Am I Really Weird?

Kristoffer's POV:

I have a crush on my childhood friend, Janna. I like how she smiles and I like how she's feigning bravery sometimes even if she's just a shy and coward person just to help someone in need. I can still clearly remember the first time I met her.

[FLASHBACK]

(8 years ago)

I don't have any friends when I was young since I am a weirdo wearing a weird eyeglass with a weird habit of talking to my imaginary friends. All of the kids around my age in our neighborhood always tease me and calling me names such as "Nerd", "Weirdo" and some other nicknames which made me feel dejected. But it's alright because I still have a cousin who has the same age as me. He is my best friend who encourages me whenever I feel down. But unfortunately, he was born with a weak body and is very sickly. He has a heart disease and he was never allowed to go outside let alone to play with me. Because of that, he never left his room and I am just visiting him everyday to talk to him and make him entertained once in a while.

I am hanging out in the Magical Park near the Royale Subdivision, which I live in. I am sitting at a bench alone when I saw three little girls playing together. One of them looked at me and our eyes met. She smiled at me but I just averted my eyes out of embarrassment. I was looking at the trees when a girl approached me and invited me to play with them.

"Hello! 🙋 What's your name? Do you want to play with us?" The girl asked me. I just looked at her and didn't say anything. I was speechless and wasn't able to say anything because I was really shocked since it's the first time that someone actually invited me to play with them.

"Sophia! What are you doing?! Come here and let's continue to play. If he doesn't want to join us then let him be!" One of the girls shouted.

I looked at the other girl who is standing and looking at me kindly. I was mesmerized at her beauty. I mean, the three of them are beautiful but I don't know. It just felt that I was attracted to her. I am looking at him when someone suddenly pulled my hand. "Come on! Let's play together!" The girl who was inviting me a minute ago brought me to the two girls.

"I'm sorry if I suddenly pulled you here but I always see you whenever I am passing by the park and you're always alone... So I thought that maybe you don't have any friends so do you want us to be your first friends? Oh, my name is Sophia and here is Elaine and Janna." She's smiling while introducing herself and her other two friends.

I looked at Elaine and I saw that she doesn't look too happy to see me. But when I looked at Janna, she's smiling to me softly which made me feel warm inside. I reached my hand to Sophia's laying hand and we shaked hands. That was the start of our friendship.

Ever since then, I am always together with the three of them. But one day, the bullies saw us...

"Oohhh... Nerdy has some new friends. Maybe he is a gay that's why all of his friends are girls... Hahahahah." The bullies teased me. I am on the verge of crying when Sophia talked.

"Who are you brats? Don't talk as if you are perfect yourselves. For your information, Kristoffer is not a gay. Ooohhh, maybe the truth is, you guys are the real gays and you're jealous of us because we're together with Kristoffer" Sophia retorted back to the bullies.

"Hey, watch what you're saying. First of all, we're not brats and second, we're definitely not gays. He is the gay because he can't even defend himself and he needs a little girl to protect him. Oh I know, maybe we should call him the 'Damsel in Distress' and we should call this arrogant little girl 'Knight in Shining Armor'. Isn't that really cool? Hahaha"

"I'm warning you... Stop it!!" Sophia shouted.

"Oh we're so scared. What you gonna do, huh, little girl?"

"Stop it, you guys! If you have too much free time in your hands, why don't you study and develop your way of thinking?" Elaine said angrily.

"I will call a police if you won't stop" Janna threatened them.

"Run!! We can't deal with police officers!!" The bullies ran quickly away from us.

"Thank you for defending me... I'm sorry if I'm a coward. I even let all of you feel burdened."

"Come on! What are friends for, right? Don't worry, if you're too scared to talk back at them, I will beat them into a pulp the next time they tried to bully you" Sophia reassured me.

"But you also need to learn how to defend yourself in case we're not with you, ok?" Elaine added while Janna is smiling at me.