To All the Boys that Broke my Heart Before by Belén Domínguez (reading comprehension books TXT) 📕

were only texting, I liked him so much that I would’ve kept going.

After months of talking, he suddenly started to disappear, we didn’t text for quite some time. I was already giving up, to be completely honest. I constantly thought he probably found someone else, that feeling never faded away. I just knew he had someone right there to fulfill whatever he wanted.

Then one day, I finally went to Argentina, where he and I are from. I believe I did mention him and out of nowhere, he got excited again, telling me that we could hang out. I wanted to, since every time that I go to visit Argentina I’m always alone because I never made friends since I left at a pretty young age. So, finally having someone there made it much better.

I was going to be there for three days, then go to Paraguay for a week, and finally return to Argentina for three more days. When I texted him to know where we could go, his responses were not convincing at all. What I mean is, that he made me believe that he wasn’t in the mood to go out at all. He was joking around instead of planning where we could go, he wasn’t giving me a concrete answer. So, I left him on read.

On the third day of that visit, he texted me saying, “Hey, you left me on read lol”

I lost it. I tried to not snap at him, though it was something very hard not to do, I swear. I told him how his answers made me think he didn’t want to go out, that it seemed like he was avoiding it or something. To that, he replied how his aunt had a semi-heart attack. He explained the whole situation, and of course, I told him that if he would’ve told me that from the very beginning, I would OF COURSE be understanding. So, he asked if I was actually coming back to Argentina since obviously, we wouldn’t be going out that same day.

“Yes, I’ll be back in a week”

“I promise we can go out then”

I agreed, I felt sorry because of his aunt’s situation since he’s very close to her. I let it pass because I understood that it was a delicate moment for him. So, I wished his aunt a quick and good recovery, to tell her I said hello—she’s actually very sweet and funny.

The week passed by very fast and soon I would see him again after almost a year. I was nervous yet excited. I wanted to see him. I never went out with him, just the two of us, nor spoke face to face for longer than a few sentences. The first time we just greeted each other, and the second time he chatted most of the time with my older brother. Seeing him made me feel so anxious.

But, I knew that the moment we talked, it would be just as comfortable as it was when we texted. I thought, “he’s the same one you’ve been talking to for months, things won’t be awkward”.

He offered to pick me up at the hotel I was staying at, which I thought was very nice of him. I swear he seemed so excited when we said we would meet. It was as if he wanted to see me, even though things were sort of cold between us. But, I tried to put all those thoughts in the

back of my head and said: “We’re going to have a good time”.

We went to the mall to eat something and just talk, telling each other what we’ve been up to during these months. We laughed, joked around, I swear I was so comfortable around him, it was hard not to have a good time. We kind of flirted a little bit, but nothing too extreme; just a few comments here and there. I felt so good at that moment, finally talking to him face to face after months of literally only texting—something that bothered me so much, was that he never wanted to speak on the phone, he said that he hated that, I hated that he only wanted to text.

He didn’t even like sending voice messages. I remember getting annoyed by that countless times because honestly, I wanted to hear his voice so damn much.

After eating and chatting for a bit more, we walked through the mall, planning on what to do next. We said to watch a movie, so he searched through the mall, seeing if it had a cinema. It didn’t, something that surprised him deeply. He was so cute when he made that surprised face, cursing under his breath at the fact that it was a mall without a cinema.

“It is impossible that it doesn’t have a movie theater,” he said over and over again as he took out his phone to search on Google if it did have one. Again, he found out it didn’t. So, he said that we could go to another cinema not so far from there. Of course, I agreed, I didn’t want to go back to the hotel just yet, I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.

We went to the place, though we didn’t leave the car yet. He took out his phone to search for the options, but there were no decent movies to watch. I suggested a romantic one, at that time, the movie: “Five Feet Apart” just arrived at the movie theaters. He jokingly looked at me like: “Are you serious?” I laughed, he was being way too cute.

We literally just stayed in his car, talking about a little bit of everything. It was the first time we were that close and alone. I felt comfortable around him, though his presence did make me nervous. Let’s not forget about how I started falling for him. Being in that car, so near, was driving me over the edge. His smile made me flush and his staring had such intensity, I can’t even begin to describe it. I’m not stupid, I knew exactly what he wanted—to kiss me, duh. I noticed a couple of times how his eyes would drop to my lips, but I played fool because I get too nervous and anxious with those types of things.

But, he was the type of guy that went for what he wanted. I purposely stared out the window, the whole car was in complete silence, the music that he played on Spotify shut off completely. After a few minutes, he finally said: “Hey, you have something on your face, turn around”

I started giggling nonstop, which makes me so embarrassed to think about it every time I recall the events. I couldn’t help it; I was nervous as hell because I really liked him. I slowly turned around, played fool once again, and replied: “Yeah? Where?”

“Get closer and I’ll show you”

I got a little closer, and he would say,

“Come closer”

An inch closer.

“Closer”

When I was close enough, he closed the space between us and softly pressed his lips on mine. It was short and sweet like I expected it to be. He stared into my eyes before pulling away, he looked pleased with himself, maybe because he noticed the sudden shade of red that started to appear on my face. I was smiling like an idiot, thinking about how after almost a year, we finally kissed. He wanted it, I wanted it, we were both pretty satisfied. After that moment, we kept talking normally, still teasing each other. After kissing him I felt even more comfortable, even pretended like I was going to kiss him again. Grabbed his chin with my finger to make him come closer, and when he was just mere inches from my face, I turned away. He jokingly acted offended, smiling the entire time.

It was getting pretty late, so we drove back to my hotel. Before leaving, we planned on seeing each other the next day—a Tuesday and I was leaving on Wednesday. I was about to leave his car saying, “thank you for everything, I had so much fun”. He faced me, expectantly. But, I was too shy and went in to kiss his cheek. He didn’t look pleased with it.

“Is that how you say goodbye?” he said. I couldn’t help but blush. God, why couldn’t I just kiss him the way I wanted to? My nervousness got to me and I was taken aback by him basically requesting me to kiss him.

“How should I say goodbye then?” I asked, knowing damn well what the answer was.

“Come closer and we’ll see”

I leaned in once again, slowly seeing him come even closer until he closed the space between us, he was so eager to kiss me. It was sweet. His smile afterward warmed my heart. We finally said our last goodbye and I got inside the hotel. I swear I was smiling like an idiot the whole way up to my floor.

The next day, we did the same thing, went to the mall, and grabbed something to eat. I wasn’t hungry since that same day I’ve eaten way too much, so appetite was something I didn’t have at the moment. He seemed too worried that I didn’t want to eat. “Are you sure you don’t want anything?” he asked like three times. To make him relax I said that I would steal him some fries, he smiled pleasingly and agreed. Something that I thought was so sweet was how he didn’t want me to pay. I mean, I could have, I even took out my wallet when I ate with him the day before. But, he took it away from me and paid himself, before giving it back.

That night, we did go to the movies after eating. He chose a mall with a Cinema—he made sure it had one this time. We saw one called “The Prodigy”. It was okay and enough to make us both happy that we have chosen it. We didn’t do much at the movie theater, just watched it, with a few comments here and there. We were both the type of people that watched the movie and focused only on that.

After it was finished, there was not much to do left, so we decided to call it a night. I became very sad though because I knew that perhaps I wouldn’t see him in a pretty long time. I did ask him if he was going to be in Miami, so we could hang out.

“I don’t know, maybe,” he replied as he turned on his car. “Maybe I’ll go; this year my uncle is going”.

I felt hope at his comment, I did wish he would go.

Spoiler alert, he didn’t.

When I went back home, we talked maybe one week more before he went back to not replying, he was driving me crazy. But, we had so much fun that I let it pass multiple times. He did go to Miami but not in the month that we would always be there. He said that his aunt wanted to go there earlier, so he joined her. Sadly, he couldn’t go back in July, so our dates wouldn’t match.

For a pretty long time, a small part of me suspected that he found someone. A very small part of me, but it was something that wouldn’t leave me alone. I tried to put those thoughts in the back of my head, because, obviously, he wouldn’t have kissed me if he was after somebody else, right? That’s just not him, right?

Well. . .

I went to Miami in July, just when he was back in Argentina. The timing was not right, but at that point, we went back to the old routine. Him basically ignoring my texts. He would probably reply to some Instagram stories, but then nothing. Francis would obviously say that he was just busy, but leaving my messages hanging for like two weeks every single time? That was just too much.

I remember I left him