Charades and Pretty Lies

         Charades and Pretty Lies
                                                                     By AJ Peaslee

Seventh Grade sucks. I don’t want to be here. I would much rather be with my friends and hanging out at their houses. But I also want to be with her more than them. She is my best friend, but it seems time has a changing effect on people. I no longer am her best friend in my heart, I love her. I haven’t told her, I don’t know how. I’ll let her know before I graduate to high school.

Sitting in class, reading a book. I like History, but I hate math and that is why I am sulking in this class. I’m usually really focused on work, but all I can think of is her. I’m writing down an algebra problem on a sheet of paper, but it slowly turns into her name. Shelly. Shelly, it sounds angelic, almost godly. In my eyes, its perfection in words and in a single person, she is everything I ever wanted in life.

“Aubrey! Aubrey! Hello! It’s your turn to answer a question young man!” Mrs. Fields yells at me, waking me up from my day dream of love.

I get all shaken and nervous. I say my answer and go back to my business. Is this what love is suppose to do to someone? I have never felt this sensation before……

I see Shelly after school before I get on my bus. She looks even more beautiful today, but she looks like she always does. What is happening to me?

“Hey Aub! Are you coming over later? I would really like it if you did.” Shelly shouts to me from her bus in her ever so sweet voice.

I tell her yes and I get on her bus instead. We laugh about stuff all the way to her home. We go inside and we watch a movie. I don’t know what it was, but it had Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in it. It was intense. After that it was late and I decided to get headed home. Part of me didn’t want to leave.

“Tell her now! What are you waiting for? Tomorrow might be too late to tell her!” The little voice in my head yells back to me.

Shelly stared at me while I get ready to exit out the door. The way the sunset is coming in from the window….It makes her look even more amazing. I start to tremble a little as I get ready to ask her. I open my mouth, but her mother tells her dinner is ready and she goes to eat while I walk with my head down all the way home and into my bed.

High School sucks. I don’t want to be here. I would much rather be with my friends and partying. But I also want to be with her more than them. She is my best friend, but it seems time has a changing effect on people. I no longer am her best friend in my heart, I love her. I haven’t told her, I don’t know how now that she has a boyfriend. I’ll let her know before I graduate high school.

I sit at the cafeteria table, eating my pizza and chips. I sip on a Sobe and enjoy my short lived meal before going back to hell upstairs with Mr. Cutler. I love to write now, it’s my passion. Now ironically I hate history. Funny how time does that. I lift up my Sobe and start to drink out of it. I see a hazy image through the liquid and glass. I bring it down and feel my heart throb. It’s Shelly. She sits down and says a sassy remark. We start to laugh like always.

“Are you planning on going to prom? It would be nice if you did ya know.” Shelly asks me in a seductive voice and a wink of her eye.

How the hell can I say to that? It’s only the girl I loved before I knew what love was. I tell her I doubt it and she walks off telling me she will see me later. As she walks off, Riley, her boyfriend, walks out with her and kisses her on the cheek. Fuck you Riley.

My conscience isn’t going to let me live that one down. I said no to her. Smooth one Aubrey, smooth. I survive hell with Mr.Cutler and head home. I love senior privileges. I go home and contemplate why I didn’t say anything to her about how I have felt for the past six years. Damn it all to hell. Time to go to bed I guess.

I watch her graduate, and I watch her walk off with Riley instead of me. I hate graduation. I hate life in general in fact. Why do I have to clam up? Can’t I just say it all ready? I’am a man now, not a boy. Why am I so afraid?! I get my diploma and put a happy face on for everyone. I’am not satisfied, I don’t like being alone. Shelly…..

I’am thirty years old now. I have made a great living off writing, and I have two kids and a beautiful wife. I started to write a love story, when it hit me. There was a girl I loved for the longest time…..but I can’t recall the name. I start to write and it automatically appears, Shelly. I loose it, I start to cry. How could I have forgotten? I wonder how she is these days, and if she even remembers me. I wish I could see her one last time and tell her how I felt all those years ago. My wife Linda comes up and asks me what’s wrong, I tell her old memories and she comforts me. I love her a lot, but Shelly…perhaps she did know I loved her and didn’t ask…..I doubt it though.

I’am an old man sitting in my rocking chair, I watched my sons grow old and becoming wonderful men. I watch my grand daughter run around in the field outside our house. I figure I do not have much time left and I decide to look at my old things from high school. I dig around in the closet and see old school work papers. Shelly is written all over my work, with hearts and such things. I come across a crumpled note that I do not recognize. I open it to see something that stopped my heart for a split second.

“I stare at him everyday. His hair sways in the wind and it makes me want him even more. The key to my heart belongs to him, but he has yet to find it. Is he afraid? I am too, when will I finally tell him how I feel. Aubrey, I love you, I always have and I never will love anyone else.  Kiss me Aubrey, kiss me until the moon sets and the sun rises, and love me until the end of time…..”

I begin to laugh and cry at the same time. Tears pour down my wrinkle ridden cheeks. She knew, she knew the whole time. If only I could set back time to tell her….Shelly, I don’t adore you, I don’t like you, I love you. It’s too late for me now, but I can go with ease now knowing she at least knew. I go to bed a much happier man….

Something miraculous happened that night, I cannot say what it was, but it changed my life forever….

High School sucks. I don’t want to be here. I would much rather be with my friends and partying. But I also want to be with her more than them. She is my best friend, but it seems time has a changing effect on people. It is time, time to tell her.

Shelly walks up to me at lunch while I’m sipping on a Sobe. She asks if I am going to prom. I tell her yes, but I say only if I can be with her. She turns completely red and giggles. She tells me she can’t because of Riley. I grab her hand and say it:

“Shelly, I have loved you since the seventh grade. I cannot go on with my life without telling you. I don’t want to look back on all this and regret it. Please Shelly; tell me you think the same.” I burst out in a desperate tone.

I watch her graduate, and I see her wink at me. I wave and smile back at her. I get my diploma and jump into the air with joy. Everyone laughs and I walk off stage, kissing Shelly and walking off into the sunset outside the school.

I’am thirty years old now. I have made a great living off writing, and I have two kids and a beautiful wife. I started to write a love story, when it hit me. There was a girl I loved for the longest time…..and I still do. Her name is Shelly, and she is right beside me. I write about how our love blossomed on that fateful day in high school.

I’am an old man sitting in my rocking chair, I watched my sons grow old and becoming wonderful men. I watch my grand daughter run around in the field outside our house. I figure I do not have much time left and I decide to look at my old things from high school. I dig around in the closet and see old school work papers. Shelly is written all over my work, with hearts and such things. I come across a crumpled note that I do not recognize. I open it and read it to myself.


“I stare at him everyday. His hair sways in the wind and it makes me want him even more. The key to my heart belongs to him, but he has yet to find it. Is he afraid? I am too, when will I finally tell him how I feel. Aubrey, I love you, I always have and I never will love anyone else.  Kiss me Aubrey, kiss me until the moon sets and the sun rises, and love me until the end of time…..”

I begin to cry tears of joy. Shelly places her hand on my shoulder and tells me she put it in my bag one day, but I must not have ever gotten it. We hug and I go to bed the happiest man alive, and it was all because of a second chance, a mysterious flick of fate’s wrist and time’s hand.

                                                                    AJP