A love story

I opened the door to find the only girl who would talk with me during vacation classes. I never thought I’d see her again, yet here she was. Apart from the heavy rain, I clearly heard her sniffles. I couldn’t tell if it was from her crying or the cold.

“I didn’t know where else to go, and you were the only one who gave me their address.” She started to rumble on and on about why she didn’t want to impose, but she had nowhere else to go.

She never met my gaze; she glanced everywhere but my eyes. After she was done talking, she looked at me like I was her last hope. No one had ever looked at me like that before then.

Before I said anything, my mom had reached her door. She looked back and forth between her and the suitcase, letting out a sigh.

My mom showed her in and offered her a cup of hot tea. Though she seemed quite terrified, she made sure she could answer all the questions asked without breaking out into sobs. That was also the first time I had noticed how brave she was.

Her parents had left her in the middle of nowhere with her belongings, and she somehow found her way here. They found texts of her confessing that she might not be into boys. They didn’t give her a chance to explain; they just started packing her bags.

After a round of interrogation, my mom agreed to let her stay with us for a while. They gave her a barely used guest room to stay in.

That was how she officially became a part of my life.

Lily had become a part of the family in just a few months. Sometimes I felt like she was more of their daughter than I was.

At that time, I couldn’t tell if what I felt towards her was jealousy or admiration. She always made me feel quite weird when she was around. Her laugh was both ridiculous and contagious.

She had enrolled on the same school my brother and I were attending a week after settling in. With such a short time, she had already adjusted to her classes and made friends. She had straight A’s by the end of the semester and had joined the cheer team. Everyone loved her, from the staff to the students; she had the kindest eyes and the sweetest smile.

There was a bit of distance between us. I wondered why that was since we were friends. Looking back at it now, the fault was also on my side.

I held a bit of a grudge. I wondered why she wasn’t giving me the same attention, considering I was the main reason she had a roof over her head.

The days of that particular vacation blurred together, but one of them stood out among them.

She wanted to retwist her locs, but she had to wash them first. She had thick micro locs that reached the middle of her back. I heard her struggling in the washroom, so I decided to take a look.

Her hair was soaking along with her shirt. The shampoo was only in half of her hair, and she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

She quickly turned around to look at me as if she had been caught doing something wrong. I always used to ask why she spent hours here, and I had finally figured it out.

I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, which immediately stopped when I looked back at her. She looked embarrassed and stared at my feet in silence. I offered my help, and although it was met with some resistance, she agreed to let me assist her.

She told me how she had never fully learnt how to wash her hair because her mom always did it for her. That was the first time she had truly opened up to me after she had arrived here. She even joked about how most of the products here were for white people, so she struggled with it a bit.

As I assisted her with washing her hair, we fell into a comfortable silence. I never noticed her freckles, which perfectly blended with her glowing hazelnut skin. My gaze slowly drifted to her lips, then back up to her eyes again.

She was already staring at me. I didn’t realise when I leaned in or when I pulled back with the lame excuse of picking up the conditioner.

For a split second, I saw the disappointment on her face, but it was too quick for me tell if it was real or not. Everything felt awkward, and I didn’t know what to do about it.

She let out a little giggle, and we just laughed it off after that. We decided to get proper hair products once we were completely done.

After that incident, we stayed close friends. She always found ways to spend time with me after that. During those days, her attitude towards me didn’t seem unusual in any way.

Perhaps I was just blind to all of her advances.

Our friendship had grown over the year, and she had practically become one of my parents’ children. They always joked about how she would become a part of our family very soon. Back then, I didn’t understand what they were trying to say.

I just thought my brother would have been a very bad match for her. I also didn’t understand why they would laugh after I would say something like that.

Things changed in the last year of school. After Lily got emancipated from her parents, I started seeing a boy from the next school.

She would get quiet every time I brought it up. My ex-boyfriend always talked about how she didn’t seem to like him that much, but I couldn’t see it. I thought he was being dramatic, so I didn’t think much of it.

We broke up after one of the worst dinners I have ever had. He found out about Lily’s sexuality and mentioned how weird it was that I was her close friend.

He made rude comments the whole night. It ended with Lily leaving the table in tears and disappointment. I never spoke to him after that. I am still quite shocked that I didn’t realise how hateful his comments were.

After that night, my relationship with Lily got worse. I overheard a conversation my brother had with her a few days after the dinner. She spoke about keeping her distance from me and how she was officially going to give up on me.

I never realised she had feelings for me till that moment. My heart skipped a beat as I quickly left for my room, afraid of being discovered.

The entirety of the next week was hell. My mind was plagued with her indirect confession. I pondered why I was feeling that way, but I eventually concluded one night. I also had feelings for her.

It was too late, though. It was very obvious she had truly moved on.

We both got into the same college and shared the same room, and I couldn’t deny my feelings for her. I held back on them still. Knowing very well I could not just impose on her when she decided to keep the space in between us. I decided to keep these feelings buried deep in my heart till we both went our separate ways.

Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.

During our third year, one morning, I felt incredibly weak. The only person who was there to help me was Lily. She skipped her classes that week to help me recover.

Even though I wasn’t fully conscious most of the time, I couldn’t help admiring her. Her tender hands kept on touching my forehead. She would place my body against hers to help me move around.

I didn’t know why she thought that would help since I was a head taller than her. I didn’t intervene when she did that; it felt nice.

It didn’t take long for me to get back on my feet. Everything was supposed to be back to normal, but it wasn’t. She was back to the shy teenager I saw on my porch. She refused to look at me directly. Although she started attempting to spend more time with me, she would always back out at the last second or the whole time act awkwardly.

I couldn’t take it anymore and asked her directly one Friday night why she was acting that way.

After biting her bottom lip shyly, she slowly told me how I had confessed to me when I was sick.

“You told me I have the prettiest eyes ever, and you told me that you had practically been in love with me for the past three years.” She was beaming, but for some reason I couldn’t see that.

The thought of making her uncomfortable had clouded my mind, and the last thing I wanted her to do was for her to hate me more. I started to apologise frantically, I didn’t want her to think I was creepy.

Before I could continue, she cut me off.

“I don’t mind, I think it’s nice.” She looked up at me with her doe-like eyes; she knew I could not say no to her. “Would you like to have a movie night with me, right here, tomorrow?”

She kept staring at me expectantly. I snapped out of my daze and nodded yes as hard as I could. She acknowledged that and left me in the living room.

The next night came way too quickly. I don’t remember what exactly happened or what movie we watched, but this next part is something I would never forget.

She mentioned how thirsty she was. I went to grab the bottle, but I didn’t realise she was also reaching for it. Her face was so close to mine. I could count every freckle on her face. I had flashbacks to when we were in my parents’ house. My heart kept leaping, and I couldn’t stop staring at her lips.

She smelled like vanilla and cocoa butter. She had cut her locs to perfectly frame her face. I looked back at her, and she was also staring at my lips.

She looked back at me and slowly leaned in for a kiss, and I did nothing to stop it. Her soft lips pressed against mine, and in that moment, my mind went blank. I tried to kiss her back, but I ended up falling off the couch.

She giggled like she used to when we were close friends. My ears and cheeks were burning, but I had never felt happier.

I could have been wrong then. Maybe the happiest I had felt was when I saw her at the end of the altar waiting for me in her beautiful pink gown.

It might have also been when I found out she had survived her crash or when some of our biggest misunderstandings got cleared.

I’ll never know which moment in my life was my happiest, but I know it was definitely because of her.

With all the strength my frail body could master I walked over to her bed and lay by her. This was supposed to be her last moments. They told me it probably wouldn’t be advisable for me to be here, but what was I supposed to do?

She had been by my side through everything, from my parents’ death to getting fired.

She looked exhausted yet so beautiful. Her wrinkles deepened as she smiled at me.

“I’m glad you’re here Iris.” Her voice still sounded so genuine and kind after all these years.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

She looked at me, she stared at my features for the longest time before finally closing her eyes and placing her head on my chest.

“I love you.” She said. Although it sounded like a goodbye, it didn’t feel like one.

With the last of my strength, I run my hand through her locs. She had cut a few years ago and was now neck-length. A smile played on my lips as I closed my eyes.

I had finally found my favourite moment, this one.

I parted my lips tell her my last words as our heartbeat slowly disappeared from this world.

“I love you.”