Prologue
He turned to face me fully, eyes meeting mine again.
"Do you want to go out with me?"
My brain exploded.
Wait. Wait. WHAT?!
Let's roll the tape for earlier that month.
My favorite movies and shows are always about romance. I love every detail, holding hands, awkward first kisses, and ending up together forever. I keep wondering how that will feel for me when I finally have a boyfriend. But of course, nothing ever happens.
I gave compliments to the insecure, offered advice, helped around the house, and made sure things ran smoothly at school. Even my teacher calls me dependable. I guess that's who I am: nice, easy to talk to, and simple. I don't fake it. I genuinely love seeing people smile and giving them my time whenever I can. That's just me—your dependable Lea that everybody likes.
It's all good… until it isn't right?
Look lately, even the boys see me as too friendly, someone comfortable, harmless, the kind of girl who's always the friend and never the crush. And honestly? I'm getting a little tired of it.
Once, I heard a guy from another class liked me, but I didn't even notice. He was kind, I was kind, it just felt like normal friendliness. Besides, my attention was somewhere else.
His name was Beau, yes, just like the French word for handsome, and he lived up to it. From head to toe, he was perfect. Everyone wanted him. Girls from other classes came just to see him, hoping to confess. Naturally, I thought he'd never look twice at a girl like me. My father always says handsome boys are the cheater type, but I guess girls nowadays like a little drama. They'd joke, "He can cheat with me! I'd be his mistress just to see that smile."
One afternoon after school, I saw him on the street with a girl from another school. They were holding hands, and then he hugged her before putting her in a taxi. When he noticed me, he hurried over and, with that same charming smile, begged me not to tell anyone. Not because he wanted to protect her, but because he was already dating someone else from our school.
That was the last time we spoke.
That's how my first crush ended. Still, for a while, I caught myself watching him from afar, thinking, Maybe there's some kindness in him somewhere.
Maybe that's my problem. I like handsome men, but who doesn't?
In dramas, the handsome ones are misunderstood, secretly gentle, just waiting for the one odd girl who sees the real them. Of course, I thought that girl could be me. In real life, though, it never works that way.
I keep longing for that moment when my own story begins, when life finally feels like a movie.
And then one day, there was a new transfer student. His name was Jack, tall, with striking yellow eyes. At first glance, all I saw was another handsome guy, which usually means one thing: drama, gossip, and a parade of girls.
But I didn't know it then; his arrival was about to change my quiet, predictable life into something completely different.