First there was Mary Beth. She was a sixteen year old. She had blonde hair and she loved to create flower crowns. In Mississippi, she shared a house with her family. She had dated a few of the members of One Direction a while back, but they had left her. So she wanted a boyfriend, yes, but the right boyfriend is what she really wanted.
And then there was Nathan. A tall, black-haired seventeen year old boy. He had moved to Mississippi quite a while back, but he lived about twenty-five minutes away, so she had never seen him before. That is, until her brother and a really good friend of Nathan's, Michael, had introduced them to each other. That is when Nathan came into Mary Beth's life. And this is the story about how they fell in love.
Mary Beth sat in her room. It was a Sunday, so she had church today. She was listening to 1D until her laptop died.
"Ugh. I was in the middle of 'Kiss You'. How dare you, laptop?" she said jokingly. She searched her room for her charger. Nowhere. She couldn't find it anywhere. She finally gave up. She sat down on her bed, not knowing of what to do now.
"Mary Beth!" her mom, Wendy, called to her from the living room.
Mary Beth got up and opened her room door. She walked into the living room and looked at her mom.
"Yeah?" she asked, standing there.
Her mom, looking up from the TV and at Mary Beth, said, "Church."
Mary Beth smiled immediately. That meant she would be able to see Nathan. She had a huge crush on Nathan. A monumental crush. She couldn't get over how much she liked him. No. Actually, she couldn't get over how much she loved him. This wasn't just a crush. It was true love. She had never admitted her love for Nathan to anybody before. She kept it inside her. But that couldn't be so for very long. She had to tell him. it was too late. See, Nathan and his family was moving away very soon. In fact, this was the last time she was going to see him at church. That made her frown. What if she wasn't able to tell him before he left? She didn't want to tell him in text. She wanted to be standing in front of him and telling him. It would be all spectacular and romantic and such.
Her brother and sister walked out their rooms. Wendy stood up.
"Let's go," she said. They all got into the car. As her mom was driving them there, Mary Beth got way too excited. She knew it, too. Her hands shook. She tapped her foot. She never felt this way about any of the 1D guys while she was dating them. Yes, Nathan was different. She smiled whenever she thought about him. She got extremely nervous and excited when she was about to see him. How can one boy make me feel this way? she wondered.
They were finally there. Mary Beth and her family got out of the car. They went inside. Nathan wasn't there yet. Mary Beth felt disappointed and, in fact, relieved. Relieved that she wouldn't have to try to talk over her heartbeat that was so loud when he talked to her. Relieved that she wouldn't have to steady her shaking hands when he was near her. She took a seat while her mom went to help out with getting everything ready for the sermon. She felt a wave of cool air burst in. She heard the door close. He's here.. she thought. She turned around.
Nathan looked at her immediately. He smiled immediatley. She smiled immediately. She stood up.
"Hey," Nathan said, taking his glasses off.
"Hi," Mary Beth responded. Nathan hugged her. Mary Beth wanted to stay in his arms forever. But Nathan let go of her. Mary Beth stood back and looked at him. He is so cute! she thought.
Suddenly, Michael greeted Nathan. Mary Beth frowned. She and Nathan were having a moment! She walked back to long chair, more like bench. She sat down on the one closest to the window with a broken blind. It was a rather funny story on how the blind got broken:
Once, there was a red wasp in the church. It sat on one of the blinds that covered the window. People saw it and told Michael to kill it. And he did. Just not in the way everybody had expected him to. He grabbed a flyswatter and started beating the window. One of the blinds broke and the wasp died. Everybody laughed and didn't care about the broken blind.
Somebody sat down next to Mary Beth. She looked to her left and saw Nathan. He put his glasses back on and looked at her. They looked into each other's eyes for a couple seconds. She really wondered if he liked her the way she liked him. She didn't think so, but every once and a while certain things would happen. They would have little moments like this. And Mary Beth wasn't the only one who created them. Nathan would sometimes start them. She smiled. Nathan looked away. The sermon began.
The sermon was about finding the right kind of person to fall in love with. It also included a farewell to Nathan, since this was going to be the last time he was going to church.
When it was over, all of the teens/kids stood outside together. Mary Beth stood next to Nathan, who was talking to Michael about some computer stuff and whatnot. Suddenly, she heard her name brought up in the conversation.
"Who, Mary Beth?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah. She talks about you all the time," Michael whispered. Mary Beth cringed. Great.. Nathan is going to be weirded out and tease her. But he wasn't weirded out. He just.. nodded. Then he looked at her. He smiled. She smiled, confused. Did this mean he liked her?
"Michael! Come here and help disconnect this laptop from the TV," Wendy called from inside the church. Michael told Nathan that he would be right back and he went inside the church.
"So you talk about me a lot, hm?" Nathan asked, smirking.
Mary Beth shook her head, rather calm. "No. He's lying," she said. But that wasn't true. She did talk about Nathan a lot. "Why would I talk about a loser like you?" she said jokingly.
"Same reason why I talk about a loser like you all the time, too," he said. Mary Beth froze. What did he just say? Did he just say what I think he said?" she thought.
"Pffft. So you love me?" she teased, actually wanting a truthful answer.
Nathan opened his mouth to respond, but Michael came back out and said, "Back."
URGH. Not again Michael..
Nothing else happened after that. Mary Beth got home, did all kinds of stuff and ate dinner. She went to bed but not to sleep. No, she stayed up and thought about Nathan. He was talking about her all the time. Is that what he really meant when he said that back at church? She got an texted Nathan's sister, Ariana.
does nathan talk about me a lot? (/*-*)/
She almost always put that face at the end of her texts. Ariana responded about five minutes later:
He talks about you rather often. Why?
Mary Beth texted back:
no reason (/*-*)/
She put her phone down. Rather often? What does this mean? Mary Beth decided she was too tired to create a guess, so she fell asleep.
She woke up the next day. She remembered. She remembered that today was the day that Nathan and his family left Mississippi to move away. Today was her last chance.
She spent that entire day basically nervous to go over there. She became very confident suddenly, as they were driving over to their house. She knew she had this in the bag. She's got this down. But as soon as Nathan opened the door, the confidence fell away.
Nathan's eyes immediately darted to Mary Beth. He opened the door so that they could all come in.
After a while of talking to the entire family of Nathan's, she started helping Ariana clean the windows. Ariana was just finishing up cleaning one of the windows.
"Hey, uh.. what was that question about? The one you asked last night?" she asked.
Mary Beth stood there with the Windex. "Nothing.. it was just for a prank I was going to do," she said. A prank I was goig to do?! What am I thinking. That's the worst excuse ever! she thought.
"Ehhh.. I don't kow. It kind of seems like you-" Ariana stopped short because Mary Beth had sprayed Windex on the already-clean window. Ariana looked up at her. "Really? I was done with that one!"
"Sorry but I..." Mary Beth trailed off and sprayed the window three more times. One of the sprays actually got Windex on Ariana's arm.
"Great! Now I get a third arm," Ariana said. Mary Beth laughed. "But really," Ariana started, re-cleaning the windows, "It kind of seems like you have a crush on him."
"What in the world?! I don't have a crush on your brother!" Mary Beth responded. It wasn't lying, exactly. She didn't have a crush on him. She was in love with him.
"Okayyy," Ariana said.
After they were finished with the windows, Nathan walked over to Mary Beth.
"Hey. About what I said yesterday.. it was true, but I didn't really mean to say it. It just came out," he said.
Mary Beth smiled. "Really? Wow that's pathetic," she repsonded, playing it cool. Nathan shook his head.
"Well, Michael told me you talk about me a lot. Even though you said he was lying, I know he wasn't."
Mary Beth stayed quiet.
"Do you have a crush on me?" he asked.
"No! Why do people keep saying that?!" she denied.
"Oh.. well.. okay," Nathan said, sounding rather disappointed.
"Why? Do you like me?" Mary Beth teased.
Nathan looked down. Perhaps he was embarrassed? He looked back at her. "Yes," he announced after forever. Mary Beth couldn't help but to smile.
"Well, okay. I was lying. I do like you. A lot," she said. Nathan opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted when his dad walked over.
"Nathan, we have to get driving now. It's time to say bye," he said.
Nathan frowned. "Okay," he said.
He walked away from Mary said goodbye to her family, her family said goodbye to him and his family. He went to Mary Beth last. He looked at her and said, "We'll continue that conversation in text. Bye, Mary Beth," he said. He hugged her for a long time. Mary Beth wanted to spend the rest of her days with Nathan. He stopped hugging her and he held her hand. He looked into her eyes and smiled.
They had that moment and then they left. They moved away.
-EPILOGUE-
Nathan looked at the bride. He smiled. Who knew that a simple friendship could turn into marriage? The bridde stood in front of him, smiling. He thought she looked so beautiful. He wanted to spend the rest of his days with her; and now he will. They put the rings on each other. It was a beautiful day. They got to their home.
Nathan looked at her. "Remember that sermon about falling in love with the right person?"
Mary Beth nodded.
"I definitely fell in love with the right person," he said, and smiled.
"Me too," Mary Beth said.
"I love you, Mary Beth."
She looked at him and said, "I love you too, Nathan."