I
In grade six I fell in love.
Not baby love, like we're-gonna-be-married-forever-and-ever love.
Not teenage love, like OMG-he's-so-hot-and-all-the-girls-want-him love.
But real love, like cry-over-him-every-night-because-he-doesn't-love-me-back love.
His name was David. And he left Toronto the summer between sixth and seventh grade. No one knew he was leaving. He didn't tell his friends. The school didn't know until he stopped showing up, and then they just assumed he wouldn't be back.
No one was told anything.
David Granger just disappeared. No one's heard from him since.
In grade four, David and I were friends, kind of. He would sing me love songs and laugh at me when I blushed.
In grade five, we were close friends. We always spent time together and he had a huge crush on me. He would ask me out every five seconds. Constantly saying, "Is that a yes?"
It was fun for a while and eventually became annoying.
I shouldn't have taken it for granted, because in grade six I fell in love with him. And I annoyed him so much with my love-hungry pleas of interest. He began to hate me.
Our friendship was reconciled at the very end of grade six, when he started to trust me again. Because I told him one of my best friend's deepest darkest secrets-a trick she was playing on him.
And then he left.
People remembered that kid, David Granger, but his old friends didn't speak of him. The teachers of the Jr. High didn't know him. And eventually, he was forgotten.
But I remember. And I remember his deep blue eyes.
Now I'm in grade ten and a new boy is in my class. His name is Jason Hogart, but he likes Jay.
Something about him is so familiar. But I seem to want him to be a pretty boy, but he's a bad boy.
I sit next to him in English Lit. He has dark brown hair that falls above his ears. And his voice is low and husky.
And his eyes! Oh, don't get me started on his eyes.
They're what seemed so familiar.
Because they are David Granger's.