The Boy She Ignored in High School (Short Story)

She’s a loner. She sits alone by herself and bothers no one. No one bothers her. He’s a loner who sits by himself and bothers no one. There’s a reason why no one bothers him. He is cross eyed and walks with a limp. One leg is shorter than the other. When people do take the time to notice him he is picked on and teased. She sees him at times. She feels bad for him. Sometimes she thinks about him. Wonders about him. Asks herself what it would be like to be his friend. She never actually speaks to him. He grows sadder and the teasing continues. His limp become worse and he begins to hang his head. After a while she stops seeing him. He stops coming to school. She wonders to herself where he is never daring to ask anyone if they had seen him. Rumors circulate about him. Some say he committed suicide others say he simply left school because he couldn’t handle the teasing. Eventually people stop talking about him. She never stops thinking about him, but the thoughts become less frequent Only visiting her every blue moon. She grows tired of being alone. She begins approaching people discovering in the process that she can make them laugh. She eventually becomes well liked known for her vibrant funny personality. She graduates from school entering the next phase of her life. She gets a great job working at a prestigious company and eventually moves out of her parent’s house. One day before work she walks into a coffee shop and sees a dazzling young man. She thinks to herself how handsome he is and then remembers that she hasn’t even gotten into the line to order coffee. After ordering her coffee she goes to the condiment area. She looks down to stir her coffee and when she finishes, she looks up to find the dazzling young man looking down at her with a smile. She looks down nervously twirling her hair. The man asks her a question. What kind of coffee does she prefer? She answers not sure she heard the question correctly. He laughs and she loosens. Deep down inside she was still the same loner from high school. She became very nervous when talking to new people but when she made them laugh it always got better. Being funny was her weapon and it worked again on this dazzling young man. She and the young man hit it of instantly. He had a habit of staring at whoever he was speaking to intensely. She liked that about him. The young man asked her to coffee, and she agreed. One coffee date turned into another and then another. A year later she was engaged to the young man and about to meet his family. When she met his family, she noticed that his Father was cross-eyed with a limp. She begins to think about the boy from high school but before she could finish the thought, she was telling was telling another of her famous jokes. The young man's family fell in love with her and they were married. A year later their union produced a beautiful baby boy. Years later she and young man have three more children. Their eldest son enters his twelfth year and she notices something about him. The eldest son begins to walk with a slight limp and one of his eyes become crossed. She alerts the young man and he assures that there is nothing to worry about. She decides to take her son to the doctor in need of more information. The doctor informs her that her sons’ condition is hereditary. Suddenly she thinks about her husband’s father and how he is cross eyed with a limp. Then she remembers him. The boy in high school who was also cross eyed with a limp. She remembered how she ignored him and often wondered about him. How she never spoke to him. She thought about that habit of her husband that she loved so much. The one where he studied people intently when they spoke to him. That’s when she understood. Her husband, the dazzling man, was him the cross eyed boy who walked with a limp from high school. The doctor explained to her a procedure that her son could get for his condition the one that her husband probably had done. The procedure was too expensive and it was something that would have to wait for the future. Her sons limp became worse and he began to walk with his head down. He was teased by the other kids. This time would be different, she told herself. She wouldn’t be ashamed of her son and ignore him. She wouldn’t be the person she was in high school. Every day for the rest of her life she sacrificed everything she had for her husband. The boy she ignored in high school.