Disclaimer: Not mine... LOL ;)
A/N: Please R&R! thx
SO LONG HAVE I WAITED
a story by anihanca
Part – 1 "The First Broken Expectations"
"Love lives on hope, and dies when hope is dead." Pierre Corneille
Year 1986…
It was early autumn and the sun was shining down. Claire McLeod, age 14, was leaning on the wall, daydreaming. It was the first day of the school term and in a few minutes she will be in a classroom, getting bored. Claire sighed loudly, then glanced back in the room at her new Italian room-mate Lucia, hoping she didnt wake her up. Luckily she was a heavy sleeper and didnt even budge. Claire slowly grabbed her books from the shelf and walked out of the room.
The previous night, when she just arrived the school, after unpacking her bags, she had stared out the window, wishing she wasnt too coward to talk to him, to tell him what she felt. 'him'… Alex Ryan, her best mate ever. But for about a year she had felt some strange things in her stomach everytime she saw him. And everytime he came and talked to her, she had been red from head to toe and stuttered, not knowing what to say. And everytime it just turned into an embarrasment... She was crazy afraid of losing her best mate because of this, and so she kept quite. But now, this morning, walking along the dark corridors, she was absolutely adamant to face her fear and tell him no matter what. Enough was enough..
She stepped out of the building which the girls were staying in and through the big school garden. The temperature was just perfect, the birds were singing. It felt like a spring day. Everything felt just right. It was the greatest day to be outside. She could have spent the entire day out. She kept walking passing the large, scary school building by, making her way to the boys' dormitory.
There he was, standing on the top step, staring right at her. His blue eyes were shining brilliantly in the ray of light.
"Morning, Claire!" he called with his gorgeous smile, making Claire much more nervous than she was a second ago.
"Morning.." was all she could say. She was so concentrated on what she was going to tell him, and didnt realise that he was about to say something too.
"Listen Claire…"
"Alex!"…There was a pause and some embarrased laughter.
"You go first!"
"Ladies first" they spoke at the same time again neither hearing what the other said. Claire looked at him and nodded, letting him know that she would let him talk.
"Okay look," Alex started, "well I heard that your… your…" he looked down at the ground, playing with some pebbles with his feet.
"Yes.. my?" Claire tried to encourage him to talk.
"I just wondered if.. if you could introduce me to your room-mate, Claire?" he said finally, little embarrased.
"Lucia?" she asked, her eyes wide open. She felt the whole universe explode within her body.
"Yes.. She's an Italian, right? What a pretty name.. LUCIA…" He seemed lost in reverie for a moment with a stupid grin on his face, then looked up; "Please do this for me Claire, will you?"
"Yeah.. yeah sure.." Claire replied, with a lump on her throat, then turned her head and thought to herself; "Only in your dreams McLeod..."
Present day…
"Where are you going, Al?" Nick yelled behind Alex who was about to walk out of the house.
"Heading to town" he replied, taking his coat and hat from the rack.
"Do you have a date?"
"No, nothing like that!" He was in a hurry and nervous. Suddenly Nick realised why Alex was going to town at that time of the night.
"Oh come on Alex! What do you think you can do about it! That's crazy.. Just leave her alone!" Nick demanded, laughing.
"No Nick. You cant understand. She doesnt know him. It's too dangerous to go out with strangers!" Alex explained.
"That's stupid Alex.. I think you are jealous, and thats it!" now Nick was laughing harder and twitching against his stomach.
"Yeah yeah, go on, laugh and have your fun.. and think whatever you want to think, alright! I'm just trying to protect her!"
"Sure.. So what will you do? Follow them?"
"Yeah, why not.." Alex smiled.
"Man, she'll kill you!"
"Only if she sees me!"
With that Alex turned around and headed to the door, got out of the house, walked hurriedly to his car and took the route to town…
