Enjoy reading, we'll catch up after:
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"Finally, it's the big day," said Rafael, as he prepared for his first day of high school. The young man was getting ready: hair perfectly combed, tracksuit, and Air Jordans on his feet.
He set the goal of starting fresh, forgetting all his middle school years and the nonsense that came with them.
As soon as he stepped out of the house, he heard, "Bro, let's go!" It was his friend Taj on his motorcycle. He added, "Dude, this year, we're resetting everything: a fresh start, a new life. We forget our old lives and create new ones.
" They left, clapping each other on the shoulder like two gladiators.
"Raf and Taj against the world," Raf declared.
They parked at the school lot and walked towards their classes. Taj headed to the senior class, saying, "Catch you later, bro."
Raf quietly followed his first class, sitting in the back, unnoticed.
Sitting on a bench in the courtyard, Raf calmly waited for Taj to finish so they could head home. Suddenly, he heard a soft and pleasant voice say,
"Sir, could you please hold my phone and take a picture of me and my friend?"
No way Raf was going to refuse. Afterward, she thanked him, and Taj came out of his class, started the bike with Raf behind him, and they headed home.
Upon arriving home, Raf found Brienne, his ex-girlfriend from middle school, standing in front of his house.
Brienne: "Hey Raf!"
Raf: "Hey."
Brienne: "Coming back from school?"
Raf: "Isn't it obvious?"
Brienne: "Why are you talking to me like that?"
Taj: "Hey Brienne, what are you doing here?"
Brienne: "I want to talk to Raf."
Taj: "He doesn't want to talk to you. Go back where you came from."
Raf: "Get out from in front of my house, I told you I don't want anything to do with you anymore, didn't I?"
Brienne: "Raf, I still love you. I made a mistake by cheating on you with John, who was your best friend, but I'm really sorry."
With a strong hand, Raf opened the door and went inside with Taj, while Brienne walked back home, heartbroken.
Raf didn't want to see Brienne's face ever again. He changed his phone number, switched schools, and would say,
"Cheating is a choice, not a mistake." As for John, he had left town after betraying his friend.
Raf and Taj played basketball to relax a bit after such a tough day, and also to clear Raf's mind after seeing his ex's annoying face again.
After playing two straight games with Taj and Marc, Marc said to Raf, "Dude, I saw you with a girl earlier. Man, she's hot, bro! Who is she?"
Raf stayed quiet, but Taj answered for him: "Bro, you're new, you don't know her. That's Brienne, Raf's ex. He had a crazy thing with her.
Raf was faithful and really loved her, but women are never satisfied. So, she decided to cheat on him with John, who was our friend too. That's why things were tense earlier.
Her looks are nothing compared to her nasty attitude. A word of advice: stay away from her, man."
Marc: "Got it, bro. You can't trust scum like that."
That night, Raf, Taj, and Marc spent the evening chatting with girls online, as they usually did.
A week after running into the mysterious girl at school, Raf still hadn't seen her again, even though he had become the coolest guy in his class.
He had met the prettiest girls at his school (Amel, Tessa, and Harlem).
One Wednesday, after hanging out with his new group of friends for a while, Raf spotted the same girl who had asked him to take a picture of her.
At that moment, he admired her beauty, speechless, until Taj showed up so they could head home.
This time, Raf told Taj about the girl, but Taj couldn't recognize her, as there were so many pretty girls at their school.
They made it their mission to find her next time so Taj could check her out.
Of course, Taj would probably know her since he had been at Raf's new school the longest. He knew almost everyone, or at least almost all the girls.
Raf was a bit of a liar and manipulator, but also very romantic and sentimental, which made it easy for him to attract girls who were sometimes out of his league.
At school, Raf described the girl he liked to Amel and Tessa, but let them know he didn't know her name, class, or anything about her.
They promised to help him. Later, he did the same with Harlem, even though she wasn't in the same class since she was in her second year of high school.
She told him she'd do her best to help if she got the chance.
Amel and Tessa became Raf's accomplices, since they shared the same class, and Harlem became like a sister to him; they grew close to one another.
One day, on the way to the sports field, a group of girls came rushing towards them. From a distance, Raf spotted the girl from the photo again and hurried to tell Amel and Tessa,
"Look, that's the girl I was talking about!" When the group got closer, the girl stopped and politely greeted Amel and Tessa, to Raf's surprise.
Amel said to him, "But Raf, that's Harlem's sister."
Raf: "Which Harlem?"
Amel: "The only Harlem you know."
Raf, smiling, asked Amel for the girl's name, and she answered, "Her name is Ashley!"
"I love her," he told Amel and Tessa.
That night, Raf was chatting on WhatsApp with Harlem as usual, and she sent him a message saying:
"Raf, you've become like a brother to me and I care about you a lot. Tomorrow morning, come see me in our classroom, I'd like to talk to you about something."