New Sensations

The next morning when Nerissa woke up, her bruise hurted a little less. She got up from bed and looked at the clock, it was 9:00 am already which meant that her mom was already gone and she was not coming back until five. The sensation of being home alone in the morning on a school day was strange for her because she rarely missed school. But that morning was just different she felt emotionally down but she didn’t knew exactly why. She refused to think that somehow it had something to do with Robert.

By noon, she walked out of her house to the front porch and just sat on the chair looking to the mountains. As she felt the fresh breeze touching her face, she then closed her eyes. It was something very relaxing, it felt very good. When suddenly…

“Hi there”.

Nerissa quickly opened up her eyes as she heard someone greeting her. It was Robert, standing right in front of her. She just looked at him for a few seconds without saying a word, the look on her eyes reflected fear and mistrust and Robert noticed that indeed.

“Hi. What are you doing here?”. Nerissa asked him, trying to hide her nervousness.

“I noticed you didn’t go to school today and I decided to stay too”. Robert said, of course he was lying, the real reason was because he had been suspended.

“Are you spying on me?”

“No I’m not, but I noticed that your mother came out alone this morning”

“Oh, and so what do you want?”

“I just came by to see how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, thanks I mean you don’t need to worry about me”. Nerissa answered slightly touching her cheek.

“I’m sorry I got you into that horrible situation” Robert said sitting on the floor next to her.

“Robert is not your fault ok?. Devin acted like an animal and he was out of control, he acted like a jerk”

Robert just smiled.

“Hey, listen since we didn’t go to school today, I think we should hang out together”.

“What?” Nerissa replied confused.

“Yeah, we can go to have lunch or something like that, I have my car”. He said pointing out to his car.

Nerissa looked at him unsure about what to answer.

“Come on, what are you going to do? Just stay here in your house the rest of the afternoon?” Robert said.

Nerissa smiled and got up from the chair. “No, I guess not”. She said.

Then Robert got up from the floor too and they both walked to his car.

Once they were in the car Robert started to drive with no course at all.

“This is a really nice car” Nerissa said as she looked at the interior of that European car.

“Thanks, but it’s just a car really”. Robert said

“No, this is not just a car Robert, you don’t find cars like this around here”. Nerissa replied.

“You really like it?” He asked her.

“Yes. Any guy would be jealous of you having this car, especially Devin, he loves European cars. He’d be just death jealous of you having this beauty”. Nerissa said.

“Really, would he?. Well then I guess we both have something to make each other jealous”. Robert said.

“What do you mean?” Nerissa asked.

Robert just smiled and continued driving. He said that because if Devin was jealous about him having that car,  he was jealous about him having Nerissa, but  he didn’t say it directly.

“So are you going to tell me the real reason why you didn’t go to school?” Nerissa asked him.

“Well,  I’m not going to school for a week”.

“What? Why?”

“I got suspended for the fight”.

“Just you?”

“Well I was the one with the blade on my hand, remember?”.

“But that’s not fair, Devin was the one who started the fight and he pushed me”.

“Yes but you walked away and no one else would say anything to the principal, but don’t worry about it is not like this is something new to me”.

“So you mean you have been suspended before?”

“Suspended? Sure but you know they are very cool here, in my hometown I got expelled from two schools in one year”.

“Are you serious, what did you do?”

“For my behavior and for being a troublemaker overall, I suppose”

“So is not the first time you fight at school huh?”

“No, but is the first time I take out a blade from my pocket, I was lucky to forget to return it in science class”.

“Why did you do it?”

“Because I couldn’t bear to see you in the floor, he is an animal for doing that to you”

“Well thank you a lot Robert, you know for defending me”. Nerissa said after a few seconds of silence. Suddenly she felt loved by him for caring for her.

“So where do you want to go?” Robert asked her.

“Anywhere you want is fine”.

“Ok,I would love to take you to a really nice place but  unfortunately I don’t know the city so, can you help me a little?”.

“That’s right I forgot about that. Let’s see, I think we can go to the mountains the view from up there is stunning”.

“Ok, the mountains it is, just tell me which way”.

Nerissa seemed to have completely forgotten about what her mother had told her the night before about not seeing Robert again and now she was hanging out with the person her mother wanted her to avoid the most. Once they got to the mountain they got out of the car.

“Wow I’m speechless, it’s really beautiful” Robert said as he looked to the city and they could also get a look of the beach.

“It is, this is one of my favorite places to hang out in the summer”

“I once went to one of these in England with some friends, and we used to do the weirdest things”

“Really, like what?”

“All sort of dumb stuff, like viewing the city upside down by hanging upside down from the cliff”

“Are you serious? You are so crazy! Why would you do that?”

“I told you it was weird and dumb so don’t judge us. Hey I think you should try it”

“What? No! Absolutely not, you are crazy!”

“Is a complete different view and a completely new sensation the adrenaline is amazing, I’m telling you”

“I can’t I’m scared what If I fall and die?”

“You won’t can hold your feet if you want” Robert said.

Nerissa smiled and looked at him as if he was daring her to do it.

“Ok, but don’t you dare to let me go”.

“I promise I won’t let you go”

“Ok just give me a few seconds, I need to take a deep breath, ok I’m ready”

Nerissa carefully walked near the cliff of the mountain and sitting back she let her back and head fall, while Robert was holding his feet.

“So how is it?” Robert screamed so she could hear him.

“It’s beautiful” Nerissa said as she watched how the sea was the sky and the sky was the sea, it was something amazing, but Robert couldn’t hear her soft nervous voice. “Pull me up now please!”. She said yelling this time making sure he heard her.

As Robert helped her up,Nerissa  felt dizzy and remained seated in front of Robert for a few seconds, she closed her eyes and when the dizziness was over she opened them up and looked at him , to her surprise while she was closing her eyes Robert had gotten closer to her, they just looked at each other for a few seconds and smiled.

“I’m really sorry to have disappointed you before, and I’m about to disappoint you again, but I cannot be your friend, I honestly don’t think we can be good friends at all” Robert told her. This time looking at her eyes while he talked.

Nerissa just smiled. “It’s all right, If you don’t like me I understand, I mean you can’t force anyone to be your friend, don’t worry about it”.

“You are right, but it’s because I like you that I cannot be friends with you, you cannot force someone to love you back, can you?”. He told her.

Nerissa smiled, and his words made her heart shake inside her, she even wanted to cry because she realized that he was confessing her that he loved her, he looked into his eyes and nodded. She then slowly stood up from the ground and was about to walk away when he smoothly pulled her back to him and kissed her lips. That wonderful first kiss between them was full of all kind of emotions. Robert knew he had finally given up all his efforts for hide his feelings from her, he just couldn’t stand that anymore. And Nerissa perceived a unique sensation as her lips were touching his, his way to kiss her was not only telling her how much he liked her, but it was also telling her how much he could care for her and love her. After they pulled away from the kiss, they looked at each other and smiled, they  seemed to be speechless as if there was no need for words their eyes could say everything.

“If you like me, why were you being so mean to me before?” Nerissa asked him.

“I don’t know, maybe is my way to protect myself from getting hurt, or from having feelings I shouldn’t have”.

“Getting hurt?”

“I liked you since the first time I saw you, but I knew that a girl like you would probably won’t even talk to a guy like me, so I was trying to avoid you, and avoid to getting to know you more, because I knew that the more I got to know you the more my feelings would grow”.

“I understand, but you know what, somehow your personality and all your meanness was precisely  what made me even more curious about you, what made me want to talk to you even more”.

“Really? Wow that’s a bit weird, everyone stay away from me because of my personality”

“So you really meant what you wrote in the note you gave me?”

“Yes, I did and but I didn’t wrote it yesterday”

“No? then when did you write it?”

“The night I saw you in your garden, the first night we moved into the house”

“Really, you saw me?” Nerissa said, she was very surprised about his feelings for her all this time and he not saying anything until now.

“Yes, sorry but I can assure you I’m not one of those creepy stalkers, I just happened to be outside and saw you there, and I was very curious about how our neighbors looked like”.

“Ok, I believe you” She replied smiling.

Then Nerissa looked at the clock and she knew she had to be home before her mother got there.

“I need to go home now, or my mother will kill me”

“Don’t worry I’ll take you home now”

 So Robert drove her back to her house. On their way to her house, they barely speak to each other, they were still thinking about the kiss and how unexpected it had been.

“Thanks Robert, I had a wonderful time” Nerissa said with a smile. And then gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek.

“You’re welcome. I hope I can see you tomorrow again”.

“I’m not sure about it, but I hope so too”

Robert smiled at her and drove to his house.