novelraw Chapter 243: The Girl He Was In Love With
Chapter 243: The Girl He Was In Love With
Natalia was the girl he had liked right from the moment he first set his eyes on her. Christopher had enrolled into school mid-semester. The first day he came to school, he had worn his mask, and immediately people set their eyes on him, they had begun judging his appearance.
At first, they had insinuated he was extremely good-looking, which made them curious about him. But he was a person who kept to himself; he didn’t like to interact much with people. So because of how he mostly ignored people, dislike started to grow in people’s hearts towards him. It gradually turned into hate, and a lot of rumors started to circulate about him, so much so that someone had claimed to have seen his face and had spread word that he had an ugly scar.
He couldn’t be bothered to correct that misconception.
Christopher decided to cover his appearance, one because of his identity as the only son of the elusive Grayson family. If people came to know of his identity, he was scared of rumors and scandals that could possibly break out. Secondly, because of his looks. In his previous school, he had gained a lot of popularity just due to his looks, and he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed that popularity to some extent, until a fatal incident happened.
A certain girl named Lydia had been hopelessly obsessed with him. She claimed to have been in love with him, stalked him, placed pictures of him all over her walls in her room, and she wasn’t embarrassed of this fact. She’d follow him everywhere, send letters to him along with gifts, making countless efforts to show her affection for him.
Christopher wasn’t at all interested in her, nor any other girl at all, so he indifferently ignored her obvious confessions on so many occasions, until a certain time when she boldly confessed to him in front of the whole school. She had prepared flowers, balloons, and created a beautiful setting all to confess to him.
However, when Christopher arrived at the scene, he stared at her indifferently, listening to her practiced speech of confession. The whole crowd gathered at the spot cheered her loudly, and she seemed quite certain that he would say yes to her. However, to her and everyone else’s shock and astonishment, Christopher had said,
"I’m sorry, I do not share the same feelings. Please give your affections to someone else," he said in a plain and straightforward tone before turning around to leave.
Lydia had been stunned stupidly, but as she watched him leave she was quickly brought back to her senses with tears in her eyes.
"Christopher!" she called.
Christopher paused his steps, but he didn’t turn around to spare her a glance.
"I love you. You can’t reject me. If you reject me, I’m going to kill myself!!!" she cried.
Christopher had dismissed her words as just her bitter resentment because her confession had failed. He assumed she would get over him soon.
However, the whole school was disoriented when all of a sudden a shrill scream sounded at dawn the next day. As everyone rushed out, they found Lydia’s body lying in her own pool of blood. She had fallen off the highest building in the school, taking her own life.
Christopher had been shocked. He couldn’t believe she had actually taken her own life.
After her death, that was when Christopher came to realize just how obsessed she had been with him. Pictures of him were found in her dorm; she wrote about him in her diary every day, doodled his name in her books and journals.
Christopher felt guilty for blatantly rejecting her in front of everyone. Though he wasn’t interested in her, he felt like he had humiliated her, which was why she had taken her own life, unable to take all the humiliation.
His guilt and the scandal that was beginning to affect his family made him decide to leave and change schools, which was also the reason he decided to keep to himself and keep his face hidden. If he didn’t interact with anyone and no one knew what he looked like, he could avoid something like that ever happening again.
However, on his first day of coming to school, he had seen her.
She had been running somewhere, seeming to be in a hurry. Christopher had been looking at the leaflet in his hand and hadn’t been paying attention to what was in front of him when she suddenly bumped into him.
"Shoot! My presentation file!" Natalia had exclaimed as all the papers she had been holding fluttered in the air, falling all over them both.
Her eyes!
Christopher couldn’t take his gaze off her eyes. In the bright morning sun they looked more golden than brown, but one could still see the light specks of chocolate brown in the depths of her orbs, the beautiful shade of honey. It looked like the perfect merging of the earth and sunset all in one.
However, Christopher had quickly come back to his senses as he bent down and helped her pick up all the stray papers on the floor.
"Oh, thank you..." Natalia trailed off, getting on her feet and taking the stack of papers from his hands, but she suddenly froze.
Christopher looked up to meet her gaze. She was dazedly staring into his eyes, though she couldn’t see what he looked like since he was wearing a facial mask.
Time seemed to still as the wind whooshed past them.
Perhaps she felt like she was staring too much, but Natalia finally broke her gaze, taking the papers from his hands. "Uhm, thank you," she cleared her throat.
Christopher didn’t speak, but he nodded in acknowledgement.
She looked at him curiously again before realizing something. "Shoot, I gotta go!" she blurted, then ran off. However, she had just gone a little distance before stopping in her tracks. With her brows furrowed curiously, she turned around to stare at his tall back, but she was suddenly shocked when he turned as well. Their eyes met and she was momentarily dazed again before coming to her senses and turning around as she ran off.
Christopher’s lips minutely pulled up from behind the mask.
That was the first time he met her, saw her, and from then on, her image had been constantly imprinted in his mind.
He didn’t see her again until some days later. They bumped into each other along a hallway.
Immediately she sighted him, she stopped in her tracks. There were a lot of students moving back and forth; however, in the moment their eyes met, it felt like it was just the two of them.
She stared for some time before smiling softly, then continued walking until she passed him.
And from that moment on, her smile had been imprinted in his heart.
The next time he saw her again was when the rumors were going around about him. She didn’t even know he was there, but she had said,
"All of you stop saying bad things about him. So what if he wears a mask? That doesn’t mean you should judge his appearance. Regardless of what he looks like, what does it matter? What matters is if he’s actually a good person or not, and he seems like one, so all of you talking bad about him will just end up as bitter gossip mongers!"
He didn’t know who she was scolding because he was standing outside the class and could only see her through the cracks of the door.
Christopher didn’t know how long he’d stood there staring at her, but he had finally left when he couldn’t see her anymore as she had gone back to her seat.
He had never once liked someone before, and these feelings budding in his heart for her felt... inexplicably euphoric.
He never would have known that there was joy even in loving someone without possessing them.
Christopher had kept Natalia in his heart for a long time, but he couldn’t open up his heart and reveal his feelings because he had decided not to until he graduated and left the school due to what had happened in his previous school.
Christopher had vowed to himself the day they’d graduate would be the very day he’d reveal himself and then confess his feelings to Natalia.
However, even before that came, this happened.
He’d been at the bar to meet someone, and knowing a lot of people who attended the same school as he did frequented that bar, he decided to wear his mask. But little did he know he’d meet her there.
He’d felt her watching him silently, curiously, and he’d noticed she did that a lot, and like all other times, she quickly turned her eyes away the minute he looked her way.
However, after some time, Christopher had gone to the restroom only to see a man holding her on his way out. The man was taking her towards one of the private rooms.
Christopher’s brows furrowed, and seeing the state Natalia was in, she looked intoxicated. He quickly followed them to see the man taking her into a room. Christopher was quick to understand what was going on.
He had beaten up the jerk and sent him away, but when he came by Natalia’s side, he could see the sweat gathered on her forehead. He could feel her burning up.
He decided to go out and get some help for her or probably get a doctor, however she’d suddenly pulled at his collar. To his shock, she actually kissed him.
Christopher tried to resist, knowing full well she was intoxicated at the moment. However, in the end, his resistance died down—who wouldn’t, when the girl he was in love with suddenly kissed him with so much desperation?
He selfishly took her lips, deeply kissing her. He could feel her writhing in his arms, soft moans escaping her mouth.
Christopher quickly regained control of himself. He pulled away from the kiss, about to get away, but she had grabbed his collar again.
Slowly, she opened her eyes to look up at him. He could see her beautiful honey gold eyes up close.
She reached up, touching his face softly while looking into his eyes.
"Christopher," she suddenly muttered softly, breathily.
While fighting with the guy from earlier, his mask had already come off. She could now see his face, and he was surprised by the fact that she actually recognized him.
His heart swelled with a joyful feeling as she gently touched his face while muttering his name again, "Christopher."
Her soft voice sounded like music to his ears.
She slowly pulled him towards her again, but this time he didn’t resist. He couldn’t will himself to.
And this time when she kissed him again, he responded enthusiastically. A rational part of his mind was telling him he shouldn’t, but he wasn’t able to stop his body from giving in to her. And when her hands started to roam his body, taking off his shirt, he couldn’t resist the flames of desire that had ignited in him.
Passionately, sensually, they had both shared their first times together.