Living with Trouble

Prologue

Put it in drive, I'll be outside, I'll be on the way - Khalid

☆

Aniya hastily wiped her clammy hands on her pants and checked her hair in the mirror. She was beyond nervous today. She had spent all night practicing how she would confess her feelings to him and now the time has finally come.

She walked out of the bathroom towards the cafeteria, her heartbeat progressively increasing with each step. She halted a few feet in front of him.

Victor Simon, the boy she had been crushing on since the beginning of eighth grade. He was new to middle school that year and kept to himself.

At the time Aniya was too timid to talk to him. He typically sat in the back of the class reading a book or playing a computer game after finishing his work early.

Aniya observed the boy like she always does her pupils slowly dilating. He was sitting in the middle of the Cafeteria where the "Popular kids" table was. He is reading a book with a dark green cover. His jet-black hair sat perfectly on his head as always, his eyes scanned the paper, deep in focus.

Victor never really liked the people he sat with. He tolerated Bryant but that was it. All the other kids were irrelevant. He paid no attention to the kids in the background talking about the latest gossip. He didn't care.

He was disturbed from his reading by the clearing of someone's throat. His eyes slowly looked up from his book piercing the person in front of him.

Aniya's heart spiked as she met his dull eyes and her face flushed. She awkwardly held a hand out. "Hi, I'm Aniya," she said with a nervous grin. She could feel herself starting to sweat.

Victor continued to stare and once Aniya noticed that he wasn't going to say anything she put her hand back down. She stared down at her feet uniting her hands behind her back.

"Is there something that you wanted?" Victor is bored of her presence already. She was wearing a plain hoodie and her curly hair was hanging down to her back.

Aniya's eyes widened, and she jumped up waving her hands in front of her. "No, no, I mean yes, but no not really I don't want to be a bother really," She rambled.

His face remained the same; emotionless. "Are you done?" he rolled his eyes. The kids at his table were starting to stare along with the rest of the cafeteria.

Aniya took a sharp inhale, closing her eyes tight. It's now or never. She told herself. She opened her eyes exhaling and said the words she would later regret. "I like you, and I would really like it if we got to know each other." Aniya blurted.

She waited with anxious eyes for a reply as his face stayed as still as a statue. "Not interested," he said, swinging his leg over the bench and turning his back to her.

Aniya's face falls as she stares at his back with watery eyes. It was quiet, and she didn't know what to do as the whole B lunch watched her.

Turning on her heels she runs out of the cafeteria almost bumping into her friend Declan. He stops her grasping her shoulders. "Hey hey hey, what's wrong?" he creases his eyebrows.

Aniya wipes away her tears pushing his hands away. "It's nothing," she croaks, running off in the other direction.

She runs outside where she finds her two best friends Lilly and Quinn sitting on the bench. They see her puffy eyes and rush up to hug her.

Aniya cries in her friend's embrace as the wind blows past them. The trees were blossoming and small pink leaves fell to the ground. "It was humiliating, everyone is probably talking about it right now," Aniya sobs.

Lilly and Quinn share a look sighing as they console their friend. "Come on Aniya, let's go back inside," Quinn coos.