Always Been You
Authors: Tracy Luu
Always Been You
A Novel
Tracy Luu
iUniverse, Inc.
New York Bloomington
Always Been You
A Novel
Copyright © 2008 by Tracy Luu
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by
any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system
without the written permission of the publisher except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,
organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products
of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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ISBN: 978-0-595-52531-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-595-51294-2 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-0-595-62584-0 (ebk)
Printed in the United States of America
iUniverse rev. date: 12/19/2008
Contents
The Beginning
Bowling and a Bet!
A New Friend
A Hilarious Night to Remember
Beautiful
Winter Break
New Year’s Eve!
Valentine’s!
Girl Talk
Spring Break!
Bizarre Conversations
Birthday Wishes
An Uncomfortable Position
A Heated Argument
Explanation
Confessions
A New Relationship
Graduation
New Beginnings
Dedication
For my cousin, Brian; without you my story would have never gotten this far.
Chapter 1
The Beginning
The summer sun was bright against the crystal blue horizon; high in the clear afternoon sky. Unfortunately, the only thing from making it a perfect August day was the sweltering heat; the air stifling at seventy-eight degrees. As I sat here watching the arrivals and departures of people bustling through the terminal, I was glad to be in the comforts of an air-conditioned room.
Normally, I would avoid the Vancouver airport, especially for this particular time of year. Huge crowds with pushy people tend to annoy me. However, since I had promised to pick up a friend and his family, I was sitting here on one of the blue chairs, waiting patiently for them to arrive back from their trip to Australia.
Finally seeing a rush of passengers from the four o’clock Australian flight coming through the doors, I quickly put down the magazine I was reading and began craning my neck over everyone’s heads. But because my stature was only five foot four, I had to climb on the chair I was sitting on for a better view. Within seconds, I easily found my friend.
Standing right beside a portly man in a red Hawaiian shirt and straw hat was Jacob Bennett, a six-foot, half-Chinese, half-Australian hottie. He was running a hand through his wavy, brown hair and standing on his tiptoes, his hazel eyes also scanning the crowd. After a few years of playing sports like rugby and soccer for our school’s team, Jacob has a build no guy would be ashamed of showing off. Wearing a short-sleeved, navy blue polo shirt and a pair of grey cargo shorts that emphasised his healthy muscles, even his tanned features seemed sharper and more chiselled than before. As he tightened his grip on the brown leather bag slung over his broad shoulders and pushed his way through the crowd, I still couldn’t believe the hottest guy in our school was my friend.
When he finally turned to his left, he then broke out into his recognisable warm, one-dimpled smile once he saw me, and as he began to wave back, a familiar image immediately appeared in my head.
Three summers ago I was also at the airport waiting for Jacob and his family, but instead of waiting alone, I had been here with two of my best friends. Amy Taylor, whom I’ve known since kindergarten, and Matt Conner, who is also Jacob’s cousin.
Amy and I have always been curious to meet Jacob, ever since we first heard Matt talk about him back in eighth grade. When we finally found out about Jacob moving back to Vancouver to live since his dad, a cardiac surgeon, decided to transfer back, we then asked Matt if we could accompany him and his dad to pick them up. The only one who wasn’t coming back was his sister, Ashley, a part-time model who was still attending York University in Toronto. As we waited for them to arrive, however, the image that had flown through Amy’s and my minds was of Jacob’s eighth grade picture. The only picture we saw.
In that photo, Jacob looked skinny, wore a pair of huge, black, round-rimmed eyeglasses, and had a mouthful of braces. When the terminal doors opened, Amy and I couldn’t believe who had appeared. Instead of glasses, Jacob had worn contacts, and his braces had been removed revealing a perfect straight smile. His lanky frame had filled out nicely, and he even had the height of a model, standing three inches taller than Matt.
He was already so good-looking that when he had asked me if I could show him around and do some sightseeing to see what had changed once he got over his jetlag, I became nervous and wary on how the day would turn out. Amazingly, it turned out better than I had expected.
I was amazed at how easily we had gotten along after spending the day touring the city and thought that maybe our outing had been only a one time thing. It was too good to be real. Especially, when it came to spending almost an entire day with a hot guy. But then two days later on the first day of school, I had been surprised that Jacob had sought me out, asking me to help him show him around campus instead of Matt. Once Jacob got used to his schedule, he then began seeking my presence during lunchtime, and he even accompanied me to some of my classes before going to his.
For a while I kept wondering why he would always hang around me. I thought that maybe it was because Matt had just begun dating Amy and was always busy with her, and that Jacob didn’t know many people. But when Amy mentioned to me about her theory that Jacob actually harboured some secret crush for me, pointing out the things Jacob did—like the way how he would always try to find me, or the way he would look at me whenever we were together—I thought that maybe Jacob liked me too. Regrettably, before any of us could ask Jacob about it, a few weeks later Jacob had started seeing Ivy Jones.
Ivy was everything I wasn’t. She had long hair that was very light, platinum almost, fitting well with her watery, blue eyes. Her legs were thin like a model, and her skin was perfect and even-toned. But even though she’s very pretty, I didn’t think that was the reason Jacob had chosen her. I actually thought that maybe it was because Ivy was one of the popular girls in school, and I wasn’t.
Throughout the years, my close friends and I were never part of the
‘in crowd’
and had preferred not to be. Matt wasn’t even part of that crowd either, even when Jacob had transferred to our school. That was because Jacob had befriended this group of guys we never liked. They were rude, cocky, and enjoyed having people grovel at their feet. And because Jacob is wealthy, boyishly handsome, and constantly has girls throwing themselves at him, it made those guys even more arrogant to be included as one of Jacob’s friends. The stupid part was that those same guys only acted that way whenever Jacob wasn’t around to see.
When we had found out about Jacob and Ivy, all of us had been surprised that he would go for someone as snobby as her. From what he had told me during our walk, he found those kinds of girls annoying. However, he still chose her and instead of feeling happy for him, I felt completely heartbroken. And since I also couldn’t deal with the idea of him kissing her, I then had decided to distance myself away from Jacob. Matt hadn’t like the idea, but he still accepted my decision. Only because he knew what it was like getting over a first crush. The only thing different from the rest of girls in school who also had a crush on him was that I didn’t like Jacob because of the way he looked, or because he was the typical jock. I actually liked him for who he really was.
At first I didn’t think my plan would work since he and Matt were related, but things had actually worked out great. I barely saw Jacob. When I did, it was only because we had the same classes. Things had been going so well for me that a few months later I even had accepted a date with one of my classmates named Riley Peters.
Riley isn’t as handsome, or as tall as Jacob, but he was still good-looking. He had straight chestnut hair, and striking blue eyes. He could always make me laugh with his out-going attitude, and he even taught me how to kiss. Still, even though we had dated for four months, and he always made me feel wanted, I realised that my feelings for Riley couldn’t continue any further than friendship. When I had decided to end it, I was extremely lucky that things had ended on such good terms between us. Countless times I had witnessed couples breaking up and rarely did they remain friends. I was lucky that even after our mismatched debacle, I still have Riley as a friend.
It had been a good choice for me to date Riley. Our brief relationship made me realise that I was finally over my crush on Jacob. But no matter what I thought, I knew my luck couldn’t last. And one day I had been put to the test.
Sometime during last June, I was hanging out over at Matt’s house with Amy when Jacob had suddenly shown up at Matt’s door. Since I hadn’t talked to Jacob in over a year, I made as if to leave when he sat down next to me on the couch, assuming he would want to talk to Amy and Matt in private, but he surprised me by asking that I stay. Of course I did, but then two hours later when Amy and Matt had given up with breaking through to Jacob and chose to rent a movie instead, the three of us then got even more surprised when Jacob finally had spoken to ask if I could stay behind. Before I could tell him I’d rather go with Amy and Matt, those two then quickly walked out the door.
I knew why they left me alone with him. They thought that maybe I might be able to find out what was bothering him. Except with my heart hammering loudly against my chest and my mind a jumbled mess of thoughts, I didn’t think it was a good idea. But then while I was trying to figure out what to say to ease the deafening silence, Jacob had suddenly shifted closer to me, and we soon fell into our usual banter like before.
Amy always told me that I had a certain knack of knowing how people felt. I knew what they needed, when to push them or back away. I guess Jacob knew that too. Ten minutes into our conversation, Jacob had told me what had been bothering him.
All the times we had hung out in the past, and minus the time we had talked about following in our parents’ footsteps, Jacob and I never shared anything else really personal. We weren’t that close with one another. But I guess Jacob must have seen something in me that I didn’t. Soon after that day, Jacob and I began spending numerous summer nights over at each other’s houses, talking into the long hours of the night. Once we started opening up to each other, discussing private things, I then realised that officially I was back as one of Jacob’s friends.
Like before, Matt actually thought that Jacob and I were heading into the direction of a relationship, until Jacob had told him about dating one of the other popular girls in school, a brunette named Amber Henley. When he questioned me about it, I then had told Matt that the remnants of my crush on Jacob had long since faded. I had resolved not to fall under his spell again, and would only offer my friendship as much as he needed or wanted it. I knew that I was a side-line, part of the few people who understood him, but not more to him than anyone else. I even had convinced Matt that I was over Jacob by revealing I was also dating someone I had met a month ago while I had been shopping in the mall with Amy, an Asian guy named Ethan Su.
