Take my hand

Does anyone know what's better than ice cream?

That's right, two ice creams!

I had a vanilla ice cream cone in my left hand and a chocolate one in my right.

Hello, my name is Robin, I am 15 years old and I am a cry baby.

I was shedding my tears on the blouse of the most beautiful girl in the world for about 15 minutes, and when I finally calmed down, we came to eat ice cream on a bench near the soccer field.

For some reason, Andrea thought that one ice cream wouldn't be enough, so she bought me two.

We were sitting in silence, one next to the other.

“Don't you like ice cream?”

She asked me and looked straight ahead again.

“I really like strawberry ice cream, although not everyone likes that flavor, that's why I brought you vanilla and chocolate, almost everyone likes those flavors, but if you ask me strawberry tastes better because…”

Andrea gave me a 5-minute lecture on why strawberry is the best ice cream flavor. At this point, I was no longer impressed that she was talking more now than in all the time I've known her.

“And tell me, what do you think?”

I honestly stopped listening to her halfway through the conversation, so I just nodded my head.

“Your ice creams are melting!”

It was true, neither of us had noticed that both cones were already almost completely melted in my hands.

“I'm sorry Andrea, I'll go wash up.”

I got up from the bench and went to the nearest bathroom. All I wanted was to go home soon, this was undoubtedly one of the worst days of my life… but I knew that I still owed an explanation to the person who helped me during my painful scene, so I went back to Andrea ready to tell her everything.

I got to the bench and sat next to her again. She seemed more nervous than me, so I didn't want to take any longer to explain my situation to her and I started by asking for a sincere apology.

“I-I… I want to apologize to you. I made you go through an embarrassing moment.”

“N-not at all, you don't have to apologize.”

She moved her hands to emphasize her words; even so, I started to speak.

“All my life I have loved soccer, since I can remember my dream has been to become a professional soccer player. Believe me, there was no person with more dedication than me: I used to train hard every day, take care of my diet and general health, and even study new tactics by watching as many matches as possible. And that over time was paying off, every day I became a better soccer player. Things were going great, but...”

I stopped for a few seconds and grabbed my right knee very hard.

“But I suffered a very serious injury in a match, and that prevented me from doing what I love the most for a long time. When I wanted to go back, it was already too late in many ways. Still, I went against what the doctors said and tried again, but I just wasn't the same anymore. I think that was what got me down the most: realizing for myself that the dream I had all my life was already almost impossible to achieve.”

I wanted to cry again, but I didn't want to scare Andrea any more, so I held back and continued.

“I became a coward and did a thousand things to try to ignore my heart. If I'm honest, you've helped me a lot. During this short time that I have been your tutor, I have really enjoyed meeting you, you are a person that I admire for many reasons; Thanks to you, Leonel and my family, I feel that it's worth moving forward.”

I paused to see Andrea's face. She remained calm, listening attentively to my words.

“But what you saw today was just the result of my mistakes. An anxiety attack caused by memories of my past... I apologize, I promise I will never behave so pathetically in front of you again.”

I finished speaking and silence invaded the atmosphere for a couple of minutes. People kept passing normally in front of us; most of them were students who had classes scheduled during the weekends, or visitors to the different sporting and social events that took place at the Golden School.

Finally, Andrea let out a big sigh and began to speak.

“It's true, you put me through a bad time. When I saw you on the ground crying, I was very scared. I didn't know what was wrong with you, I thought someone had hurt you.”

She smoothed her hair with her hand, the wind was blowing a little stronger where we were.

“Now that I have heard your story I think I understand why you have been so kind to me: Just like me, you know how terrible it feels to fail at something you've tried hard for.”

I was impressed by her words; Andrea was an archery prodigy girl, I couldn't understand in what way she considered herself to be failing.

“Since my childhood I have had problems to socialize; I'm not good at talking to people, I'm afraid to interact with someone I don't know and I get very nervous. My parents were always worried about me because I didn't have any friends, so for a while I decided to push myself to try to make others like me, but I couldn't. I remember the kids at school didn't want to talk with me because of silly prejudice or jealousy, so I eventually ended up avoiding them altogether.”

Despite telling a sad story from her past, she smiled and continued.

“After a while I got tired of trying to make friends and preferred to spend my days alone, but that also caused me problems academically. I was never good at studying, all the subjects were difficult for me and I had no one to help me. My parents tried to teach me, but they were usually busy with their jobs, so I tried to ask the teachers for help, but I realized that over time they despaired to explain the same thing to me so many times, and that depressed me. In the end, I gave up again and stopped attending all the tutoring and private classes.”

She paused a little. Her gaze was fixed straight ahead, and she occasionally turned to look at the sky.

“Archery saved my life: it ended my long streak of failure. My father had an acquaintance who had opened an archery school, and he recommended that I should go so that it would help me socialize. I'm sure I started living when I shot the first arrow at the target. I kept putting the arrows in the center, I was so good!”

Her beautiful smile rubbed off on me and we both laughed a bit. After that, she suddenly looked me straight in the eye.

“You have become another victory that I have achieved in my life.”

Immediately I looked away, my face was completely flushed.

“After so much searching, I finally found a friend. I found you.”

“I-I don't deserve so much praise.”

I could barely reply; I was too embarrassed by her words.

“Of course you deserve it! You have been so kind to me: you worry about my studies and you try too hard for me to learn, and not satisfied with that you always try to make me have a good time. You invite me to eat, you talk to me about many things and you also had the confidence to introduce me to your best friend. These days I have been very nervous thinking about how to thank you for everything you have done for me!”

So that's why I've noticed her a little distant! Damn, my heart is pounding. How can she say such things so cheekily?!

“But I think I already know how.”

She suddenly got up from the bench and stood in front of me.

“No matter how long it takes us; I will help you so that you can enjoy soccer again!”

Her eyes suddenly lit up, she was really excited about this.

“We will go to the games that are needed, we will talk about soccer for as long as you want, and I can even play with you!”

“I-I…”

Honestly, I didn't know what to say, seeing her so exalted was impressive.

“For today we have a mission to accomplish. Come on, take my hand.”

I didn't have time to react, I just obeyed her. Andrea and I went hand in hand to Leonel's game.