Short Story: "I love you"
The girl said “I love you”.
The boy’s mind expanded in one million directions. He had not expected to hear those words, not now, despite having always wanted to hear them directed his way. But had he hoped to hear them from her or just wished to hear them regardless of who said them? Was it too soon for them to be saying “I love you” or was the whole idea of “too soon” just a cliche from sitcoms and movies, and surely the importance of this moment here now meant he shouldn’t base any of his actions off of sitcoms and movies. Maybe it wasn’t too soon at all but perfect timing? People were always saying girls understand relationship cues better than boys: maybe she’d realised this was love before his male brain had had a chance to figure it out? This all going off the belief she believes what she is saying. Maybe she feels like she has to say it, that it is better to say it too early than too late; or maybe she’s put no thought into it beyond this is what you say to the person you’re in a relationship with. But did any of that even matter? She had said it now and he needed to respond. Did he love her? He hadn’t thought about it; hadn’t had the time to think about it; maybe it was just a flaw of his personality, that she’d clearly (well, possibly) put thought into the question of love and he hadn’t, and it was surely a fault of his that a declaration of love, something people around the world long for, had flummoxed him to such a degree. Despite his reply depending solely on his feelings for another human being, this was the sort of matter he would have liked to ponder alone, so he could carefully consider it, maybe even plan out what he’d say like he sometimes did; it wasn’t the sort of thing he liked to have sprung on him - not that there was any such thing. But she’d said it now so he would have to say it back, wouldn’t he? Even if he didn’t believe it. It would be rude not too and it’d make the whole situation awkward. He looked deep inside himself, as people often say they do, essentially just checking his mood in response to her words, and felt there was not love there. He liked her, really really liked her, and found her especially attractive, but there was not a feeling there he would describe as “love”. Then again, it was true he’d never pondered what love is, and of course it wasn’t a specific thing but a subjective feeling that everyone experiences differently but that was sometimes expressed by different people with the same words. He knew that much at least. Maybe she felt the same way about him as he did her but she mistakenly thought that’s what love feels like - a “low love threshhold” you could call it - or maybe this feeling was love for her and just not for him. Either way, he needed to respond quickly. One can’t give too long a pause following those three words, not even a few seconds too many, because then whatever answer is given is thought to be something that the speaker had to mentally labour over before saying. Hence he had no time to ponder what love was. But what if he told her the truth that he didn’t love her and she felt they couldn’t see each other anymore because of it, when in fact if he lied and said he loved her she would be happy and then he may go home later and have a think about things and realise he did love her, or maybe their relationship would continue to blossom and his feelings of really liking her would become feelings of love - but if he told her now he didn’t love her then possibly none of that would happen and the love he might very possibly feel in the future would never be. So surely his best bet was to lie and say he did love her. It wasn’t as if he was accepting a marriage proposal, there was nothing definite about repeating the words back to her. But what if it was obvious he was lying? If the tone of his voice or the look on his face gave it away? She was always saying she could read his emotions by only glancing at his face. Hell, what if she was only joking? Playing a very forward, cheeky prank on him like she liked to do, and telling her he loved her now would ironically make it seem like he was the one being too forward, or maybe she’d know he’d lied only to go along with things and then later when she genuinely came to tell him she loved him she’d think back to this moment when he’d lied and not know whether to believe him. It seemed like a lose-lose that could contradictingly go very well for him if he was indeed overthinking things as much as he suspected he might be.
The boy’s mind expanded in one million directions. He had not expected to hear those words, not now, despite having always wanted to hear them directed his way. But had he hoped to hear them from her or just wished to hear them regardless of who said them? Was it too soon for them to be saying “I love you” or was the whole idea of “too soon” just a cliche from sitcoms and movies, and surely the importance of this moment here now meant he shouldn’t base any of his actions off of sitcoms and movies. Maybe it wasn’t too soon at all but perfect timing? People were always saying girls understand relationship cues better than boys: maybe she’d realised this was love before his male brain had had a chance to figure it out? This all going off the belief she believes what she is saying. Maybe she feels like she has to say it, that it is better to say it too early than too late; or maybe she’s put no thought into it beyond this is what you say to the person you’re in a relationship with. But did any of that even matter? She had said it now and he needed to respond. Did he love her? He hadn’t thought about it; hadn’t had the time to think about it; maybe it was just a flaw of his personality, that she’d clearly (well, possibly) put thought into the question of love and he hadn’t, and it was surely a fault of his that a declaration of love, something people around the world long for, had flummoxed him to such a degree. Despite his reply depending solely on his feelings for another human being, this was the sort of matter he would have liked to ponder alone, so he could carefully consider it, maybe even plan out what he’d say like he sometimes did; it wasn’t the sort of thing he liked to have sprung on him - not that there was any such thing. But she’d said it now so he would have to say it back, wouldn’t he? Even if he didn’t believe it. It would be rude not too and it’d make the whole situation awkward. He looked deep inside himself, as people often say they do, essentially just checking his mood in response to her words, and felt there was not love there. He liked her, really really liked her, and found her especially attractive, but there was not a feeling there he would describe as “love”. Then again, it was true he’d never pondered what love is, and of course it wasn’t a specific thing but a subjective feeling that everyone experiences differently but that was sometimes expressed by different people with the same words. He knew that much at least. Maybe she felt the same way about him as he did her but she mistakenly thought that’s what love feels like - a “low love threshhold” you could call it - or maybe this feeling was love for her and just not for him. Either way, he needed to respond quickly. One can’t give too long a pause following those three words, not even a few seconds too many, because then whatever answer is given is thought to be something that the speaker had to mentally labour over before saying. Hence he had no time to ponder what love was. But what if he told her the truth that he didn’t love her and she felt they couldn’t see each other anymore because of it, when in fact if he lied and said he loved her she would be happy and then he may go home later and have a think about things and realise he did love her, or maybe their relationship would continue to blossom and his feelings of really liking her would become feelings of love - but if he told her now he didn’t love her then possibly none of that would happen and the love he might very possibly feel in the future would never be. So surely his best bet was to lie and say he did love her. It wasn’t as if he was accepting a marriage proposal, there was nothing definite about repeating the words back to her. But what if it was obvious he was lying? If the tone of his voice or the look on his face gave it away? She was always saying she could read his emotions by only glancing at his face. Hell, what if she was only joking? Playing a very forward, cheeky prank on him like she liked to do, and telling her he loved her now would ironically make it seem like he was the one being too forward, or maybe she’d know he’d lied only to go along with things and then later when she genuinely came to tell him she loved him she’d think back to this moment when he’d lied and not know whether to believe him. It seemed like a lose-lose that could contradictingly go very well for him if he was indeed overthinking things as much as he suspected he might be.
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