something new

Many people have that one special reason that makes life worth living. My life, however, was something that I considered to be a waste of time and space.

For years I've been experiencing depression as I never had real friends nor a purpose in life. After a great deal of time, I got used to my lonely lively hood.

It was after high school when I met someone who changed my perspective of life.

The special someone who changed my life for the better was Susan Miller, a young perky, energetic, ecstatic 18 year old girl whom I would never have thought to be 'the one' for me. I on the other hand, was a low esteemed, pessimistic, insecure 19 year old dark skinned boy or man if you may. We were definitely opposites in every way imaginable.

How we met wasn't exactly all rainbows and candy like a nineties classic romance movie. By the time she came into my life, I had already convinced myself that I would never get married or in-gange in any form of relationship simply because I had been single throughout my entire life as a teenager.

Back in highschool, Susan was someone who couldn't let a day go by without greeting me. Most of the time I ignored her because I didn't want anything to do with her, or any girl for that matter. Besides, I hated the thought of being rejected and abandoned by a girl one day.

Minutes after writing the last paper of my high school senior final exam, I decided to leave the scenery and head home to relax and enjoy the freedom I had so longed for. It didn't take long for Susan to finally approach me.

"Hi," Susan said so happily with a smile on her face as she stood on my path.

her sudden appearance made me want to go home even more. I had no intention of talking to anyone that day.

I had no choice but to reply to her greeting.

"Hi Susan," I greeted her in a sarcastic tone, "I was just about to leave and I have a show I really wanna catch up to later tonight."

Knowing that that day might be the last time she would ever see me, she locked her arms tightly around my waist region and began to shed tears. I only looked down at her without an atom of emotion.

"Why don't you notice me?" she cried out to me,

"what am I to do to prove that I love you? I've tried talking to you, sending you love notes and I've even tried texting you, but you just never seem to notice me. why? You don't even wanna be close to me."

"Susan," I tried to convince her not to look me as her potential mate at all in any way, "my life is nothing but a burden on my shoulders, it's a living hell and I don't wanna drag you or anyone in it."

I had made my point cristal clear to her, but she didn't want to give up on me and boy was she stubborn about it.

She answered, "But why can't we be together? no one really talks to me and I want only you to be my boyfriend."

"She's more stubborn than my little sister." I thought to myself.

I made a second attempt to convince her otherwise.

"Susan, there are many boys out there who really wanna date ya. There's Tyler, Benny, Marshall and a lot more on the market, like that smart dude who's good at robotics. He has an eye for you. Why don't you go for one of them?"

I held her hands and detached them from my waist.

"Good bye Susan." was all that I could say.

I waved my right hand at her from side to side symbolising a good bye as I made my way home. Susan only stood there silently and motionless. Her silence made me almost feel bad for her, but who was I kidding? My emotions died years ago.

After a long day of exams I finally felt a feeling of relief the moment I entered my room and fell flat in my bed,

"Akuna Matata, I don't think I'll ever see Susan or any other annoying classmate ever again," I said to myself with a feeling of pride.

I didn't realize how tired I was at that time and I fell asleep as soon as I grabbed my white snow flake themed blanket.

It was morning the following day and a new dawn had arrived.

"This day is going to be perfect," I thought to myself.

"All I need are my art supplies, novels, cartoons and video games to keep me company."

How I planned that day perfectly. I took care of everything I thought to be an obstacle to my plan. With that in mind, I did my chores, ate breakfast and freshened up in preparation to enjoy my afternoon.

After that I finally took out my 'American girl' novel from my book shelf to read. Right before I could even read the authors name, I heard the sound of giggles coming from downstairs outside my room.

"That voice," I whispered to myself, "It sounds so familiar."

My curiosity forced me to walk down stairs to see who that mysterious voice belonged to. As I approached the living room I began to see the face of the unknown person. It was not until I reached down stairs when I caught a full image of that person's face.

There she was, Susan, chatting with my mother and little sister as though they were best friends who knew each other ages ago.

"Oh no!" I slightly gasped ,"Susan is here, what is she doing here and how did she aquire my address?"

I quickly tip-toed upstairs to my room and made an attempt to jump out of my window in order to get away from Susan.

"Terry!" my mom called out for me.

"Terry, get over here right this minute! your friend is here to see you."

I couldn't disobey my mother's command. My mother is the second most feared person in the entire family, but only when she is aggravated.

I felt a slight chill surge across my spine as I walked down stairs again to the living room feeling defeated and disappointed.

Susan finally saw me walking to her direction and her eyes grew wider as she saw my face once more.

"Hi Terry! I've missed you so much." Susan spoke to me.

I felt no need to talk back to her so I gave out a smile that somehow pleased her to a point that she started blushing.

"Ooooooooh is that love I sense in the air?"

my annoying little sister barged in on us. I immediately gave her a bad look and pointed at the door. My hand gestures were clear enough for my sister to understand, so she left the living room.

My mother giggled softly when she saw me standing in front of Susan. Knowing how much of a loner I was, my mother suggested that I should spend more time with Susan. She obviously did that with the intension of lessening my loneliness. I didn't feel like talking or associating with Susan in any form. However, there was this video game I owned that I always wanted to play but I couldn't since it needed two players to fully experience it's full capacity of levels.

So I painfully yet willingly invited Susan to my room to play my particular video game with me. After hours of playing my video game, dusk finally approached. I noticed that Susan was a little sleepy, she tried her very best to keep herself awake. I decided to go downstairs to get some orange juice for me and Susan.

By the time I got back to offer her some orange juice I found her fast asleep in my bed with my game controllers on her chest and some of the controller's cables tangled around her right hand and thumb.

I commented, "Just look at her, sleeping in my bed. Does she want to spend the whole night here or what? I wish she never came here in the first place, but I gotta admit, she's kinda fun to spend time with."

I too felt a bit tired, so I squinted my eyes to get a clear image of her.

"She looks kinda cute when she's asleep."

Did my perspective of Susan change or was I developing feelings that I had never developed for anyone?

Without waisting anymore time, I woke Susan up before it became too late for her to walk home alone.

Susan said her goodbyes to me and my family and left my house. My mom didn't like the idea of Susan going home alone in the dark. Our neighborhood wasn't exactly the safest neighborhood in town and there were reports concerning theft every week. I felt guilty for letting Susan walk home alone, so I ran off to her aid.

"Susan wait up!" I called out to her.

Susan looked back and waited for me to arrive at where she was standing. She smiled at first and then made a concerned look on her face as though something was wrong.

"Hey Terry!" she waved at me.

I finally arrived at her stand point.

"I appreciate your effort by coming here to accompany me, but it's not safe out here and I don't want you to get hurt."

That was the stupidest thing I had ever heard a vulnerable girl say.

"Susan, don't take this the wrong way. I'm only doing this out of humanity." I motioned my head down to Susan and reached my hand out to her.

"Now hold my hand and direct me to your place."

"You really do care for me." she whispered softly to herself.

"Did you say something?" I asked

"Nope nothing at all." she answered my question and giggled.

I wasn't able to listen to what she said so I let it slide and continued to escort her home. her house wasn't far from mine and within a short period of time, I was able to fully escort her home to her door step. She thanked me and unexpectedly kissed my left cheek and ran off into her house.

I stood outside Susan's house while placing my hand on the cheek that she kissed. Goodness knows how long I stood there.

"How dare she!" I complained. "That was so unexpected and unsanitary, yet so soft and comforting."

I began my journey home and thought about everything that had happened that day.

"What's going on, why am I suddenly nice to her?" I started to feel unusually confused while I walked my way to my house.

"How determined is she? I made a promise to myself," my path of reasoning seemed to return.

"I don't ever want to see her again! she makes me feel weird and stupid whenever I'm around her and I don't like that!" I put my foot down and made my decision with full assertion. I finally arrived home to have my supper and I slept afterwards.

My phone rang at 3AM the following morning. I quickly woke up completely alarmed and disturbed. I felt like I experienced a mini heart attack because I had never in my life received a call that early before. In fact, I had never received a call from anyone, ever. I grabbed my phone from my study table that was next to my bed to check on who phoned me. Only to find that it was an unknown number.

I wanted to end the call, but my curiosity took the best of me.

"Hello?" I answered the call, "Who's this?"

"Hey hi hello!"

I heard a loud voice coming from my phone. I was unable to comprehend what was going on or who on earth I was talking to. what cought my attention was how someone could possess that level of energy so early in the morning. I responded to the phone call by introducing myself.

"This is Terry Kimberly, whom am I speaking to?"

The mysterious person finally introduced herself.

"Oops I forgot to leave you my number, it's me Susan!"

After hearing Susan's voice I gained full consciousness.

"How did she get my number." I thought to myself.

"Is she some sort of spy?" I felt too tired to care in the slightest way possible.

"Susan," I scolded her, "Don't you think it's a little too early to play games? I'm tired and I honestly don't want to talk right now."

"Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow. good bye my love!" She ended the call.

I went to the kitchen to drink some water to relax myself and I went back upstairs to my room after. I took my phone from my bed where I left it and saved Susan's number so that I would deliberately ignore her each time she called me. After that I went back to sleep.

I woke up again by 7:08AM that day. I thought that I would never see Susan again because of the impression I gave when I scolded her on phone earlier that day, but no, Susan came to my place every single day including Sundays after church.

I slowly grew accustomed to her everyday appearance, but I made it clear to her that I wasn't interested in a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship with anyone.

On one unsuspecting day, Susan planned on going on a date with me. I was apparently not excited nor interested in going on a date, but at that point I was incapable of saying no to her anymore.

I took a shower and dressed in my favorite smart-casual clothes. I picked Susan up from her place around 5pm and we both went to her favorite restaurant, Vanilla Corners.

We sat down on a table that was a little further away from the majority of people because I always felt uncomfortable in public. Susan thought that I wanted some privacy with her, but that wasn't the case.

Susan dressed in the prettiest blue dress, which is my favorite color. She had a shiny silver necklace around her neck and she fixed her hair and makeup in such a way that I was almost convinced that she was getting married.

"You look beautiful today, Susan." I admitted, then I fell short of words.

"So, what are you ordering? Chicken, beef, salads, italian spaghetti?"

"I want italian spaghetti dipped in tomato sauce and a side of roasted chicken toped with mint flavoured greens."

How incredible, I was impressed at how Susan knew what my favorite food was. I assumed that she learnt what my favorite food was in order to impress me.

Susan and I ordered our food and started to conversate.

"So, Terry, how do you like my dress? I bought it especially for this special date. It was expensive and all, but I did it all for you."

I knew that Susan would surface that topic once more.

"Susan, I thought I told you to stop this act. We can't be in a relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend. Accepting you as a friend was hard enough." I revealed.

Susan stood up and responded negativity by shouting and pointing at me

"What is wrong with you!? I have done my best to make you happy by coming out of my comfort zone and actually talking to you!" Her loud voice caught the other customer's attention.

"Are you mentally unstable or what!? I've offered myself and provided you with unconditional love. Do you think you will ever find a girl who loves you the way I do!? No! Do you think normal people would actually wanna hang out with you?"

I had never been so insulted in such a disrespectful way. her words were true because those last few words were said to me in first grade back in primary school when I was trying to make friends "Do you think normal people would actually wanna hang out with you?" That memory played in my head at that moment after so many years.

I became teary eyed after going through that terrible memory that made me the pessimistic person I was. It didn't take long for my tears to fall.

"I have to go." I said in a rusty voice and stood up. We both left the restaurant and went our separate ways.

Three days had passed after my failed date with Susan and I began to notice her absence. I found it strange that she didn't even make a phone call afterwards. I began to feel insecure and sad because Susan came to my house everyday without fail.

"Enough is enough." I said to myself, "I'm tired of my ego and I want to see my girlfriend now!"

I picked up my phone to call her but she wasn't picking up her phone. Despite me knowing that everyone left the house to run errands and their daily activities I dressed up quickly and left my house without eating breakfast to see how Susan was doing.

"I can't afford to lose her now, not when I need her the most." I said.

I had arrived at Susan's family's doorstep and knocked on their door.

"Knock knock knock."

A young girl with long brown hair and brown eyes walked out to check on who was outside their door.

"May I help you?" The young girl asked.

"Uh yes, my name is Terry and I........" She immediately stopped my from talking the very moment she heard my name.

"Well well well, look who decided to show up." she gave me a nasty look, but I paid no attention to her facial expression and went on to ask.

"What do you mean by that?"

"As if you care," She answered sarcastically.

"Susan came back crying after your date," she made air quotes on the word date.

She continued to explain, "And then drank pesticide because you made her depressed. She felt so used and worthless because of you."

The thought of loosing Susan made me develope a deep void inside my heart.

"No no no no no, this can't be. where is she?"

"She's at the local hospital, Romeo." the young girl said with her arms folded. I could tell that she was Susan's little sister whom I was told so much about.

I did my best to gather my confidence and I withdrew my tears, but the more I thought about the possibility of losing Susan, the more I became teary eyed.

I didn't want to waste any more time by standing outside Susan's house and feeling sorry for myself. I wanted to see Susan that day, so went to the local hospital to do just that.

"Where is she?" I opened the hospitals doors and began to search the hospital for her.

Finding Susan's room was very challenging for me. I was so tired, angry and Unsatisfied because of it.

I was sitting on a bench next to the counter when Susan's family arrived. My luck definitely struck that time, I saw Susan's mom and older cousin walking towards the counter that I sat next to. They had a plastic bag containing a bowl filled with home cooked food.

I walked towards Susan's mom to attain answers of Susan's whereabouts.

"Ma'am, I'm a close friend of Susan. Please tell me where your daughter is, I must see her now." I said.

I was unable to face them reason being I was so ashamed of what I made Susan do to herself.

My heart ached with guilt, but I had no choice but to continue talking.

"Please tell me where I....."

Susan's mom shushed me before I could complete my sentence.

"You caused this." Susan's mom finally uttered a word that killed my suspense.

"If anything unjust happens to my daughter I will take action against you." She walked a little closer to me and continued to speak.

"Go home and stop pretending as if you care." She poked me on my forehead.

Lucky for me they both left the scene. I seized that opportunity and followed them. Susan's mom and older cousin opened a door that had writings at the top. The doors variables were so blurry that I thought I was going blind and I required glasses to see them. Even so, I was able to read the numbers printed at the top of the door.

"Room 39!" I said so happily to myself knowing where Susan was held.

"I'll be here till night time." I spoke to myself.

So I waited for Susan's family to leave the building and they did so. I walked into the room where Susan was kept, only to find her laying on a hospital bed and connected to machines I usually see in movies when a protagonist gets terribly injured.

"Oh Susan." I said in pity.

"What have I done, what have I....." Before I could continue blaming myself, Susan gained consciousness and started to talk.

"Hey," She coughed, her voice sounded sour and weak.

"Don't blame yourself, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have bugged you against your will."

Unbelievable, she was still willing to blame herself in order to keep me in the clear. I had to stop her from blaming herself and make her realize how I truly felt about everything that had happened between us since day one.

"Susan Miller, you're the kindest, most beautiful person I have ever laid my eyes on. I know I have been treating you badly and yet you smiled at me and cherished every moment we spent together. You've been strong throughout my unforgivable behavior towards you. I have come to realize that you are the love of my life and I don't deserve a perfect gem such as yourself. I've been so lonely that I forgot what it meant to be human." I held both of her soft hands and continued to confess to her.

"You were right all along, I don't think I will ever find a girl as pure hearted as you are. I promise never to treat you like that ever again." I had lost all control of my emotions and began to cry in her presence.

"I love you and I don't want to lose you. Please don't leave me for I can not imagine or picture my life without you in it. You've changed my perspective of life, you taught me how to laugh and smile, you've reminded me of what it truly means to be happy." I hugged her as tightly as I could.

"You are most definitely something new!"

Susan gasped a little.

"Do you mean it? everything you said, did you really mean it?" she asked me.

I answered, "Yes I did and I promise to protect you and love you more than you could ever Imagine. Just please don't leave me."

"more than I can imagine!?" Susan said and immediately jumped off the hospital bed and landed perfectly on her feet.

"What are you waiting for? let's go home, my sweet 'n gullible boyfriend."

It all made sense to me. In all my 19 years of living I never thought that anyone would be capable of tricking me in that way. Only Susan Miller was capable of doing something that infantile.

"Surprise!" My family and Susan's family revealed themselves from there hiding spots. Strangely, they were able to hide themselves in Susan's small hospital room behind some hospital equipment.

"My baby finally found love!" my mother began to cry in joy.

I wasn't able to fully register what was going on there.

"What is going on here!?" I asked.

"Well," Susan's mom explained, "This was all Susan's plan. We all decided to expose the real emotional you that was trapped inside of you and confess your love for my daughter while getting rid of your grumpy side." She chuckled ,"Yup, that's just about it."

I felt so tricked, fooled and impressed at the same time.

"Susan, is this true." I faced her direction.

"Did you really plan this?" My voice tone raised partially.

"Yes, but I'm sorry I didn't know you'd get so mad about it. I'm so sorry." She motioned her head downwards, making her face the floor with her eyes closed.

I held her hands and looked into her glowing eyes.

"Wow, I didn't know my girlfriend was so smart." I told her.

Susan perked up as she usually did, "I know I'm smart, but staying away from you for three days was hell for me." She said and we hugged each other again.

That very night, we all went home for a good night sleep after supper.

On the following day, my official girlfriend and I planned on going on a successful second date as an official couple.

We went to her favorite park to take a walk around 1PM where the water in small streams flowed and the grass as green as they could get and the flowers as bright as imported french designed dresses.

Susan wore black jeans and a black T-shirt. Since Susan had long hair, a pony tail was what she made that day. While I wore a grey jacket with a red T-shirt inside and dark blue jeans.

We sat on a little white painted wooden bench by a puddle and started to conversate. Everything went well on our second date, we laughed and made so many unrealistic jokes together. I didn't want that day to ever end.

I stood up so that Susan and I could continue with our walk around the park. I forgot that there was a puddle right in front of us, I had put one foot in front of the other just like anyone would in preparation to walk and I fell in the huge puddle. My clothes looked bigger because just like me, they were Drenched and soaking wet.

I thought Susan would help me get up on my feet by pulling me out of the puddle, but she laughed at me instead.

"Hahaha!" she pointed at me, "Looks like you have two left feet." She continued to laugh.

"Oh yeah?" I smirked.

I didn't want to suffer that kind of humiliation alone so I pulled her into the puddle.

"Hey what's the big idea?"

It was too late for her, she was already as drenched as I was. Surprisingly, she wasn't at all angry. Infact, we both started laughing at ourselves.

Silence broke out between us. It was quiet and not a person in sight. The conditions were oddly romantic. We closed our eyes and positioned our lips and we finally kissed for the first time.

"I love you Susan Miller." I placed my right hand on her left cheek.

"I love you more, Terry Kimberly. Your love will be forever something new and undying to me." She answered and we both smiled at each other.

We almost forgot that we were sitting in a puddle. Shortly after, we realized our 'soaking' situation. We both stood up and waited for our clothes to dry up while they were still on.

Our clothes didn't take long for them to completely dry up, so we walked home while we made plans for our third date.

THE END.