Came Along

Darcy was wandering around in the hallways of her school, - pretending to be searching for her English teacher- trying to prevent spending her free lecture, getting bored, in the library. She roamed around aimlessly, twirling a strand of her hair from her high ponytail and the other hand fidgeting with the end of the sleeves of her jacket, worn over her dress. She wasn’t nervous about getting caught by any teacher because she had a good excuse for it, she was more than nervous for if she bumps into a ‘certain him’. As she roamed around in the hallways, peeping into classes and making the students laugh, she was silently observing her surroundings, trying to avoid bumping into him because the chances for it to happen were very high as she could only be so sure of him having a free lecture at the moment too and come on, jocks don’t sit around in the library and do nothing. Slowly and steadily, she zoned out, still walking but not paying attention to the chattering around her, he had captured her mind. His eyes reminded her of the oceans, so blue that you could say he had the water captured behind them. His straight, brown, spiked up hair, looked so smooth to her that she couldn’t resist the urge to run her fingers through them. His body, so well-built that it took her breath away, slightly, every time she saw him play soccer. His lips, so pink and plump that she could kiss them all day long. His nose, long and thin, crinkled every time he threw his head back while laughing and those prominent dimples couldn’t have gone unnoticed by Darcy’s eyes. His walk was so mesmerizing, every stride had proud and self-esteem, and confidence. Last but not the least, the very thing that Darcy was crazy about was his British accent. Yes, all the guys had the same accent but there was something different about when he called her name.

As she reached the ninth floor, or the seniors’ floor, her breath picked up and her heart was racing faster than ever. She saw him standing a bit farther away, in front of her. His hand on his hips, while the other in his hair, he turned around before Darcy had the chance to take off and took long strides towards her. Except the both of them, the whole school knew about the mutual feelings they had for one another. He took in her appearance, a white sundress paired with a short black leather jacket and black, flat, ankle length boots and her hair braided sideways. This wasn’t a very new sight, Darcy was known as the fashion queen in the school. Her outfit generally described her, sweet and shy. He nodded at her and greeted her, ’Darcy’ he said while nodding. She gave him the same greeting, trying to hide her emotions, ‘Cody’ she said, while nodding too. They both stood there awkwardly, saying nothing, just looking at each other. His hands stuffed deep into his pockets while her hands were wrapped around her torso. ‘Want to get away?’ he asked, surprising himself and Darcy. ‘Why would I want to go anywhere with you?’ she asked taken aback by her boldness while he looked impressed, she knew there was something about him that bought out her hidden self. ‘Maybe because you and I could get caught and sent into detention?’ he replied curtly, ‘If I don’t want to get caught, I’ll just go and sit in the library, wouldn’t I now?’ she replied smartly but he was smarter than her. He said ‘if you wanted to, you would’ve been sitting there’ and smirked and she knew she had lost the argument. Darcy Imogen Danker had lost an argument to Cody Williams. ‘Where is your car?’ she asked and followed him out.

‘I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to your stupid idea.’ Hollered Darcy to Cody. ‘What? You’re saying as if this is my fault. How is the storm my fault?’ defended Cody. ‘Fine’ huffed Darcy and sat back in her seat. ‘If we want to get through this storm, stuck in this car with each other, then we might as well try to get along’ said Cody, no matter how inviting that sounded to Darcy, she knew she couldn’t, or well more like she shouldn’t. She had the capabilities to destroy him and others. She was like this Grenade, when she bursts, she will destroy everyone and everything around her. Even though she knew she couldn’t, she also knew that she had no other option. They started playing 20 questions and got to know a lot about each other. From their favorite color to favorite clothing brands to just everything. Cody asked Darcy ‘have you ever had a boyfriend before?’ And she visibly tensed up, tears brimmed her eyes as she thought about Mark, the only guy she had ever dated. The only guy that could make her feel wanted, pretty and beautiful and just everything. Cody could see her eyes filling up with tears and he, suddenly, was feeling guilty. ‘Hey, what’s wrong? Did I ask something that I wasn’t supposed to?’ he asked, concern dripping from his voice and care shining bright in his eyes. ‘Nothing. Nothing at all’ said Darcy chuckling, ‘what do you fear?’ asked Cody, ‘not being perfect’ she said and continued ‘not being the ideal person they want me to be. The fear of not being pretty or beautiful like those perfect girls out there. It fears me that I cannot achieve perfection.’ He stared at her in shock, he never thought of her suffering through something so irrational. ‘Perfection is an illusion, you know? Everybody wants it, when in reality there is no such thing as perfection. There’s so much more in a person than being perfect. Like when I see you, I don’t look at you to see if you’re pretty or beautiful or hot. I look at you to see if you’re funny and intelligent and smart, or have a great personality in all, or not. No matter how much you chase perfection, you can’t achieve it because there’s no such thing as being perfect’ and that was all it took for Darcy to hug him tightly. Nobody had ever said that to her but Cody, here, did. ‘Mark was his name’ said Darcy looking at a confused Cody, ‘my ex-boyfriend? Mark’ she filled him in and he asked her ‘Mark Watson?’ she hummed in agreement and Cody looked at her in shock ‘why would you go out with a douchebag like him?’ he asked and Darcy said ‘he made me feel. He reminded me of my beauty and that I’m worth it. He held me so close, no one had ever done that’ and with that she looked away, ashamed of her confession. Cody let out a sigh and held her chin, turning her head, gently, to face him and he said ‘you don’t need him to remind him of your beauty. Everyone around you can see how beautiful you are. It isn’t something that you need to be reminded of, it’s something that you should know. Something that you feel as soon as you wake up in the morning. Darcy, to yourself, you’re just a piece of art but to me, and so many others, you’re a masterpiece’, she didn’t know what to do, she was hysterically crying at this point and so Cody held her, he held her close to him, so close that nobody, not even Mark had, she felt safe there, right there in Cody Williams’ arms. She felt oddly at home and safe. That was the moment she knew that she was undeniably in love with Cody Williams.

Much to her dismay, she wiggled out of his muscular arms and asked him ‘what is it that you fear?’, he was hesitant but gave in, ‘I hate oblivion and being judged’ he said, then closed his eyes, took a deep breath and started, ‘it isn’t one of those once upon a time kind of stories, it isn’t like your normal stories, it’s something that has being going on since I was born and even after knowing how to stop it, I couldn’t and still can’t. Maybe it’s that I am weak but the only thing I know is I could never fight it. As all of us know, I am the son of the well-known business man, Henry Williams. My father owns a lot of companies and is sickeningly rich. So naturally, when I was born, people started deciding my future. Some said that I’ll run the family business where some said I’ll become an obnoxious brat and use my father’s money to ‘fulfill my requirements and pleasures’. As I grew up, I had people behind my back, continuously pestering me on how to talk, walk, eat, speak, and behave, and what not. It was suffocating. My dad had my entire life planned out, he was so sure that I will take over the family business and run the companies that he never saw my passion and interest in soccer. As time passed, I learnt it the hard way that I have to stand up for myself or they’ll crush me. Every single Christmas I was alone with some servants at home while my parents were at some meeting. That’s why I fear oblivion. Being left alone for most of my childhood isn’t a great thing to look back at, and well everybody hates being judged’, while saying all of this, he looked outside his window, not even once did he turn his gaze to look at Darcy. Here, Darcy was sitting shocked and touched by his story. She expected him to have the perfect life but turns out the figures were wrong, very wrong. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know’ was all she could muster up the courage to speak, ‘it’s fine. Nobody does’ he said with a smile, she knew was a put up.

It had been hours since they were stuck in Parker’s car, it was getting darker and darker as each minute passed and made an hour pass. Darcy was observing how the raindrops, falling on the window, were racing their way down the window, while Cody was busy, drowning in his own thought process. Darcy jumped from her seat into Cody’s arms as soon as she heard a lightning strike and she heard him chuckle, soon his chuckle was turned into a full blown laughter and Darcy was hiding her embarrassed face, burying herself in his chest. ‘Aw is ickle Darcy scared of the thunder?’ he said while laughing which resulted in him earning a smack from Darcy, followed by her muttering ‘don’t make fun of me.’ They sat there, embracing each other’s company for a long period of time, as they stared at each other, without noticing, they were inching further, towards one another, he looked at her lips and into her eyes as if asking for her permission and she slightly nodded, when their lips made contact, it was like a scene taken out from a Hollywood movie, there were firecrackers bursting around and Darcy’s mind swirling with happiness. They broke off, breathlessly, and looked at each other with this silly grin on their faces. ‘I might have been waiting for years now to do this, Darce’ said Cody, ‘well then I am so sure that our feeling are mutual right now, Mr. jock’ and that was all it took for Cody to kiss Darcy again. It’s like they could never get enough of each other, no matter how hard they tried. When they, finally, pulled away, they realized that the rain had stopped and that they could go back home. Before starting the car, Cody turned over to Darcy and said ‘Darcy, I have been waiting since the freshman year to talk to you, when I saw you, I was just so intrigued by your persona and now when, after four years, I had the chance to talk to you and kiss you, I don’t think that I’ll be able to live without you. It’s early for us to marry, so, Darcy Imogen Danker, will you do the honors of being my girlfriend?’, Darcy was stunned by this, her voice was stuck at the back of her throat, so she just nodded her head vigorously and threw her hands around his neck and kissed him with all she had in herself.

He drove off from the unknown street towards Darcy’s house. His, one hand was on the steering wheel while other was tangled with Darcy’s hand and was placed on her thigh. They were singing off key to all the songs that came up on the radio. This was all they had ever asked for and more. Soon enough the car was parked in front of Darcy’s house and she proceeded to get down but Parker caught her arm and turned her around, and kissed her passionately. She got down and walked towards her house, before she could enter the front door, she turned around and said ‘I’m glad I came along, Mr. Boyfriend’, and nothing could wipe off the silly in love grin from either of their faces.

THE END.
-B.