Underneath the scarlet light(Short Story, please read)

I got an A for this short story in school. Please read! ^^ The story = over 3000 words, covering 5 pages.


Underneath the scarlet light

The sun was just starting to set, casting a long stretched shadow over the town, the scarlet light shining over the citizens that were hurrying back home from a long day at work. Children were heading home after a long day at the playground, their glance turned back towards their friends, as they half-heartedly waved farewell. There were a lot of emotions involved with the sunset. I had always loved the sunset, but one incident that found place under this scarlet light, under the long shadows of the trees. That was when our eyes first met, but I realize now, He didn’t even love me. If I had a time machine, I would travel back in time and undo everything, perhaps, I wouldn’t have this empty hole in my chest, right where my heart once had been.
It was just a normal day in my life. It was the life of a very average girl if I may say so myself. I woke up at sunrise, got dressed, applied make up. I don’t need to comb my hair, its cut really short for various reasons, one of them is the fact that my little brother stuck gum in my hair, right by the roots. The other reason for my short hair is the fact that I tried to dye it, but something caused all my hair to fall off, meaning I was bald for a period of time. Oh well, nothing to do about that fact now anyways.
I exit my house, heading towards school. I attended a private school, meaning we wore uniforms, besides; it was an all girl school, the only males were some of the teachers. The school was about a half hour long walk away from home, so In order to cut down the time so I could sleep longer, I rode my bicycle. My school was a big white building, consisting of three floors, with about five classrooms on each floor. We were in total two-hundred girls. The floors indicated each class and held the group within that class, meaning that the first floor had the freshman students, second floor held the sophomore students, and the third floor had the classrooms for the seniors. My class and group was called 3-C.
There was something different about this day however, because today I wouldn’t return home until after sundown. The school bell rang, summoning all the students in the school yard into the warm classrooms. It was winter, but still we weren’t allowed to enter the school until the school bell rang. Silly rules, I know, but there is nothing I can do about them. The school day was long, like usual. The school day ended one hour after public schools had dismissed their students, meaning our school day ended about an hour before sunset.
I hurried out of the school building, joining my friends outside. We had been planning for quite a few days to go to the park, so we had put extra effort into our assignments in school, thus avoiding any homework.
Our feet carried us to the park where we talked, ate ice-cream, laughed and truly enjoyed life. The sun began to set behind the horizon, as my friends begun to set the course towards home, however, I enjoyed life far too much at this current time, and told them to go ahead without me. That’s when I first met him, a boy around my own age. A gust of wind blew throughout the surroundings, whipping my hair around wildly, tugging at my clothes, blowing through the leaves on the trees creating this soothing sound. I moved my hand up into my hair, holding it out of my face, my gaze turning towards the horizon the scarlet rays from the sun dancing over my face. This sure was one of the few happy moments I experienced that I still can picture clearly in my head.
I met him underneath the biggest tree in the entire park. He was seated on this old bench, gazing blankly out into the distance, the shadows from the trees casting a long shadow across his body. These alluring shadows gave him an appearance of being from a different world, his pale skin, brown short cut hair and hazel eyes made him appear almost like a porcelain doll. My eyes met his and there was this complete silence, only the sound of sirens and car horns in the distance. Our eyes locked onto each other, another cool winter breeze blowing throughout the park lifting his hair. His hair flowed behind his head in waves as if each strand of hair was made out of silk. The silence was heavy. I don’t know why our eyes met like this, but he had captured them, almost like he had stolen all the power in my body. I couldn’t move, all I could do was to stare deep into his eyes, the look on his face, the saddened look in his eyes and the soft smile on his lips. I can’t believe I didn’t realize back then, how much pain he would inflict me if I got involved with him. I guess, attending an all girl school, I was far too naïve. His glance lured me in, the lonely expression on his face. It’s hard to describe, but I could no longer escape. It was almost like he had claimed me as his own even without me realizing it, I don’t even think he realized it himself, how much he would make me love him.
This is my story about love, heart-ache and happiness, please listen.
I met him in the park, underneath the biggest three, in the longest shadow. Our eyes had just met. I think I stood there staring at him, and he glanced towards me. I witnessed as his lips begun to part, this sweet, soft and comforting voice escaping his lips “Hello there” he simply said. It appeared as if my brain spent a much longer period of time before it would function properly, thus commanding me to respond. “Um, Hi” was all I managed to force out of me. His smile was aimed towards me. “How are you?” he questioned. My reply came much quicker this time. “I-I’m fine, and you?” I stuttered forth, my eyes finally breaking free from his. “I’m good.” He responded to me, before our conversation came to a brutal end, resulting in dead silence. My eyes avoided his, whilst his eyes were seeking contact with mine. “Are you sure?” he asked, breaking the silence and the awkward atmosphere around us. Caught by surprise I jumped a little. “Sure about what?” I responded to his question with a question of my own. He posed a slightly changed question “That you’re fine, are you sure?” “Oh, yeah, I’m sure.” I replied, starting to wonder why he had to gain reassurance that I was indeed fine. “Why do you ask?” I wondered, our eyes establishing contact one more, which I was swift to break. “Because you’re out this late and because you all of a sudden began avoiding eye-contact with me” He stated.
His face had suddenly turned much more serious, however, he still had that saddened look in his eyes. “Oh.” was all I managed to say, a dead silence spreading over us once more. “I’m sorry.” My eyes travelled towards him, what he was apologizing for anyways I couldn’t fully comprehend. “Huh?” “I’m sorry” he repeated himself. “Why?” I asked, slightly confused. “For bothering you without having done a proper introduction.” he responded, growing silent. “Oh.” “I’m Adrian” he stated, clearly waiting for my introduction. “I’m Abigail” I responded, thus allowing him to continue speaking. “You don’t happen to attend that all girl school, you know, that white, tall one?” he asked me. I simply nodded. “Ah, I see. I could tell by your uniform, Abigail.” He stated, glancing in the direction of my school. “I’m sorry, but I have to head home.” He said, his arms moving towards the wood of the bench, his palms making contact with the wood, as he pushed himself back onto his feet. “Ah, okay, me too.” I stated. “I live on the west side of town” he stated, glancing towards me, as my jaw dropped and my eyes opened wide. “By the look on your expression, I take it that you do the same” he continued on. “Want to tag along? I’d hate to see a girl walk by herself after sunset” he finished, awaiting my response. I hadn’t noticed until he pointed it out. The sun had already set, and the only light was the shine from the streetlights. I had missed the sunset, the only reason that I had stayed behind. “Sure. I’ll tag along” I simply said. I had grown curious of where he lived.
“You can call me Abby, some think that Abigail is too difficult” I stated, glancing towards him. Secretly, I wished for him to call me by my full name. “I don’t think Abigail is that difficult.” He simply stated, before we both walked next to each other in silence. There were very few people in the street; most of the people we encountered had dressed up to attend parties. I began to wonder if he was actually walking me home, considering we walked together for such a long period of time. “So this is w-“ I began speaking, before I was rudely interrupted by him “Sorry I couldn’t walk you all the wa-“ he spoke stopping in the middle of a word. “Do you live here?” he asked me, pointing towards my house. “Yes” I stated. “Well, I live here as well, just across the street.” He finished, yet another silence spreading over us. “So, uh, Bye” I said, not really waiting for an answer as I turned heading towards the door of my house. “When can I see you again?” he asked. I could feel his glance landing on the back of my head, practically calling out for me to turn around. My eyes met his, as my head turned. “Feel free to stop by whenever you feel like it.” I just said, strolling towards my door grasping a hold of the doorknob. Everything had grown silent again.
“Hi! I’m home!” I called out, as my dad stuck his head out from the kitchen. “Ah! Welcome home” he exclaimed, soon he returned back to his activity. My feet carried me up the staircase, into my room, and not before long, they refused to carry me further, as I dumped down onto my bed, face first. I let out a deep sigh, dragging my pillow underneath my chin, staring blankly into the wall. I went over the last two hours in my head. A small squeal escaped my lips “Oh my god! I can’t believe I was so stupid and rude, staring at him like that!” I grasped a firm hold of my pillow as I flipped around on my bed, simply staring up into the ceiling above my bed. The image of his saddened eyes flashed before my eyes, and as a reaction, I slammed my pillow against my face letting out a pretty much muffled scream of frustration. “What’s wrong with me? Why am I even acting like this?” I sat up on the bed, stepping out on the floor, my pillow neatly positioned in my former location as I swiftly spun around pointing a finger towards the pillow, acting like I was in and interrogation. “You’re acting like this because he’s your neighbor!” I said, my finger still pointing towards the pillow, apparently waiting for a reply. I leapt onto by bed, grasping a hold of my pillow, chucking it out on the floor into my former position. “Yes, you’re absolutely right! I’m guilty!” I exclaimed towards the pillow, as the pillow worked practically like a substitute for me when I was acting out the other character. Bouncing off my bed, I picked up the pillow from the floor, placing it safely within my arms, as my body leant backwards, dropping back down onto the bed.
I must have fallen asleep, because when I woke up, the sun was shining brightly outside, despite the fact that it actually was winter. We never had any snow around here, it was just freezing. School usually began at sunrise, which I appeared to have forgotten once I had woken up. Even though the sun was shining brightly outside, I dragged my feet downstairs wandering into the kitchen to enjoy a proper breakfast, that’s when I found a note lying on the table. My hands moved towards it, grasping a hold of the note between my hands unfolding it. “Good morning, sleepy head! In case you’ve forgotten, school starts later today, about 11 am. I went on ahead! Love from Cassie!” my eyes just skimmed over the page, before my glance transferred towards the clock that was currently situated on the wall. “Oh shit!” I exclaimed, practically rushing out of the kitchen storming up towards my room slamming my door shut behind me, practically panicking. The clock situated on the kitchen wall had displayed that it was actually 9:30 meaning that, when I had gotten dressed, I would have less than thirty minutes to get to school.
I dashed outside, slamming the door shut behind me grasping a hold of my bike practically throwing myself onto the seat of it, gradually gaining speed as my feet drove the bike forwards. Strangely, I made it to school on time, just as the school bell rang. I parked my bike, darting inside the school like a crazy person, dumping down onto my seat, and that was when I realized, I had forgotten my backpack at home.
A couple of weeks had passed by after this incident, with simple school days, homework, and the lovely sunset. Finally, Adrian stopped by my home, pounding on the door. Well, it might not have been pounding, perhaps a gentle knock and a ring of the door bell.
“Abigail! You have a visitor!” my dad called up the stairs. “Some guy named Adrian!” he finished. I could imagine dad’s cheesy grin. He would begin interrogating Adrian if I didn’t go downstairs quickly. One could say I practically leapt down the last couple of steps, wrapping my hand around my dad’s mouth in order to stop him from speaking. “Hi Adrian” was all I said, before my hand shot out towards his sleeve, pretty much dragging him up the stairs after me. I could imagine the helpless glance he gave my father, almost like he was being dragged with me to the pits of hell.
“I’m so sorry about that, Adrian.” I said, looking rather flustered from the entire incident. A soft laugh spread across my room, the intensity increasing gradually. It was Adrian’s laughter that somehow managed to turn my entire face red. “I’m so sorry for laughing” Adrian managed to stutter forth as his hands wrapped around his waist, having laughed to the point where tears would have rolled down his cheeks. “It was just so hilarious!” We sat in my room, speaking together for hours, laughing enjoying life together, until he had to head home. He promised he’s come visit me the following day, and that he did. The visits grew much more frequent, and I genuinely enjoyed his visits. I had fallen in love with him, and I didn’t even realize it, not yet at least.
Summer finally came around, and so did the summer vacation. I’ll simply skip ahead in time, nothing interesting occurred to me that have any significance for the story, because what happened after the summer vacation is what really matters, in my eyes at least. What you need to know however, is the fact that I went away during summer, on a vacation to America. And once I returned, I learned something that shattered my heart into a million pieces.
I met up with Adrian the first week after the summer vacation, everything had seemingly returned back to normal; however, there was one thing he hadn’t told me that would change everything. We met up in the park after school. I hadn’t gotten any homework yet, so I practically had the afternoons to do whatever I wished to do. We had agreed to meet in the park, however, when I arrived, there was someone else there as well, another girl. I didn’t think too much about it as I approached the two. “Hello Adrian! Who is this?” I asked him cheerfully. “Abigail, this is Hailey” He said smiling. “She’s my girlfriend” he stated, his glance turning towards her in this absolutely loving manner. “I think you two would make good friends!” he carried on. My smile was still plastered on my face, as I clenched my fist to the point where my knuckles would go white. “Hi there Hailey” I simply said. That was when I realized the feelings I had to him, but that was pushed aside by the feelings of sadness, despair and this ache where my heart had once been, before it had been shattered into a thousand pieces.

Every time I saw Adrian smiling, I felt this happiness in my body, but his arm was around someone else. He was happy with her, not me, and I had no right to do anything about it. I was content from observing from the sideline, his laughter made me smile, yet, there was this empty hole where my heart had once been. All I wanted was to see him happy, smile and laugh, no matter how much pain it inflicted upon me. I forsake my own happiness just to see him smile. I got caught in the middle, being the one who tied them together whenever they began to split apart from each other. Adrian came to me for romantic advice, what he should get to her for their anniversary and her birthdays. I happily gave him tips, even though the pain could be compared to one thousand needles piercing my heart. But now, I regret that I hadn’t been more selfish. Because now, he is gone and I can no longer reach him. I’m stuck with this empty hole in my chest and this sinking feeling in my gut whenever I think about him. He didn’t even love me, and yet he could inflict all this pain to me.
I could never love anyone else, ever again. He was my first and last love.

10/10 !! I love it !

^^ Thanks! I'm thinking about writing another short story, but I'm not sure if I have the patience xD

That was really good! You should do others! ^^