White Roses

Part 1: A Series of Events

Chapter 1-

I saw her one day on the bus, and I guess you can say that is how we first met. When I say “her” I mean Olive Hendrik. So, as I was saying, we met on the bus one day. She was sitting in the front of the bus reading a magazine and drinking some coffee out of a small paper cup. She had on a worn backpack and a paper bagged lunch. Her glasses covered a little bit of her face. They were metal framed, and a little thick on the edges. She had brown hair tied up in a ponytail. Her outfit was casual, jeans, t-shirt, and Vans. I liked her just the same when I saw her though.

I wasn’t what you would call a “poppie”, (short for popular). I had a good group of friends, which means I had only two or three. I kept my blondish hair at nose length, and don’t critique me because I say nose length, I’m not a model. I’m not muscular, I’m actually skinny, but I’m getting into too much detail. The point is, I’m not popular, muscular, or even athletic. I’m a nerd, and no, I don’t get straight A’s. I’m only a nerd because I know every popular movie, song, album, book, and play. A bit stupid, I know, but that’s beside the point. The point is, we were both weird people, in a way. We both had our aura of awkwardness, we weren’t exactly social, and we were both, in a sense, lonely.

When you hear the word “lonely”, you usually want to think of a person sitting on a bench alone in the middle of winter, right? Or someone watching a couple kiss from across the restaurant. Either way, you think of someone by themselves, or simply, alone. Let me say this, lonely can be many more things than that. A person can be lonely and still have friends. You ever been lonely in a crowded room, where you’re a wallflower. If you’re in a classroom and no one wants to work with you. All these little things can mean loneliness. I was lonely because I couldn’t find anyone like me. I hated being the only one. I assume that Olive was lonely because she barely had any friends, and furthermore, her parents were a little strict. I just wanted you to know that, loneliness can come from anywhere anytime.

“Morning” I said to the bus driver as I got on. He smiled and waited for me to pick a spot. I saw Oliver and I decided to sit across from her. The bus drove on, and every once in a while, I’d sneak a glance at her. Sometimes my contacts would fog up because I forget to blink when I was caught in a staring fit. I had mustered up my courage over the bus ride to eventually talk to her. Then, all at once, it burst out of me like a cannon.

“Hi.” I said. She stared at me, confused and startled.

“Great,” I thought, “you scared her doofus.”

Turns out that I didn’t. She was scared for a moment and then smiled. She didn’t have any braces, in fact, her teeth were straight.

“Hi.” She said shyly. I didn’t expect her to say “hi”, but she did anyway. That was a big jump for me because not one girl talked to me except for my mom. My palms started to sweat and I wiped them on my shorts. I could see the school in the distance and I got nervous. This was the first day of tenth grade.

“What’s your name?” I asked nervously.

“Um, Olive.” She said quickly and did a quick smile.

“I’m Patrick, but some call me Pat.” I said, hoping to impress her with my name, but it didn’t work. Damn.

We got to the high school and I happened to bump into her on the way to the door. It was a stupid mistake, but she didn’t seem offended by it in any way.

“Sorry.” I said. She nodded, smiled, and continued walking.

When I was in ninth grade, I thought I was going to get eaten up in high school. I was short and skinny. I was still wearing glasses then and man, they were so bulky. I looked like a complete loser. My hair was in a buzz cut too, which made it worse than it should have been.

I did get gobbled up in high school a few times, I won’t lie. I had a few bullies tease me and take my books, which was nothing new. That summer though, I changed a lot. I grew at least two feet, which meant that I was around 6’0. I grew my hair out and I got into writing and music. The best decision of my life.

I walked into my first class, which was English, and I noticed Olive sitting in there, back in the corner, alone again. I sat next to her back there and she seemed happy when I did. English class started, and it happened to be my favorite class of that day. I love literature, and I love to read books. Harry Potter, IT, and The Maze Runner are my favorites.

In the middle of class I whispered, “Hello again Olive.”

She smiled and said, “Hello back.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit out loud. A few kids looked at

Me funny, but I ignored them.

It turns out that we were in the same classes, save for math which I was a little behind on. She was a smart cookie, let me tell you. She answered all the questions correctly in History and finished her math homework at lunch, which looked like gibberish to me.

We found each other at lunch by the way. She didn’t mind sitting with me and I didn’t mind sitting with her. My other friends had lunch at a different time, which was a bit depressing because they were my only friends, but hell, I had Olive. Maybe we could become good friends.

We exchanged phone numbers by the end of that week, and every day she said that she looked forward to seeing me, which meant a lot.

You see, I had never had anyone care like that for me before. I’ve never had someone who was excited to see me, or was hyped that I was coming to school that day. I wasn’t used to it, so it felt odd at first, but as time went on, it became natural. I ended up losing one of my friends that year because he wanted to pursue his career in band. It was sad, but eventually, I got over it.

I introduced Olive to my other friend, Dale Palls. He was a nice guy, and he was weird too. He had his own cliques though. He would talk behind my back and not invite me to some of his parties. He acted like he didn’t know me when he was around the poppies.

“Hey Dale.” I said kindly as I passed by him the second week. Olive was walking beside me laughing at some of my jokes.

“Hey man, what’s up?” He said, confused as to why I had a girl standing beside me.

“Nothing much, what about you? School treating you well?” I said.

“School doesn’t treat anyone well Pat.” He said, then laughed.

All of a sudden, I remembered why I had stopped here.

“Hey, uh, Dale, this is Olive. Olive, Dale, Dale, Olive.” I said pointing back and forth.

They shook hands awkwardly and then Dale said he had to go. There were four minutes left of transition time, which means that he was in no rush at all.

It made me sad to think that no one wanted to hang out with Olive. She was so nice and caring. The way she laughed could make anyone smile. She had a bit of a lisp when she talked too, but that didn’t matter. Over the next few weeks, I started to have feelings for her.

It wasn’t like what they said in the movies. It was a deeper feeling. I had had crushes before in elementary school and middle school, but this was different. Different in a way I can’t describe. Different was good, but it was also scary at the same time.

New things are also scary, like hanging out with a girl alone for the very first time.

Everything was good in those first few months. She helped me with homework that I didn’t understand. I chose a few books for her to read that she actually enjoyed reading. Some of them were by my favorite author Dan Letz. He is a horror and sci-fi writer, and I have enjoyed every single one of his books.

She introduced me to poetry, which I ended up loving with all my heart and I made her try different foods. We were the dynamic duo, and we even talked about dating that one year.

We decided to stay friends though, just in case things didn’t work out.
“What would happen if we were more than just friends?” She asked, late that February.

I was a bit unprepared for that question, but I didn’t mind answering it.

“I’m not sure.” I said, stuffing my hands into my jean jacket. We were on the bus and it was pretty damn cold. My hands were numb. “It would definitely be different, with all the, um…”

“Romance.” She finished.

“Yeah.” I said, then chuckled to make the conversation less awkward.

“I can see how it would be different, but different is good, and at the same time scary, like you said. It would definitely be a big jump for the both of us.” She said, looking out the window again.

“True.” I said. I couldn’t deny the fact that we needed each other. My family was going through a rough time and her parents were thinking about getting divorced. There was no doubt that we absolutely needed each other, but romantically was a different story.

“Tell you what,” I said amusingly, “I will ask you out when you’re least expecting it.”

She smiled and laughed for a minute, and for a moment, she looked like an angel for a moment. Then, I remembered what I brought to school that day.

I unzipped my backpack and pulled out a white rose. She gaped at it for a moment then embraced me. I found out the other day that she loved white roses. She was tearing up and as I went to grab a tissue, she stopped me.

“There’s no need,” She choked, “I’m just very emotional sometimes.”

“Well, that’s alright with me.” I said thoughtfully. She hugged me again one last time, took the rose carefully, and then got off the bus. She was in the same neighborhood as me, but nearly a mile away.

I was the last stop on the bus, which was the only time that I felt a little bit lonely. I felt, in a way, like I was sitting there naked. I felt like the elephant in the room. There were a lot more kids on the bus, and they didn’t even talk to me. All they did was make kissing noises whenever we got on together.

I looked out the window one more time before reading my book again.

I saw snow on the ground, and I thought of her, and just for a moment, I had a sudden feeling of mind-numbing horror. I had a sense that something bad was going to happen, but it went away as soon as it came. I went back to my book and forgot about it.

It passed out of my mind like a fart in the wind, but there was something there.

Something that seemed real.

Something that seemed inexplicably true.

“Only time will tell.” I thought out loud

Only time will tell