When She Loved Me

“Alfred, crank the mother-fcking car! Did it break down again? It’s the kids first day in a new school. They cannot be late.” Alice's mom Sandara bugged her husband repeatedly making sure everything is in order for the kids special first day in saint Carolina high school.

Although it’s not a special occasion, she is highly superstitious and places importance on firsts.

Alice stood calmly at the side watching her parents.

She is already 18 years old and these two never stop treating her like a kid and in reality they are the ones with characters akin to kids.

“Aiyah! Aunty ! Uncle! If you keep this up we are really going to be late” Camilla shouts as she approaches them running.

“Thump thump thump thump. . .” Alice watches Camilla's approaching figure and her heartbeats intensifies.

She has been feeling out of it lately, whenever she sees Camilla, thinks of her or catches a whiff of her scent, her face flushes and her breathing intensifies.

They have been close friends ever since birth as their parents had moved into Beaufort, South Carolina while their mothers were still pregnant.

Although the two were close friends, they have never really had a discussion on their sexual orientation, Alice has always known she had zero interest in the males. She couldn’t say much about her attraction to females but when you have an attraction to rainbows and Lady Gaga I guess there’s nothing much to say.

Moreover, only one person interests her.

Her affection for Camilla grew and she came to be certain of her feelings a few days before their high school transfer to this new school. They both went to a park a few blocks to their house.

They ran into a few students in their previous school who often bullied Camilla.

Since Camilla has a petite figure and Alice was the tall one. She always had the urge to protect her.

Like a reflex action, Alice rushes and stands in front of Camilla protecting her from the crowd.

“Who do we have here” The bully’s ringleader exclaimed

“The protector of the galaxy

‘’Haha haha ‘’

The other girls laughed hysterically, a sickening sound to the ears.

Alice has always had a cold and aloof image. She seemed like the type that didn’t care about anyone or anything and doesn’t have interest in anything or someone in particular but she has a button.

Camilla!

No one touches or messes with Camilla. Alice once beat up a group of boys for making fun of Camilla for failing a test.

Camilla on the other hand is a trouble attractor which is only normal for someone as social as she is.

Alice takes on the ringleader and beats her to a pulp.

Camilla notices that some of the other girls had gone to call the ring leader’s parents, as she sees the approaching figures of their parents, she grabs Alice by the wrist and runs as fast as her legs could.

They ran so fast to a far distance till they were short of breath and found somewhere to hide. It was an enclosed space barely enough for two people to fit in but they hid there, their faces close enough to feel their breath on each other’s faces.

Alice looked down and her eyes made contact with Camilla’s probably because they ran for so long Camilla looked out of breath, breathing heavily with her face flushed, and her doe eyes glistening as large beads of sweat trickled down her face.

‘’Thump thump thump . . .’’ Alice felt as though the whole world had stopped and all she could see was Camilla, for the first time in her life she understood what it meant to love someone, she felt it unlike the theoretical love she reads about all the time, for the first time she felt this euphoric strange feeling in her heart. Strange but soft and harmless.

That was when Alice knew she was in love with her best friend.

“Hi hi” Camilla approaches Alice and nudges her gently on the shoulder.

“Hey” Alice snapped out of it and regained her normal aloof look but with a tinge of warmth in her eyes.

She reached out for Camilla’s bag, dropped it in the car and opened the door for her while Camilla complied naturally as if she was used to Alice’s actions.

Alfred soon starts the car and drives Camilla and Alice to school.

It’s their first day in high school, Camilla is overly excited and psyched so she decided to shoot a vlog to upload on her YouTube channel.

While Alice sat on the side watching her Camilla as if she was the only one that exists in her world.

‘’Hii y'all it’s my first day in high school and I’m here with my one and only Alice” She moves the camera towards Alice's face. “Bestie say hi”

‘’En” Alice replied dryly, clearly uninterested in the video and this was mainly because it takes too much of the time Camilla is supposed to spend with her.

Inwardly she thought- “Why! Does it take so long to edit and upload a video that is barely 15 minutes long!”

Camilla, used to Alice's character, continues with the vlog while pestering Alfred who seems to be enjoying it.

Alice watched Camilla silently, registering every action in her heart, her smile, unique gesture and the beautiful dents in her cheeks whenever she beams a smile.

Alice smiles unconsciously when Camilla smiles or makes a funny face or gesture. Watching her made her heart so warm, the butterflies in her stomach could escape and sour high to the skies.

She felt her heart rate increasing and her oxytocin level increasing to the brim. She just loves Camilla too much, too much it might be unhealthy.

Camilla, oblivious to Alice's feelings and thoughts at the moment, was currently strolling through her social media feed.

She sees one of her competitors and shows Alice, her face scrunched up in disdain.

As Alice dotes on Camilla dearly, she looks up the other girl’s social media handle and reports the account immediately.

Alice doesn’t use social media a lot but opened an account to follow Camilla.

She had several other accounts she created just to boost Camilla’s followers.

Since Camilla’s Internet personality name is Cammy, a cute nickname from her parents, Alice used it to create cute and funny account names like,

‘Cammy’s candy plum’

‘Cammy’s eyeball’

‘Cammy’s biggest fan’

‘Cammy’s one and only person’

‘Cammy’s ….’ The list went on and on and on.

Till date Camilla doesn’t know Alice created the account.

The car moved smoothly and quickly towards their school while the two girls at the back sat peacefully with one occasionally talking while the other looked at her with a doting gaze and uncanny infatuation.

Quote for this episode:

“One of the greatest pain and agony is being in one-sided love with someone. Break my face, my back, my arms, my neck. But please don't break my heart. Even if you tear me to pieces or even if you reduce me to ashes, I would still go back and give you my heart.”