A Second Chane

A Second Chance

Sometimes when people are young, they make stupid choices. It may be cheating on a test or lying to their parents about sneaking out and going to a party. In my case, it was about a boy. A boy that would change my life. And even though I ended up hurting him, he still gave me another chance.

Butterflies filled my stomach. I felt like I was in a dream. If it was a dream, I definitely did not want to wake up. I was headed toward his house. Five minutes away. I felt like I was going to be sick. Never had I been so nervous. Was this really a date or did he just want to hang out? I prayed that it was not the latter. Two minutes away. Why was I so nervous?

His name was Charlie. We had been friends since junior high. I always liked him. We dated for a while in 8th grade. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of breaking it off with him because he would not hold my hand. I did not tell that though. I just wrote him a note stating something along the lines of “I just want to be friends,” and gave it to him as he was jumping on his bus after school. He was heartbroken. I bet if I would have just told him to hold my hand then things would have turned out differently.

Ever since then, I regretted breaking it off with him. I dated other people, but none of them compared to him. He was everything a girl wanted. A true gentleman, a best friend, a comedian, someone you could tell anything. The list goes on and on. Oh, and very handsome! Perfect husband material. Then I went and screwed it all up by dumping him. I was such a dumb teenager.

We continued to be friends throughout high school. I secretly wanted be more than that though. I thought since I broke up with him that he would never take me back. Therefore, I just wrote it off as a love I could never have.

After high school, I met a guy and had a baby. That guy could not handle the idea of being a father, so he left our child and me. I was alone, left to raise a baby all by myself. I was beginning to believe that I would always be alone, and that my daughter was all that I had in the world.

I had a full-time job at a local gas station. That is where I saw Charlie again. It was towards the end of my shift, as I was beginning to sweep and mop the floors. A group of boys walked in and went to buy a calling card. I noticed him right away. He came over and said hi. He told me that he and his friends were going to Wal-Mart to go “Mullet Hunting”. I laughed, he said good-bye, and left. After he was gone, I went into the storage room and cried. He acted as though he did not want to see me. Now I felt that I was definitely alone. My life was a downward spiral. It could not possibly get any worse, or better.

I went back to work after calming down a bit. An hour passed and a car pulled up. It was him. He was back! He came in smiling. I was so happy.

“We couldn’t find any good mullets, so I decided to come back and see you.” He said as he walked towards the counter. I laughed.

Before I knew it, we had been talking for hours. We talked about what he had been doing for the last couple of years, what I had been doing, family, the usual. I was terrified to tell him about my daughter. I thought he would bolt out the door for sure. I eventually built up the courage to tell him. He actually did not mind, and wanted to meet her. I was so relieved. Then I noticed the clock. It was 10:35PM. I was supposed to close the store at 10PM. I had been talking to him when I was supposed to be getting the store ready to close. I did not have anything done. I quickly told him that he had to go or I would get into trouble. He gave me his number and told me to call him the next day. Of course, I did.

We talked the next day, and made plans to go see a movie. The way he made it sound was that we were going as friends, nothing more. He did not seem like he was flirting with me. It was just like high school. Did he want to hang out as friends, or did he take this as a date? I felt like I was going insane wondering what his intentions really were.

Now here I was, driving towards his house, wondering if he really was giving me a second chance. I could not stop smiling. I was happy and terrified all at the same time. After what seemed like an eternity, I pulled up to his house. His sister, Missy, greeted me. He was still in the shower.

“Great! Now I have to deal with his sister, who doesn’t like me.” I thought to myself.

I knew that she hated me for hurting her little brother. Fortunately, she was extremely nice to me. It was probably just an act though. We talked