l♥️ve takes time

Continued]...All I felt now was growing rage, looking speechlessly at Nora who stood beside this guy who was undeniably charming and much more masculine than I was in frame -- even though I regretted just saying that...

"I was -- just about to leave" I cleared my throat with a slight shake of my head as I replied Nora who stood in silence to study my face.

"babe, who's he?" Her boyfriend's voice sounded almost immediately.

"Uh, he's..." Nora started with a clueless tone, her blank gaze still fixed on me as she concluded. "He's just our nextdoor neighbour living opposite us"

I felt a sting of pain on hearing her response to her boyfriend. I mean, she made it sound as though I held no title with her -- not even like a friend or something. This made me wonder what I was still doing -- standing in their presence!

So I leveled my gaze on Nora with my mouth parting to say. "I guess I.." But didn't even get the chance to say what I wanted to say when her boyfriend extended his right hand and interrupted me, saying. "Am Jake by name?"

'who cares what your name is!' i cursed inside my head in annoyance as I turned to look at Jake who was now wearing a smile on his face as he waited for me to shake his hand.

A part of me wanted to ignore the handshake -- to give him a sheer taste of embarrassment like I was feeling right now. But then I thought, it would be childish of me not to shake his hand, after all, it wasn't him I had the misunderstanding with.

"Nice meeting you" I faked a pretentious smile on my face as we shook hands before pulling my hand immediately to look at Nora who was somehow trying to decode my mood, and I bet she knew I wasn't pleased or happy. And I doubt she cared one bit for how I felt...

"I will be taking my leave now... Bye" I said to her, my voice sounding a bit shaky before I hurriedly left their midst; walking briskly towards our house with my legs wobbly and eyes blurry from the tears that gradually welled up.

My chest ached badly and was heavy; making my breathing a bit shallow as I entered the house and collapsed to sit on the two sitters couch in the palour -- staring mindlessly at the blank television ahead of me as I struggled to hold myself from feeling more depressed. I didn't know why I felt this way, or was it's because she's my very first crush -- the only girl I had my first kiss with? Yeah, maybe so... But too bad she's been taken already, and I doubt if she'll ever notice me after today.

"So? Did you apologize to the girl?" My mom's startling voice snapped me back to consciousness as she came in from the kitchen and halted her steps beside the couch I was seating on.

"Ye--yes, I did" I sniffed, turning my head to look at her before forcing a smile on my face. And no matter how hard I tried to hide my emotions, my mom still managed to notice that I wasn't in a good mood.

"Are you okay?" She finally asked.

'Should I tell her about what went down between me and Nora or should I just keep it a secret?' I thought to myself as I decided on what to say in response.

"Not quite..." I admitted in a low voice before faking a chuckle as I joked. "Saying sorry to someone is not really my thing."

I didn't want to reveal to my mom anything about my squabble with Nora; at least not yet -- I wasn't sure how she'll react. But she seemed pretty amused by my playful joke.

"Well, you'll have to get used to saying sorry if you want to maintain good relationship with people" she laughed as she advised and turned around while saying. "Lunch will be ready in an hour or two"

"Ok Mom" I said, looking at her as she walked forward to enter the kitchen. And as soon as she left, the sober feeling came over me again. I sighed and slowly lowered myself to lay on the couch and in few minutes, I was fast asleep.

*****

Later that night, I and my dad came out of the house after having dinner. We stood side by side together, directly facing our neighbours house but looking into the night sky which was sprinkled with twinkling stars. My mom was inside, probably in her room or sleeping.

"I remember when you were still a kid... You'll have me and your mom bring you out to look at the stars" He teased with a brief laugh and continued. "We always wondered what you loved about seeing them"

"Well..." I started, still looking up at the night sky as I chuckled to my dad in response. "They seem to keep me calm.. and I must say dad, I still love coming out to see them." Then I turned my head to look at him before his voice broke out again.

"I should probably go inside and get some sleep" He yawned, patting me gently on the shoulders. I could hear the strain in his voice, he was tired and exhausted.

"Yes dad, you should because you sound pretty tired" I agreed, turning halfway to look at him as he sluggishly retreated for the entrance door.

"Don't stand outside for too long so you don't a get a cold" He advised the moment he opened the door to enter.

I smiled, facing his direction and said in a low voice "Okay dad, good night" before returning to look up at the night stars after he went inside and closed the door.

The air tonight was windy and very refreshing as it blew gently against my face.

Then suddenly, my attention was drawn to our neighbours house when their parlour door opened. It was Nora. She came out and stood in front of her house entrance -- facing straight at my direction as though she was expecting me to wave or call out to her... But I wasn't in the mood and ignored her completely; turning my head to look away because a mere sight of her was going to bring back some annoying memories of how she stood earlier today with her boyfriend in front of me. And I wasn't ready to go to bed feeling sad or depressed!

'Now what does she want?' I hissed in my mind when I noticed Nora cross over -- taking long strides to come meet me.

"Hi" she managed to say in a very formal tone as she approached and stood in my front.

"Aren't you supposed to be with your boyfriend?" I mocked

"Are you jealous?" She rolled her eyes at me in a spiteful manner that got me a little upset.

"What do you want?" I looked away as I asked in a harsh tone.

"We need to talk" she urged bluntly.

I scoffed with a shrug and dipped both hands into my trouser pocket before saying, "What's there to talk about?"

"You know what am here to talk about" Nora shot back with her voice slightly raised in anger. Then she folded her arms at me and asked. "Earlier today, you came , looking for me, why?"

"What does it matter" I returned my gaze to look at Nora who was also giving me cold frown.

"It matters because If I can vividly recall, you said it's best if we stay away from eachother -- so why did you come?!" She fired immediately in a stern voice with her left hand swaying from left to right as she spoke.

It pained me to see that we were arguing instead of communicating. So I licked my lower lip and inhaled deeply to calm myself from getting even more upset.

"Okay fine..." I heaved as I gave in to her inquisition; swallowing hard with my gaze lowered on the ground before confessing. "I -- I only came that morning to apologize to you, that I was sorry for not being sensitive to your feelings when we spoke in front of the mall."

Then I slowly raised my head to look at Nora who just stood speechlessly - searching my eyes with a much calmer expression on her face.

"So... Nothing to say?" I asked as she continued to remain mute. Well, what was there for her to say asides the word 'Okay'

I wasn't sure if I was still going to wait for her to say something in response. My only relief was that I gave her the answer she was looking for and without waiting any longer for her to speak, I said. "Look, Nora I -- I should probably get inside..."

"Am sorry, Henry" Her voice finally broke out to hush my words. I was stunned to see that she was remorseful.

I shook my head in doubt and countered calmly. "You don't have to be sorry anything --"

"No, no I truly am" she insisted, slowly unfolding her arms to look me straight into my eyes before dropping her gaze to say in a nervous stammer. "I uh... I guess was just um -- angry that you'll want to ... to stop talking to me when we were just getting to know ourselves. And I felt because..."

"I like you Nora" I heard these words fly out from my mouth without having to think them through. Even I was shocked that I had just said that and so was Nora who immediately raised her startled gaze to look at me.

A voice inside my head argued loudly for me to tell her that I didn't mean it, but I ignored that voice and repeated those same words to her face with all seriousness in my tone. "I really like, like you."

I couldn't say the word 'love' -- at least not yet; it sounded too heavy for me to even pronounce, which is why I had to emphasize the word 'like' more than once. I just hoped she understood where I was driving at.

"I uh..." Nora started to say but paused with a gasping chuckle that expressed her shock. Even I could see that she couldn't find the right words to give as a reply.

"Oh please, spare me the silence and say something." I groaned in shyness; looking away to hide my face because I was beginning to feel embarrassed for even exposing my feelings.

Nora couldn't help but giggle in blush. Then she took a very slow step closer and held onto my right hand with her left hand and cleared her throat with the smile on her face fading gradually into a purposeful look as I returned my gaze back on hers.

"I like you too, Henry." was her only soft whisper to my face before she fell mute with our eyes locked as we stood holding hands.

I yearned for her touch, her lips on mine or even something more.

"Should we go to your place?" I said yet again without having to even think it through. I mean, what was happening to me, was I suddenly loosing control over my own mouth?!

"Yeah" Nora smiled but looked over my shoulder before adding. "But it's almost 9pm, won't your parents notice your absence?"

She had a point there, but I was willing to risk even my parents wrath just to spend some time with her -- no matter how late it was.

"Um... Yes, they might -- or maybe they might not. And uh, besides -- they could be fast asleep." I grinned nervously, still holding Nora's soft hand.

"If you say so" She giggled, and pulled me along as we walked to her house which was also...