A Change Of Heart

• Brittany Drysdale, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2014

Have you ever met somebody so extraordinary, that they seem to be the very definition of happiness? A person that can make you feel like you matter? It wasn’t love at first sight. Not at all. I was a self-infused, social climbing, egotistic girl. He was a quiet, shy, lonely boy. It all started when Conner began dating my friend Jade. They were one of those 2 week, not very serious relationships. After all they were only 14. When they broke up, my friend Savannah still kept in touch with him. They would always chat and formed quite a great friendship. One day I was at her house and they were talking, so I talked to him too. We talked and talked and talked. Soon we were at that stage where we wouldn’t stop talking all night. We then started hanging out. Our two friend groups kind of merged together and formed one big group. It was then that I learned about Savannah’s feelings for Conner. And then I came to realise how I felt about him too. I never told her how I felt because she fell for him first. Savannah was my best friend and I didn’t want to hurt her. So despite my feelings, I suppressed the urge to talk and giggle to my friends all the incredible things I liked about him. One day I was walking to the canteen with my friend Kerri, we were talking about boys, as usual. I got the feeling she was harbouring feelings for Conner too. So I asked her, and she told me she did. She then asked me if I liked anyone. By this point in time I had become very good at hiding my feelings. So I lied. After a few more weeks of hanging out, late night talks and flirty texts, Conner confessed his feelings for me. I think because my feelings had been bottled up for so long, they all just came pouring out. We talked about the possibility of dating but I just couldn’t do that to Jade, Savannah and Kerri. But that wasn’t the main reason for my hesitation. I had this crazy idea that if we started dating at such a young age, we wouldn’t last. So I told him I wasn’t ready for a boyfriend just yet. I guess I hoped he would wait for me. I still remember how I felt when Savannah told me he wanted to move on, he felt like I was leading him on. I was so scared I was going to lose him that I snapped out of it. All the reasons why I didn’t want to be with him just vanished. He wasn’t the quiet, shy, lonely boy I first met on orientation day. And I wasn’t the self-infused, social climbing, egotistic girl I was back then. We had both changed so much and I cherished the person I had become. It was finally clear. I loved him.