Josh leaves for school on Thursday with a plan set. He was going to take Karina to the beach tomorrow and tell her how he felt. He was hoping so much she would feel the same way towards him. When he walks in the doors he’s greeted by his friends.
“Hey Josh want to come over tomorrow and play some video games?”
“No. I can’t. I’m, uh, taking Karina down to the beach.”
His friends all look at each other and laugh. God they are such idiots, Josh thought to himself.
“Would you move? I have to go do something.” Josh shoves his way through his friends and walks over to Karina’s locker.
“Hey Karina, uhm, are you busy tomorrow? I was thinking we could-” She cut him off mid-sentence.
“Oh Josh, I’m so sorry. Alex just asked me out for tomorrow night and I said yes. We’re going to the movies.” She didn’t really sound sorry. She sounded more over-joyed. Though who wouldn’t be full of joy after getting asked out by the most popular guy in 9th grade?
“Oh, uh, ok.” Josh had no idea what to say. He was so heart-broken right now that he could barely talk.
“Maybe some other time though?”
“It’s fine, it’s not really that important anyway.” Josh left her and went over to his locker with the worst feeling he’s ever felt before. What was he going to do now?
The bell rang and Josh headed off to English class wondering how he was going to get through the day with this on his shoulders. Usually he was alert in class and taking in everything that the teachers would say but today he just sat in his desk class after class with his head buried in his folded arms. School was finally over for the day and Josh went to his locker to grab his bag and books and he saw Karina standing there.
“Hey Josh, you don’t seem yourself today, is everything ok?” She sounded worried.
“Yea I’m fine. I just, uh, don’t feel good. I’m just going to go home.” And he walked off leaving her at his locker. Never did Josh think he would do this. The one girl that he loved more than anyone in the world standing at his locker as he walks off.
A week had passed since Josh found out about Karina going out with Alex. It was like she had forgotten about him. They’ve been out 3 times already in one week. Josh had left her countless number of voicemails and texts and she barely replied to half, and the ones she did reply to barely had two words.
Josh sat on the floor against the side of his bed throwing a ball at the wall and watching it come back to him. “37…38…39” On the last one he threw the ball as hard as he could and in no time it was back to him and almost hitting him in the face. He ducked and left the ball where it stopped. He stood up and paced back and forth around his room until he pulled his phone out of his pocket.
He scrolled through the names until he found Karina’s and sent her a text.
Hey, it’s me, uhm, can you reply to this as soon as you get it? It’s really important.
He shut his phone and put it back in his pocket. What did he plan on saying? That he loved her through a text?
He didn’t know how long it would for her to reply. It had taken her a few hours to reply to something that just said “Hi.” Maybe it’d take her a day or so. Right when he thought this, his phone chimed when it does when a new text comes in. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. His face was lit up until he saw who it was from. It was from one of his friends.
“What does the idiot want to go do now?” He said aloud.
After he read the text he didn’t even bother replying to it he just put it back in his pocket. As soon as he did so, his phone chimed again.
“Oh my god could people just leave me alone?!” He looked down at the screen after he said this and when he saw it was Karina he wished he didn’t say it. At least it wasn’t a call though and I said that, he thought to himself.
He slid the phone up to read what she had said.
Hey Josh, what’s up? You ok?
What was he going to say? A million things were running through his mind right now. Did he want to tell her right now he loved her? Did he want to meet up somewhere? Yea, that sounded like a good idea.
Hey, could we meet up in about 10 minutes at the park?
He stood there looking at the screen waiting for her reply. 5 minutes had already passed. Was she just going to wait a few hours to reply to this? A couple more minutes passed when his phone chimed again.
Yea, sure. But why? Is something wrong?
No nothing’s wrong I just need to talk to you about something. Make sure you come alone though. Please.
He grabbed his coat off the back of his chair and ran out of his room and down the stairs, well rather jumped. He almost fell once he was down to the bottom of the stairs and his mom just looked at him in shock.
“Hey, what’s wrong? What are you doing?”
“I’ve got to go meet Karina. I have to tell her.” He sounded exhausted.
“Tell her what? Josh it’s 9 at night!” She yelled to him as he was running out the front door.
Josh ran down the street until he was at the park. What would have taken him about 5 minutes if he would have walked took him just a couple. This gave him a few minutes to think about what he was going to tell Karina.
He looked down the street towards where Karina lives and saw her walking with her ear buds in. She looked up and when she saw him she put on a big smile and waved. Josh tried to smile but he just couldn’t. In just a few short minutes he would be telling Karina how he felt towards her and hope that she had even a little bit if feelings towards him.
She got all the way up to him and sat down on the bench.
“Hey, what’s up? Something wrong?”
“Uhm, no, nothing’s wrong. I just want to tell you something. A few things really.” Now’s the time, I’m really going to be telling her. A million things were racing through his mind. ‘You can do this.’ ‘No you can’t’ ‘Can I?’ ‘Should I?’
She was just smiling the whole time not saying anything.
“Well, here goes nothing.” He said this quietly to where she couldn’t hear him. He took a deep breath and then looked into her eyes and said, “Karina, we’ve been friends for a really long time. As long as I can remember, to be honest. We’ve been through everything together; the good and the bad. I always turn to you when I need something because I know I have you to trust.”
“I guess what I’m trying to say is…” He took a deep breath and said, “I like you. I really, really like you. I have for a while now and last week when I asked you if you were doing anything on Friday, it was to tell you this.” He was now talking fast because she wasn’t saying anything and he was trying to get this over as fast as possible. “And when I found out you were going on a date with Alex I kind of gave up hope, but not completely.”
He looked down at his shoes and then up again and said slowly, “So why I brought you here tonight was to tell you this and I was hoping that maybe, just maybe you liked me just a little bit.”
She was just watching his every move. He was now very nervous. What will she say? Is she just going to laugh and walk away?
“Josh look at me.”
He looked her straight in the eyes and didn’t want to look away. He was hoping that they could stay like this forever.
Karina was staring at Josh, it looked almost as though she were looking right through him.
“To tell you the truth…I don’t like Alex. I never have. I only agreed to go out with him to make you jealous. I like you Josh. I really like you too.”
They were just looking at each other for what seemed like forever. After what was really just a few minutes Josh leaned over and kissed Karina. He kissed her for just a short few seconds, but it meant the world to him.
They both stood up and put their hands in each other’s and linked the fingers together. Together they walked towards their houses hand in hand.