Little Hearts

1 | For My Valentine

A/N: *insert obnoxious raspberry sound here* I absolutely meant to get this up yesterday, but I was so busy last week that I had absolutely no time to write. Sadface. So this is a day late. I stayed up 'til two last night in hopes of posting it on the special day of love~ (I have a Japanese mindset that the day doesn't actually end at midnight; it ends when I go to sleep.)

SO I'M SORRY. IT'S LATE. IT'S UNEDITED. I KNOW. JUST DEAL WITH IT AND ENJOY THIS ADORABLENESS.

PS; Yes, this will be another mini-series. I promise not to rip your hearts out with this one. Oceanspray was a rough one, so I'll soothe the ache with these cuties.

PPS; If you're a fan, there's a special secret waiting for you at the very end of Oceanspray if you haven't checked it out yet. c; Y'all know what it is.

** Roughly edited: 02.22.15.

Little Hearts

Chapter One

I jumped when a felt a tap on my shoulder. My heart kicked into overdrive, and a cold sweat broke out upon my forehead. I could feel the tremors trying to take control of my body, but I refused to let them be shown. My breathing began to shatter as I tried to regain some semblance of calm. Suppressing my anxiety attack, I looked owlishly up at the person who had touched me.

The guy from my English class was standing there with a large smile on his face, showing off his perfectly straight and whitened teeth. I felt heat slightly warming the back of my neck at his happy brown eyes. My stomach was still churning with unease, but I decided that I should at least hear what he had to say. He raised a hand to gesture to the seat beside me on the school’s garden bench.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?”

I didn’t answer verbally, too scared of what stupid things might spew from my mouth. Instead, I just scooted over a little, giving him half of the bench and leaving enough space between us for my own comfort.

“I’m sorry I didn’t notice you before,” he started, his smile relaxing slightly. “I’m Kelly.”

Kelly, I murmured in my head. It was a rather feminine name nowadays, but it fit him well.

“Um,” I whispered, picking at the crust of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, “Dane…”

“That’s a nice name.” He took out his own lunch from his bag. It looked like leftover pizza. “Different.”

I nodded silently, ripping off the crust of my sandwich and nibbling on it.

“Are you a junior too?”

I nodded again, peeking to the side at my newfound lunch companion. He was taking a rather large bite of his pizza. His brown eyes were trained on me through, showing me that he was watching for my nonverbal responses. He flipped his dirty blond bangs out of his face before continuing on with conversation—if one could even call this a conversation.

“That’s cool. I don’t have a lot of junior friends. Most of my friends are seniors.” I tilted my head a little bit to indicate that I was listening and hoping that he could understand my silent question of why. “I’m on the varsity swim team, so most of the other people there are seniors. A lot of people take a break from the team their junior year because of classes and stuff. College stuff and all. I didn’t want to stop though.”

Swim team would explain how he was so tan, even for it being the middle of winter. It would also account for why his hair was so oddly colored. Some parts were really light, almost white, while it held darker undertones in deeper layers of his hair. He must swim year round, I concluded.