my neck were pulsing.
I must have been seriously concentrating on keeping myself calm because the next thing I knew, I was standing in front of him and he was looking at me with a confused expression on his face.
"Umm..?", he said, "Umm Bay...what are you doing?"
I shook my head and everything cleared. I then knew what was going on. I was standing like an idiot next to him for a long time now.
"Uh-oh sorry. I just-" I choked. "Well I was just-" I was just choking that's what I was doing. Choke Choke Choke. Deep breath, "I just wanted to talk to you about something."
"Ok..?" He was pushing me. I didn't like it. Deep breaths..
"Ok I'll just say it. I like you. I have always liked you and I'm willing to bet a good deal of my life that I always will." Oh dear lord what have I done.
"Oh", he said, surprised. When I saw the look on his face I looked straight at the floor and nothing else; too embarassed to look him in the eyes. But that didn't stop him.
He took my chin in one hand and pushed my face upward to look me in the eyes. "Bay, don't be embarrassed."
Now that I was looking at the most perfect face I'd ever seen and into the eyes of what had to be an angel, I was stuck, I couldn't look away. "I was just taken by surprise is all", he said. I closed my eyes and lifted my hand to my forehead. This was too much for me. Why did I do this to myself?
"Ok, umm yeah I think I'm gonna go now. I'm sorry I even brought it up; I just felt like I owed it to myself to say it."
"Don't be sorry. You see the thing is...", he stopped mid-sentence and looked down at the ground. Just then he did something that took me way by surprise. Still looking down, he gently grabbed my hand, intertwined his fingers with mine, and took a step closer to me so that he was about a half of a foot away.
He started again, "I sortof feel the same way about you. I have for a while now.."
I gasped a little and brought my free hand up to my mouth, smiling underneath it but trying to conceal it. Part of me was afraid that he was lying; that he was making fun of me.
"Really...?" I said, wearily.
"Yes, really", he smiled a beautiful smile exposing his perfectly straight white teeth. My heart starting beating out of my chest and my breathing sped up. I could feel my cheeks becoming red as he looked into my eyes.
He took another step closer to me, closing the last of the distance separating us; I could feel his body heat on me. My chest was rising and falling much too rapidly, i knew, but i couldn't control it. This boy who had stolen my heart, he had full control over it.
"Christian, I-", he put a finger to my lips and silenced me. Then he leaned in ever so slowly, coming just close enough to give me the final choice. When he knew what my answer was, he gently pressed his lips to mine one time and released to test my reaction, but he didn't go far. I could feel his slow, even breaths on my face as he was only an inch away from me, our eyes still closed, foreheads touching. I touched my lips one soft time to his then released and opened my eyes and sighed quietly. He did the same. I was frozen in that moment. There was no hope of me moving an inch. Our hands were still intertwined and I realized, I had been bitten by the love bug.