Chapter 3 – The Moment I Knew
After that first conversation, everything felt different. She wasn't just someone I noticed anymore. She was someone I waited to see, even if I never admitted it to myself.
Some days, our conversations were short—a simple "hi" and a passing smile. Other times, we actually talked, and those were the moments I held onto.
I learned things about her.
Little things.
Things that wouldn't mean much to anyone else but somehow meant everything to me.
She liked warm evenings more than cold mornings.
She always laughed before she finished telling a joke.
She had a habit of tucking her hair behind her ear when she was thinking.
And she never seemed to realize how beautiful she was.
I don't know when it happened exactly.
When I stopped seeing her as just a girl and started seeing her as the girl.
But one evening, as we sat outside, talking about nothing in particular, she turned to me with a quiet expression.
"You ever just feel... happy for no reason?" she asked.
I looked at her, studying the way the fading sunlight played with the colors in her eyes.
And that was the moment I knew.
It was because of her.
I smiled, nodding.
"Yeah," I said. "I think I know what you mean."
She didn't know.
She didn't know that every random moment with her was something I'd never forget. That just sitting there, hearing her voice, was enough to make my entire day feel different.
She didn't know.
And I never told her.