Arbeláez García Catalina, To Love Is Not Just Love

TO LOVE IS NOT JUST LOVE

Written By Catalina Arbeláez García

My name is Bella Matthewson, and I’m a seventeen-year-old teenager who knows what she wants and is determined to have it even though I can feel a little insecure about myself sometimes. I decided that if I had to spend my senior year in this town, I wanted to have a dramatic appearance change for me to make more friends and to try to enjoy my last school year. The story begins at the hairdressing salon when I was having my hair done, to change my look. But let’s take a look at how I got here.

One day, I was sitting in my armchair reading a book while drinking coffee, the laughing wind crept up to me, following me up through the windows in my room, hissing at the warmth of my body. The cold readied to strike at me with its venom like a snake as if it was foreshadowing something ominous to happen that day, then my father entered my room and gave me the big news. He said that we were moving to New Jersey because his boss decided that he will be more useful for the company in that place that I referred to as horrible. Why New Jersey? I’ve lived in New York for as long as I can remember, and I had all my friends there. This news caught me by surprise, and by the look of my father’s face, I could tell that he was still waiting for me to say something about it and also that he seemed happy but a bit worried about my unusual reaction.

“New Jersey?” Those were the only two words that came from my mouth in that specific moment.

“I know that it is a little hard to digest this information, Bella, but see it as an opportunity to meet new people.” My father answered me.

“I don’t like meeting new people. Dad, you know that.” I said, and then he walked away.

Three days later, he made us move to New Jersey with him, and we couldn’t oppose to it, as he didn’t have a choice in this

situation, and I didn’t want to live away from him, so I told myself that I would at least give it a try. That’s when I decided that I wanted to change my look, went to a hairdressing salon, and told the stylist that I wanted to cut my hair in layers and to have some blonde highlights in it. A few days later, after changing my look, it was formally my first day at “Highland High School,” the place where I am going to study from now on. I woke up at 6 am, and my dad asked me if I wanted him to give me a ride to school, but I figured that I could go by myself and try not to call so much the attention, so I took the bus and hoped not to get lost on the road.

When I arrived I felt utterly lonely and lost; I missed my New York friends so much. My dad reminded me in the morning before living the house, that I had to go to the principal’s office to register myself and also look for a girl named Carla, as the principal had told my father on the phone, that she would show me around, so; I directed myself to the board room looking for the principal, and he introduced me to Carla. She seemed very nice and kind to me, she walked me around the school, giving me all the information that I needed to know related to the school and she also explained how the schedule works at school. Then, she helped me find my class of mathematics, and when we found it, she briefly introduced me to the teacher and the class itself, and then the teacher told me to sit down close to the board and to ask questions in case I didn’t understand anything.

And that’s when I first saw him. He illuminated the whole room with his beautiful smile when he entered. He had tousled dark brown hair, which was thick and lustrous. His eyes had the same colors of a mesmerizing deep ocean blue with flecks of silvery light performed ballets. His face was sharp and defined, his features molded from granite, and he had dark eyebrows, which sloped downwards in a stern expression. I

heard some girls in the back talking about him, his name was Ricky Hale, and he was the gorgeous person I had ever seen. I followed him with my eyes, to see where he was going to sit down, which was at the back of the classroom with all his popular-friends, and three minutes later, the class started. When the bell rang at the end of the first period, I turned around again looking for him, but he took his stuff and went out of the classroom pretty quickly so I couldn’t make eye contact or see where he was going at.

I spent the rest of the morning looking for him, but I couldn’t find him until lunchtime when I arrived at the cafeteria. There he was in the cafeteria but wait…;

“Who is the girl sitting next to him?” I thought.

I convinced myself that she might be just a friend of him, and then I went to sit with my chemistry lab group that had invited me to have lunch with them, but I couldn’t keep my eyes from looking at Ricky, hoping that maybe he may notice me while I was pretending to eat my sandwich and not paying attention to the conversation, my lab group was having about their holidays, I laughed at everything they were saying and acted as if I was listening to them until suddenly; one of the girls who was sitting next to me asked a question.

“When did you arrive in New Jersey?” she asked. And I kept laughing without giving her an answer, and she noticed that I wasn’t paying attention to her and that I was actually looking at Ricky and way too interested in him, so she decided to change the subject of the conversation and told me some facts about him.

“The girl by his side was nobody else but Donna Cobb, the meaner girl at school, and also, the girl who happened to be his girlfriend.” The girl said firmly.

“Why do such things happen to me? When I just find

something… someone in this town that I like, he is already taken.” I said to myself.

Few weeks passed by; and just as I was starting to accept that Ricky may not be the one for me as he didn’t even look at me or even noticed that I existed. Until one day; coincidentally, my math teacher peered us for a group project of calculus tutoring, which turned out to be his less favorite subject, as he wasn’t good and I happened to be pretty good at it.

“So, what’s your name?” He asked. “I’m Bella nice to meet you,” I said.

“Some people say that you’re pretty good at maths, aren’t you?” He mentioned.

“Yes, you shouldn’t let advanced math intimidate you… It’s as easy as a “pi” I said, and then I laughed.

Unfortunately, I noticed that he didn’t get the joke; by his facial expression, I could tell that he thought that I was a weirdo, and I couldn’t help to think that I embarrassed myself and possibly ruined the moment, just a few seconds after talking to him for the First Time.

After what seemed to be an infinite silence, he finally said, “let’s focus on the tutoring, how about at my place at 5 pm after football practice on Tuesday?”

“That’s perfect,” I responded quickly and then we both exchanged our cell phone numbers.

Days passed by pretty slow, and I just wanted for it to be Tuesday already to be with Ricky. Every Time I saw him at school, I tried to call his attention, and I even gave him my place in the cafeteria line, but sadly he didn’t seem interested in being friends with me at all. Finally, the day arrived, it was Tuesday afternoon, and I was heading towards Ricky’s place. When I arrived I decided to call him first to confirm that he hasn’t forgotten that I was coming, he answered my call, and then he opened the door. He seemed a little different as if he

had been crying for some reason and I noticed that his beautiful smile vanished from his face, so I decided to ask him if he wanted to reschedule our tutoring for another chance and maybe get some rest.

“I’m okay,” he told me, “Let’s get to it before I fail tomorrow’s test.” He added. “You don’t seem to be okay,” I replied to him.

“It’s just a couple of issues between my girlfriend and me, don’t worry about it.” He said

And I answered, “if you need someone to talk to, you can talk to me, I won’t tell anybody.”

And that’s how I realized that my suspicions about Donna being a horrible girlfriend were right. Ricky told me that the real reason why he was acting like that lately, was because he found out that his girlfriend cheated on him with his best friend Mark.

“Oh, my God! That’s terrible, how can someone play with others’ feelings like that?” I said very sadly.

He also told me that Donna said, “it was a huge mistake and that she will never do it again,” but those were lies, I could tell that she only wanted to be with him because of his social status, I’ve met people like that in my last high school.

“Don’t let her get into your head Ricky; you deserve someone way better than her,” I said.

“The thing is that I thought that things were going good between us, you know? When I first met her, I felt that she was the one for me.” He answered.

“There are some people that are just meant to be in our lives for a certain period, and that’s fine, we just need to move on,” I told him to make him feel better.

“Let’s just not talk about Donna for now, why don’t you tell

me something about yourself better, like what’s your biggest dream, for example.” He finally said to change the subject.

“Let’s do the math for a while, and then I’ll tell you whatever you are curious about,” I said.

We studied for around two hours, and when we finally finished, we kept talking about our last conversation. I told Ricky how I wanted to become a successful and recognized lawyer in the future, and to have a big loving family by my side, we laughed together for a while, and I felt how we were beginning to feel more comfortable talking to each other. Later on, he mentioned how people used to bully him when he was younger because he had acne problems and some horrible brackets that made him seem awful.

Then I confessed to him, “you know, people used to bully me too because I used to be way too shy, I had to use glasses, and I hadn’t discovered contact lenses or beauty products and makeup by that time.” I said sadly.

“I couldn’t imagine how someone can bully a girl as beautiful as you are.” He suddenly replied to me, and I blushed. We kept looking at each other, and after what seemed to be an infinite silence I finally said, “it’s getting late, I should better get home before my dad worries about me.”

“Oh, okay.” He said, and then he walked me to the door.

Next day at school, I was learning about the WW1 in my history class when the principal announced through the school’s megaphones the following;

“Don’t forget to buy your entrances to the school’s Halloween Party that will take place at the coliseum this Friday night, and remember, there will be prizes for the best individual and group costumes, teachers and students have the same chances of winning.”

All the students cheered with happiness, and I was super excited about the Halloween party, I had a feeling that it was

going to be a night to remember as it was going to be my first party in this new town.

Friday afternoon came pretty quickly, and I was heading home from school to get ready for the big night. When I arrived, I dressed up as a vampire as my favorite Netflix series was Vampire Diaries, and then my dad gave me a ride to the school’s Coliseum. As I was getting closer to my destination, I could see more and more people disguised walking in groups. Finally, when I arrived, I got off the car and entered, hoping not to find Ricky as things between us since the moment we had at his place has been a little weird.

The coliseum was full, I said hi to everybody, and I joined the dancefloor and I started to sing with my chemistry friends, I was having fun until I crossed my eyes with Ricky, he was gorgeous as always, and this time, he looked at me. I tried to escape from the dance floor the minute he turned around and realized that I was looking at him, but he managed to get where I was very fast and he asked if we could go somewhere private for a moment. I told him that it was okay, so we went to the girl’s bathroom, and when we arrived there, we stayed in silence for about ten more minutes.

Then he finally said, “I wanted to talk to you about something very important.”

“Tell me,” I responded hurriedly.

“I think I’m falling in love with you.” He suddenly said, and I was in shock at that moment.

“I didn’t expect you to say that Ricky, with all the Donna stuff going on.” Those were the only words that came from my mouth.

“I know that it’s not the right time for me to confess my love, but I just wanted you to know that I love you, you’re special for me, I can feel a strong connection with you, and it’s weird because we met just a few days ago but it feels like,

I have known you my whole life.” He said, and then he kissed me, and I kissed him back.

To our surprise, as I was kissing him, Donna entered through that door as she was going to retouch her makeup, and when she saw us kissing, she freaked out and started shouting and throwing stuff around, making a scene. She grabbed my hair and pulled it so hard to get me off Ricky; and I screamed so loud, that some school teachers had to enter the room we were in and take her outside to calm her down, and then the teacher called her parents to come and pick her up and informed the principal about the situation for him to give her a sanction for misbehaving at school.

Ricky and I stayed in that room looking at each other. He told me about how things with Donna were really over and how much he loved me, but I just didn’t know what to say due to the situation that I had just lived so I told him “I need some time to think about all of this, maybe we should talk about this later.” And I walked away.

When I arrived home, I stayed up all night thinking about how Ricky, the guy I had a crush on, told me that he loved me and kissed me, and the Donna theme just vanished from my mind. I just wanted to be happy with him now that I know that he has feelings for me, and I decided that I will tell him that I loved him too, but I figure it would be best if I wait until morning, as it was pretty late, and I didn’t want to wake him up.

I fell asleep as I was thinking about him, and my cell phone woke me up on Saturday with many messages and calls from Ricky. I called him back, and he answered after the first tone, without even saying hello to me, he said “look, I know that you asked me for some time to think things better but I just really need to say this to you...” and he started charmingly telling me all his feelings, making me fall for him even more.

He also mentioned that Donna got into a massive trouble

as it was a school party in the school’s facilities, and she was quite tempered with the teachers after they called her parents to tell them about the situation, and the disciplinary sanctions assigned by the principal. After he finished telling me the story, I decided to open up my heart to him; finally, it was the time to start trusting my feelings, he loved me for real I could tell about that. He waited until I finished expressing myself, and then he told me that he would do anything to see me happy and to be with me, and he emphasized how much he wanted our relationship to work out, and so did I.

We kept texting the whole weekend, and when I arrived at school on Monday, everyone was looking at me as I walked through the corridor. The minute I saw Ricky, I ran directly to him and kissed him in his rosy pink lips as he grabbed me from my waist. At that moment, my heart was so joyful pounding in my chest, and butterflies filled my stomach. All the students and teachers in the hall were looking at us. As the kiss finished, I felt warmth as his body embraced mine in a hug and the smell from his gentle cologne all over my clothes, I’ve never felt so protected and happy in my whole life. And that’s when I knew that whatever you do, do it following your heart.