Like we said yesterday, we carried out our plan to check Terry's hand. We start by James complimenting Leon's hand, "Leon, I never realised how nice your hands look." "Thanks?" "Terry, can I see your hands? I'm curious if it's just my hands that look like this." "Um sure." I leaned in as Terry showed his right hand. Nothing. No scar was around his thumb. "Terry, could we also see your left hand?" I asked him because at the same time I wanted and didn't want to believe my suspicions were wrong. He gladly showed his left but there were also no scars…
James and I looked at each other and he schooled his head. At break I just walked around outside, I was so distracted I didn't even realise Leon caught up to me until he poked his face in front of me. "Something wrong?" "It's nothing." "If you say so." "You free after school?" "I've got nothing planned after school." "Great let's go for ice cream, it's a nice day to have ice cream. It will cheer you up." I knew I needed to do something to get the stalker topic off my mind, so I agreed. After school we walked to the ice cream shop, we stopped at a crossing and just as the light turned green and we went, a sudden car sped past us and Leon pulled me back.
My head then started to hurt, "Are you okay?!" A memory then flashed in my head. I was 15 at that time, I was crossing the road, as a truck came speeding right at me, I then felt someone push me out of the way and the person got hit instead. I only clicked back to the present when Leon kept calling my name. "I'm fine.." "You don't seem fine, do you want to cancel the ice cream trip?" "No we are already here anyways, let's just go." Ice cream was Leon's treat, so I made sure I got a couple of scoops. Ice cream is always the best cure to cheer someone up. I then got some on my face and Leon leaned close to me and wiped it with his hand. I looked at him confused and he said "You had some ice cream on your face." "Oh okay.." It was kind of awakward for me, it was so unexpected when he wiped my face.
It was so awkward on the way home, until he spoke up, "I'll make sure I catch that stalker next time." "Thanks, for helping me." "Oh I didn't do anything." "No seriously, thanks for everything." He just smiled and said our goodbyes.
———-
Time passed as I never heard from the stalker again, it was near Christmas time. It's crazy how much time has passed, James and I are still going strong, the whole year 11 were already getting ready for the end of year prom. James had bought me a pretty white dress and I bought him a suit. We both promised each other to wear this to the party. James and the others picked me up at my house, everybody looked really nice. I held Stella's hands as we started walking to the venu, the boys were behind us.
The venue left all of us shocked, the place was 2 times bigger than the venue we went to before. I took James hand and was about to pull him to an empty table when I realised the others were staring confused. I looked at James and forgot that I haven't told anybody about our relationship. Stella sat James and I down on one side of the table as they sat on the other side. "So how long has this been going on?" Stella said suddenly. "A couple of months?…" "COUPLE OF MONTHS? And you haven't even told me?" "Well…." Before Stella could complain more, Leon stepped in and said "It was pretty obvious, right Terry?" "Huh? Yeah it was obvious." "So it was just me??" "Yup." Stella was too shocked to even try to say anything back and we promised Stella we don't have any other secrets.
Soon everyone else was at their tables and some teachers were making a speech on how great this year was. Whenever I turned back to grab some pastry on the table, I could see Leon looking at me but then turning away. After the speech most people went to dance and I was planning to stay seated a little bit, but James held his hand out to me. "Would you like to dance?" "Sure." I took his hand and we started dancing. This reminds me of the exact moment on the day he first asked me out…The day my happiness came back. We could dance for hours if we could.
After prom, James and I were walking home together, the fresh night air softly blowing on our faces, I really didn't want this night to end. "You want our family to celebrate Christmas together?" "Sure why not." "Okay." James kissed me goodbye and watched me enter my house. I shut the front door lightly behind me because it was late and my mum was probably sleeping. I turned around and saw my mum sitting at the kitchen counter, which scared me. "Mum, how come you're still awake?" "Trouble sleeping." "Oh okay." "Anyways, how was prom?" "It was fun." "Did you have a prom date?" "Actually I did." "Oh. That's new, I would love to meet him one day." "Mum, is it fine if his family and ours celebrate Christmas together?" "Sure, we're pretty lonely this Christmas anyways."
I just agreed and went upstairs to wash up. I finished washing my face and crawled up in bed, it was a chilly night. Just as I opened YouTube to watch some videos before bed, I got a text from Leon. 'Hey you free tmr?' I thought about it, I wasn't really planning to do anything tomorrow I guess. 'Yeah, what's up?' 'Let's go have lunch together.' 'Oh you want to have lunch? Together?' 'Remember you owe me a meal.' 'Oh right, okay sure. Will 11 work?' 'Ye, see you' 'bye' .
I woke up early today because I kind of planned on visiting the bookstore for a little bit, I haven't been there for so long, maybe 2 months? I wore a nice cute vest and long skirt today. I recently bought it and wanted to try it out. I reached the bookstore at 10am, so I had an hour before I met Leon at the destination we planned to meet. I explored around a little and I heard a ring from the bell at the store's front door. When I picked out a book from the shelf, I saw someone from the other side, I couldn't see his face. He was also wearing a vest with a varsity jacket over. The guy slowly lifted his head and we made eye contact. "James?" "Oh hey Celine." "What are you doing here?" "I'm looking for some books I could read, what about you?" "I'm just exploring."
James walked around the shelf and now we're face to face with each other. "I've never seen this outfit before." "I just bought it recently, what do you think?" "It looks nice on you." "Since we're already together, want to get something to eat?" "I'm actually getting lunch with Leon, I owe him a meal." "Oh alright." James said it with an annoyed voice, maybe he's jealous. "Don't worry it's not like I'm going on a date with someone else." "I never said anything." "Should I enjoy having lunch with him then?" "Do whatever." He turns his face away and picks a book from the shelf. "I'll get going, enjoy your lunch." He borrowed the book and said "Just don't enjoy it too much." Before turning around and leaving the store.
I knew James trusts me, Leon and him are basically friends, if death glaring at each other every minute and trying to beat each other in basketball all the time counts. I met Leon at a really nice sandwich store, we were seated and Leon already knew what he wanted, while I was looking through the menu unsure on which option was best, all of them looked too good to choose just one. Leon ordered the bacon double cheese and I ordered the teriyaki BBQ. We took the first bite of our food at the same time and I felt like I could melt right where I am, it was so delicious. I can see Leon probably thought the same thing because he took another bite after another. After lunch I was so loaded and we decided to take a walk to burn off all this food.
"Do you really like James?" "Yeah." I was surprised by his sudden question. "What do you like about him?" "Well he's charming and he's really nice." "Is that it?" "I can talk about him nonstop." "Go on." "James, although he doesn't really express his feelings much, I can tell his emotions just from his eyes. He's really warm-hearted if you get to know him, he has a heart for nature and creatures. That's what I love most about him. He'll learn new skills just to make me happy, like cooking. He actually improved a lot. Although I could go on and on, I don't want to just talk about him to you." After talking about James, I realised even more how much I actually loved him. "If I got to be honest, I actually liked you since the day we met at the bookstore." "Oh, I didn't know. What made you.." "I fell in love with your smile, every time you smile it brightens my whole day, it just seems so precious." "I see, thank you for expressing your feelings to me, even though I know I can't return anything back." "It's okay, I just wanted to let you know, so you could reject me and help me move on."
I'm happy that Leon told me and I hope he really could move on and find someone better.