Emily was sitting in the lobby, waiting on one of the benches as she usually did before her drama class. She was always the first one to arrive, William always arriving just shortly after she did. They would sit and talk together before the drama teacher arrived and opened the class room. She stared at the clock. William should be arriving any moment. 1
This was actually Emily's favourite part of the class, the time that she got to spend with William before the class actually started. She had liked him for a while now but he was older than she was. She wasn't sure if he liked her in that way or if he would even want a girlfriend who was still in high school. She had tried flirting with him but she was shy and to be honest, not very good at the whole flirting thing yet but here she was, holding a letter that she had written for him, telling him how she felt about him.2
It had literally taken her an entire evening to write the letter before she thought it was good enough to actually give to him. By the time she was finished her waste paper basket in her room was full to overflowing with pieces of crumpled up stationary. She didn't want it to come across too much like a sappy love letter or anything just a simple statement of fact.3
"I like hanging out with you and I was hoping that maybe you would want to hang out, just the two of us, somewhere other than in class, kind of like a date - if you want." Emily replayed the words that she had written down over and over in her head as she mentally reread the note she was going to give to William. She hoped that it didn't sound as stupid when he read it as it now sounded in her head. She heard the elevator and her heart started to race. It was him. William was finally coming.4
Her heart swelled and as the elevator doors opened. William stepped out of the elevator, a smile on his face the moment he saw her. Emily felt her heart skip a beat. William's smile really was captivating but a second later, she saw the drama teacher step out of the elevator, right behind William. She suddenly as if she would be sick. Her last chance to let William know how she felt about him had come and past. This was the last class of the season and now her chance had blown away like dandelion spores in the wind. 5
The class dragged on and on. She had been working on a scene with another boy from the class by the name of Paul. When the teacher said that they would be doing scenes in class she had hoped that she would be paired with William but she ended up with Paul which was really awkward for her because in the scene the drama teacher given to her and Paul, called for Paul to kiss her – on the lips. How was she supposed to kiss another man in front of William even though the kiss wasn't real? She would have given her eye teeth to do the scene with William instead.6
The drama teacher watched as She and Paul performed the scene they had been working on in front of the rest of the class. Afterward, he commented that it didn't seem to him that her heart was in it. How could her heart be in it?7
There was no chance during class to talk with William since he was working with his partner on their scene and since this was the last class she wouldn't see him until the season opened again in September and that was months away. What if he forgot all about her by then? What if he didn't come back next season?8
After class, Emily gathered her things from the shelf by the window she hoped that she could get a chance to talk with William after class but he was talking to the drama teacher. Sighing, she walked out of class, making her way to the bus stop. 9
As she sat glumly in the bus shack, she opened her bag with the intention of just throwing the letter away. It was a reminder to her that things just never seemed to go her way. But when she looked into her bag she realized that the letter wasn't there. 10
Emily frantically searched every compartment in her bag thinking that maybe, just maybe she had tucked it away in a different section in her bag. That's when she realized that the letter was gone. Emily felt as if her heart had stopped suddenly. She tried to retrace her steps. She didn't remember going in her bag at any point during class. It must have fallen out of her bag in the lobby.11
Just as Emily had left, William had been talking with the drama teacher about the next season. He grabbed his jacket from the coat rack and was about to walk out when Paul, ran over to him and handed him an envelope.12
"What's this?" William asked. 13
"I don't know. I found it on the floor by the window. It's addressed to you." Paul said as William opened it up and took out a piece of stationary that looked quite feminine. As he read it, he started to smile. He looked around and then turned to Paul.14
"Hey Paul, where's Emily?" William asked.15
"I saw her leave a few minutes ago. She's probably still at the bus stop." Paul said.16
William dashed out of the room, leaving Paul in the classroom looking confused. He pushed the button for the elevator several times and waited anxiously. After a few seconds he decided to just bolt down the stairs. He raced out of the building and to the bus stop just as it was leaving. Out of breath he leaned against the bus shack.17
“Dammit!” he said to himself, wishing that he was in better shape. If he had been just a little faster he might have caught her before she left.18
"William?" He heard a voice say and when he looked over he saw Emily stepping out of the bus shack.19
"I thought I missed you." William said, smiling, still trying to catch his breath.20
"That wasn't my bus." Emily said shyly. She looked at him for a second wondering why he had ran out to the bus stop to find her. He had never done that before. William held the letter out to her. Emily blushed furiously as she recognized her stationary. 21
"Did you write this - for me?" William asked.22
Emily found that she could not speak. She looked up at him and nodded. William smiled as he wrapped his arms around her.23
"I'd love to hang out sometime, just the two of us - kind of like a date." William said, holding her in his arms. Emily smiled widely. Maybe her losing the letter was the best thing that could have happened.24
The End25
Author notes
For Positive Stories - Actual events, The names have been changed to protect our identities 
A contest entry
- New Year Genre Contest by whichcraft.
275 points, ended January 20, 13 entries
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Silver trophy winner
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• next story in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 21 of 21
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awwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! thats awesome!!
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Thank you
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Non-fiction?
*smiles wide* This is cute..
I honestly had my imagination running when you mentioned Paul and the Kiss.. ^_^ I thought that they'd kiss, the teacher would be all "It doesn't look real," and William will present himself to try again but that would have been cheesy
What you wrote made me feel all warm and.. gahd
I think Paul is an angel of sorts? And I loved the part where William ran.. A friend told me that when guys really want something, they do what they can to HAVE it. So William running after her kind of proved that. If he had been half hearted, he could have just waited for "next season" or left it to chance.
Anyway, a nice short feel good story I hope there are many more, "Emily" ^_^ Thank you for this
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LOl I actually might throw in William teaching her "how to kiss" as a day dream
In the story Paul is actually kind of a jerk. He liked Emily too and tries to keep them apart which is ironic that he hands William the letter from Emily unaware
I have many Emily and William stories actually. Many of them are in planning stages thought so are not. The Outing of Emily is another that takes place the week before this one.
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A beautiful story you have written here. The part when he was racing after her, having found the letter, my heart was racing. I knew that he would find her. I just knew it.
Other than a few typos, I thoroughly enjoyed this story...and it's great to see that it really happened. True love does exist! This piece definitely made a believer out of me.
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Thank you I am glad to hear that it made your heart race. This piece is being worked on for inclusion in a larger work and I am glad that the reaction so far has been positive
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I liked William. He seemed to have a good character flair about him. Emily, not so much. She didnt spark my interest so much.
Great job on the story. It was remarkably well written in a romantic way. Sappy - but not gaggingly so. -
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I have worked a lot more on the William character than I have the Emily Character. I have been writing stories about him for years. Emily is a composite of many sources. I just haev to narrow her down.
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This is really cool. I like how the letter was the symbol for the whole story. It is a short and sweet piece of writing that I would like to be continued.
This is exactly what I was looking for in my contest and I wish you the very best of luck.
One thing though, near the start there was a repitition of the word 'sure'. I am pretty sure that it isn't meant to be there.
She wasn't ~~~~sure sure~~~~ if he liked her in that way or if he would even want a girlfriend who was still in high school. She had tried flirting with him but she was shy and to be honest, not very good at the whole flirting thing yet but here she was, holding a letter that she had written for him, telling him how she felt about him. -
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LOL the sentence (in the edit window) was split in half so I didn't notice until now that the word had been repeated. I fixed it now Thanks for the heads up
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A sweet little story here in which we get to see something nice happen. Nice little beginning love story. Would love to see the other stories you have about them.
At first I wasn't sure I liked the POV change, still not sure I do, and I will explain why. The majority of the story focuses on Emily's anxiousness about William's feelings for her. Would he reject or accept? And I really feel it could build up more on this if the story continues to focus on her. I think she could use some more rounding out, more emotions shown instead of told. Especially when she sees him at the bus stop. The emotions she's feeling at the moment, fear of rejection (because I imagine that's what she would assume)and the physical effects those emotions have on her until he pulls her into his arm. What does she feel at that moment?
I feel this could be tightened up by removing some sentences, shortening others, and checking the punctuations. There are several run-on sentences throughout the piece because of missing commas. I noticed one fragment sentence (first one in paragraph five).
Watch repetitiveness. There's a few words that are used often and close together. Find other words to substitute for them, and in some cases, there were some sentences that could've been shortened, removing those repetitive words.
There could be more showing during the class instead of telling. Especially during her practice with Paul. Does she glance at William, wondering if the kiss would show any emotions on his face? What does the kiss feel like? Expand some on her experience there.
I really like the idea of this story, just think there could be more character development of Emily and this situation. Of course, simply my opinion. It's your story, hun.
MJ -
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Thank you for reading and commenting on this story
I actually have many shorts dealing with Emily and William. They are all going to be a part of a larger novel that I am working on called "Dateless". Emily and William are actually based on my relationship with my first love - Walter who was taken from me during the Tsunami in Thailand so it is very cathartic writing about my relationship as if I were watching in stead of participating. IN the story I am not going to write in the character if William dying as he did in real life as it is not that kind of book. Maybe someday ...
The POV change is a little awkward at the moment but the whole story is not just about Emily. The final novel will be dealing with three of her friends and their romantic escapades as well so I am trying to write it not just from the POV's of the female MC's as it is the story of four girls woven together into a larger work - if that makes sense.
This was a first draft and there is always room for improvements. In the final "first draft" of the novel the story might have changed quite a bot by then,. so I am not worrying too much about the editing of this one as it will likely have changed vastly by that point.
I wanted to write the scene with Emily and Paul's scene together more but I am still working on his character. So far I am trying to make him likable to Emily but to everyone else he is a total jerk so I wanted to get his character down before writing a scene with them together. IN the final draft I suspect that Paul will become a major obstacle to William and Emily's relationship. Even to the point of Paul telling William that he and Emily are dating just so that William will think that she is not interested in William in that way.
I am actually playing with the idea of during the kiss scene that Paul will actually glance over at William and maybe wink at him knowing that William is in fact interested in Emily and that it is killing him to see Emily with Paul; especially when everyone else hates the guy but he puts on a nice guy act with her.
I might change the ending so that it is someone else who gives William the letter of leave it that way so that it is actually Paul in the end who get's Emily and William together.
In real life, the letter just fell out of my purse and landed on his lap. When he picked it up and handed it to me, he noticed that his name was on the envelope. That is kind of boring the way it did happen so I wanted to make it a little more tense even though I almost did die I was so embarrased(sp?) Walter never did believe me when I told him that I hadn't planned it that way. -
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Are you kidding?!
In real life, the letter just fell out of my purse and landed on his lap. When he picked it up and handed it to me, he noticed that his name was on the envelope. That is kind of boring the way it did happen so I wanted to make it a little more tense even though I almost did die I was so embarrased(sp?)
Boring? Are you kidding? I would've had that in there instead of the teacher finding it. Wow! How much emotion you experienced then that you could've shared with the reader in this piece!
The POV change can work. It just seemed that in such a short piece, to be sudden. And as I said, to me, it would've been more interesting to stay in Emily's train of thought when William approaches her at the bus stop. Just my opinion. When this is a completed piece, I may think differently. Hard to critique unfinished work.
And I definitely like the idea of Paul's character. Do expand on him. Make us like him or hate him. -
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I am basing Paul off a guy who was also in the theatre class. But in real life I was the only one who did 't like him This guy actually did have Walter believing that we were dating. Walter had told me that he was under the impression that he had told him that were were dating and were quite serious but about a week later Walter overheard me talking with a girl in the class about being single and how one of my friends wanted to set me up on a blind date with a friend of hers.
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yay I like it when the main charactor has something her way
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Thanks I do too there are other parts to the story leading up to this but I haven't written them up yet. Sometimes I write in a non linear fashion if I get a good idea for one part in the middle I will just go ahead and write it.
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It's a very nice story. Sometimes when we lose a love, we can become very cynical and wonder if we'll truly catch the same love we used to have. This story has the freshness of that new love or discovery that excites you. Thank you for entering.
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Your welcome
I still remember the little things about him that you would think over the years you'd forget. I tend to write a lot of "William and Emily" stories because i want to remember how I felt at the time so that I can write romantic scenes better. I would totally rather remember the way he made me feel back in the day than how I felt after I lost him and if I focused on losing him I think my writing wold suffer because that's all I would write. That's how depression is developed
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I have two other stories posted about "William and Emily". One is "Chance Encounter" and the other is "The Outing of Emily." Check them out if you want
Chance encounter is more fiction because it is a composite of things that happened but "Outing" actually happened to me
and is more funny than anything in retrospect.
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Aww this is cute. You are a very good writer.
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Thank you
This is slightly semi-autobiographical (in real life Emily is me and William is Walter) This is the way we started dating but sadly I couldn't finish the whole story. It was too sad for me to commit it to paper. I started writing this for the Lost Love contest but I guess I still can't go there yet.
Walter was in Thailand teaching English when the Tsunami hit. I really miss him and I find myself using him as the inspiration for a lot of the male characters in the novels I write more and more lately.
Even though I moved on and have a really great boyfriend now. No one will ever replace him in my heart. Walter will always be my first love.
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