by Emma Quinn
But just before I thought that me and Adam were finally about to take that leap, Sexy Giselle swept him off his feet and stole him from me. She came in with her endlessly long legs and perfect blonde hair and breasts to die for and took him away.
I could never compete. Not with a girl like that. She was a vision. Basically, a model. Someone so much better than Plain Jane me. My brown hair was like a bird’s nest at times, I was much too curvy to look like a model, I was too small for someone like Adam… it killed me how much Sexy Giselle looked good on his arms. But that was because he was model-like as well. Tall, dark, and handsome, chiseled from stone. An absolute God, which was why I adored him. I couldn’t stop myself from falling head over heels. I stood no chance with him but adored him anyway. It was a hopeless situation.
“Anyway.” I shook my head and tried to stop the tears from falling. “It will probably be better with both of them gone because I won’t have to see them anymore. I’m going to miss the way that we all hang out together, but it will give me a chance to get over him.”
“And that’s what you want?” Lisa asked me curiously. “To get over him?”
“Yes,” I snapped back defiantly. “It’s time, isn’t it? For me to get over my feelings for Adam and to move on. Seeing you so happy with Freddie makes me want that as well…”
But even as I said those words, I knew that they weren’t accurate. I couldn’t even begin to imagine myself with anyone else, I was so utterly convinced that Adam was the one for me, I really didn’t desire another guy anywhere near me… but I needed to save face.
“Are you sure? Because there is something that I might need to tell you…” She bit down on her bottom lip and shielded her face under my intense gaze. Of course, I wanted to now whatever secret she had for me. I would have been an idiot not to listen to it, but I didn’t want to have to beg her. Instead, I wanted her to just tell me already. “Well, Adam and Giselle broke up.”
Oh my God. My heart leaped and sunk all at once. I wasn’t quite sure what the hell to think about that. I was happy, I couldn’t help myself from being happy, but it freaked me the hell out as well because when Adam had a girlfriend there was nothing that I could do about it, but now… well, if they were broken up then the possibilities were endless.
“This might be your last chance to say something, Felicity,” Lisa declared as if that thought wasn’t circling violently through my mind at the speed of light. “And I think that you should do it because Adam will be going off to college soon and you might not get a chance again.”
“That’s too much pressure.” I gripped on to my stomach, the sickness starting to swirl. “I don’t think I can do it, Lisa. What if he rejects me? It will be so awful.”
“Worse than always wondering ‘what if?’” She cocked her eyebrow at me. “I think it will be a million times worse for you if you say nothing and you never get to find out how he feels about you. Even if he rejects you, well… at least you will know, and you’ll be able to move on properly. Then maybe you will be able to find a nice guy for you.”
Urgh, she didn’t get. Even if she knew that it was such an issue for me, she didn’t know how much it would crush me if Adam turned me down. I didn’t think that was something that I could ever recover from. I would never let anyone else in again…
But that didn’t mean I shouldn’t tell him because I suppose asking myself ‘what if?’ forever wouldn’t be a whole lot of fun either. I just didn’t know what the hell I should do, and it scared me. My brain was racing at the speed of light, sending me a little wild.
“I will be here for you no matter what happens,” Lisa reassured me. “Even if this doesn’t work out as well as you want it to… you will always have me.”
“Mmm, yes, thank you, Lisa. I know. But I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.”
“We will work it out together.”
I would always have her… when she wasn’t with Freddie. But then I couldn’t exactly blame her for wanting to be with her boyfriend. I would have been exactly the same too if I had Adam. And who the hell knew, maybe I would have him soon enough. Either that or I would lose him forever. But I suppose that was a risk that I needed to take if I wanted my answers.
2
Adam
“ G
raduation!” I called out at the top of my lungs in celebration as we all chucked out mortar boards in to the air to celebrate finally being done with high school. “We are done!”
Everyone was cheering out happily because much as high school had been fun, we were all restless and needed a change in our lives. We needed to step out of our comfort zone and do something new. And I was about to change my life completely. Film school in New York City was going to be an incredible change from the small town life that I had become accustomed to, and I couldn’t wait for it. To really test myself and see who I could become.
My friends around me jumped around and hugged me, they were all in the happy mood just as I was. Of course, it was a little dampened by the string of dirty looks that I was getting from Giselle, but I had to just ignore them. One day, she would see that I did the right thing about breaking up with her rather than agreeing to marry her. There was no way that me and her could have worked long term. It was fine in high school, we had fun over the last few months, but I couldn’t be her husband. Especially since she was going to college in a different state to me. She would be exploring the sun in California while I was doing my own thing.
We didn’t need to be constantly tied to one another when we had so much else going on. We didn’t need to be worrying about seeing one another and working our schedules around each other when we had so many new things to explore, so many new people to meet. I was sure that she would be dating some tanned hunk and forget all about me in an instant.
“Giselle is fuming,” someone yelled to me as we started to leave the stage. “She said that you won’t even give her the summer. What the fuck is that about, Adam?”
I wasn’t even exactly sure who yelled that at me, so I definitely wasn’t about to answer them. Why me and Giselle broke up right now was our business alone, and my summer belonged to me. What I was going to do with it was my decision. I sure as shit didn’t need to answer to anyone. I ignored the comments and continued to get swept along with the crowd.
“Adam!” All of a sudden, I heard a voice that I did want to hear in among everyone else. It belonged to one member of my best friend crew. Felicity. Her and Lisa took up all of my free time when I wasn’t with Giselle, even before I had a girlfriend because we were all so similar. It was just a shame that both girls were a year younger than me and wouldn’t be leaving for college with me, to share that life changing experience with me. Then again, it would be good to know that they would always be at home when I visited, in the same place, at least for the next year. Having one constant in a life full of change had to be good for me. “Adam!”
I just about managed to break free from the crowd to envelop my friend in a hug. God, Felicity was adorable. A sweet, raven haired, girl next door type with a sparkling personality that shone above the crowd. She was shy though, coy, and she didn’t see just how incredible she truly was. I tried to tell her, and Lisa did too, but it didn’t seem to get through.
“I watched you graduate,” she muttered in to my chest so that her voice was all muffled. “You were awesome up there. And you looked so happy as well. Like you are loving this.”
“I am happy.” Now, this was someone who really gave a shit about me and who I wanted to share all of my plans with. I actually couldn’t wait. “I have something to tell you.”
“You do?” She lifted those beautiful brown eyes of hers up to meet mine. “I do too.”
I tugged her in to the corner of the hall way where we could talk in peace and grinned at her. “Do you want to go first, or should I?” I watched intently as she parted her lips, but a redness stained her cheeks which I knew meant that she was going to take a little while to get whatever it was out. �
�Actually, I will go first because I am just too excited. I can’t hold back.”
She nodded and pressed her lips tightly together to keep herself silent. She wanted to hear me which was one of the best things about her. She was the best listener ever and so interested in anything that I had to say. I still sucked in a couple of breaths before I started though.
“I have been offered an internship over the summer, Felicity. In New York City. It’s with one of the biggest film companies in the country and they chose me out of all their applicants.”
She didn’t look like she knew what the hell to say. She was clearly in shock. It made me laugh because she looked like she was in a happy place of shock on my behalf. She knew how determined I was, how ambitious I was, she knew what this was going to mean to me.
“I know, right?” I chuckled. “I leave at the end of the week, which puts me in a great position for college because I will have some work experience under my belt, which might lead to more, I might even end up with a permanent job there while I study. That’s what I’m hoping anyway. And I will get to know the city as well, so it isn’t going to be a massive shock.”
“So… wait.” Felicity slid her eyes closed in shock. “You aren’t going to be here for the summer? You’re leaving already at the end of the week?”
“Yes, and I think I might need to, considering I broke up with Giselle today. I don’t know if you heard about it, but it was brutal, and she is really mad at me.”
“I heard, yes.” She nodded. “So, you’re going to escape.”
I pulled her against me in a teasing head lock and laughed. “Don’t say it like I am running away. It isn’t that at all. I am moving away from this small town in to bigger and better things. New York is calling me, and I have to get out of here. I need to be there. This internship is going to be something else. It’s going to transform my life. It’s going to set me on the right path towards my film career and I just can’t wait for it.”
After a brief pause, Felicity’s face broke out in to her trade mark winning smile. “I am really happy for you as well, Adam. You deserve all of this. You are so lucky to get this internship, but of course, you deserve it. of course, they are going to pick you out of everyone because you’re amazing. And I’m sure you are going to love New York…”
See, this was why I wanted to tell my best friends first. Because I knew that they would understand me and be happy for me. I knew that out of everyone, Felicity would get it. The look on her face was one of pure joy on my behalf.
“You know, there is a graduation party tomorrow night,” I said to her on impulse. “You should come with me. You and Lisa. I’m going to need all of the help that I can get. Giselle will be here, and I am sure that she’s going to kick my ass. I would much rather just have fun.”
“But the party is just supposed to just be for people graduating, isn’t it?” She asked me, sounding a little nervous by the prospect but I suppose that made sense because she was so reserved and shy. She wasn’t going to be keen to be around a bunch of people that she didn’t know. “I don’t know if me and Lisa will be invited to it.”
“Trust me, everyone is invited. You are going to be my dates anyway.”
“Your dates?” She mused. “Me and Lisa? To protect you from Giselle…”
“And to have fun with me as well. Possibly for the last time. Since I am going soon…” I pouted out my bottom lip playfully. “You know, leaving for New York and all of that…”
“Well, I suppose we better come then, hadn’t we?” she chuckled. “If this is going to be our last chance to spend any kind of time with you. I don’t want to miss out on that. But I do have to warn you that Lisa might already be Freddie’s date, so you may well be stuck with me.”
“I can handle that! In fact, that might be even better. We don’t want to be third and fourth wheels to the Lisa and Freddie show. Now that is something else.”
“True,” she laughed. “They are terrible, and he isn’t even going anywhere. Not like you…”
I hugged her again and we both started jumping for joy. I couldn’t wait to get going to New York, but I was also really looking forward to one last night of crazy fun with my friends. All of my friends, but mostly my two best friends who had made high school such a fun time for me. Felicity especially, we always had a great bond. We needed an awesome night to have a final goodbye before everything changed all over again. I would see Felicity again for sure, I wasn’t going to become one of those people swallowed up by college life and New York City, but it was going to be different for sure.
3
Felicity
“ S
o, wait, you didn’t tell him anything?” Lisa stared at me with wide eyed shock. “But I thought that the moment after graduation was the perfect time… but you backed out.”
“I didn’t back out,” I insisted. “It wasn’t like that. He told me that he’s going to New York at the end of the week, so there doesn’t seem to be any point in telling him…”
“Why?” She threw her hands in to the air in frustration. “Why wouldn’t you just say it already? You already know that it’s going to be a long distance thing…”
“But I assumed that we would at least have the summer to solidify things first.” I shrugged helplessly. “I didn’t think that he would be just going. Now, it feels helpless. Like I don’t have a chance. I won’t be able to ask myself ‘what if?’ because I left it too late in the first place.”
Lisa pursed her lips out at me, staring me down. She was judging me exactly, more wishing that things could be different on my behalf. “I don’t know, Felicity, it still feels to me like you should have told him. Maybe he wouldn’t have ended up planning his trip so early…”
“He has that internship that we both know he desperately wanted,” I reminded her. “I couldn’t take that away from him. This is me doing the selfless thing. You know what they say? If you love someone then you have to let them go…”
“No one says that.” Lisa shook her head determinedly. “No one with any sense. Anyway, you look incredible tonight. You are going to blow him away at this graduation party. I bet he will end up being the one remaining behind to ask you out. Wouldn’t that be wild…?”
“Have you seen his ex-girlfriend?” I shot out while eyeing my reflection critically in the mirror. “If that is the sort of woman that he goes for then I don’t stand a chance in hell.”
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