“I need your hand too. I have to hold on to both of you to stop the pain.”
As I hold onto both of these two, I know that I’m not going through this alone. The birth part is scary, but I can get through it with the support of this pair, and I know it’ll be totally worth it when Delia arrives and our awesome family expands even more. This journey is an amazing one, I love being with my husband, my son, and soon to be my daughter. I don’t ever have any doubts about where I am, I don’t wonder what it would be like if I’d taken that partner job and continued with my career dreams.
This right now, my happy ever after, is exactly where I’m supposed to be.
The One I Love
Blurb
Music might bring them together but their high school memories will try to tear them apart!
I thought I would put my high school heartbreaks out of mind.
But then, he comes back into my life
He’s gotten much HOTTER with the years
Those gorgeous green eyes and that crooked smile makes me so WILD…
And this time he wants me to take a big risk!
And guess what?
He says “I’m the only one he LOVES!”
Chapter One: Ada
My hands are shaking and there are no pockets on the dress I chose to wear. Hiding them isn’t an option so I clench them tightly behind my back. I’m aware my teeth are also chattering. How can I be this nervous? I look around for the cardigan I had on earlier. I can put my hands in those pockets. I can also pull the cardigan over my head and run away. Running away seems like a splendid idea right about now. What have I gotten myself into? The fear in the pit of my stomach has me on the verge of losing everything I ate all day.
“You’re almost up,” Lila Carnes says to me. She’s my friend and fellow teacher at Salmon Ridge High. Lila is the complete opposite of me. Her confidence can be felt across a room. She is bosomy and loves wearing outfits that show her assets.
When I mean assets, let’s be real I mean her boobs are very present and her bottoms hug her ass. It always seems she has the perfect amount of makeup on and her hair is never plagued by fly-aways like mine. It’s a gorgeous chestnut brown naturally. My frizz puff is that dull looking brown you see on cartoon drawings. If it is even the slightest bit humid outside, I might as well try to forget about leaving my house. It’s kind of ridiculous and seriously unfair.
Some girls have all the luck, I guess. I’m trying to focus on this instead of my stomach at the moment. I’m focusing on anything but what’s about to happen. Lila knows me the best, but she doesn’t realize I'm not doing so hot.
She's always so encouraging but my face alone should give it away. I'm not ready. I make note where the restrooms are in the gym in case I need to go hide in a stall instead of going on stage. I feel like I should be giving the visual message this is a mistake, but Lila keeps encouraging me like she always does.
“You ready?” Lila is really close to my face. I didn’t even notice she’d moved closer. She smells like roses and honey. I bet I smell like sweat and fear. She throws an arm around me encouragingly.
No. No, I’m not ready. Not even remotely ready. What was I thinking? I’m gonna upchuck all over the stage. Then it’s going to be all over YouTube, and it’ll get a million hits and then . . . I suck in a deep breath because my mental rambling is about to make me turn around and make tracks to the door.
Somehow, I manage a nod, though I’m not really sure how. My entire body is as stiff as a board. How I let myself be coerced into singing at the charity concert by my students is beyond me. Despite teaching them to sing on a daily basis, I myself am terrified of performing in front of people. I take that back, I can sing in front of ten to twelve students because I’m teaching them, but this. This is singing in front of my peers, in front of my student’s parents, in front of principal Stevens! That thought alone causes me to almost faint. It shouldn’t be this bad because I’ve done this time and time again. This was my life and it was so a part of my routine I shouldn’t be feeling this way. But some things never change.
Gulp!
I look out on the stage and I’m suddenly transferred back to fourth grade. Mrs. Rosenbaum has started playing my song for the second time and I’m standing completely still on the stage forgetting all the words. I tell myself, don’t pee, do not pee. I’m so scared of singing I just run away. To make things worse, I trip on the way off the stage and catch the sounds of laughter as I flee the scene. I can remember my eyes closed tightly knowing how much the kids were going to tease me on Monday. As if running off the stage as fast as possible wasn’t bad enough. After tripping, my dress flew above my head and revealed my My Little Pony panties to everyone. Being the laughing stock of the school is something you never get over. Hearing the laughter for the several weeks after the fact was going to be so much worse. A girl in my class had tripped on the first day of school and busted a tooth out. She was made fun of for the whole year. They called her Snaggle. I didn’t want a strange nickname that would follow me all through school.
My mother couldn’t find me because I hid underneath the stairs of my grade school for a whole hour. I heard everyone leaving the talent show and imagined them laughing at me, and why wouldn’t they laugh at me? I would have laughed at me had I not been too busy being humiliated. My mother was frantic when she didn’t find me, she thought I’d left the school and was wandering around in the dark.
The next day I wouldn’t let her take me to school. I could only imagine what my classmates were saying about me. I just couldn’t deal, so like a big chicken, I stayed at home. My mother stayed mad at me for a whole week refusing to talk to me at the dinner table. My father would have to relay any messages from her to me even though I could hear her clearly. Looking back my mother could be a bit immature at times.
I wanted to stay home for more than one day. I begged and pleaded with my mother to stay home for a week but she refused. She said that I deserved it. Not in so many words, but she was never a nurturing person. One day was enough to recover in her eyes. My dad wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to appeal to him. He would never go against her opinion and gave me the dumbest advice. Just laugh with them. Returning to school, the kids still joked and I tried to laugh along with them. They didn’t forget.
Chapter Two: Ada
“Here, take some of this.” Lila pushes a small silver flask under my nose. I shake my head quickly. For one reason, I feel like I might throw up. For another reason, we are still at work even if it’s after hours. It wouldn’t do for someone to say the music teacher was getting liquored up backstage at a charity concert. Wouldn’t those headlines be just fantastic? I can see them now. Local teacher pukes on stage because she was too drunk to perform for charity. Yes, wouldn’t that just be awesome, not to mention the perfect example for the very students I was trying to teach. This should be a breeze.
I tell myself I’m no longer a scared fourth grader and a grown confident woman. If I just keep telling myself to breathe I should be okay. I just need to forget the lights and forget all the eyes looking at me. This is probably the worst pep talk one can give themselves.