(Continued from Part 1)
Before I knew it, my first year of high school was over, and summer was just starting. I was accepted to a photography camp, and that was where I met my first boyfriend, Collin.
Looking back on it, I can’t believe I actually forgot about Noah for a week and had a crush on Collin, a blond sophomore and the photographer for his school’s newspaper. The whole two weeks the camp was running, we did all the things normal high school couples do, like eat things off each other’s plates and make out in front of old people just to annoy them.
When I got out of the camp I texted Collin for a couple weeks, thinking that even though I lived in New York and he lived in Texas, that our long distance relationship would magically work out. Now I realized that, boy, was I one naïve fifteen year old!
He broke up with me a month after we went to camp by text, telling me that horrible breakup line from movie, “It’s not you, it’s me.” I cried in my room like I always did when I was heartbroken, but after a couple of weeks tenth grade was started, and I had begun to get over Collin.
When I got my schedule on the first day of school, I was completely bummed. My first class was P.E., and then I had to tutor a ninth grader who needed help with Algebra during my daily study hall. I was told we couldn’t change our schedules unless it was something you hadn’t signed up for the year before. Unfortunately, I briefly remembered signing up to help tutor.
I sadly slumped off to P.E., and was ignored in the locker room while all the other girls talked about all the fun, glamorous things they got to over the summer. I realized that none of my friends ended up in this class, so I sauntered into the gym and did some push ups and crunches that we were supposed to do before we started playing today’s game. When I heard a low voice behind me, I was confused, and a little surprised.
“Would it surprise you that none of my friends except you are in this class?”
When I slowly lowered myself down from a push up, I looked up and glanced into the eyes of Noah Daniels.
Those familiar butterflies started flying in my stomach and I my mouth quickly dried up. Noah had called me his friend? This was a new development.
I sat up and looked back at him in silence. What should I say to him? What was he expecting me to say? I finally built up enough courage, and breathed in slowly.
“I didn’t know we were still friends.”
At my words, I swear, a pained expression appeared on his face before a little grin took over. “Well, maybe we could start on a clean slate. I’m Noah and I’m sixteen years old.” He stuck out his arm.
I giggled a little as I remembered our six year old meeting. I grabbed his hands and I shook it. “My name’s Cleo and I’m sixteen too.”
And as suddenly as the first time it happened, Noah and I were friends again.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
First period was no longer torture; in fact, it was the part of the day I looked forward to the most. Noah and I would spend first period together, kicking a soccer ball or playing hockey while we talked about all the crazy things that had happened in our lives. We started texting and calling each other again; I even went over to his house once or twice.
I still loved him even though I was pretty sure he would never return the feeling. He dated many girls in tenth grade and told me everything he liked about each. He told me about their dates, their kisses, and I substituted his current girlfriend’s name with mine. I imagined that it was me holding his hand, or me with him in the carriages they have in Central Park. Sometimes I tried to flirt a little with him, but it was no use, he was oblivious to anything romantic that came out of my mouth.
I tried to convince myself that Noah and I could still be friends, but I had to move on from him and find someone else that I could at least somewhat like. As the saying goes, there’s plenty of fish in the sea, and maybe one of them would like me.
It was towards the end of year, the beginning of June to be exact, when Noah told me the best news I had heard in a long time. We were in the gym doing push-ups and talking about our summer plans when he said it.
“I broke up with Lana.” He said, his voice cracking when he said her name.
Lana, a short girl with long brown hair was one of those girls that dated A LOT of boys. When Noah had started dating her, I had burst inside, because the girl was practically a big time slut. I bet if you even look up ‘slut’ in the dictionary, the definition is Lana Kapagolis.
When Noah said that I had the urge to scream with happiness. In my opinion, breaking up with Lana was the best thing he had ever done, even though I was a bit biased. I felt that feeling again, hoping, and dreaming, that one day I would be the girl that’d be dating Noah.
I slyly said the next thing that came to my mind. “Why’d you break up with her?”
He sighed. “I realized I liked someone else, and I can’t date Lana when I really want to date another girl. That’d just be wrong of me, wouldn’t it?”
Our gym teacher started handing out basketballs to each of us, me and Noah grabbing two and dribbling over to one of the far corners of the gym. Every time he broke up with his girlfriend, I asked him why he did, and he said the same thing he had just told me. I had always seen some glittering hope behind his answer, but after awhile it didn’t really mean anything to me.
I stood at the free throw line and tried to make a basket with my ball, but it just bounced off the rim and landed right below the net.
As I ran towards my fleeing ball, Noah shouted at me over the sounds of thirty balls bouncing against the wood floor.
“Are you going to the End of School Party next week?”
I grabbed the ball and walked back over towards Noah and turned around, trying to make another basket. This time, my ball went in, making a nice swooshing sound when it went through the net.
“Yeah, of course.” I headed towards the ball again, but then turned around as the ball quickly rolled towards the wall. I gave Noah my best inquisitive glance and asked, “Why?
I noticed he got a little red in the face, but it quickly subsided and he titled his head a little to the left, the same habit he’d had since he was a little kid. “Well, it’d just be nice to know you were going, that’s all.”
I tried to hide my disappointment as I went after the ball, thinking that maybe I should find someone else to crush on who didn’t hurt me as much.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The End of School Party for the tenth graders was held at Hudson Park, a little Jersey City park overlooking the Hudson River, the Brooklyn Bridge, and most of the Downtown Manhattan skyline. It wasn’t a school dance, but there was a party committee that had worked on cleaning up the park and set up colorful decorations around the area. The basketball court has been converted into an outside dance floor and they even hired one of the big name DJs to play music. There was a white tent set up with food in it, and a gazebo hanging with Chinese lanterns that you could take pictures in. I had always thought Kingston set these end of year parties up because they didn’t want us to go to a different school the next year, since there were hundreds of schools just in Manhattan alone.
Even though a lot of the kids treated this party like Prom, I just wore an old, bright blue sundress I had bought at H&M and some matching ballet flats, hoping that they wouldn’t stand out amidst the designer dresses.
When I got to the there, I talked to my friends for a while and danced to a couple songs before settling on a bench right next to the river. I had brought a book light with me just in case I was still reading when it was dark, and pulled out my old, torn copy of Jane Austen’s Emma.
I tried to block out the distant chatter and vibrations from the loud hip hop music blaring from some big stereos near the dance floor. All I wanted to think about right then was about Emma and Mr. Knightley; how their friendship turned into marriage, and it made me think about how I doubted that Noah and I would ever end up that way.
I was just getting to the part at the end when Mr. Knightley proposes to Emma, when I heard someone close call my name.
“Cleo?” My heart always beat a little too fast when I heard that voice, and it was all I could do to tell my heart to stop that annoying tic.
Noah scooted next to me on the bench with a bright yellow Frisbee in his hand. He was wearing a white linen dress shirt and khaki pants. I ignored him and went back to my reading, but he pulled my book by the spine and pulled it out of my hand.
“Hey,” I yelled as he held the book high in the hair and dropped the Frisbee behind him. He got up and pulled the book over his head higher.
“No fair!” I yelled as I once again jumped out of my seat to pick up the book. “You’re taller than me.”
He started running down towards the water, and once he got about five feet from the river, he started running along the shoreline. I ran as fast as I could but Noah was so much faster, and he raced me until we stopped near the Brooklyn Bridge. He sat down in the grass and I positioned myself, ready to reach up and get the book, but I was stopped by Noah, who put the book behind him.
“If you really want the book so badly,” he leaned a little closer and stared deeply into my eyes, “Kiss me.”
I’d wanted to hear that come from his mouth since I was eleven years old. I was so astonished that it took me a couple seconds to come to my senses, wondering if this was actually a real moment or not.
“Well-uhh-ssss..” I stuttered, but before I could finish, Noah’s head was leaning towards me, his peach lips puckered.
I leaned in, and as our lips met, it was as if the fireworks sellers down in Chinatown had set off all their supply over the sky in Central Park like they did on the Fourth of July. His lips felt so rough, but gentle against mine, and it was as if at that moment I knew that we were meant to be together. There was nothing wrong with me liking him, because I knew he actually liked me back.
After a couple minutes, I pulled apart from the kiss and coyly grabbed the book from behind him. I laid back in the wet grass and looked up at the sky, the sun slowly going down against the rainbow sky. I could see some of the bigger lights starting to go on downtown, which meant that it was almost night.
Noah also laid down beside me and grabbed my hand, and I felt the side of his body slowly press against his side.
“Finally,” he sighed, and I was delighted with his answer. I was thinking the same thing the whole time we kissed. I had waited years for him just to kiss me like that. “I haven’t told you this, but,” he paused, “I’ve kinda liked you since I was a little kid. It seems kind of weird, but I’ve always wanted to kiss you and…”
I sat up and slowly put his arm on me. “I’ve felt the same way.” I whispered, and I slowly leaned in towards him again for another kiss.
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