What Not To Do When Your Crush Ignores You - A Short Story

This story is dedicated, with love, to my sister from another mother...



          Bella's life was perfect. Almost perfect. She had everything most teenagers only dreamed of; wealthy parents, a luxurious mansion, and loyal friends. The only thing she didn't have, was John.
         John was her ultimate crush; the cutest boy in school. It was getting really frustrating. He would ignore her for days on end, only to wink at her or flash a flirty smile just before the weekend.
         All the mixed messages he was sending really confused her and all her friends she took crush advice from. Maybe he has feelings for her, but is too shy to admit it. Or maybe he's just casually flirting. Pondering over this and trying to figure it out drove the girls nuts.
        "It's time to put your foot down and demand to know." Melanie suggested. "He has to either stop flirting with you or go out with you. Mixed messages is not doing anyone any good." 
        "But I don't want him to stop flirting. I'm afraid he'll just say no." said Bella. 
        "There's always a possibility that he will take you out."
        Bella grunted in frustration and lay back on the bed. "I just wish I knew what he felt! I wish I could read his mind!"
        "You could always kidnap him and interrogate him." Sydney said from the other end of the room. She hardly lifted her head from her phone as she spoke.
        Bella and Melanie stared at her until she finally looked up. "What?" she asked coolly.
        "That's ridiculous." Melanie laughed. Sydney laughed too. They all knew Sydney watched way too many cop shows. But Bella wasn't laughing.
        "You know, that's not half bad." she said. Melanie and Sydney stopped laughing. "What?" asked Melanie.
        "Maybe kidnapping and interrogating him will finally reveal what's going on in that head of his."
        "You're kidding, right?" Melanie scoffed. Then she saw the look on Bella's face "No, you're not." she said.
       "Hey! I didn't mean it like that." Sydney threw her hands in the air. "It's a stupid idea."
       "No, it's not. It could work." Bella said. There was a moment of silence as Melanie and Sydney realized she had passed the point of no return. She was going to go through with it no matter what.
       "How would you even pull this off? It's almost impossible, not to mention illegal." Melanie tried to discourage her.
       "Muscle for hire isn't hard to find. How hard could it be for someone to flash a fake gun and kidnap a high school jock?" Sydney pointed out. "Also, he's not going to get hurt or be detained for long." Bella was pleased but Melanie scorned at her. 
      "But won't he find it suspicious that he's being asked questions about you? Won't he piece everything together and suspect you?" Melanie tried everything to find holes in their plan.
      "That's why I'll be kidnapped too." Bella said with a smug smile.
      "What?" They looked at her with their jaws dropped.
      "You know why this is going to work, Sydney. I hire a bunch of guys. They kidnap the two of us. and maybe detain us in a cell for a while. They interrogate him to find out what he really feels about me. And after a while, they let us go. All the while, having created a false sense of despair like in hostage situations. They always seem to bring the people involved closer together."
      Sydney smiled enthusiastically while Melanie brought her palm to her face in defeat.
      "Let's do this!" Sydney said eagerly.


to be continued...