Who We Have

Chapter 10

Monday morning rolled in, only days away from Halloween. Andy couldn’t help but feel nervous. She had given as much thought as she could after speaking with Colin, enough to consider speaking to Adam about it. English was a quiet lesson, the students were set to do simple tasks individually. In the rest of the lessons, Andy had to witness Jennifer being either excited that Halloween was on Friday, or just as equally frustrated. Because of that, Andy decided that it was best to leave it for later.

Staying true to the thought, she returned at the end of the day and knocked on his door. When he opened it, Andy could see the surprise on his face.

“Andrea,” he said, “How may I help you?” It was obvious he was trying to maintain some form of professionalism for her benefit.

“Can I come in for a minute? I need to speak to you,” Andy replied.

“Of course,” said Adam, letting her in and closing the door after. He walked over to the front of his desk, looking at her.

Taking a breath, she started.

“Adam, I’ve been thinking. There’s been a lot of stuff going on lately, and you and I,” she paused, taking a breath, “We’ve been going back and forth to no end.”

He tried to speak but she motioned him to wait.

“When we first met,” she continued, “we had a great time. We got along, and we had an amazing night. Then, when we realized the general issue about it all, you shut out any possibility for communication. Then we come to terms and everything’s alright, and now you want to start something again.”

Her voice was calm and so were her intentions, a result of Colin’s words to her. She would have approached this angrily if she hadn’t thought it through.

“I don’t know how to feel about this other than confused, so I wanted to ask you about your side of this. I want to know what you feel about it.”

“I know, Andrea,” replied Adam, “I’m really sorry about… wait, what?”

“Your side of this,” said Andy. “I want to try and understand how you see this, so… tell me.”

Adam seemed even more surprised to hear her say that than he was when he saw her outside his classroom. For a short moment, he was at a loss for words, but once his mind processed it and he thought about it, he started speaking.

“I meant what I said before about the day we met. The girl I met that day is not someone I’d want to be on the bad side of. I tried to forget what happened, mostly because it was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. I even tried to see if you being in a different class would have been easier to do so,” he admitted sheepishly, making Andy realize just why he had requested the transfer.

“I hated seeing you angry, I never wanted things to turn out that way. Next thing I knew,” he sighed heavily, shaking his head, “I had feelings for you I could not take back.”

When he stopped speaking, Andy waited, and waited, and waited, but there were no words following what he said. That was it. Adam had just confessed his feelings to her and she didn’t know how to respond.

“Adam, I…” she thought about his words, “Now’s not a really good time for all this. I mean, there’s a lot going on aside from this that I need to take care of. Halloween, other people, my dog, and hell, even calculus is kicking my ass.”

Adam listened and considered what she said heavily, nodding at her. “I understand,” he said.

After a short pause, Andy smiled faintly and added, “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to try, at some point.”