Xie, my senior high school classmate and soul mate, was indisputably the most beautiful girl in the whole school – at least, in the eyes of boys. Her beautifulness (why not beauty?) was classic and ravishing, so beautiful that, during all three senior high school years, no boy was confident enough to ask her out for a date. Yet, she hung out with me, both inside and outside(I find it a little weird, but not sure why) school, and contrary to everyone’s impression, we were not lovers.
Xie was very good at playing table tennis and she was selected to play for our school. I liked to play (I would use "playing" here, personal choice, maybe)table tennis too. At (insert "the")beginning, we played with a group of enthusiasts twice a week. Gradually, for various reasons, all other members had left (I would use "left" instead of "had left", it seems to read better to me.)the group, and only Xie and I still played regularly. We thus became close friends, so close that we were seen together on all occasions. Other students started keeping a distance from us, all thinking we were a couple. We did not bother to explain, because we knew the more we tried to explain, the more convinced they would become that we were in love. I remembered the first game we played with a dozen of players, in which we barely talked – she was the center of attention and I did not have a chance. Now, about six months later, only she and I played table tennis, primarily talking while absent-mindedly playing, to be exact. Sometimes, I was confused too. Are we in love?
But, we were both obsessed with someone else. I was attracted to another girl in my class; Xie a university sophomore I had never met before.
The most embarrassing thing to me was that my mother started to treat Xie as her prospective daughter-in-law, and that the hospitality associated with that wish was so ostentatious that I was afraid, it would only push her away from me. Usually, half (insert "an") hour before her arrival, my mother would sit on the balcony like a sentinel, anxiously peeping out through safety railings to see if she was coming; one hour before her arrival, my mother would meticulously prepare the snacks: a plateful of salted sunflower seeds, a bowlful of peanuts, a small pile of candy and a pyramid of apples with top one’s peel neatly removed(not wrong, but I would use"with the top one neatly peeled"); one day before her arrival, my mother would start planning for the next day’s special meal. I knew Xie was my mother’s dream daughter-in-law, but there was no sign that we were moving towards that direction and my mother’s insatiable curiosity about her had worn me down.
Overall, maybe because this one is just part one, I haven't seen the whole story yet. But so far, I like your previous two stories better.
