Jayden : The Boy I Fell In Love With : Part 1

I suppose I'd better give you a bit of a summary. My name is James. I'm 18 years old. I have bright blue eyes, short, light blonde hair, I'm 5'9" and I have fairly light skin. This is my story of how I fell in love.

It all started in September 2010. I'd gotten myself a job at my local supermarket. Being quite socially awkward at school and out-and-about, it was difficult for me to make friends at work. Generally it was a matter of "Get the job done or you don't get paid, you aren't here to fluff about." Gradually I'd made myself a few friends. Not many, but some.

One sunny February afternoon in late Summer, I walked to work at about 3:30. I loved to sit around for a while before I started work; it gave me a chance to catch up on what I’d missed on the days I hadn’t worked. I sat outside the store with my friend Rachael, while she was having a cigarette, relishing the start of her half hour lunch break. Rachael and I had been friends for 6 years. From the first day of high school in Year 8, I knew she was going to be my best friend. We were discussing how ridiculous some customers looked when they would go to the store half asleep or still in their pyjamas when I’d received a text message. I checked my phone to see it’d been from Jayden. Jayden was a very cute boy that I’d been crushing on for numerous months. He was 5’11”, had wonderful light brown eyes, a beautiful light skin colour, and light brown hair that fell perfectly across his face. He was everything I’d hoped for in a boy, and he was my other best friend.

I stared at my phone for a few seconds before Rachael realised something was wrong.
“Are you alright James?” she asked, quizzically.
“Yeah. Just a text from you-know-who.” Rachael was the only person in the universe that knew that I was gay, and let alone liked Jayden. I remember in Year 8, we decided that we would try to be in a relationship, to see if it would work. To cut a story short, it didn’t. We learnt why in year 10 when I began crushing on a pretty-boy named Alex in my Music class.

“Are you going to read it, or just stand there and gawk at it like an idiot?” she poked playfully.
“I guess I’m going to read it?” I responded, unsure of whether I actually wanted to or not.
“I’ll read it then!” she announced, and grabbed my phone from me. ‘Why did I tell her my pass code?’ I thought to myself. ‘This cannot end well.’
“Oh shit. Here.” She said, throwing the phone back into my hands, looking almost scared.
“What the hell?” I yelled at her playfully.
“I think you want to read that, James...” she said with a look in her eyes to say that it was important.

“Hey James, it’s Jayden. Obviously. You’ve had my number for ages. Haha. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out this weekend, I have something really important to tell you and I don’t think it can wait much longer. Let me know buddy. Xoxo.” For some reason, Jayden and I had started using hugs and kisses on the end of our texts from about New Year’s. I texted back.
“Sorry Jayden I’m working this weekend, 9-2 on Sat and 11-3:30 Sun. Got no weekend to myself. D:”
A few minutes passed before he sent a reply; “Oh. That’s ok. I’ll talk to you another time then.”

“Do you think I was rude to him?” I asked Rachael.
“No, not rude. You told him the truth. He seemed quite upset that he couldn’t see you though.” She was still staring at the first message he sent me. ““Something really important to tell you and I don’t think it can wait much longer...” What do you think that means?”
“No idea, but he’s been acting really strange around me lately. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s definitely something different.” I said to her, as she butted out her cigarette and we walked in the main doors of the store.

Inside the store was a flourish of noise and people rushing about. The owner of our store was coming in today and Peter, the Store Manager, wanted the store to be perfect.
Suddenly my phone started vibrating again. I had a quick look at it, there were two text messages. I didn’t really want to read them; my phone previewed one without unlocking itself:
“Hey can you bring home some milk when you finish work? Ta.” It was mum. I didn’t bother to read the second message, I’d figured that it was just mum mentioning another thing I had to take home. I’d read it afterwards.

After I walked into the office and clocked in using the store’s fingerprint scanner, I walked through the front end to the service desk to see where I was today. Being alphabetically sorted, my name was right on the top. I looked across. “James – 16:00-20:00. Reg4, 16:00-19:00, Reg1, 19:00-20:00.”
“For fudge sakes.” I said to myself. “Why do they always do that? Just put me on Register 1 for the whole shift. Ugh.” I was contempt with the day roster. There was no point in arguing against it, obviously they wanted Tegan on Register 1 for her shift from 3-7pm, and I was working til close, at 8pm.
I was just about to put the sheet of paper back when something caught my eye.

“Jayden – 15:30-20:00. Produce.”
“Woah, what?” I exclaimed, quite loudly.
“What’s up loser?” asked Rachael, with a mouth full of cookie.
“Jayden’s working today.” I said with a surprised expression in my voice.
“WHAT?” she cried, spluttering chewed cookie crumbs all over my jacket.
“Ew, you’re disgusting!” I yelled at her, before taking off my jacket and throwing the crumbs at her.
“He wasn’t supposed to be on tonight!” she exclaimed, quickly grabbing the sheet of paper from me.
“It’s not a problem. We never see each other when we work anyway.” I said to her, noting the fact that he usually worked floor, which was in the opposite direction of the registers.
“No, you twat. Look where he is.” She pointed at the sheet of paper.
“OH SHIT.” I exclaimed. “Register 4 practically faces Produce.”
“Yeah. You’re screwed.” She stated.

“Lauren to the Service Desk please, Lauren.” I called over the intercom. A few seconds passed, and the telephone began to ring.
“Hello, James speaking...” I answered, taking note of the fact that it was from the office.
“What do you want James? I’m busy.” Lauren asked quickly.
“Uhm, I was just wondering if I could swap with Tegan, she can go on Register 4 and I’ll go on Register 1?” I asked politely.
“What for? They’re just registers. They’re all the same?” She asked, with a puzzled tone in her voice.
“Err,” I paused briefly. “..Personal reasons?” ‘Wow James. Well done. Nothing smarter in your head?’ I thought to myself.
“Are you kidding James? No. I put Tegan on the express lane because you’ve been really distracted lately. Just go on 4 and hurry up please.” Lauren quickly stated.
“Yes Lauren. Sorry to bother you.” I sighed, defeated, and hung up the receiver.

An hour had passed since I’d started work at 4pm. I’d seen Jayden numerous times as he was restocking all of the fruit and vegetables in the Produce section. He hadn’t come over and said anything, so I assumed that he hadn’t noticed me yet. ‘How did I not notice him walk in the door? Ugh.’
“Is something the matter, lad?” asked one of my regular elderly customers, as she placed her very few items onto the conveyor belt.
“No, just deep in thought, Margaret.” I replied, remembering her telling me her name one afternoon when I helped her load a full trolley of groceries into her granddaughter’s car.
I must’ve still been staring at Jayden, because she looked over in his direction.
“Ah,” she sighed, “You fancy him, don’t you?” she said out of the blue.
“Oh. Yes. Thank you.” I said, not taking notice to what she’d said. She giggled softly.
“Sorry?” I asked, thinking I’d missed something funny.
“I said, you fancy him, don’t you. You said yes.” She giggled again.
“Oh. Oh! OH!” I exclaimed. “I...Er...Uhm...” I was lost for words. Was I really that transparent?
“It’s okay lad. We all fall in love sooner or later.” Almost on cue, Jayden looked up and saw me, looking at him. He had a surprised look on his face, obviously because he didn’t think I was working today. He waved at me, and I gave him a small wave in return, with a weak smile, trying to hide how embarrassed I was. He looked at me with a puzzled expression, and then walked around the corner.
“Am I really that obvious?” I asked Margaret.
“No, I’ve just known you for a while, and I could tell something was on your mind last week, and I saw him here, then, too.” She stated, proud of her detective skills.
“Wow. You’re really on the ball, aren’t you?” I chuckled at her.
“You have no idea.” She stated, before taking her bags and walking off. “Toodle-oo, lad! Hope it works out for you!” ‘Oh my god....’ I thought. ‘I’m so screwed.’

***

“Hey James.” Jayden said quietly as he approached my register. Unfortunately, there were no customers in the store, so I couldn’t subtly shoo him away.
“Hey, Jayden...” I said slowly. I didn’t want to make it noticeable that I was head over heels over him.
“Did you get my text message?” he asked softly.
“Yeah I did, I’ll talk to you later about it.” I smiled at Jayden, realising he was just referring to the text he sent about us catching up later.
“Awesome.” He looked a lot more relieved once I’d said that to him.
“I didn’t know you were working tonight...” I said to him. I began to fiddle with a pen in my hand.
“Neither did I. They called me in to replace Steven’s shift.”
‘Oh! Steven was supposed to work Produce tonight!’ I thought to myself.
“Oh that’s right.” I said softly. I dropped my pen and bent down to pick it up again. I couldn’t help but feel as if he were watching me pick it up.
“Yeah...” sighed Jayden, he suddenly looked worried again. A customer walked up to the checkouts and Jayden walked back over to the Produce section to continue filling the carrots.

***

“Hey James. Can you do a price check for me please?” a distinct voice beside me.
‘Holy crap, he’s right next to me. I can smell him. Fuck.’ I thought to myself.
“Sure.” He handed me a small punnet of strawberries to scan. Being that he was behind me inside the register, I began to get noticeably nervous. Being silly, once again, I randomly hit “Price Override” instead of “Product Search”. Jayden laughed.
“Price Override? I need to know the price before I can override it.” He laughed some more.
“I’m getting to it!” I said, rather bluntly. “I don’t like having people stand over my shoulder while I’m working.”
“Well here,” he said, grabbing the strawberries from my hands with his left hand. His fingers felt so beautifully carved as it seemed that he intentionally moved them against my hand and my wrist. I almost felt an electrical charge has he'd done so. I felt myself begin to go red again. “I’ll do it if you want.”. He now reached around with his right hand and pressed product search before scanning the punnet. He now had his arms around me, almost embracing me from behind, and he hadn’t moved yet.
‘Oh, why aren’t there any freaking customers in the store?!’ I yelled at myself, in my head. I turned slightly and saw Rachael on Register 2, smiling at me, giving thumbs up. ‘No,’ I thought, ‘this is not good.’

Suddenly, I was in his arms, almost on the floor.
"Woah! Are you alright?" he exclaimed.
"I will be once I find out what the hell just happened!" I said to him. "Did you just kick me over? Let go of me!" I stood up angrily, and shoved his arms from me, before walking away from the register.
"No, I didn't! I swear!" Jayden called to me as I furiously walked into the office and slammed the door shut.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" cried Lauren, the Service Manager. "Get back out there!"
"I can't Lauren. I just can't." I stated bluntly.
"And why would that be?" she was getting furious.
'Because I'm madly in love with the person who just had his arms around me, okay?!' I wanted to scream out.
"I can't tell you." I said, feeling defeated once more. I could feel tears begin to well into my eyes and I began to cry softly on the seat in the corner. Lauren suddenly softened her facial expression and sat down next to me.
"Is something the matter, James?" she asked, knowing that she wouldn't get an answer from me.
"Yeah," I replied, still sobbing. "But I can't tell you. I just can't." I began to cry more, once again.
"Okay," she said softly, "But if you ever want to talk, I'm right here. Take as much time as you need."
"Thankyou Lauren." I said, sitting quietly.

“Jayden to the office please, Jayden."
My eyes snapped wide open as soon as I heard his name on the store intercom. I looked at the clock. Half an hour had passed. 'Oh shit! Is he coming because of me? Did Rachael tell Lauren about him? Is he going to be fired? Why is he coming into the office? Produce staff never go to the office?!" My mind went into instant panic mode. I quickly ran into the staffroom and hid in the staff toilets.
"James, are you in there?" a familiar voice I was glad to hear.
"Yeah Rach, I'm in here."
"Can I come in?" Her voice sounded with genuine concern. I unlocked the door for her and she walked in slowly, before turning around and locking the door behind her.
"I saw him put his arms around you. It was cute." she said softly.
"It was horrible." I replied. "I couldn't feel anything in my body, I just collapsed."
"You didn't need to yell at him in front of everyone though." she stated. "He feels like he's done something wrong."
"He has done something wrong." I snapped back.
"What has he done?!" exclaimed Rachael, I was sure that someone else could hear her.
"He, he.." I stopped midsentence.
"He what James?" Rachael was becoming irritated.
"I don't know, okay?!" I cried. "I panicked and didn't want him to realise I was swooning over him!" I began to tear up again.
"That's no reason to accuse someone of kicking you over, and then storming off without an explanation!" Rachael yelled. She obviously wasn't concerned about how much noise she was making anymore.
"It is for me!" I yelled back, glaring at her, furious.
"Fine, have it your way. Remember who tried to comfort you when you screwed up, you stupid jerk." Rachael snapped, before unlocking the door and storming out of the rather large, enclosed disabled toilet.

I must've begun crying again because I heard his voice once again.
'Shit,' I thought, 'I'm out back in the loading dock. This is his territory. Fml.'
"Are you okay in there James?"
"I'M FINE." I snapped at him.
He slowly walked into the toilet (shit, why didn't I lock the door after Rachael left?) and knelt down next to me on the floor.
"What did I do?" he asked me tenderly.
"I..I.." I began stammering again. "I can't tell you."
"Why not?" he asked, gently placing his arm on my shoulder. A moment passed while I was thinking of what to say to him.
"Because I think I'm in love with you!" I blurted out, without realising. I could feel my face instantly turn red and I looked away in embarrassment.
Jayden just looked at me in confusion and disbelief. He stood up and walked out of the bathroom. I began to cry once more, this time quite hysterically.

When I finally calmed myself and washed my face, I walked back down to the front end. Jayden was nowhere in sight, which was weird since it was only 6:10pm.
"Where's Jayden gone?" I asked Rachael. She gave me a look to say I was still in big trouble with her.
"He went home early, said something about feeling sick. I bet you had something to do with it, didn't you?" she verbally attacked me in front of 5-or-so customers.
"Wh-wh-what?" I said softly.
"You heard me, you stupid shit. You obviously said something and made him not want to be here. Oh, and Lauren wants to see you." she said, before turning her full attention to the customer she was serving.

"..Yeah Lauren?" I asked quietly, walking slowly into the office.
"I think you and I need to have a talk, James." she said with a serious look on her face. Jayden was seated next to her, and he looked quite upset.

*** Thanks for reading my story; I've never written anything like this before. I hope you like it! I'm sorry there's no sex in this one, but I'm trying to focus on more of a love story than just a full on sex novel.
Please let me know what you think and I'll try to get part two done ASAP!